REVIEW: QuickBooks SimpleStart. By Nigel Harris

Posted by AccountingWEB PM | on Wed, 23/08/2006 - 10:00 7799 4 comments

The first few months of a new business are often the most critical. Most small businesses fail within their first two years. All the more reason to ensure that they have a good grasp of their financial position from the outset to give them the best chance of making a success of the new venture.

A good, basic accounting system is critical, but small business advisers have always faced a dilemma. Do they recommend a full-size, but relatively expensive accounts package at a time when the fledgling business is looking to keep costs as low as possible?

Continued...

More please?

dialm4accounts | Thu, 24/08/2006 - 13:59 | Permalink

Hello Nigel,

If you're planning to do other reviews, could I suggest More software as one to look at, please?

Thanks,

Future reviews

nigel | Fri, 01/09/2006 - 13:42 | Permalink

TAS Zebra review is scheduled for next week, with the new version 5 of More for the following week. Thanks for the suggestions.

Software Reviews

anthonymaddison15 | Fri, 25/08/2006 - 11:16 | Permalink

When doing reveiws on software, are you going to review the various TAS programmes? Also I would be interested in your views as to the way TAS has become more & more complex, providing facilities, like departmental accounting, that many startup businesses will not want and which just complicate the accounts to the extreme for those people. I have refused to upgrade from the initial TAS 2 for this reason.

When oh when

dahowlett | Thu, 24/08/2006 - 07:28 | Permalink

"A good, basic accounting system is critical."

No, no, no. What matters is cashflow. Everything else is totally irrelevant to business survival in the early stages.

When are accounting software developers going to get it through their thick heads that developing applications for accountants - like this and every other on-premise product - instead of for users does nothing to help survival rates?

A company I've worked with added 10,000 users in 6 weeks. That's 16%. Why? Because it offers a simple system that anyone in a non cash business can understand. It is ridiculously inexpensive and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Accountants hate it. But they don't have to worrry about debt management to the same extent.