A Review of Simply Accounting By J. Carlton Collins, CPA

What Makes Simply Accounting Different? When reviewing any accounting software solution, I think that it is important to understand how the product is different from its’ competitors. All products are developed with different tools, different philosophies, and with different objectives in mind. All products are targeted towards different sized customers, and different industries. When evaluating products, it is easy to get bogged down in the overwhelming complexity of the systems. The reality is that all accounting systems have a general ledger with account numbers and financial reports; they all have an average accounts payable module that works fine; they all have a bevy of standard features. Studying these common elements of an accounting system will get you nowhere. It is the key differences that provide keen insights that will allow you to effectively identify and select the right product for your needs. With this spirit in mind, presented below are the key characteristics that set Simply Accounting apart from its competitors:   Multi-currency capabilities.  You won't find many products at this price point - $169 that can handle more than one currency.  If you are a small business and you operate across borders, this is the product for you. It includes general ledger, receivables, payables, inventory, payroll, purchase orders, quotes, invoicing, custom reporting, and graphing. Integration with MS-Office for outstanding reporting,  E-mail invoices Check delivery status on the Internet Weaknesses - Simply Accounting is certainly not without problems – as with any top product, Simply Accounting contains weaknesses, missing features, missing modules and shortcomings. Simply Accounting is not targeted towards businesses of every size, nor is it ideally suited for every industry. We have compiled a detailed list of these weaknesses, including screen-by-screen evidence of some of the key weaknesses. You can view these weaknesses here.

On February 26, 2001, my colleague Randy Johnston and I traveled to Toronto, Canada to interview the Simply Accounting Brain trust as follows:

Scott Zandbergen, Account Manager
John Schontsen, Vice President
Akber Husein, National Sales Manager

Additionally, Canadian Accounting Software Phenomenon Alan Salmon also attended the meeting. Our primary objective was to find out about the latest enhancements to Simply Accounting, and the organizations enormous efforts to enter the United States market. We advised the guys that we had all day and all night set aside for them, and that our meeting could take as long as necessary. Here is what they had to say, with a few of my own comments added in from time to time:

·        Breaking Into the U. S. Market - ACCPAC International has made an enormous effort over the past six months to promote Simply Accounting to the United States market. Challenging the traditional powerhouse dynamic duo of QuickBooks Pro and Peachtree Complete Accounting won’t be easy, and it makes one wonder just how the ACCPAC folks plan to crack into this tight market? ACCPAC’s answer: shelf space, aggressive rebates, national advertising, and other tired and proven approaches. ACCPAC started in September 2000 by purchasing shelf space at Staples Office Supply Stores – more specifically they purchased prime shelf space located at the front of the entrance door. Next ACCPAC priced the product to sell at just $99.00, and then offered an incredible $100.00 rebate. This rebate is scheduled to drop to $80.00, then $60.00, and probably $40.00. Next ACCPAC duplicated this strategy with Office Depot as well. Office Depot’s policy is to limit this shelf space to a maximum of three products. This space has previously been owned by Peachtree, Intuit and MYOB – ACCPAC paid a premium in order to take shelf space away from MYOB. ACCPAC sold between 4,000 to 5,000 units in the first quarter. Reportedly, Simply Accounting accounted for 6% of all new entry level accounting software sales – an impressive start. ACCPAC’s goal is to move 46,000 units through the U. S. market this fiscal year. Other market efforts will include:

- National Sales Fliers
- Participation in the Office Depot mailers
- Trial Versions
- CPA program which includes software and free support for just $20.00
- A new employee (Steve Hyatt) was brought on board to work with the Ingram distributor.

·    Simply Accounting Revenue - Simply Accounting is already a major product world-wide, and historically has generated 15% of ACCPAC’s total revenue (prior to the SBT acquisition last year).

·    Simply Accounting Employees – a relatively small team, most one whom are located in Canada, manages The Simply Accounting product.

·    Simply Accounting Support - Simply Accounting support is handled in Vancouver by the 40 person Client Care team. Last year a new phone system was installed in the support department provides task-based, resume based capabilities.

