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| Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $79.00
Buy New: $19.98
You Save: $59.02 (75%)
New (9) Used (4) from $15.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 673
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 8 x 2
MPN: X11-98506
Model: ZQ2-00003
UPC: 882224036696
EAN: 0882224036696
ASIN: B000A76ZR0
Release Date: August 16, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED FULL VERSION COMPLETE IN TRIFOLD EASY GET STARTED NOW CASE
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| Customer Reviews:
Some cool features but a long way to go March 4, 2006
25 out of 29 found this review helpful
I was excited about the possibility of having integration between Outlook and my accounting package so I downloaded the trail for SBA from Microsoft and gave it a try. Since own but was not using the Business Contact Manager add on to Outlook my first chore was get in working. This proved to be a huge chore with several failed attempts and a 1:40 call to MS tech support to find out I needed to download an updated version of the BCM software. After some trouble I finally got everything working and began to explore SBA 2006.
As a current user of QuickBooks 04 Pro I was able to import my company data fairly easy. There are some oddities about how your finical data transfers and several transactions that had a unique identity in QB like an invoice or deposit now just look like a journal entry. There may some work around, but I have not found it. All of my client data transferred easily, and I was able to move that to Outlook with BCM quite easily.
I primarily use QB to invoice clients and then receive payments on those invoices and make deposits. With QB it was vary easy to create separate forms for different situations and instruct QB to print one type of Invoice for one client and a different type for another. With SBA MS claims you can customize forms, but it's much trickier than they let on. To customize a form you must make a form template in Word and to print that form you have to tell SBA to export the item (say an Invoice) to Word for printing. Although the form customization possibilities seem limitless, the implementation of actually using them seems far too cumbersome. With QB I can batch print Invoices using my customized forms easily and I can't find a way to make this work in SBA at all. With SBA it looks like you have two default form choices for invoices (product and services) with no way to modify them.
The other thing I do constantly is receive payments and print deposit slips. With QB I simply place my preprinted deposited slip in the print and its' formatted and printed correctly. The deposit slip form that SBA produces dose not match my pre-printed deposit ticket and I cant find any option to change it.
Additionally, when I entered a deposit and then had to re-locate it, it was a somewhat more difficult process than in QuickBooks. With QB I can simply enter the deposit screen and page back to previous entries but this was not possible with SBA.
With all that said, I love having customer financial data available in Outlook. If a client calls I can easily look at her account status while accessing her information in outlook. There is also a huge amount of duplicate entry that might be avoided by sharing a singe database for accounting and CRM data. I also love how easily SBA will pass information to Excel or other MS software for manipulation and analysis.
I am frustrated with QB's pricing and in program spamvertising, but I think at this point it is still a more mature and flexible program. Its disappointing that an upgrade for QB (which is actually no longer offered forcing current customers to buy new again) is higher priced than buying SBA. If you image is not dependant on the output of your accounting program and you only use it internally, then you might be happy with SBA, but if you need document flexibility I think you will find it inappropriate. I so much wanted to like SBA, but its just missing too much now to consider switching.
 Not Ready for Prime Time February 27, 2006
1 out of 12 found this review helpful
Does not have the flexibility (espicially with forms) that QB has. It also does not have a global mark-up option. Maybe next year.
 Check the feature set before you pluck down money February 26, 2006
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
There are dozens of accounting software packages targeted at "small business" users. The long time market share holder is obviously QuickBooks. As a result of this Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 is equally obviously going to be "compared" to QuickBooks. The answer is to carefully read the features provided before you pluck down money. A little careful reading and possibly a demo install will tell you whether this package is for you.
This is Microsoft's effort to provide businesses that currently use Excel and Access with an alternative. They do not say anywhere that it is going to be a QuickBooks or Peachtree replacement - simply that it will offer you a set of carefully detailed accounting features that will help you better manage your business. The 5 star rating is based on how well the package performs the operations it claims to offer.
If you have unanswered questions post them on the SBA newsgroup where a bunch of good people devote their time to helping those getting started. Here are a few things that I find most helpful.
1. You can design and print your own forms of all types rather than buying preprinted forms. This can save you a ton of money.
2. You can buy software packages to print checks as add-ons. One source is www.checkmaster.com among others.
3. If you are a programmer or have access to a programmer you can download the Small Business Accounting SDK and Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Express edition (both free) to write add-ons to your SBA installation.
4. In this regard the software is very open to modification and enhancement by the user.
Once again - check the feature set before you buy. Keep in mind that this is a Microsoft product which means that it will be maintained and upgraded over time.
Big, Fat Features, a bit Slow and Balky February 25, 2006
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
I love the ideas behind Small Business Accounting. Integrating accountng with the other Office applications sounds so good. And overall, it is. But...
So far, the software runs slowly on my PC. It takes over a minute to boot up and 30 to 45 seconds to move to a new area within the program. For me, accustomed to instant gratification when it comes to software, these waits seem like a lifetime.
I've also found the integration with other applications to be balky. While Small Business Accounting promises the ability to tie into Outlook in order to generate invoices, doing so requires the installation of Business Contact Manager. I spent all of yesterday (Feb 24) attempting to get Business Contact Manager operational. It still won't work and Microsoft's online support has no help about the issue I've run into.
So...knowing Microsoft's history, they'll get these issues ironed out on the thrid version which should be released within four years. Of course that will require a couple of upgrades at a couple of hundred dollars a pop to get the functionality promised in version 1.
On the plus side, once I get past the slowness and the inconsistency of the integration, the accounting package seems solid and the availability of things like ADP payroll services and online banking (currently limited to Wachovia with whom I don't bank), promise flexibility and functionality for ongoing use. Reports are solid and readily adjustable and the ability to push data directly to Excel further enhances the software's attraction. Matched with stunningly low introductory pricing, this is a pretty good value for small businesses looking for a more flexible alternative to QuickBooks.
 Microsoft's SBA February 25, 2006
Microsoft just might have a winner here. It needs a bit more polish to really kick Quickbooks. But the price on Amazon is well worth the effort. After you kick in the rebate, the price was well under $75. That is way better than Quickbooks best deal. This is NOT a Great Plains or MAS90 accounting package! It is an entry level, simple home office or small office package with all the features you need. (like Quickbooks)
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