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Business finances made easy

For years, here’s how I kept track of business expenses: I prepared invoices using Microsoft Word, listed client billings and payments in a handwritten journal, balanced my checkbook by hand. I kept track of my expenses by stuffing receipts in an accordion folder, which I went through frantically when tax time arrived. It wasn’t until my business grew that I finally started using QuickBooks.

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When it comes to keeping track of business finances, Intuit, maker of Quicken and QuickBooks, is the hands-down leader. According to Gary Sulentic, senior brand manager for Intuit, 6 million businesses use QuickBooks or Quicken. In a recent survey I conducted of readers of my free business-planning newsletter, 44 percent use one of those two products.

But the majority of businesses don’t use any bookkeeping program. They do what I used to do: patch together a combination of pen-and-paper solutions and word processing and spreadsheet programs. This means these businesses have a hard time preparing their taxes, figuring out profits, even keeping track of money they’re owed.

So, Intuit came up with an answer: "QuickBooks Simple Start Edition" – a program to fill the gap between Quicken and QuickBooks.

With QuickBooks Simple Start Edition, Intuit has come up with a great new money-tracking option for the one-person business or the small company with no inventory. And it’s not just a stripped-down version of QuickBooks; it offers a new, common-sense approach to business money management.

In development for three years, Simple Start offers considerably more business functions than Quicken, yet it’s less expensive than QuickBooks, with a suggested retail price of $99.

Here’s what I especially like about Simple Start:

• Very easy setup: There are just three questions to set your business up. You can be up and running in less than 30 minutes.

• Organizes the information the way you actually think rather than in accounting terms: When I started in business I got confused between "accounts payable" and "accounts receivable." Those aren’t terms I used in real life. In Simple Start, the main screen divides your money functions into three categories: Money In; Your Business; and Money Out.

• Easy to learn: The tutorials are fast.

• Integrates with more advanced QuickBooks products.

• Free live tech support for the first 30 days.

• Online backup option.

Rhonda Abrams is the author of "Six-Week Start-Up" and "What Business Should I Start?" To get free business tips, register at http://www.PlanningShop.com, or write to her at 555 Bryant St., No. 180, Palo Alto, CA 94301.

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