Managing your accounts

This week, the focus is on software that cater to the accounting needs of individuals and small firms. This is by no means a comprehensive list but just a sampling of what's available on the Internet.

Budget Advisor

With so many everyday expenses involved in running a household, it is essential to plan ahead by creating a monthly budget. Budget Advisor allows you to take control of your monthly budget and keep track of your money.

From now on, you need not wonder where your money went each month -- Budget Advisor will give you a detailed breakdown of your spending.

It allows you to break up your budget into different categories, each of which may contain different budget items. You can use existing categories and item or you can create your own.

You can then enter your budgeted expenses for the month to calculate a total monthly budget. At the end of the month, you can enter your actual expenditure.

Budget Advisor provides detailed reporting and graphs of what you have budgeted against what you actually spent, allowing you to see whether you have been budgeting effectively.

All reports and graphs can be printed out allowing you to keep written records. The software also includes a duplicate feature allowing you to duplicate budget items across more than one month.

This means that you don't have to waste time entering the same expenses every month. Just duplicate an expense once and save time.

Budget Advisor will also allow you to import your previous year's budget each year so that you don't have to start building your budget from scratch.

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT/2000

Shareware

www.othersoft.co.za/

SIMPLAC

SIMPLAC is an easy-to-use, powerful accounting system for Windows. Written to comply with UK VAT requirements, it is suitable for use in any country with accounting requirements similar to those in the UK. It is of particular interest to individual traders and small to medium-sized companies.

Platform: Windows 95/98/2000

www.sphygmic.com

Freeware

Ncome and Xpense

A scheduler/manager that will help you keep track of expense amounts, income amounts, and their due dates, Ncome and Xpense also keeps a running total of what you owe and when payment is due.

It is easy to use, and is a handy tool for making sure you don't miss important bill payment dates. It comes with additional features such as sorting by any field by simply clicking on the column title, customisable warning days for each bill, expense and income history and backup and restore for current and history data.

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT/2000

www.software.by.ragan.net/

Shareware

Complete Invoice Manager 2000

Designed for small to medium-sized businesses, Complete Invoice Manager 2000 covers everything from invoicing, accounts receivable and payable to complete inventory control and customer and vendor tracking.

With multiple marketing and manager reports, you can track every aspect of your business and customers. It also gives you many options to customise the program according to your needs, including the ability to network it.

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT/2000

www.officesoftwareonline.com

Shareware

AQURA-Lite!

A double entry financial accounting freeware, AQURA-Lite! features drill-in browser, cost centres, bill-by-bill outstanding and tracking.

It also generates reports such as balance sheet, profit and loss account, trial balance, ledgers, and registers. Besides the support for trading inventory, it has versatile reports that can be printed in graphic as well as text modes.

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT/2000

www.sadhanasoft.com

Freeware

Account Office

With a state-of-the-art interface, this accounting software, which is based on 3D pictures and IBM voice synthesis, can simulate all accounting situations -- from invoice entries to balance sheet.

This real-time, mono or multi user software includes a lot of functions such as vocal analysis on situations or contextual voice help. It is user-friendly and fun to learn.

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT/2000

www.officemovies.com

Shareware

3S

The main features of this accounting program are general ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable, a powerful invoice/order entry system, bank reconciliation and automated cheque printing.

You can also design your own reports, business forms and financial statements, and export reports directly to Office 97 and Corel WordPerfect Suite.

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT

www.clarisys.ca/

Freeware

Compiled by C. Ramesh