Free Microsoft Accounting Software

Microsoft is offering Office Accounting Express 2008 free. I just downloaded and installed it. I have no idea at this point how powerful and/or useful this will be, but so far it looks pretty impressive. Without a doubt, the theory behind this is to get people to learn and like this version and then upgrade later to Office Accounting Professional, but it appears to me that the free version will handle everything I need as a one person shop.

I've tried using Quickbooks in the past and I didn't care for it at all. I am not an accountant and I felt the learning curve was too steep. This one has the look and feel of Outlook and (according to MS) integrates seamlessly with other MS Office apps.

I hope this doesn't come off sounding like some kind of commercial for MS. Believe me, I have a real "love/hate" relationship with them, and absolutely no affiliation whatsoever. This just seemed like something a lot of us might be able to use. If this thread piques any interest, I'll keep everyone posted of my take on it.

thanks for the tip! I tried to install this when it was OA 2006, but it required the bloody MSDBE database engine which would neither install nor uninstall properly, so I could never get it to run. And thankfully (NOT) it left my system in a shambles that I later had to rebuild to recover from.

amccomis wrote in post #5148851
thanks for the tip! I tried to install this when it was OA 2006, but it required the bloody MSDBE database engine which would neither install nor uninstall properly, so I could never get it to run. And thankfully (NOT) it left my system in a shambles that I later had to rebuild to recover from.

This one does require you to install .NET Framework 2.0, but on my machine it installed flawlessly.

I already had the framework so I tried it; I've been using it for a few days now (light duty) but I had the previous trial version before as well. The fact that it is fully free now is nice but I'm sure next year won't be.

I hated Quickbooks and their **** UI. The downside is your normal accountant probably won't be ready for the data files?

TheHoff wrote in post #5148903
I already had the framework so I tried it; I've been using it for a few days now (light duty) but I had the previous trial version before as well. The fact that it is fully free now is nice but I'm sure next year won't be.

I hated Quickbooks and their **** UI. The downside is your normal accountant probably won't be ready for the data files?

Yeah, that could be, but at the very least I would assume you could print out some very handy reports. Also, my understanding is that it will output to Excel spreadsheets, etc.

I'm just glad I've got a cheap easy way to track finances. (Assuming I get up to speed on it and it works well)

Edit: BTW, .NET Framework 2.0 is included with it. No need to go find it somewhere else. When you run the install it tells you if you need it and asks "permission" to install it.

Looks interesting..
But MS, .Net framework required, on systems with the MS QA Program installed to spy on you...

No one can convince me that this doesn't mean that MS will be cataloging peoples financial info..

Gah, and I just bought Quickbooks Pro 2008... but with most MS items, I doubt there is a Canadian edition anyway...

mtbkanata wrote in post #5151097
Gah, and I just bought Quickbooks Pro 2008... but with most MS items, I doubt there is a Canadian edition anyway...

Aside from accounting rules, a USD$ is about the same as a CDN$.... at least these days. Not that that helps you or anything...

Naw.. doesn't help me.. it's all the GST and PST calculations and Capital Costs calculations for the CRA... dollar for dollar it's the same though!