Product Reviews

QuickBooks SimpleStart has been developed for the two million small businesses in the UK that still manage their books using pen-and-paper methods or spreadsheets and haven't yet opted for dedicated accounting software. The emphasis is on ease of use and this has been achieved by concentrating on the essentials and designing a graphical interface for them. You'll need internet access to use SimpleStart.

You begin by supplying your details via a Setup interview. This tells you that the product is suitable for use by Sole Traders. If you don't fit into this category then you won't be able to take advantage of the way it automatically tracks tax-related income and expenditure and integrates with TaxCalc to help you complete Self-Assessment Tax Returns.

At the point where you enter your VAT Registration Number, QuickBooks SimpleStart points out that it deals only with cash basis (as opposed to accrual basis) VAT accounting. This seems reasonable as it reflects the way most small businesses work. Disappointingly, it doesn't cater for the recently introduced Flat Rate VAT scheme that most sole traders would be well advised to adopt. We can only assume this has been omitted because it would require a different method of maintaining the VAT control account.

Seven narrated tutorials are provided

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to introduce new users to the facilities on offer. They tell you how to bill a customer, receive payments, make deposits, use the program's cheque-writing feature and record other payments. Most take no more than two minutes. These lessons aren't interactive and there are no sample files for you to experiment with, but on the other hand there's nothing deep or difficult here.

The price includes 30 days' support and a money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the product within that time.

While SimpleStart certainly lives up to its name, its features aren't as extensive as those of a full-blown accounts package. Users of Intuit's existing small business accounting software will instantly recognise that it is a cut-down version of QuickBooks from which some forms and reports have been omitted. This has meant some useful functions have been left out. For example, there is no facility to schedule standing orders and the Reminders feature of QuickBooks (which displays lists of overdue invoices and bills) is also missing.

Other features are available but have not been included among the options on the graphical interface. If you want to reconcile your bank statement at the end of each month you'll need to go to the Company menu and click on For Your Accountant. You'll also find the Make Journal Entry here, even though it should not be treated as if it were the sole preserve of accountants. Similarly, the only report that is on offer from the main screen is Profit and Loss; you'll find more options in the Reports menu, although still not as many as are available in the full version of QuickBooks.

Despite these omissions QuickBooks SimpleStart is a good buy. If your business expands and you find you need features such as integrated payroll, there is an upgrade route to QuickBooks and you won't be faced with a steep learning curve when making the transition.