Product Reviews

Accountz.com's Business Accountz is a new arrival to that rare breed of Mac applications: those that handle your business finances. Java-based and cross-platform, it's aimed at sole proprietors, partnerships and small businesses.

The program takes a refreshing approach to handling your accounts. While it includes the time-honoured setup wizard to step you through customising a set of accounts for your company, its approach elsewhere is marked by originality and speed. The chart of accounts is the hub of the application and is updated in real time as transactions are added. It's split into two panes, with a collapsible overview of your accounts on the left-hand side and a detailed listing of each account's properties and the individual transactions that make it up on the right.

Like other accounting applications, Accountz tackles the inscrutable double-entry bookkeeping technique. Under a manual double-entry system, you make two entries for each transaction, but Accountz simplifies this by using 'To' and 'From' entries that match the way money moves around your business.

One of the program's best features is its speed of entry. Accountz spurns real-life interface metaphors such as chequebooks for entering purchases. Instead, transactions are edited in single rows in a table. Most cells offer lookup lists: press the spacebar when entering data and you can choose from a drop-down menu of existing entries.

You can create automated transactions, with a choice of recurring periods, and preset purchases, sales or transfers to act as template for transactions,

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leaving only the date and amount fields to fill in.

Another plus is its flexibility. For example, the customer window not only holds contact records, but also displays statement and sales details related to that contact, and you can create a new transaction directly from the same window.

The VAT reporting function is equally good. A toolbar button quickly displays the current period's VAT report - Accountz supports standard, cash accounting and flat-rate VAT methods and, below, the transactions that make it up. It's faster and more informative than most other VAT reporting functions; the only thing missing is online submission, although this may be available in an update.

At first glance, the program appears limited in the scale of its built-in reports, offering only a clutch of basic reports. But what Accountz offers is a better alternative in the shape of filtered transaction windows that let you fine-tune the data you need to display. Strangely, though, you can't check the filter list's checkboxes directly.

However, Accountz isn't perfect. The lack of support for multiple companies, multiple users and payroll features isn't surprising at the program's price, but it would have been good to see better import options. As it stands, the chart of accounts can be exported in CSV format.

The program's most irritating habit is its data validation. It's well intentioned: it prompts you when it thinks you're leaving a transaction incomplete, but you can get warning messages when you minimise a window in the middle of data entry and another when you maximise it again. You can, at least, turn off these settings.

The other main complaint is that the program lacks polish, from its slow startup and blocky interface to its lack of integration with Mac OS X applications such as Address Book. Accountz lacks a standard Preferences window; instead, the program's default settings are tweaked through a Configuration Editor.

Accountz is powerful, inexpensive and easy to use, thanks to a well-written paper manual. If it was a better OS X citizen, it would stand a real chance in a market dominated by MYOB Accounting.