Software

Too often, companies don't know that an accounting packagedoesn't meet its needs until after installation. The good news is that almost all accounting packages have gotten better over the last decade, so finding a good product is easier. Here are some important steps to follow when selecting accounting software.

BusinessWorks bridges the gap between off-the-shelf, entry-level products and complex high-end systems. Its modular design is suited for growing small and medium-sized businesses, requiring more muscle than basic bookkeeping software can provide. Best suited for companies with five to 50 employees and $500,000 to $5 million in annual revenue, BusinessWorks comes with 11 fully integrated modules.

Microsoft Corp. is preparing new "standard editions" of its Great Plains, Navision and Solomon products to streamline its offerings for companies with up to 100 employees.

Relatively easy implementation and a robust feature set earns Microsoft bCentral four out of five stars. According to the review, it is the only small-business service that gives you enough features and power to run a business online realistically. Downsides include a lack of integrated finance, accounting, or human resources applications and an a la carte pricing strategy.

QuickBooks is a strong choice for a small-business accounting program earning a 8.3 out out a possible 10 in this review. An all-inclusive package offering a comprehensive set of accounting tools, version 2003 includes some new features beyond those in version 2002, such as a business planner and forecasting tools. Its easy-to-use interface and setup wizards are a plus, but its ability to import historical accounting data from other programs is limited.

Does your company use Peachtree accounting software? If so, bookmark this handy page of commonly asked user questions.

Homegrown software solutions are out, and more sophisticated software solutions are in for many small and medium businesses (SMBs). According to Access Markets International Partners, Inc., SMB spending on business process automation software will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33 percent during 2002-2006. Review further detaisl of software spending by SMBs.

SAP courts the SMB community with two offerings: Business One, a nuts and bolts platform that includes accounting, logistics and sales force automation for the advanced SMB user, and mySAP All-in-One, a pre-configured version of the enterprise-class mySAP.com which runs on a single database and single instance of SAP's application server.

If you haven't noticed, Weblogs are escaping the world of the opinionated scribbler in the wilderness and being taken up as a means to extend corporate intelligence gathering.

If the Internet is important to your business, and you don't have high-speed Internet access, you should. Your competitors likely do. Broadband is not only better than the alternative, but as time goes on, it's a necessity.

No doubt about it. The Web is a perfect tool for some service businesses to sell all or part of their offerings. For others, because of what they sell, it doesn't work at all. See if yours makes the grade.

Companies are starting to explore how to make connections with existing customers, and how to find new customers using instant messaging (IM). Here are tips for how to build your own list of IM customers.