ONLINE SOFTWARE REVIEW: Winweb. By Nigel Harris

Since starting our look at Software as a Service (SaaS), and online accounting applications in particular, Winweb has been mentioned a number of times by our readers. Nigel Harris took a closer look.

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I looked in detail at the AccountsOffice module of Winweb OnlineOffice version 3-1-11.

The application opens at the accounts summary page, which displays your bank and cash balances and the total values of invoices payable and receivable this week. Disappointingly, none of these are hot-linked to the relevant sections of the accounts though.

The whole system is accessed via a very intuitive dropdown menu system, covering: nominal, banking, credit cards, customers, suppliers, VAT & tax, reporting, cashflow, currency (for multi currency accounting) and e-payments (the latter enables you to access a PayPal account).

Under some headings you get simple QuickBooks-like icons showing a flowchart of the relevant transaction types for that section. For example, in the banking section this gives you quick access to receipts, payments, transfers, credit cards and bank reconciliations, and each icon displays a pop up explanation as you hover the mouse over it. AccountsOffice is pretty simple to use if you have ever used any other accounting software, but it might be less obvious to those with no previous experience. There seems to be no online help or manual.

There are a few less common but very useful touches. The customers section includes a stock list that enables you to produce priced, itemised invoices, and the print layout looks quite acceptable for final invoice production.

VAT is handled well and the detailed VAT return report looks good. A report gives you a simple list of entries to be made in VAT return boxes 1 to 9. A great help is the additional EC sales listing, which can be a real chore if done manually.

The cashflow tool is useful. You enter your projected income and expense figures and the system automatically enters the actuals as you post your accounting data.

The system comes with an online file storage facility and you can upload scanned images of sales and purchase invoices (max 100kb JPEG files), which would be very useful if you have a multi-user, multi-site business, and I can imagine these images also being useful backup for the accountant if queries arise later.

I did have a few niggles. There's a glitch in the drop-down menu system ' blue drop down data entry boxes in, eg, 'Suppliers: pay a bill', interfere with the main drop down menu ' they just block it out - which could be a problem on screens with lots of these, such as the itemised sales invoice creation screen. The demo company came ready set up for VAT, but I couldn't find an option to delete the VAT registration or to set up a non-VAT registered business. And for an online system, I was disappointed at the lack of drill down facilities, not just from the initial summary page, but also from reports ' would it really have been that difficult to create a hot link from, say, the aged debtor report to the underlying debtor account and invoice details?

Criticisms aside, I found Winweb easy to use, very intuitive and it looks like good value for a small business looking to do its accounting online.

Winweb AccountsOffice is FREE for a single user, a 5 user licence costs £12 per month, including the accounting software, online address book , 'Live! Services' (telephone and fax answering, company incorporations, registered office and company secretary service, domain name registration/transfer, mail forwarding, typing and translation) and admin functions (including CSV data export and data backup onto your local PC).

As with a number of online accounts software providers, Winweb offers an accountant partner plan to enable firms to offer AccountsOffice to clients and give them direct secure access to their client's accounts online. This is where packages such as Winweb really enable firms to harness the power of the Internet and offer real added value to their clients. There is a range of other marketing and support benefits available to bronze, silver and gold partner firms.