Kathy Yakal

After more than a decade of impressive development on its Money personal finance manager, Microsoft apparently decided to take a breather this year: Money Premium 2007 has changed little since last year, save some new budgeting and spending tools and minor enhancements. It remains a formidable competitor to market leader Quicken, in no small part […]

Payroll isnt just for accountants and payroll services anymore. There are numerous Web-based and desktop solutions for small-business types looking to take on this most complex, most regulated element of accounting. Auto Payroll is one of the newest, but not one of the best. Click here to read the full review of Auto Payroll v. […]

A few years ago, Intuit promised an innovative new Quicken interface, then disappointed us. This year, however, the company came through. The new home page is better than anything Microsoft has done with Money, and its Intuits best effort yet. Click here to read the full review of Quicken Premier 2007. 2 A few years […]

Money Essentials may be the simplest program Microsoft has ever produced. The developers will likely tweak it over the years, but Microsoft says its meant to be a clean, simple tool for aggregating separate accounts (giving one gatekeeper access to all of them by supplying your log-in information) with bill-paying, budgeting, and reporting capabilities. Unfortunately, […]

Full Review Word processors and spreadsheet applications have grown incredibly complex, but theyre still easy to use because much of the bloat is hidden. With your typical accounting software, however, all the bloat and complexity is in plain sight, making these applications more complicated than most users would prefer. Intuits new QuickBooks SimpleStart addresses this […]

Intuits Quicken and Microsoft Money have been fierce competitors for more than ten years. But rarely—if ever—have we seen such disparity in the scope of their annual upgrades. Microsoft has made sweeping changes to Money, adding a new end-run around tedious account setup and a two-tiered approach to personal-finance management. Intuit has focused more on […]

ZIFFPAGE TITLEAt a Glance Company:Best Software, Inc., www.peachtree.comPrice:$499.99 (single-user); $999.99 (multi-user) Pros:Comprehensive, customizable database records and transaction forms. Exceptional reporting structure. Multicompany consolidation. Excellent handling of inventory and financial statements.Cons:Limited financial analysis beyond reports. Stale interface.Bottom Line:Peachtree Premium Accounting adds a few features to an already robust offering, the most critical being multicompany consolidation. Its […]

Peachtree-branded small-business accounting products have been successfully evolving nearly since the inception of the PC. Peachtree Premium Accounting 2004 is built on the compendium of tools found in Peachtrees lower-end programs. This package takes its bookkeeping a step further than the companys lower-end offerings (such as Peachtree Complete) and closer to midrange products. Most notably, […]

As the old saying goes, nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. The same holds true for QuickBooks: It isnt the cheapest program here, but you cant go wrong buying it for your small business. Intuit has earned this distinction, providing a robust, easy-to-use line of applications for a variety of company sizes and needs. […]

Accounting software for small businesses has grown up nicely in the past five years. In fact, among the major products, the choices range from good to excellent. Here, we look at four of the best: MYOB Plus 2004, Peachtree Premium Accounting 2004, Quickbooks Premier 2004, and Simply Accounting 2004 PRO. These programs have more commonalities […]