ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE: CHOICES BEYOND QUICKBOOKS

Having found plenty of material covering QuickBooks, I aimed this article at revealing 3 other packages to give you choices. This article will attempt to describe each accounting package for the benefit of a business owner in detail. Some mention in comparison to QuickBooks is used to illustrate differentiation.

The following review is best used as a reference work during your research of best use software. Load this into your pdf reader and use the search function within.

There are two companies who started before 2000 with accounting packages strong enough to still be competing with QuickBooks and a third developed in 2008. What they really ended up creating was bookkeeping software with some reporting capability. The aim was to allow a business owner to keep his or her own books with some degree of accuracy. Each of these packages went into different directions and ended up getting modified so much, most business owners must hire a clerk to keep up with all the entry details they needed for taxes, lenders, and investors.

THE SOFTWARE

ACCLIVITY: ACCOUNTEDGE (Was MYOB)
SAGE: PEACHTREE PREMIER
COGNITO: MONEYWORKS

CONTENT FORMAT:

APPEARANCE
CHART OF ACCOUNTS
ITEM LIST AND CARDS: CUSTOMERS & VENDORS
INVENTORY
SALES INVOICING
PAYROLL TIME AND BILLING
FINANCIAL REPORTS
OPINION

APPEARANCE:

This section describes how the interface appears and inter acts with the user . Professionals will be familiar and happy with the color grey and a boxy, colorless appearance. After all, performance matters most. Business owners and others with less than years specialized exposure to computerized platforms want and demand something visually pleasing with easy to find menus and diagrams. What appears ugly might actually be better for your company. The makers of the software know their audience and have aimed their creations accordingly.
ACCOUNTEDGE ACCOUNTING (PC & MAC)

MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE still has the same look it did 15 years ago with a little added color. It began as a DOS program and looks like it. There is nothing embarrassing about the software if seen by professionals at a distance. BOON: This format allows the program to respond fast to commands no matter how large the file gets. BANE: Years ago the file had a tendency to corrupt and become useless so I do recommend keeping two backups of the working file despite claimed improvements.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING (PC ONLY)

Business status shows AR and AP in pie chart format and revenue in a line graph. All at a glance! Definite plus for appearance. Icons are professional and vendors payable and customers receivable show the oldest 10 at a glance. Even has net income on the chart page. Everything on one page and some in visual format. Amazing! The quick menu to the left allows navigation to all the various modules. Peachtree has an appearance similar to Quickbooks and is aescetic.

MONEYWORKS GOLD (PC, AND MAC)

There is no “at-a-glance” chart in the starting menu. There are subtle attempts at making the menu soft for the eyes. More color in the Mac version than the PC version but it is very professional looking and uses color sparingly. Quite boxy without any cartoony like visual effects. The Quicklook graphic for Revenue and profit is in the Reports menu instead of the front page.

$ Peachtree is the peacock amongst the 3 packages above. Though it is less pleasing than Quickbooks which we are all familiar, it is greatly more colorful than either MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE or Moneyworks.

CHART OF ACCOUNTS:
MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE

Traditional account ID and nesting of accounts. Tabs along the top allow quickly picking the account types for review. Account merging is possible through the combine accounts button. Some major thought went into this portion of MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE. Does not alphabetize.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING

Only accessible as a report or through the Maintain: Chart of Accounts menu. The editor is effective but small. COA uses account ID and allows departmental separation only through report masking. If you have departments, better make a plan with COA ID numbers to make it happen. PT is very traditional in handling. The COA has potential to get very large due to the lack of classification capability. Does not alphabetize.

MONEYWORKS GOLD

Very traditional Account ID called a CODE, has fully flexible alphabetizing by account name or by any column noticed. Moneyworks devotes a large effort in the ability of all reports to be sorted at any column. This feature is also found throughout the program.

Best performing Chart of Accounts:

$ Moneyworks is the winner due to its ability to switch from description to code order on a click of a mouse button at the top of the column. All 3 programs hold to traditional account coding quite strictly. MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE allows nesting, but does not compete with the easier sort capability.

CUSTOMERS & VENDORS:
MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE $

MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE is serious about keeping data on prospects, customers, vendors, employees and a personal entry category. MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE refers to the data items as CARDS. If you can go back to the days when your database was a stack of 3×5 cards called a “tickler file”, you will know what is going on. Obviously this software is geared to sales people and customer service specialists.

