Product Reviews

If you've just started up your own business, chances are you won't have the cash to splash out a few hundred quid on a professional accounting package. The trouble is, cheaper personal finance packages won't have some of the business-related features you need. Sage reckons it has the answer with its mid-priced accounting software, Instant Accounts.

Several versions of the product are available, ranging in price from £129 to £249. The version reviewed here is Instant Accounts Plus, which has the additional features of discount pricing, stock management, MIS (Management Information System) and two-user capability. It also has a useful (and hefty) manual, though it could do with better indexing, as could the extensive Help system.

Transported from Sage Line 50, Instant's big brother, Sage MIS is a graphical system designed to let you make better-informed decisions about your business, by collating together management information including details of your best-paying customers and fastest-moving products, for example. There's also the Task Manager. This bears an uncanny resemblance to Outlook, and handles to-do lists, bills to pay, and customers to pursue.

Integration with Microsoft Office is a feature that's new to Instant Accounts,

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allowing the relevant information to be sent to Word, Outlook and Excel.

Apart from that, Instant Accounts Plus has all the standard accounting features you'd expect. It's a full double-entry system with the essential ledgers - Cashbook, Nominal, Purchase, and Sales. Between them, they'll handle all your receipts, payments, sales and purchases, credit terms and transaction details.

There's also an e-banking facility (although it's subject to a subscription fee). The Nominal ledger can be tailored to fit your own account categories and will analyse your transactions by category. It can also produce reports showing activity for each of these categories. The Nominal ledger can also be configured as an Accounts Analyser, showing detailed data about the most important accounting areas - sales, purchases, direct expenses and so on. Instant Accounts will also handle all your VAT, including cash and accrual accounting.

Among other features, simple stock control lets you stock-take and make stock adjustments, a Task Manager reminds you of things to do, and links to Sage's WebTrader site let you sell your products online. A range of reports, including aged debtors analysis, will help with credit control. You also get an invoicing facility.

Instant Accounts is a solid piece of accountancy software. It has all of the features a small business needs, and it offers an easy, established upgrade path to Sage's more advanced products as your business grows. Another added bonus is the fact that Sage software is widely used by accountants, so there's a good chance yours will be able to offer advice.

There's a downside, though: cost. Cheaper packages in the Instant Accounts range may suit small businesses, but at £249, Instant Accounts Plus is more expensive than some professional packages like MYOB or Quickbooks Pro.