2008 saw a record number of businesses start ups as the recession began to bite. Sir Richard Branson, the UK’s best known entrepreneur, in an interview with The Times newspaper last week provided additional encouragement to would be entrepreneurs by predicting that the next generation of self-made billionaires will emerge from the corporate wreckage of this recession. “A lot of entrepreneurs get going in the economic depths because the barriers to entry are lower” he said. Gary Simon, FSN’s managing editor, explains how Microsoft’s free-to-download accounting package, Microsoft Office Accounting is doing its bit to help business start ups get underway.
Microsoft Office Accounting lowers entry barrier for recession fuelled business startups
Independent data suggests that entrepreneurs newly ousted from large corporates are deciding in record numbers to set up their own businesses to secure their futures and grab a slice of the economy. Recently released figures from Companies House showed that more than 21,000 people set up a new business in December 2008 - up from 20,000 at the same time last year. The growth in business start ups is also reflected in a sizeable increase in the stock of VAT registered businesses appearing on the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform’s register for the first time. Many of those businesses are in business services, the segment of the economy that has seen more than 6 percent growth in new business formations in the last year.
The release of Microsoft Office Accounting last year could hardly have been timelier for new businesses looking for an immediate and cost effective start. In the U.S. there are believed to have been 2 million downloads of the “Express” version of the package in the first year and around 40,000 in the UK, illustrating that the lure of a fully fledged accounting package for free has proved irresistible for many fledgling businesses. But free doesn’t mean that businesses have to sacrifice quality. In fact one Microsoft Dynamics insider conceded that the entry level software is “outstanding” when compared to many of the established products costing many of hundreds or even thousands of pounds. The package could also see many small businesses that are beyond the start up phase migrating from established players such as Sage in the UK and QuickBooks in the U.S. because of user-friendly migration utilities provided within the system as standard.
The package also lays down the gauntlet for many on-line accounting or SaaS (Software as a Service) providers targeting the start up with low cost hosted solutions over the internet. With little accounting or technical expertise required to run the free Microsoft package the hosted solutions, (which even with low monthly rentals can be costly for startups) may be hard pressed to get traction in this rapidly growing segment of the economy.
At the time of its launch a number of commentators expressed surprise that Microsoft would offer a package completely free of charge and challenged “where is the catch”? But several months on it is clear that the package may have been a shrewd move on the part of Redmond to capture a segment of the market that had hitherto been beneath its radar – and other competitors. Small businesses and start ups are notorious amongst small accounting practitioners for their failure to keep proper accounting records. But Microsoft Office Accounting could see the end of the so called “paper bag job” in which bank statements and an assortment of invoices are bundled off to an accountant to sort out at the end of the year.
Microsoft Office Accounting provides even the least tech-savvy business with the capability to keep its books in order. Furthermore there is a growing band of MPAN certified accountants (Microsoft Professional Accountants Network) who are accredited by independent Microsoft examination to offer support. Whereas hosted solutions boast the ability for accountants in practice to share files easily with their clients, Microsoft Office Accounting provides both on-line sharing of data as well as a more traditional file transfer approach.
However, the ace up Microsoft’s sleeve of course is the outstanding integration between Microsoft Office Accounting and all of the products within the popular Microsoft Office suite. In fact it is noteworthy that organisationally, Microsoft Office Accounting does not sit within the Dynamics part of its business alongside established ERP packages such as Dynamics NAV and AX but within the mainstream Office division.
For small businesses keen to start off as they mean to continue this tight integration provides the means to create a slick and responsive business straight out of the starting block. The ability to deliver sales quotes by email, or embedded in email, direct to the customer’s inbox means competitive edge and the parallel ability to automatically convert a quote to an invoice and deliver it to customers at internet speed translates into faster cash collection.
Business Contact Manager, a sort of slimmed down CRM (customer relationship management) system provided as standard within Microsoft Office can optionally be integrated with Microsoft’s free accounting system. The two systems can share the same database which means that prospects can be converted to customers within the accounting system and both accounts and reports can be viewed from within the Office application.
But integration isn’t limited to the Microsoft suite of applications. Integration with Paypal for more convenient payment and Ebay shops are just some of the novel ways in which Microsoft Office Accounting fits into the small business world.
For those businesses that have more demanding needs then the next step is to convert the “Express” version of Microsoft Office Accounting into the “Professional” version, which at around £149 in the UK (much less from some retailers) offers full sales and purchase order processing, stock control and job costing as well as foreign currency processing and a performance dashboard. For service oriented businesses, appointments and time entries in Outlook can be converted to billable time in Microsoft Office Accounting.
So for the start up business Microsoft Office Accounting represents a very significant step forward. No longer do they need to trudge down to a local PC store. Just download the product and get started!
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MICROSOFT OFFICE ACCOUNTING TO THE MAX - INTRODUCTION
MICROSOFT OFFICE ACCOUNTING TO THE MAX - ADVANCED
