eCommerce: Business Accountz review

David Bradforth takes a look at a user-friendly approach to business accounts, designed from the start to be jargon-free

We can say with some confidence that producing accounts for any size of business - small, medium or large, is a time-consuming process that depends to a very large extent on the person preparing the accounts having an understanding both on the nature of the business and also on the terminology behind accounts.

With some fifteen years of development behind it, Business Accountz may be the first accounting package aimed at businesses simply intended to make that process easier.

Supplied on a single CD-ROM and suitable for use with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Business Accountz operates on the double-entry accountancy principle. Essentially, for everything that comes into the business there's a duplicate entry into a log elsewhere within the business accounts.

It's a nice idea in principle - very straightforward to follow and works very well if somebody spends a half hour each day entering all of the business transactions into the program.

Business Accountz has been designed for use by Sole Traders, Partnerships and Service-Based companies (so those who don't have to deal with stock). They use a principle called Rapid Data Entry meaning essentially that as your transactions are made and entered into the program the figures are reflected elsewhere giving you an instant indication of your profit, costs and so on.

For each customer account you create, an invoices/queries made against that account are reflected in a comprehensive customer history which provides a sound foundation for further discussion on developing that client relationship.

The invoice component of the program is very straightforward to use. You can customise the invoices much as you would in a desktop publishing package; adding in your own graphics for headed notepaper (or deleting the graphics alltogether so as to use pre-printed headed notepaper). It's very intuitive in use, and logically laid out.

At the core of Business Accountz are just that - accounts. You can have purchase accounts, sales accounts - in fact any type of accounts you wish; and they're unlimited. If you have divisions this allows you to trace income on a divisonal basis and to divide the income appropriately.

The business reports are fully customisable, but in their default state provide the essential information many businesses require - the state of the business at that point in time; giving a clear idea of what your cash flow situation is likely to be in a month or twos time.

The manual supplied with the package is very well written; and the tutorial videos supplied on the CD-ROM allow for no doubt when it comes to using the product itself.

It's quite admirable that the program works as well as it does across three computer platforms; and while the manual does explain the interface thoroughly there are quirks to the interface - the Mac version is not 100% Aqua, the Windows version not 100% Vista and so on.

Despite this we do have an accounts package that does what it sets out to on the tin. It provides the smaller business with the means of keeping accurate track of the state of their business without confusing them with terminology. Given that time is money, Business Accountz will pay for itself in a very short space of time.

Available from Accountz.com (http://www.accountz.com) at £69.99