These are quotations taken from a recent review of accounting software published in MacUser Magazine (www.macuser.co.uk).

  • "Gone are the days when a small business could drop all its financial paperwork into the lap of an accountant and wait for them to piece it all together"

 

  • "The best buy is Hansa's Office/2, which provides an excellent mix of functionality in an integrated package at an affordable price."

  • "around a third of the three million self-employed has been looking towards accounting packages as they drop in price and become easier to use. These users aren't just looking for something to sort the books out either: they want an application which helps them keep an eye on cash flow and plan the financial growth of their business."

  • "Ease of setup and documentation are important considerations when buying any piece of software, but when you're installing an accounting solution such factors assume paramount importance. The arcane principles of double-entry accounting apart, it's vital that you're able to quickly understand and construct a set of basic accounts."

  • "Office/2 comes with four excellent manuals."

  • "Every business demands different things from its accounting software. A one-man band, for example, is unlikely to have much use for payroll functionality, and a designer will find the facilities for stock control superfluous."

  • "Given their integrated status it's not surprising that Office/2 offer catch-all solutions, including stock control as standard."

  • "Extensive VAT reporting options are offered by Office/2"

  • "A most impressive feature of Office/2 is its adoption of open-ended periods (you don't have to close periods at month or year end), which offers a degree of reporting flexibility. It isn't wasted either, with a wide range of reporting functions and liquidity forecasts."

  • "Irrespective of size of business, security should be a consideration. It's reassuring, then, that all the packages on test employed some sort of protection against data tampering."

  • "Office/2 offer multiple passwords, restricting access to certain areas of their functionality."

  • "Office/2 adds the ability to warn on the posting of unusual amounts, or when a double entry is made contrary to expectations, and allows an administrator to set up purchase invoices to require a signatory."

  • "Every other program on test requires a contra posting to be made, with the exception of Office/2 which allows preliminary transactions to be made. As long as a check box is selected, entered transactions are fully editable until a date is entered; reports printed while preliminary transactions exist will flag this fact."

  • "At least Office/2 offers well documented networking abilities straight out of the box. It uses the TCP/IP protocol, which means you can create a network irrespective of the location of client and server applications. Office/2 comes in both Mac and Windows formats, making them suitable for a split-OS office."

  • "No accounts package should ever live in isolation on your Mac, and the smaller a business is, the more important integration between an accounts package and other software becomes."

  • "Small businesses face two major challenges over the next 12 months: adapting their business to take into account the increasing adoption of the Euro, which is set to become the leading currency for importers and exporters; and ensuring their software is year 2000 compliant. Only Office/2 offers Euro-compliancy straight out of the box"

  • "The best buy is Hansa's Office/2, which provides an excellent mix of functionality in an integrated package at an affordable price."

  • "Just about every small business aims to expand, so choosing an accounting application that can grow with you should be a major consideration from the outset."

  • "Financials, Hansa's top-of-the-range offering shares much of the same basic accounting ground as its less powerful Office/2 sibling, but it does incorporate ODBC support, two-way TCP/IP connectivity and the option of a programming language to allow greater customisation for larger networks."

  • "Office/2 boasts a simple and attractive interface."

  • "Office/2 contains some rather impressive integrated features. The built-in email application may not be state of the art, but it is functional."

  • "The best buy is Hansa's Office/2, which provides an excellent mix of functionality in an integrated package at an affordable price."

  • "Office/2 is distributed in the United Kingdom by Countdown Systems Ltd."