tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-168514732009-11-14T11:01:34.365-08:00Tips, tricks, techniques and other interesting info about Microsoft's latest and greatest.SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-87513022256328119422007-03-13T15:56:00.001-07:002007-03-13T15:56:49.502-07:00

I'm not sure how I missed this article, but it talks about how both Intuit and Microsoft are embracing online services directly in their accounting applications. The article takes a few shots at Intuit and praises Microsoft for it's efforts:First, the shot at Intuit:But Intuit's ballyhooed Google alliance was underwhelming at best. It boiled down to a single icon called MARKETING TOOLS just

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-86015904917294851242007-02-20T06:18:00.000-08:002007-02-20T04:34:55.113-08:00

Rajat Taneja, whom we've mentioned before here, has indicated that the free Office Accounting Express product has been downloaded over a million times in the first 90 days.Wow, I'm amazed at this number! I guess I had better start coming up with more tips on this new version, and quickly! I have to say, I'm excited about the growing community of users who can share experiences and tips about

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1164830508472891062006-11-29T11:57:00.000-08:002006-11-29T12:01:48.826-08:00

Just came across a newsgroup thread where someone from Microsoft mentioned that in Office Accounting 2007, they added the ability to include user-defined fields in your invoice templates and other Microsoft Word templates. This is a BIG deal. It sounds simple and I'll need to go check this out. Here is how it is described in the post:"If you use Office Accounting 2007, please try the following

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1164764693490171372006-11-28T17:34:00.000-08:002006-11-28T17:44:56.910-08:00

I just came across this interesting little article about Carolyn Kepcher from Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" TV show. Apparently, she has joined with Microsoft to help judge a contest where they are giving away $100,000, a storefront in Manhattan for a year and free software to the best new small business idea. The contest, dubbed "Ultimate Challenge" is described on Microsoft's Ideawins.com

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1164212467959848742006-11-22T07:52:00.000-08:002006-11-22T08:21:13.316-08:00

Finally, a definitive source on how many users are officially supported by Office Accounting. Although, if you're looking for a number like "five", you're not going to get it. Jesper from Microsoft says that the previous version, SBA 2006 had some performance degradation that occurred "if more than 5 just happened to use a [database] connection at the exact same time". Luckily, Office Accounting

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1163735806452890282006-11-16T19:54:00.000-08:002006-11-16T19:58:29.670-08:00

As I was playing with Express, I noticed that they changed the Microsoft Word template directory, where they store the Microsoft Word template files for things such as Invoices and Quotes. Instead of these being stored in the Program Files directory like they were in 2006, they are now stored in: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Templates\Office Accounting 2007\TemplatesJust thought I'd

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1162658292327574172006-11-04T08:31:00.000-08:002006-11-04T08:38:12.706-08:00

Just saw a new post up on the Microsoft BizIdeas blog that I mentioned a few days ago. It now has a very detailed walk through for both setting up Office Accounting 2007 for selling on eBay, as well as how to actually create listing from directly within Office Accounting. I had walked through this in the beta some months back and the process seems to have become even easier. (I'm guessing they

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1162409448677074682006-11-01T11:27:00.000-08:002006-11-01T11:30:49.323-08:00

Just a quick one: I ran across this new Office Accounting blog in another forum. It appears to be coming from within Microsoft. Check it out: It gives a pretty good description on how the eBay feature works.http://blogs.msdn.com/bizideas/

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1162396078387433082006-11-01T07:46:00.000-08:002006-11-01T07:47:58.720-08:00

Although I assumed it could be done, I just read over on Start a Side Business that using an Apple Boot Camp competitor called Parallels (both allow you to run windows software on a Mac), you can run Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006. That's great news that someone is doing it. I wonder if it works with Office Accounting 2007? Anyone who knows or is able to test it, please leave a

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1162312852550169692006-10-31T08:17:00.000-08:002006-10-31T08:40:53.016-08:00

I did a lot of searching and reading last night about the new product and finally downloaded a copy of Office Accounting Express. Here are some of the articles I found:Review: Microsoft's New Office Powerhouse: Office Accounting 2007 (CRN)Review: Intuit, Microsoft Accounting Add Web Services (PC World)Microsoft tries to lure 'mom and pop' companies (CNET -- lots of comments on this one)Microsoft

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1162228847818095512006-10-30T09:14:00.000-08:002006-10-30T09:20:48.796-08:00

Wow, this accounting war is really escalating... Microsoft just announced a FREE version of a new lower-end version of SBA (now called Office Accounting). The new version called Office Accounting Express seems to have most of the same features you find in the Pro product with the exception of less reports and some more "advanced" accounting features. See their website at Ideawins.com for the

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1160611004409259062006-10-11T16:41:00.000-07:002006-10-12T11:53:03.506-07:00

Kathy Yakal from PC magazine reviewed the first version of Small Business Accounting and now she's done it again for 2007. Here are a couple of interesting quotes from the article:"I found Office Accounting 2007's Office-like interface to be more intuitive and aesthetically pleasing than the QuickBooks interface. Each program area (such as Customers and Banking) is represented by a tab, which

