RSSMicrosoft Accounting App Hits 1 Million Downloads
By Nate Mook | Published February 20, 2007, 12:21 PM
Microsoft is touting its free accounting application, which it debuted last October for small businesses, as a success, announcing that it has been downloaded by 1 million people in just 3 months. Office Accounting Express 2007 is Microsoft's first shot across Intuit's bow.
The program is largely a basic accounting suite aimed at those who currently use pen and paper or a spreadsheet to manage their finances. Startups and eBay sellers are among the intended audience, Microsoft says. Accounting Express features and Outlook-like interface and Office integration.
"The response to the software and its suite of integrated web services has been overwhelming," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews. "The great thing about the product is you don’t have to be an accountant to use it. In addition, Microsoft spent a lot of time studying small businesses and conducting market research to determine their needs."
Although the product itself is a free download, Microsoft has bundled seven third party services, some of which are available for additional fees. These include processing payroll through ADP, accessing reports from Equifax, and sharing of books with an accountant via Office Live.
For businesses needing more functionality, Microsoft has launched Office Accounting Professional 2007 -- a retail package -- at a cost of $149 USD. Inventory management, multicurrency invoicing, multiuser access and fixed asset management are among those featured added to the Professional version.
Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 is available for download now from FileForum.
Download doesn't equal in use. I downloaded and installed it, but after five minutes determined it was less capable then the MS Access database I currently use to track the finances of a non-profit I work with. Office Accounting Express 2007 looks a lot like the free Access accounting template from Microsoft I started with, but with a slick user interface. The difference is I was able to customize the Access template to better meet my organization's needs.
Uninstalling Accounting Express 2007 was a chore, because it is actually installed as several discrete components, each of which must by uninstalled separately. The uninstall also messed up my Norton AntiVirus 2006 email scanner. Shame on you Microsoft.
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|Once upon a time, flooding a market with a free product to undermine the competition was illegal and called "dumping". I suppose that either that law is gone or they found some convenient loopholes (or it never applied to software). Who knows. I smell law suit from Intuit though. Why not. Everyone else sues.
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|Especially Microsoft. They've been the favorite target of lawsuits for a while now...
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|First off what “laws” are you talking about? “Dumping” has to do with different countries “selling a product in a foreign country for less than either (a) the price in the domestic country, or (b) the cost of making the product.”
Its “illegal” for certain items which the receiving country wants to regulate to “protect” its domestic interests --- it’s nothing like software development.
Let’s be realistic here, this doesn’t really apply to software. Microsoft did this with IE and it spurred a lot of innovation and can you imagine having to BUY a browser now? Like you use to have to with Netscape?
Mozilla is free, Linux is free, MySQL is free, why aren’t they dumping too? It’s simple --- software usually isn’t about the product --- you generally make it once and then it costs little to nothing after that point.
As Debian Linux puts it in their FAQ ...
“Most software costs over 100 US dollars. How can you give it away? A better question is how do software companies get away with charging so much? Software is not like making a car. Once you've made one copy of your software, the production costs to make a million more are tiny (there's a good reason Microsoft has so many billions in the bank).”
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|I'm glad we can still download and use the freeware apps that are available in a lot of places. Some of the freeware can be featured on the side of betanews...or if you prefer the fileforum. ;p
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|The Internet has changed everyone's perception with regards to software as a product. Many small businesses now expect to find free software on the Net (which is why the most common search string used to find our website www.responsive.co.nz is "FREE ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE".) It was easier to justify a price tag when there was something tangible like disks or a manual. Now that its just bytes on a wire folks are asking themselves "Why should I have to pay anything more?" especially if they're already paying for the connection. Companies that provide free software are simply tapping into the customer expectation that's already there.
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|Still a huge resource hog. Requires SQL.
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|Here'a an alternative that provides full and seamless integration to a general ledger. You may not be an accountant but if you have the knowledge why use software that assumes you're an ignoramus? www.responsive.co.nz/ledgerplus
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|why are you assuming software is assuming people are like you?
I once worked with a brilliant engineer who hated using computers and preferred to do things the old fashioned way. He preferred pen and paper, but in no way was he an ignoramous.
Not everyone in the world can hope to achieve the asinine mind you rightfully command.
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|Ya, u igoranus! jus cus i cant spill dusnt mak me dum!
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|His point was that why use software that is dumbed down, when apps exist that let you do your accounting the way is was meant to be done.
I think developers are so busy trying to make apps that anyones grandma can use that they forget there are power users out there that want to actually get work done.
Ever try to edit HTML in a $400 WYSIWYG web authoring app? Point made.
YOUR REATARDED, LOLZ
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|Precisely. Couldn't have said it better.
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