|  AUG 1989

Tracking profits: accounting software by Mike Takano

Tracking profits: accounting software by Mike Takano Choosing the ""best"" accounting software package is a difficult task. Given different circumstances and user abilities, one package may suit your needs better than another. Nevertheless, I liked Monogram's Business Sense for small businesses, Layered's Insight for small to medium-sized businesses and Great Plains Accounting Series for large businesses. If you're in the market for an accounting software package, decide how elaborate a system you need, including special features, prior to looking at any package. This may prevent you from paying a high price for features you may not necessarily need or ever use. For example, if you are a large company and have different departments for accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc., and definitely need multiple user setups, then you would look at modular accounting software packages. If you want multi-user capability instead of really needing it, the respective price range jumps from around $200 to more than $1,500 for the accounting software package. As far as accounting tasks go, each of the packages performs more than adequately. We recently reviewed five accounting software packages for the Apple Macintosh, some of which also come in IBM versions. The goal of this review is to point out the differences in features among these accounting packages so you can decipher which one is right for your company. Three of the packages, Monogram's Business Sense, Softsync's Accountant Inc and Bedford's Simply Accounting, are ""all-in-one"" programs with integrated general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable and, in some cases, payroll and inventory routines.

by Mike Takano