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1158245952266711002006-09-14T07:50:00.000-07:002006-09-14T08:02:01.416-07:00

Wow. I was quite taken aback by the announcement Intuit and Google made yesterday. The summary is that Quickbooks is going to call a number of Google services directly from within the product. Here is the short list: Google AdWords: Small businesses will be able to sign up for AdWords directly from the QuickBooks 2007 home page. New advertisers will get a $50 AdWords credit to advertise their

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1157496797437193422006-09-05T15:47:00.000-07:002006-09-05T15:53:17.766-07:00

Here is an article I came across yesterday on the new SBA 2007 beta. Note, the name appears to have been changed to just "Office Accounting 2007" (I may have to change the name of the blog!!). Now that some of this stuff is publically available, I should be able to share some of the details of the beta. I have to say, the eBay stuff is WAY cool!http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127015/

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1155952656559718292006-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:002006-08-22T12:14:09.936-07:00

For those who didn't follow the blog early on, I thought I'd pull out and consolidate into one post, all of the different posts about how to use the manual payroll feature in Small Business Accounting. I probably need to add one more post that shows how to finalize the payroll, but here is where we are so far: 1. http://sba2006.blogspot.com/2005/10/diy-payroll-with-excel-part-i.html 2.

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1155953083246831222006-08-18T18:53:00.000-07:002006-08-19T07:27:30.000-07:00

Wow. I just saw this over on the Microsoft SBA blog: http://www.sbaisbetter.com. The site looks like it's targeted at accountants and there's a lot of great information comparing SBA and QB Pro. I'm not sure I buy all the claims, but it's good to hear more from the MS folks.Also, I'm a little struck by the number of product reviews over the past 11 months and most of them look pretty good.

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1147899679054236742006-05-17T14:01:00.000-07:002006-05-17T14:01:20.310-07:00

I signed up for the new Small Business Accounting beta, but have yet to receive it. Has anyone else out there received their copy yet? I'm eager to see what changes and new features will be there...

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1146322154200781542006-04-29T07:47:00.000-07:002006-09-15T07:26:50.943-07:00

Wow, last time I checked the supported bank list for Small Business Accounting, there were only about 30 or so banks listed. There are many more now, although it's fair to say that most of the banks supported allow you to import a bank file. Check it out: http://sba.microsoft.com/bank_list.htmlI should say, I'm still on my quest for automatic Wells Fargo Support, however.

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1146317618497804602006-04-29T06:27:00.000-07:002006-05-01T09:32:33.433-07:00

I haven't searched around for new information on Small Business Accounting for a while, but my recent searching has yielded an interesting new blog from the folks at Microsoft. Actually, it looks like it's been there for a few months already. There isn't a bio page, but it looks like the blog is written by Rajat Taneja, who leads the small business efforts at Microsoft, including: SBA,

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1146317023529272722006-04-29T06:21:00.000-07:002006-04-29T06:23:47.726-07:00

Anyone else have the same feeling? I think I'm out of the woods for now. One thing I noticed a week or so ago was an invitation to the new Microsoft Small Business Accounting beta. I signed up, but haven't recieved anything else yet. I'm looking forward to see what kind of changes they've made.Anyway, I plan on contributing more here over the next several months.

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1138063329348771212006-01-23T16:41:00.000-08:002006-01-25T17:46:43.553-08:00

It has been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd chime in on the new SP2 (details here). It seems like Microsoft is jumping on the rapid-fire release train that Intuit has been on for a while. (Intuit puts out 8 or so updates to QB per year) It'll be interesting to see how many more we get out of Microsoft this year.One thing I have to commend them on is addressing feedback from

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1134163657853018872005-12-09T13:18:00.000-08:002005-12-09T13:27:38.213-08:00

I was at an accounting conference in Utah earlier this week and was surprised with this announcement. Microsoft has connected Small Business Accounting with their existing Point of Sale solution. The announcement is located here. Also, see a demo of the Point of Sale product here. Finally, you can get a lot more information about POS in general here.Would be interested to hear from anyone who

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1132674500869652962005-11-22T07:46:00.000-08:002005-11-22T07:48:21.143-08:00

Sorry I've been dark as of late. I'm on vacation and thought I'd just drop a note to that effect. I'll be back in full force after Thanksgiving. Happy holidays all -- enjoy your vacations.

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1131550544941499792005-11-09T09:32:00.000-08:002006-03-07T11:24:50.666-08:00

Hot off the presses is a whitepaper detailing how to use Small Business Accounting with Small Business Server in a supported way.If you are looking for details on how to make this work, get the details straight from the horse's mouth: whitepaper.

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16851473.post-1131487483440923802005-11-08T09:00:00.000-08:002006-03-07T10:08:09.293-08:00

A reader emailed this to me yesterday and I know there have been numerous requrests from people desperate to get their transactional data into Small Business Accounting. It's not the cheapest solution, but depending on how married you are to your historical data, this may be one way to go.Check out the offerings from DP Solutions LLC

SBAGURUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00671540056988945310noreply@blogger.com4