There is an entry for a picture to be linked to each card, a note box and myriad data on numerous tabs. MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE is a jackpot for keeping massive data on a single individual. Scary if used correctly. Cards synchronize with MS Outlook in 2009+.

There is a feature called Identifiers that is limited to 26 characters A through Z in nomenclature. These are effective for many uses. Example in my review was to separate customers and vendors by type-casting. Such as Diners, Government, or wedding planner, etc.

The last thing I noticed was Categories. These allow separation by departments. Very nice feature and a must-have in my eyes. The single best use for categories is to separate rental property by building or by location.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING

Sufficient input boxes are available to keep business information on vendors and customers. Its missing a notation box and image link capability. PT will not replace Act!, Outlook, GoldMine, or Dayrunner like MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE can. There is a prospect box in the customer module so this makes for a passable sales system. Again, not as scalable as MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE.

PT allows for the setting of a default expense account for each vendor and a default income account for each customer. Quite handy and matches MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE’s default account selector.

PT uses Customer type and Vendor type in place of MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE identifiers. More versatile in Peachtree for this feature since it is unlimited and not easy to change. MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE identifiers are easier to change or delete than PT type codes. PT types can be named rather than use a letter code.

Peachtree can synchronize with Outlook.

MONEYWORKS GOLD

Database management is pretty easy. Each entity can be designated by customer, debtor, supplier, creditor, or other. The extra designations, debtor, creditor is to denote whether or not the company has credit or offered credit to the entity. As an added feature, autocoding allows allocating by % to two codes on the COA if needed, such as partnership expense tracking when there is a shared expense like travel. Tracking prospects is non-existent. Auto-coding is a unique feature of Moneyworks.

Synchronizes with Mac Address book and can easily import any csv file list. During upload, it stops to allow mapping with the existing infrastructure of Moneyworks.

Best Performing Customers and Vendor cardfile function:

$ MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE wins this one. It is the only accounting package that could conceivably be used as a tracking device for prospects. It also has a huge capacity in its notation windows.

INVENTORY:
MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE

Intensive tracking on inventory. Includes building module from raw materials and has complex pricing grid for 6 levels and 4 different volume discounts on top of that. Total of 24 prices per each inventory item based on customer price level and volume. 30 character description and item ID. Unlimited warehouse locations. Not calculation based.

Valuation allows Averaging, LIFO and FIFO.

Assembly module is available but has a slight learning curve.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING $

Good tracking on inventory. Can do anything in PT that can be done with enterprise level software for inventory. Auto-build, auto-order, low stock warnings, the works.! MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE has all the same features as Peachtree inventory, though a bit more difficult to operate.

Pricing capable for 10 discount levels based on mathematical formulae. Not as robust as MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE but makes up for it by allowing calculations based on user defined baseline. Combines with assigned customer discount level for final pricing.

Assembly section allows either the final product or assembly parts to be listed on invoice. Good choice to have. Easy to follow assembly module.

Valuation allows Averaging, LIFO, and FIFO.

MONEYWORKS GOLD

Intense attention was paid to the inventory tracking module. Assemblies can be made from inventory stock items. Four classifications keep the inventory orderly. Equivalent to Peachtree inventory strength.

Valuation of inventory is limited to Averaging only. This is the same restriction imposed by Quickbooks.

Best performing Inventory control:

$ PEACHTREE has the best inventory control of the 3. It allows flexible valuation, assembly builds, and auto re-ordering functionality. Best of all, Peachtree allows multiple costing method selections either by default or by item. FIFO, LIFO, WAVG are all possible with this package. This was a tough call since Moneyworks has a wonderful quantity price break system out to four levels. Due to it being strangled by only allowing the weighted average method of costing, it lost the race.

SALES INVOICING & PAYABLES RECORDING
MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE

Invoice interface has all the normal input fields expected. The bland appearance of MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE plays with your eyes a bit in this module. However, functionally, it works like a charm. Email and printing capability exists directly from the window.

Bills recording looks exactly like customer invoicing. Watch the title of the windows carefully.

Sales tax authorities are near limitless.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING

Invoicing is easy, menus intuitive, and the two row input method allows good detail when posting. Definite improvement over Quickbooks for this module.

Sales tax authorities are near limitless.

MONEYWORKS GOLD

Invoicing module is no-nonsense. It tracks the cost of inventory while the invoice is being built to keep the user aware of margin gains on any given order. Nice. I have not seen this feature in any other product.