·    Data Migration – A company named Plus Computer Solutions sells a utility that migrates Simply Accounting data to the ACCPAC Advantage product.

·    Milestones - Simply Accounting has been the number 1 selling product in Canada since 1985. The Windows version of Simply Accounting was released in 1991.

·    Best Features – According to the Simply Accounting team, the product’s best features are strong adherence to GAAP, it is truly easy to use, and the product offers a very good audit trail.

·    Reference Sites – Canadian-based Petro Canada – a company with $5 billion in profits, uses Simply Accounting in more than 600 locations. Canada Tire, another large company, also uses Simply Accounting.

·     Canadian Market Share – Simply Accounting accounts for 60% of the accounting software market annually in Canada.

·     Simply Accounting Version 8.5 – This new version was slated to begin shipping in March 2001.

·     Users Licenses – In Canada, Simply Accounting is available in either a single or three user version. In the United States, the base product includes two users and additional licenses can be purchased up to six.

What's New with Simply Accounting
Presented by Scott Zandbergen, ACCPAC International Inc.

Scott Zandbergen of ACCPAC International gave attendees an excellent demonstration of all the latest features of Simply Accounting Version 9.0. What an incredible set of features offered for the unbelievable low price of $169.00. This product is a great value for the money in the entry-level market. Simply Accounting has had a strong presence in the Canadian market for years and it is gaining momentum in the United States.

Simply Accounting’s roots trace back to 1985 as the Bedford Integrated Accounting product. Today worldwide there are 300,000 users with the majority of these being in Canada. The product was promoted in a “free” offer for United States users this past year and 50,000 individuals took advantage of this offer. Simply Accounting 9.0 is still an incredible bargain at just $169 for the single user edition and the Pro version (supports up to 6 users) for $319.00. Version 9.0 enhancements provide enhanced functionality.

In a nutshell, Version 9.0 improvements include automatically adjusting journal entries, multi currency, multi-user, and a more robust database. The single user version includes dual currency (two different currencies supported), batch printing and posting, default vendor expense, and enhanced payroll (Yea! You can do manual payroll entry without being forced to sign up for a payroll service!! Isn’t this wonderful. Quickbooks customers with only one employee are forced to sign up for a payroll service– hardly cost justified for the truly small business owner). Pro Version enhancements include multi-user capabilities (up to 6 users), direct electronic funds transfer, bill of materials, time and billing, and account history for up to 100 years of data. The product runs on the Microsoft Access database. 

The Pro version offers a 5 user value pack for $725 and features the ability to customize user screens, hide modules or hide specific fields. Up to five user-defined fields can also be added. An email tab allows you to send an email directly from within the product. Under the Report Menu the user is allowed to view journal entries before posting and allows for an audit trail that follows GAAP. The inventory module tracks units of stock and also has regular and preferred price lists supported.

A brief overview of the other new features demonstrated by Scott Zandbergen follows:

Bill of Materials
With the Bill of Material module you can include a bit map image of an inventory item. Coming soon is the eTransact module.

Inventory
The inventory module features the ability to build on the fly or auto build. The functionality supports kits within kits. If while building on the fly the system determines you are out of raw materials, it won’t let you build the item and the system notifies you that you are out of an item and won’t let you place an order. Negative inventory is an option.

Payroll
Payroll includes the ability to allocate payroll expenses to multiple jobs or to allocate payroll expense by a percentage of the paycheck.

Time and Billing
Timeslips feature creates invoices based on the time entered for an employee. Time can also be written up when billing a client. The reports then show if the time has been written up or shows the percentage of time billed.

Daily Business Manager
Daily Business Manager allows the user to select a group of checks for a check run, supports recurring invoices and offers batch runs of paychecks.

Multi-Currency
Exchange rate information is tracked via a table. The exchange rate can be changed on the fly and the journal entries show the exchange rate information in the notes. This technology was borrowed from the ACCPAC Advantage series.

Multi-User
The Set-Up features the ability to define user rights. It greys out the items the user is not allowed access to.

Point of Sale
Point of Sale is a third party add-on and currently there are five point of sale products available. There are 50 developers for the Simply Accounting product.

