What's New in Simply Accounting
By Mary Lou W. Collins, CPA 

What's New with Simply Accounting
Presented by Scott Zandbergen, ACCPAC International Inc.

Scott Zandbergen of ACCPAC International gave attendees an excellent demonstration of all the latest features of Simply Accounting Version 9.0. What an incredible set of features offered for the unbelievable low price of $169.00. This product is a great value for the money in the entry-level market. Simply Accounting has had a strong presence in the Canadian market for years and it is gaining momentum in the United States.

Simply Accounting’s roots trace back to 1985 as the Bedford Integrated Accounting product. Today worldwide there are 300,000 users with the majority of these being in Canada. The product was promoted in a “free” offer for United States users this past year and 50,000 individuals took advantage of this offer. Simply Accounting 9.0 is still an incredible bargain at just $169 for the single user edition and the Pro version (supports up to 6 users) for $319.00. Version 9.0 enhancements provide enhanced functionality.

In a nutshell, Version 9.0 improvements include automatically adjusting journal entries, multi currency, multi-user, and a more robust database. The single user version includes dual currency (two different currencies supported), batch printing and posting, default vendor expense, and enhanced payroll (Yea! You can do manual payroll entry without being forced to sign up for a payroll service!! Isn’t this wonderful. Quickbooks customers with only one employee are forced to sign up for a payroll service– hardly cost justified for the truly small business owner). Pro Version enhancements include multi-user capabilities (up to 6 users), direct electronic funds transfer, bill of materials, time and billing, and account history for up to 100 years of data. The product runs on the Microsoft Access database. 

The Pro version offers a 5 user value pack for $725 and features the ability to customize user screens, hide modules or hide specific fields. Up to five user-defined fields can also be added. An email tab allows you to send an email directly from within the product. Under the Report Menu the user is allowed to view journal entries before posting and allows for an audit trail that follows GAAP. The inventory module tracks units of stock and also has regular and preferred price lists supported.

A brief overview of the other new features demonstrated by Scott Zandbergen follows:

Bill of Materials
With the Bill of Material module you can include a bit map image of an inventory item. Coming soon is the eTransact module.

Inventory
The inventory module features the ability to build on the fly or auto build. The functionality supports kits within kits. If while building on the fly the system determines you are out of raw materials, it won’t let you build the item and the system notifies you that you are out of an item and won’t let you place an order. Negative inventory is an option.


Payroll
Payroll includes the ability to allocate payroll expenses to multiple jobs or to allocate payroll expense by a percentage of the paycheck.

Time and Billing
Timeslips feature creates invoices based on the time entered for an employee. Time can also be written up when billing a client. The reports then show if the time has been written up or shows the percentage of time billed.

Daily Business Manager
Daily Business Manager allows the user to select a group of checks for a check run, supports recurring invoices and offers batch runs of paychecks.

Multi-Currency
Exchange rate information is tracked via a table. The exchange rate can be changed on the fly and the journal entries show the exchange rate information in the notes. This technology was borrowed from the ACCPAC Advantage series.

Multi-User
The Set-Up features the ability to define user rights. It greys out the items the user is not allowed access to.

Point of Sale
Point of Sale is a third party add-on and currently there are five point of sale products available. There are 50 developers for the Simply Accounting product.


- END -