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Full user review
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"An inexpensive, easy to use alternative to QuickBooks"
Pros
Express Accounts covers the basics of small business accounting, including general ledger accounting, cash book/bank account reconciliation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales order processing, purchasing, inventory control and financial reporting (including income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements).
The paid 'plus' version of this program adds several powerful features, including multi-company accounting, consolidated reporting and browser-based, multiple user access.
Express Accounts is available for both the Apple Mac and for the Microsoft Windows environment.Cons
Express Accounts (in either the free, basic or paid, plus version) does not support payroll processing, 1099 IRS information reporting, budgeting or fixed asset accounting.
When initially installed all Express Accounts features are enabled. However, after 14 days you must either uninstall the software or downgrade to the free basic version. One point of confusion that bewilders many, to downgrade to the free basic version of Express Accounts. This requires running the Windows uninstall program.
Some of the terminology used in Express Accounts differs from terms (i.e. Credit Note versus Credit Memorandum) commonly used in the United States.
The account look-up drop-down box shows the account number, but not the account title. However, if you're accessing Express Accounts through a browser, both the account number and account title appear in the drop down box.
When installing this software NCH offers to install other programs, this can be confusing.Summary
Express Accounts from NCH Software (of Australia) represents an excellent value in small business accounting software. Express Accounts rivals industry leader QuickBooks in its simplicity and ease of use. In addition, Express Accounts offers several features in the paid version that can only found in systems costing much more than the paid version of Express Accounts.
Both the free 'basic' and paid 'plus' versions of Express Accounts support the basics of small business accounting, including general ledger accounting, cash book/bank account reconciliation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales order processing, purchasing, inventory control and financial reporting (including income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements).
What Express Accounts (in either version) does not support is payroll processing, 1099 IRS information reporting on vendor payments, budgeting or fixed asset accounting. As such, Express Accounts is ideally suited to a business that uses a payroll service and only needs to book their payroll journal entries into the general ledger. As for 1099 IRS information reporting, the workaround I prefer is to process these online through a third-party service, such as FILETAXES.COM, using vendor reports available from Express Accounts. Fixed asset accounting can be done on spreadsheets, or if the asset pool is sizable, through a specialized fixed asset accounting program. Most of the smaller businesses I've encountered prefer to budget on an 'offline basis' in a spreadsheet.
Both the free and paid versions of Express Accounts are available for both the Apple Mac and for the Microsoft Windows environments. Thus far, I have found the software to operate identically on either platform. The paid version of Express Accounts is a multi-user system. However, unlike competing packages in this price range (including QuickBooks) Express Accounts supports multi-user access through a web browser. Browser-based access is important for two reasons. First, you do need not to purchase multiple licenses for each of your users. Second, your accounting software is available on any platform than can run a browser, such as a smart phone (e.g. iPhone) or a tablet computer (e.g. iPod or iPad).
Unlike other accounting systems at this price point (including QuickBooks) the paid version of Express Accounts has a very powerful multi-company consolidation feature. This is especially useful if your business model demands true 'P&L' responsibility on a more granular or lower-level basis. For example, you might need departmentalized accounting (which QuickBooks does not perform). Using the Express Accounts multi-company feature, each department, business unit, job or even a salesperson could be set up as a separate company. Then, using the consolidated financial reporting features, you can bring all of these disparate entities together as one company for in a consolidated financial report.
Now, for a few gotchas. When initially installed all Express Accounts features are enabled. However, after 14 days you must either uninstall the software or downgrade to the free basic version. One point of confusion that bewilders many, to downgrade to the free basic version of Express Accounts required running the Windows uninstall program and looking very carefully at the options given. If you select the right option (downgrade) the program will work just fine in a one company, one user setting.
An irritant I found, although not a glitch or show-stopper, some of the terminology used in Express Accounts differs from terms (i.e. Credit Note versus Credit Memorandum) commonly used in the United States. I found this a bit confusing at first.
One glitch I've found thus far is that the account look-up drop-down box shows the account number, but not the account title. However, if you're accessing Express Accounts through a browser, both the account number and account title appear in the drop down box.
Unlike some users, I experienced no problems in completely uninstalling Express Accounts from my system.
When installing the software NCH offers many other programs for you to install and that can be confusing. It's best to uncheck the boxes for all of the add-ons.
And finally, I'll make my usual disclaimer and cautionary note on accounting software. Yes, Express Accounts is easy to use and yes, the business owner can set up Express Accounts on a 'do-it-yourself' basis. However, as with any accounting software, I recommend that you have an accountant or an accounting systems professional help you in the process as they will be best at optimally configuring the software for your specific business needs and/or business model. In the final analysis, you'll be glad you did.