Simply Accounting Product Demo

Next, the Simply Accounting team demonstrated some of the better features found in the newest version of Simply Accounting. A summary of the demonstration is presented below:

·        Crystal Reports - Simply Accounting works with Crystal Reports 7.0, which can be installed off of the Simply Accounting
   CD.

·        EFT – Electronics Funds Transfer (EFT) can also be installed directly from the Simply Accounting CD. The EFT product sells
   for $99.00.

·        Manuals – The Simply Accounting manuals are provided on the CD in a .pdf format. They can be easily copied to the hard
   drive for easy access.

·        Terminology – Simply Accounting includes terminology for both accountant and non-accountant types. Users can toggle
   these features on or off.

·        Hide Modules – Users can simply turn off modules in Simply Accounting that are not used so that they do not clutter the
   screen.

·        Tax on Tax – Simply Accounting can be made to calculate tax on tax for those states (such as Washington and Hawaii) or
   countries that require this calculation. For example, in Hawaii there is a 4% sales tax. However a $10.00 item will cost 10.47
   including sales tax because merchants must calculate tax on the entire amount of the sale – including tax. In a spreadsheet,
   this is known as a circular reference.  To accomplish this is Simply Accounting, you must use the GST and PST sales tax
   calculation fields.

·        Preview JEs – Simply Accounting allows users to easily view all journal entries before they are posted (using the “Report
   Display” commands). While not necessarily a frequently used feature, most other entry-level products do not offer this feature.
   It can come in handy from time to time.

·        RTF Format – Simply Accounting allows any document in the system to be immediately e-mailed to any recipient in a Rich
   Text Format (RTF).

·        EDI Functionality – Simply Accounting offers some limited built in “Electronic Data Interface” (EDI) functionality in that one
   user can e-mail a Simply Accounting Purchase Order to another Simply Accounting user, and Simply Accounting will
   automatically read and import that Purchase Order as a Sales Order into the recipient’s system.

·        Bank Accounts – Simply Accounting supports up to 998 bank accounts.

·        Picture Support – The Simply Accounting inventory module now supports BMP pictures.

·        Interesting Discussion Point – For a while, we all discussed the concept as to  whether all entry-level products should
   continue to evolve into complex, feature rich products – or should management draw the line somewhere and choose not to
   implement new features in the name of keeping the product simple. There was no intention to draw a conclusion here – it was
   just an interesting conversation.

·        E-Mail Support – Simply Accounting’s Accounts Receivable module allows you to set up a customer to receive either
   printed or e-mailed reports and statements.

·        Exporting Data – Of course Simply Accounting allows you to export data to a Rich Text Format. As an added option
   however, users can specify that the recipient of that report also uses Simply Accounting, and as a result the product will
   export the data to a RTF and add the necessary IMP file so that the data can be imported into the recipient’s system.

·        Reversing & Correcting Entry Audit Trail – Simply Accounting includes a strong audit trail of reversing and correcting
   entries. Try it. Enter a journal entry, and then adjust it. Next print the report on the screen and examine the details.

·        Post to Previous Years - Simply Accounting allows you to post transactions to previous years. Admittedly, anybody who
   needs to do this has bigger problems on their hands than the lack of an obscure software feature. Nonetheless, this feature
   makes it easier for a company to correct long standing errors in their system should the need arise.

·        Access Database – Simply Accounting sits atop the Microsoft Access database. Version 8.0 was the first version released
   in this environment. In previous versions of Simply Accounting, all data remained in RAM until the user saved their work. This
   resulted in many problems as power failures and computer hang-ups caused frequent loss of data. Simply Accounting has
   corrected this problem with the Access database environment.

·        Multi-Currency – Simply Accounting supports up to 3,000 different currencies. All reports can be displayed in any currency.

·        SYSADMIN – You must logon as SYSADMIN in order to gain access to all of the system administrative rights.

·        Tech Support - Tech Support is priced at $100 per year for the Simply Accounting product.

