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Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 Review
Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 - Review
Installation and Setup
The Company Setup wizard provides 31 business type templates to choose from which will apply initial company settings and create specific accounts for the type of business chosen. These can then be verified and edited as necessary. A Quick Start page then provides a list of tasks to get users started quickly with Office Accounting.
If users are exporting from QuickBooks, the QuickBooks conversion wizard will easily import and convert that data. The program will also import from Peachtree and Microsoft Money. Office Accounting can import most Excel data, such as transaction data (invoices, sales orders), records (inventory products, customer/vendor details) with the Import Data wizard.
Navigation
Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008's interface is similar to other Office applications, which many users will appreciate. The navigation pane provides access to Company, Customers, Vendors, Employees, Banking, Online Sales, Reports and Resource Center sections within which tasks are linked in a flow chart design for ease of access. Drill down into the dashboards.
The Company homepage provides a customizable overview of a business's financial situation (e.g. cashflow graph, bank account balances) as well as overdue customer/vendor accounts. A handy reminders list displays items such as bills to pay, money to deposit, etc.
Customer/Vendor Information
Office Accounting Professional integrates with Outlook Business Contact Manager so employees can view client financial information, client communications and marketing campaigns. Salespeople on the road can bill, track transactions, and query customer financial history. The two programs have a single database for customers/vendors/employees details and data entered in either program automatically updates the other.
Online Banking
You can manage multiple bank accounts and your company's banking activity within the Banking homepage. From here you can also write & print checks, make deposits & transfer funds, download transactions and reconcile accounts. The program also now synchronizes vendors in Office Accounting with online payees already set up with your bank.
Time Recording & Billing
If using Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager, employees can mark appointments, projects, tasks, and phone logs as billable time and create time entries which can then be transferred to Office Accounting Professional to create customer invoices. Users can also enter employee time records on timesheet forms in the program. And with Payroll for Microsoft Office Accounting (sign up fee), time records provide the basis for payroll expenses.
Inventory & Items
Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 uses the FIFO (first-in, first-out) method of inventory valuation. Users can create service, inventory, non-inventory (e.g. a custom product purchased for a job) and kit items, as well as setting multiple pricing levels and customer discounts. It's possible to set inventory reorder levels and reorder reminders to appear on the Company homepage.
Forms
Quotes, invoices, sales orders, purchase orders, customer statements, credit memos, and packing slips can all be created in Microsoft Office Accounting Professional. For increased flexibility, invoices in Office Accounting Professional can be created by using the New Invoice form, by converting quotes and sales orders, from a job record, an employee time entry, or an inventory item record.
Users can customize forms and use Word to create custom templates for invoices. Forms can be exported to Office Word to create more professional-looking documents - for example, a quote can be exported to Word to create a proposal. Invoices, etc can also be emailed to customers with Microsoft Outlook.
Accounts Receivable & Payable
Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 provides a PayPal option on customer invoices allowing for faster payments. Customers simply click on the Paypal link on invoices they receive by email. There's no setup fee for Paypal, the monthly fee is $30 and there's a $0.30 fee per transaction. Payments are imported into the program, saving time on data entry.
Process credit and debit card payments directly in Office Accounting with credit card processing with Chase Paymentech Solutions. The setup fee is $49.95, with a $0.10 transaction fee for Visa/Mastercard and $0.30 for Amex/Discover.
Overdue customer & vendor invoices are displayed on the Company homepage, with aging detail and as well as in the Reminders list.
Payroll
There's an online-based Payroll for Microsoft Office Accounting. Payroll Standard is $14/month with first 30 days free. The service calculates payroll taxes, allows you to pay employees by check or direct deposit, tracks workers' compensation and produces signature-ready federal & state tax forms. Export pre-filled Office Accounting timesheets directly to Payroll to save time on data entry and reduce possible errors. The next level of payroll service is Total Payroll starting at $27/month which offers everything in the Standard service but also includes filing & payment of taxes electronically and unlimited free phone support.
Reporting
Office Accounting Professional 2008 provides more than 70 customizable reports, such as Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, A/R Aging Summary & Detail, Profitability by Customer/Job, Sales by Salesperson, Inventory, etc. Reports can be exported to Excel while keeping formulas and formatting. There are great analysis tools including two Excel PivotTable reports (Sales Analysis & Purchase Analysis) and seven Office Access database reports (Vendor, Payment, Item, Invoice, Employee, Customer, Profit & Loss Standard). The Sales Analysis PivotTable report shows sales data by customer, items sold, and time periods. The Purchase Analysis PivotTable report shows purchases data by vendor, items purchased, and time periods. Users can create new Excel Pivot Table reports and new Access reports and add them to the Analysis Tools reports list.
Help/Support
Microsoft Office Accounting's Resource Center provides links to general business tips, video tutorials (14 demos provided) and a community bulletin board where users can post questions and answers. Users can receive free phone and e-mail support (with one business day response time) for 90 days after which the charge is $49 per support request.
Other Great Features of Office Accounting 2008
Cash Flow Analyzer. The Cash Flow Forecast tool tracks sales, purchases & payments for better cash flow management and prediction. Users can view different future forecast cash flow scenarios and prioritize customers to contact and bills to pay. Cash Flow Statement report shows cash inflows and outflows over a period of time.
Full-featured eBay Integration. Incorporate online sales into your accounting system. List and manage inventory items (quantity, price, images) in the Online Sales home page, download and process orders, track activity and receive payments with integrated credit card services or PayPal, all from within the Office Accounting Professional 2008 program. All transactions including commissions and fees download directly into Office Accounting Professional. Multiple currency support enables buying/selling from other countries.
Accountant Transfer Export Wizard. Send your financial information to your accountant using this wizard, while you continue using the program. When your books are updated by your accountant, any changes will be automatically synchronized. Your accountant can also remotely access your financial information.
Equifax credit report services. This service provides access to credit reports or ongoing credit monitoring of clients. Or order a credit report for your own business to keep track of your credit history.
Other Small Business Accounting Programs
We've also reviewed Peachtree Complete Accounting 2009 and QuickBooks Pro 2010. For more information see our comparison chart of other small business accounting software.
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