Bills are recorded in the same blocky window as the rest of the program. However, there is a twist to this module that is needed with international taxation that allows the user to track amounts paid into what tax when a product is purchased. Makes it easy to apply for GST or VAT refunds! Sales tax codes are limitless.

Paying bills is a bit different. There is an extra step to ensure the proper check form is chosen and printed. A small printer image in the lower right hand corner activates the print check mode rather than post-only mode. This program defaults to printing a payment advice form rather than a check. One of the few weird quirks in Moneyworks.

Best performing invoicing module:

$ Moneyworks is the clear winner with global mercantile handling solutions. Multiple currencies and VAT/GST tracking capabilities make this module the best choice though not the easiest on the eyes. Thinking about expanding globally but still too small for one of the really huge enterprise packages? Very much time to try Moneyworks.

PAYROLL TIME AND BILLING

No favorite chosen as all 3 are very complete.
MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE

The Time Billing command center enables you to view and add activities (tasks or services provided by your company that you use time billing invoices to charge customers for), enter activity slips, make timesheet entries that can also be used to pay employees, and prepare time billing invoices.

The payroll module has been overhauled since 2006 and complete with several servicing choices.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING

TIME: An employee or vendor uses daily time tickets to record time spent performing a single activity. The activity and duration can later be applied to an employee’s paycheck and/or included on a customer’s sales invoice. The activity can also be recorded for administrative purposes to track various employee functions (for example, bookkeeping).

EXPENSE: Expense tickets track company resources used on behalf of customers, jobs, or for administrative purposes. Expense tickets recorded for a customer or job can later be applied to customer invoices.

Does not require payroll service. User can run manual payroll after hitting return key 15 times for each check. Its annoying, but the program is set to ensure compliance with payroll regulations.

If a payroll service is activated, Peachtree includes payroll forms and will fill out the forms for the user. Be aware the State of Washington will NOT accept the forms created by Peachtree without charging $250.00 fine for “Wrong form submission fee”. This is a state problem and not correctible for Peachtree. Print the forms anyway and use them as worksheets in-house.

MONEYWORKS GOLD

Job costing is robust in Moneyworks and as friendly as any of the programs with this feature I have seen. The flow chart menu works very well.

Payroll module is not a feature of Moneyworks. Import transactions from a csv file in less than 3 seconds or have Cognito support set up a seamless integration capability. Customization of some software features are offered by the developer.

Best performing time and billing module:

Time and billing are robust with all 3 programs. There is a lack of payroll capability with moneyworks as the developers aimed the system to be an accounting backbone rather than a payroll servicing tool. A competent clerk or bookkeeper can easily post the necessary journal entries or import payroll check payments as a fast substitute.

FINANCIAL REPORTS:
MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE $

All reports are capable of being sent to several areas for output. Choices are Acrobat, Excel, comma separated values, email, html and simple text.

PROFIT & LOSS

It defaults to handling Operating Profit before adjusting by Other Expenses and Other Income. This is a very handy tool for bookkeepers who must track profits before issuing partnership shares.

The appearance is very good. Categories are nested by type and sub-nested where appropriate. There are many reports available and the drill down function works very well. The report module is effective but not as robust a module as QuickBooks. There is some customization available and is effective. Mouse wheel does not control scrolling functions.

BALANCE SHEET

Again the nesting of the report help separate the differing components. Default report ignores account identifiers making this a very attractive reporting item. Mouse wheel does not control scrolling functions.

TRIAL BALANCE

Very well thought out display. Summary and detail separate by boxes. Output to printer is traditional.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING

All reports can be output equivalently to MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE. However, pdf output works better with cutepdf.exe than the built in pdf translator.

INCOME STATEMENT

Prints the standard report as “Income Statement”. Report is traditional. Reporting functions regarding the income statement are fully customizable for the creative users out there. There is not a separation before finally reaching Net Income. Personally, I change my standard report to make a separation from Net Ordinary Income and Net Income after adjustments for Other Expense and Other Income. Peachtree has no need for nesting as the report layout is completely customizable.

BALANCE SHEET

Standard and traditional. Nests to two levels. Professional appearance.

TRIAL BALANCE

So traditional, Peachtree still has a printable version. Working trial balance is traditional and functional.

MONEYWORKS GOLD

All reports are robust and allow sorting and comparing with several breakdown choices. Once again, be careful if you are accustomed to using Quickbooks. Moneyworks is so fast, the report is ready often before you are.

