Microsoft to discontinue Office Accounting next month
Microsoft is killing off its small business accounting product, Office Accounting. The company will no longer distribute Office Accounting Professional or the free version, Office Accounting Express after November 16, 2009.
According to Microsoft's FAQ, the company as determined that free templates that work with Excel are a better option for small businesses than the Office Accounting application. That's kind of true, in that you can customize Excel templates any way you like. But Office Accounting provided a full featured suite of accounting tools that would be pretty difficult to replicate by building or tweaking your own spreadsheets. Really, Microsoft has determined that it's not worth continue developing this product for one reason or another, and I suspect more people will switch to using QuickBooks or another competing package of accounting software than will choose to use Excel.
Microsoft will continue to offer 5 years of support for Office Accounting, and users will still be able to bill customers using PayPal, although eBay and credit profile information from Equifax won't be available after December 15, 2009.
The move comes less than half a year after Microsoft discontinued its personal finance application, Microsoft Money.
[via ZDNet]
According to Microsoft's FAQ, the company as determined that free templates that work with Excel are a better option for small businesses than the Office Accounting application. That's kind of true, in that you can customize Excel templates any way you like. But Office Accounting provided a full featured suite of accounting tools that would be pretty difficult to replicate by building or tweaking your own spreadsheets. Really, Microsoft has determined that it's not worth continue developing this product for one reason or another, and I suspect more people will switch to using QuickBooks or another competing package of accounting software than will choose to use Excel.
Microsoft will continue to offer 5 years of support for Office Accounting, and users will still be able to bill customers using PayPal, although eBay and credit profile information from Equifax won't be available after December 15, 2009.
The move comes less than half a year after Microsoft discontinued its personal finance application, Microsoft Money.
[via ZDNet]













Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsHMMasterOct 30th 2009 10:35PM
Seriously, I don't even know this software exist!
caseyandrews1981Oct 31st 2009 6:02AM
it actually was not bad... either version (premium or free)
caseyOct 31st 2009 12:57AM
It actually wasnt bad (the free or the paid version)....
It was more useful than MS Money and didnt have all of the complicated / advanced features of Quick books
iGladOct 31st 2009 8:30AM
I am kinda peeved that they will discontinue it so i've got my download onto a CD now. It was a fine piece of software for free, which I recommended to my business startup students. The thing is they actually had a UK version which is pretty unusual but they just didn't push it hard enough if you ask me, you can't rely on the website alone to get the message out. I'll still keep using it as they will support it for the next 5 years, which is good of them. I guess intuit and will raise their prices now!
PC-VIPNov 2nd 2009 10:57AM
This is a HUGE problem . . .
(for certain people)
The thing not being mentioned here is that if you were using this software to do payroll, ADP, the one-and-only provider from whom you could buy service, is not longer able/willing to support you.
goes your software, and a mission-critical application.
Thanks, Microsoft.We always knew you owned more of our businesses than we do ourselves . . .
Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP Computer Support, Business Change Coaching and Virtual Assistant Services