If you've been involved in accounting technology for a couple of decades, you remember what a pleasure QuickBooks was to use at first. That graphical flowchart on the home page. Those pretty icons. That uniform look and simplicity. Read more...

Sage may not have added much functionality to its small business desktop accounting software this year, but it's changed the product names and expanded its line of solutions. All of the company's small business applications now go under the name Sage 50-US (Simply Accounting is Sage 50-Canada). The old lineup stays the same, but it now ranges from Sage 50 First Accounting 2013 through Sage 50 Quantum Accounting 2013.

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As Intuit continues to try to move more comprehensively into the cloud with QuickBooks, sites automating a subset of financial management - online invoicing -- continue to launch and, in some cases, flourish. There are dozens of them. Who are they aiming at? Any company that already uses an accounting software desktop product or website already has full accounts receivable functionality. Sole proprietors, microbusinesses and/or companies that don't need to balance debits and credits but who need to bill customers seem the likeliest target audience. And there are millions of them. Read more...