PROFIT & LOSS

This is accomplished with the international method. Gross Margin is identified before Other Income, subtotals at Net Income then continues to include what Americans consider Expenses to finally end up with the Profit (Loss) figure at the bottom line. The report is fully customizable and will have to be modified before printing GAAP approved P&L reports. Not a major concern for the skilled bookkeeper.

BALANCE SHEET

Finally, some accounting company designed a better mouse trap! The separation of assets is very neatly done. American Net Income entry is replaced with budget style terminology, “Plus Current Year Operating Surplus/(Deficit)”. From my point of view, this entry makes it easier for a business owner or manager to understand the ramifications of the Balance Sheet.

CASH FLOW

Of the three in review, Moneyworks is the only one that breaks down the cash flow report by COA items. The other two are American and break down the report by activity rather than by account. This one is better for most business owners who want to maintain a grasp on where their cash is going.

Best comprehensive layout on reporting:
$ MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE takes the prize with nesting reports and the built in ability to separate out partnership shares without re-working the core report. Keep in mind that all programs in this series do a wonderful job displaying information in usable formats and all of them need some changes that a skilled bookkeeper should be able to accomplish. Moneyworks cash flow report stands out.

FINAL OPINION:

MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE ACCOUNTING
Overall: Good software.

Best Feature: Vendor and Customer recording capability. MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE wins with the ability to attach photos. Marvelous for prospect tracking.

Worse Feature: Appearance and identifier idea is a strange idea to understand.

Functionality: Compares with QuickBooks in application. Has all the same features. Categories, P&L, Identifiers, Job Costing, and separate income lines in the P&L. Less robust reporting module but still maintains professional customization. MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE inventory module surpasses QuickBooks and is equivalent to Peachtree.

PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING
Overall: Excellent software.

Best Feature: Inventory control and easy to remember functionality.

Worse Feature: Lacks classification feature. Forces manipulation of the Chart of Accounts in order to track departments and/or locations.

Functionality: User will have an easy time remembering how to operate in this software. Icons, menu tree and navigation module is a common sense approach. Visual aids guide the eyes. Robust reporting module requires a large amount of effort to customize. Masking feature in COA forces custom reporting to be created by an expert user in order to bring out departmental separation with the financial reports.

COGNITO MONEYWORKS
Overall: Excellent software

Best Feature: Speed. Hands Down this thing is blazingly fast!

Worse Feature: Customers have only one delivery location.

Functionality: Similar to MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE or the commonly used physical filing cabinet. Tabs at the top of all boxes to guide a user through the primary operations. Extras are in the file menu bar.Most usage is pretty easy to operate. The extra features of the program, tracking by department, classification, and categories can be somewhat confusing until you put the ideas into play. Lacks payroll module.

Great thing to remember is Moneyworks is designed as an international accounting package. It has all the features necessary for a truly global company.

Author’s Prologue:

I began this review project in the hopes I could recommend Moneyworks over all the software I have used in my lifetime. My comparison exercise has shown that my original assessment has only three merits. Cognito designed the program to be fast for general operation, flexible when importing data and runs a cash flow report that does not need spreadsheet backup. Since the reporting module is not user friendly, my opinion is on the fence with this software. As can be seen above, each system has its merits. On that note keep in mind the usage for which you will be undertaking for your software needs and compare below:

Quickbooks: $200.00 to $1000.00+users. Massively supported in the United States. Many 3^rd party software applications. Robust reporting module. Requires proprietary format for uploads. Partnership style P&L. Very slow at all tasks. Online version is slower and loses inventory. Windows or MAC (not so sure of Mac though).

MYOB/ACCOUNTEDGE: $300.00 + 150.00 per user. Aimed at taking market share. Good support in the United States. Popular on the eastcoast. Has some of the add-on capability of Quickbooks. Robust cardfile system is great for tracking sales prospects and marketing efforts. Partnership style P&L. Very fast computing. Windows or MAC. Comes network ready.

Peachtree: $200.00 to $500.00+users. Good support in the United States. Some 3^rd party software availability. Open upload capability makes it greatly flexible. Good reporting module. Traditional Income Statement and accountancy handling. Fast computing. Windows.

Moneyworks: GOLD $700.00+users. Fantastic support globally. International accounting focus. Open uploading function makes this compatible to just about any add-on imaginable. Very customizable by Cognito staff on-request. Lightning fast computing. Windows and Mac. Cross platform operation on same network.

$ Best of section. This program is the best for uses concerning subtitle of the review.