·        Top Ten Highlights that Show Off Simply Accounting

  q Simply Accounting Number 1 in Canada since 1984.
q Multi-currency capabilities.
q View Journal Entries prior to posting.
q Toggle off modules and fields that are not to be used.
q Main menu look and feel.
q GST & PST calculations.
q Rebate program.
q Picture in Inventory
q Simply Accounting New Business Guide.
q ACCPAC’s E-Transact will ultimately work with Simply Accounting.
q E-mail a PO to another Simply Accounting user and import it in as an SO.
 

·     Job Costing History – It may be interesting to know that Simply Accounting was originally designed as a job costing solution.

·     Crystal Reports – You can launch Crystal by clicking the Customize menu option for any report.

·     Account Code – Simply Accounting provides for a 4-digit account number. There is no support for departments at this time, however you could use the project codes to work around this if you really needed to.

A Review of the Brochures

In addition to documenting the highlights that the Simply Accounting brain trust reported to us, we also reviewed the product and the product literature and found these great features that they failed to point out to us:

·        Drillable Financial Statements – Simply Accounting allows the user to drill down into the underlying detail from any financial statement. This functionality is shown below:

 ·        Scrollable Reports – Reports printed to the screen in Simply Accounting scroll nicely as column headings remain at the top of the page. This makes the reports more readable – especially when you are working with a large report. Without this feature, users would have to print reports to paper more often, costing time, paper, wear and tear on the printer, toner cartridge replenishment, etc. Simply Accounting is environmentally friendly in this regard.

Simply Accounting Weaknesses

There is no one product in the market place that has every feature ever imagined, or one that is perfect in every way. They all have weaknesses and entry level products by design are intended to contain less features in order to promote ease of use. It is an interesting trade off. There is no doubt that Simply Accounting is missing an incredible amount of advanced features compared to a mid-ranged or high end product such as ACCPAC Advantage Series. However, we studied the product with an entry-level solution in mind and flushed out the following weaknesses in Simply Accounting that entry-level customers should be aware.

We want to make it clear that by listing these weaknesses, we are not trying to cast a dark cloud over the Simply Accounting product. Instead, this is our way of helping ourselves understand where this product fits best, and where it doesn’t. Therefore we ask that you please consider the following insights in the spirit in which they are given. If you think that we got it wrong, please let us hear about it – we don’t want t spread inaccurate data. Thank you.

1.   Account Number Weaknesses - The lack of support for departments is an obvious problem that you definitely want to be aware of before you select Simply Accounting. Further, the Simply Accounting account number code is limited to just 4 characters  - this in itself may be limiting as well. Also note that there is no support for sub-accounts either.

2.   Breadth of Modules – With only twelve modules, Simply Accounting may be missing some key modules that you need. For example, Simply Accounting does not offer more sophisticated modules such as Fixed Assets, Time and Billing, Job Estimating, Bill of Materials, etc. Of course, this is what you would expect from an entry-level system – therefore this really isn’t a weakness – it is more of a reminder.

3.  Multiple Warehouses – Simply Accounting does not support multiple warehouses. While this may seem like a high end feature, the reality is that many small businesses keep some of their inventory at more than one location – for example at home in the basement or in two store locations. Therefore the absence of this feature can be a significant barrier to those who need this feature.

4.   User Definable Fields – Simply Accounting lacks user definable fields that can be added and defined by the user. Such fields allow virtually any business to easily customize the product in order to better meet their needs. Both Peachtree Complete Accounting and QuickBooks Pro contain such fields.

5.   Sales Persons – Simply Accounting does not track salespersons. This includes a lack of support for commission calculations.

6.   Lack of Inventory Detail During Order Entry – Simply Accounting does not provide an easy mechanism for the user to see the status of an inventory item from the

7.   Accounting Library Grade – Simply Accounting offers 574 of the 4,400 features listed in the Accounting Library. (This compares to 592 features offered by QuickBooks Pro 2000 and 738 features offered by Peachtree Complete Accounting 8.0.) With well over 3,000 missing features, you can’t any of these entry-level solutions to meet all of your needs. Our advice is to check out the missing features in the Accounting Library before you buy – just to make sure.

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