Entered CNET Catalog: 06/19/2005
SKU: S67-00015
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
Manufacturer description
It's no small task running a small business. But with Microsoft Money Small Business, you'll have a comprehensive finance solution that provides powerful tools for cash flow management, tax planning, inventory tracking, online payroll management, and income and expense categorization. It makes managing your personal and business finances easy, so you can spend more time with your customers.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1
User Rating: 
4/10
Microsoft Money works well for limited applications
Pros: Easy to use. Logical interface. Some very nice reports.
Cons: No ability to automate frequently used functionality. No third party add-ons.
Review:
I have used Microsoft Money Small Business 2002 for 4 years. It is easy to use and has some nice report generation capabilities; however, the warts are significant enough to hide any beauty marks.
I operate a web based busines and download my transactions in qif format from my online credit card provider. I sell a product for $102.95. Microsoft Money reads each transaction (downloaded as a split transaction), subtracts the credit card fee from the total and displays the total. I am then left trying to match up an invoice for $102.95 with a net transaction of $100.08. I had to write my own custom software to convert the split transactions to two separate transactions prior to importing the qif data. (This is as much a Microsoft problem as it is a problem caused by my online credit card supplier).
When matching invoices with credit card payments (done each Saturday morning) I have to manually key in the amount to apply to the invoice even though the total amount on the invoice matches the payment. I am developing carpel tunnel from this. It should be automatic.
I purchased Microsoft Money Small Business 2006 hoping that it would be better. It was not an upgrade. It was actually a downgrade. It converted my 2002 data to the new format and changed the category for each invoice from "sales income" to "grocery expense". Microsoft technical support was unable to resolve this problem.
I had to reenter the data for two weeks of business (very labor intensive).
I should be able to download data for an invoice from my credit card service and import it directly into Microsoft Money Small Business, but cannot.
I cannot print mailing labels from this program.
I ship my product in 6" x 9" envelops, but cannot print envelopes from Microsoft Money, forcing me to enter the ship to address in both Microsoft Money and in the word processor. I hate double data entry.
(I even attempted to use the invoice designer to create a custom invoice with everything but my address and the ship to addess showing. The invoice designer was buggy enough that it crashed several times. The contact manager is also very buggy in 2002.)
I hate browser help objects. Money has one and I always have to turn it off. I will not tolerate software downloading data from my bank in the backgroud (call me a control freak). I had to disable this functionality on money to get it to behave the way I want it to.
As far as I am concerned, Microsoft Money only has enough functionality to get people to use it. It has enough ads in it (for financial services) that I consider it to be adware.
This may sound a bit harsh, but facts are facts.
I operate a web based busines and download my transactions in qif format from my online credit card provider. I sell a product for $102.95. Microsoft Money reads each transaction (downloaded as a split transaction), subtracts the credit card fee from the total and displays the total. I am then left trying to match up an invoice for $102.95 with a net transaction of $100.08. I had to write my own custom software to convert the split transactions to two separate transactions prior to importing the qif data. (This is as much a Microsoft problem as it is a problem caused by my online credit card supplier).
When matching invoices with credit card payments (done each Saturday morning) I have to manually key in the amount to apply to the invoice even though the total amount on the invoice matches the payment. I am developing carpel tunnel from this. It should be automatic.
I purchased Microsoft Money Small Business 2006 hoping that it would be better. It was not an upgrade. It was actually a downgrade. It converted my 2002 data to the new format and changed the category for each invoice from "sales income" to "grocery expense". Microsoft technical support was unable to resolve this problem.
I had to reenter the data for two weeks of business (very labor intensive).
I should be able to download data for an invoice from my credit card service and import it directly into Microsoft Money Small Business, but cannot.
I cannot print mailing labels from this program.
I ship my product in 6" x 9" envelops, but cannot print envelopes from Microsoft Money, forcing me to enter the ship to address in both Microsoft Money and in the word processor. I hate double data entry.
(I even attempted to use the invoice designer to create a custom invoice with everything but my address and the ship to addess showing. The invoice designer was buggy enough that it crashed several times. The contact manager is also very buggy in 2002.)
I hate browser help objects. Money has one and I always have to turn it off. I will not tolerate software downloading data from my bank in the backgroud (call me a control freak). I had to disable this functionality on money to get it to behave the way I want it to.
As far as I am concerned, Microsoft Money only has enough functionality to get people to use it. It has enough ads in it (for financial services) that I consider it to be adware.
This may sound a bit harsh, but facts are facts.
