Make the Most of Your Home Office Money

Home Office Computing, May, 1999 by Joel T. Patz

Microsoft Money 99 Personal & Business

Score: 7.5
V    8
P    7
E    7
S    8

Requirements  Win 95/98,16MB of RAM, 47MB of hard disk space,
              CD-ROM drive

List Price    $85 with $25 rebate; additional $10 rebate
              for Money 99 users

Publisher     Microsoft, 800-426-9400, www.microsoft.com/money

IF YOU'RE TEMPTED TO SPLIT the difference between a full-fledged accounting program and a personal finance manager, check out Microsoft Money 99 Personal & Business. Like the Home & Business version of Intuit's Quicken, Money 99 Personal & Business adds simple invoicing, accounts receivable and payable, and reporting and charting to integrate your business and personal financial info for a complete look at your assets and liabilities.

When you first launch the program, a friendly interview window asks for key business data and offers income and expense categories for more than 48 business types--from barber shops and catering services to insurance offices and veterinary clinics (though leaning toward service businesses). These categories ensure that your business transactions are properly recorded and flow to the correct line on your Schedule C form. There's plenty of online and audio help when a screen appears for the first time, but overall navigation isn't as simple as it is with Quicken 99 Home & Business.

Money 99 P&B delivers invoicing for services and goods, but there's no inventory control and it can't handle multiple ship-to addresses as major accounting packages can. And although you can print from more than 45 attractive invoice layouts, none uses your existing letterhead; however, you can add your logo.

Record hourly rates, unit charges, or cost of goods, and P&B will automatically figure cost of goods sold in its reports. The program handles single customer payments in a straightforward manner, but splitting payments across multiple invoices can be confusing--and you might lose track of amounts not fully applied to invoices; Intuit's package does a better job overall.

RATINGS

HOME OFFICE COMPUTING'S
product scores are weighted
averages of 1- to 10-point
ratings for: Value (30 percent
of total), Performance (30
percent of total), Ease of Use
(20 percent of total), and
Suitability for Home Office
Use (20 percent of total).

KEY

V = Value
P = Perfomance
E = Ease of Use
S = Suitability for Home Office Use

PROS Invoicing, reports, and simple accounting in one easy package

CONS Not as thorough as Quicken 99 Home & Business