Office Accounting

Microsoft launched it's latest addition to their Microsoft Office suite of products:
Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007. It is actually a successor to Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006. However, it is much more advanced than its predecessor. Though its named as Accounting, but actually its much more than just a simple accounting tool. Its essentially a complete business management tool to help with all the financial tasks related to a business. It is targeted primarily at small and home based businesses. It has some really innovative features, integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products, is integrated with lots of online financial services providers. And, best of all, it comes completely free. Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 offers following benefits (these have been taken from Microsoft's website):

Easy to Learn and Use:As with other Office products, it is completely menu driven, instead of being command driven. So, it is really intuitive to use. It comes with lot of startup wizards that quickly train you about the various features available. It provides the consistent look and feel with Microsoft Office system, so as to reduce the training time. Save time managing everyday tasks:Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 helps you to easily import data from Office excel and other programs, so you don't have to retype information for all of your customers and accounts. Office Accounting Express automatically tracks income and expenses as you create sales receipts or write checks, so you don't have to retype the information. If your business has an online account the software can download transactions, and you can even write checks, all done electronically. Managing payroll is easier with payroll center. Payroll center also offers integration with ADP at a nominal fee. You can also manage your taxes from here.
Store and organize all your information in one place:It also seamlessly shares data with other Microsoft Office Programs you use most often so you can save time and be more efficient. The ability to share and reuse data makes every day tasks like making quotes and invoices much simpler. We this capability you can create a customer quote , make it an invoice using office word and mail it using outlook express all through Microsoft office Accounting Express 2007. Small businesses often have valuable information scattered across paper files and worksheets. With Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007, all your information can be stored in one place, giving you a complete view of your business. You can create multiple customizable reports to gain valuable insight into your business. And these reports can be exported to Excel. You can integrate it with Outlook 2007, and view all the customer information in one place. You can also create quotes and invoices from within the Outlook.

Send Information to your accountant remotely: You can send data to your accountant remotely, and he can synchronize data to keep your books up to date. You can also share data using

Microsoft Office Live.
Easily sell on eBay: One of the best features of Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 is its Online Sales feature. It helps you to sell your products and services online. With this feature, you can easily sell to a million of potential customers through online sites such as eBay. Using this feature, you can list an item on eBay in just a few clicks. You can even manage images, and download and process orders.

Get paid faster:
It is also integrated with various vendors that help in payments and credit history, such as Pay Pal and Equifax. All these features can be used at a nominal fee. You can also process credit card transactions! As you might have realized by now, it is really complete financial management software for your business. And the fact that it comes completely free makes it a must have. Microsoft has launched an advanced version also of this software; titled Microsoft Office Accounting professional 2007. Its extra features include a few advanced accounting features, such as, Cash Flow forecasting tools and Multicurrency support. This one comes at a nominal price of $ 149. If you are a professional accounting company, you should go for the paid version. Otherwise, the free version is good enough for normal users.

This is one of the best products from Microsoft's stable for small and home based businesses. And looking at the features, it is obvious that Microsoft has done a thorough market study before coming out with this product. If you are a small or home based business owner, just give it a try. You would wonder how you were ever living without it till now.