Want a company with a proven name?Microsoft is an industry leader, everyone knows it. Now Microsoft is one of the providers of small business finance software by offering Office Accounting Express 2008. The beauty of this new small business finance software program is it works with other Office applications that most business people already know. You simply enter the information one time and it is seamlessly shared with other Office programs. According to Microsoft you can get started in minutes using their step by step interview wizard. You can also create invoices and bank online. You can even get add-on services to save you time and money with your payroll and also accept credit cards. You can quickly share your books with your accountant using OfficeLive. And for you eBay enthusiasts, you can manage your sale items on eBay and get paid quickly using PayPal. Some of the top features of Office Accounting Express 2008 is the ability to import data from QuickBooks, Excel and other file formats. You can also manage vendors, customers, and employees as well as write checks and invoices using this software. You have the ability to run credit checks on vendors and customers and there are 30 customizable reports that let you see how your business is performing. Speaking of QuickBooks, Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks is one of the well known providers of small business finance software. QuickBooks allows you to do all accounting functions that a small business needs, including processing payroll easily for as little as $9.00 per month. You can even allow employees to enter their own time online using any Internet connection in your office. QuickBooks allows credit card processing for a low-rate of 1.72 percent and also features a point-of-sale system to help you manage the sales of your small business. There are over 400 services and products that are compatible with QuickBooks small business finance software system. An additional feature of using QuickBooks software for small business finance is the ability to increase your visibility and marketing efforts using Intuit’s marketing tools. They offer website design features, assist in getting your business listed and easily found on the Internet where customers are looking for you. There is even additional training and support to help you customize QuickBooks to meet all of your small business financial software needs. Another player in the small business financial software gameConsider this small business financial software: Peachtree Pro Accounting 2008. Peachtree has been around for many years as one of the leading small business finance software providers. Their software for small business finance is backed by industry-leading consultants who are available to help your business succeed. Peachtree solutions are affordable and they offer a variety of different small business finance software tools to meet the different needs of small businesses. They offer the same features that you find in most accounting software packages are very affordable and also offer great support for their products. A great feature of Peachtree software is as your small business grows you can easily upgrade to one of their other software packages or from QuickBooks if you happen to be using QuickBooks. No matter whether you choose QuickBooks, Peachtree or Microsoft’s product, the goal of any small business should be to find one of the good small business finance software providers. All three of these industry-leading providers make great choices as suppliers of small business finance software.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Determine your needs first
There are many small business financial software providers to choose from. Before picking a provider, determine what your needs are first. Ask questions like: Do I need to control inventory? and Do I want to process my own payroll? By answering questions like these it will help narrow your search to a manageable number of software providers.
I recommend: Any of the three software providers in this guide would make a great choice. There are advantages to Microsoft's solution because it interfaces well with the other Microsoft Office Suite.
QuickBooks is a great solution too as it is well known and used by many small businesses in America. It is very affordable and very easy to learn.
Peachtree offers more in depth accounting features than most small business solutions, but it does so at a very affordable price. Peachtree is backed by many years of experience and offers a network of certified consultants to help your business succeed.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Excel is a great tool to assist businesses. But it is not the only solution for meeting small business financial needs. It is intended to compliment your accounting procedures, not be the sole resource for those needs.