Best Software ' BusinessWorks Gold

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BusinessWorks is a long-time player in the mid-market accounting software market. Its latest version introduces new e-business features such as enhanced remote access, e-mail forms, and import/export of sales orders, plus two new accounting modules. Other enhancements have been made to nearly every module in the package that keep this integrated suite on the leading edge of accounting software technology for medium-sized businesses.

MODULES AVAILABLE/SCALABILITY - 4.5 Stars Accounting modules available include the System Manager, GL, Cash Manage- ment (new in version 4.0), AR, AP, Order Entry, Inventory Control, Purchase Order, Job Cost (new in version 4.0), and PR. A number of other productivity add-ons are available such as Custom Office, GoldMine Link, Crystal Reports, F9 Financial Report Writer, and the StarShip freight manifest solution.

The new Cash Management module (included at no additional charge) consolidates bank reconciliation features into a single comprehensive module. The Consolidated Cash Flow report helps forecast and manage cash by providing current and future calculated balances for all cash accounts. The report combines inflow from receivables, outflow from payables, and current GL cash balances. On-demand check printing lets you process checks instantly for payees that don't require an invoice, and you can also enter handwritten checks.

Job Cost brings the ability to estimate and track project costs, including labor, materials, equipment and overhead. Each job created starts out in bid status and is then ultimately moved through the phases defined to completion. Jobs can be priced using a fixed-price method or cost-plus using an amount or percentage. Within each phase, BusinessWorks tracks start and completion dates, component costs, indirect expenses, and the estimated cost to complete the phase.

The latest version of BusinessWorks Gold brings new stability and scalability by introducing the Pervasive SQL database engine. There are two versions of BusinessWorks depending on the number of concurrent system users. BusinessWorks Gold Standard supports up to five concurrent users. BusinessWorks Client Server edition supports up to 20 concurrent users.

EASE OF USE/ TRANSACTION ENTRY - 4 Stars After you log in, the BusinessWorks Launcher appears. The Launcher is the main workspace area that contains a menu, a module toolbar, a vertical resource bar, and an HTML viewing area. The module toolbar contains an icon for each of the suite's modules. Clicking on one of the icons displays a drop-down menu with additional choices applicable to that module. The resource bar provides quick access to user customization options such as tasks that automatically open at startup, shortcuts to your most-often-used tasks, help tools, utilities, and online electronic guides and tutorials.

Data input screens are very well planned and intuitive. Grid-style lookup screens are available for all major primary fields such as customers, vendors and so forth. The lookup screens start in Quick Search mode, but another tab (called Power Search) lets you customize the search to a particular database field, enter sub string searches and limit the number of records returned. Buttons on many of the data-input screens provide quick access to related data, such as customer history totals.

CUSTOMIZATION/SECURITY - 4 Stars As with most of the mid-range accounting products, most of the program's customization features focus on reporting capabilities. These capabilities are discussed below in the reporting section. From a user perspective, you can customize some things about the desktop to suit your personal preferences, such as creating startup tasks and one-click shortcuts to commonly used tasks. Each user can also create F-key shortcuts to nearly any application. For example, you can define the F6 key to launch another application on your computer. Various other messages and reminders like insufficient available inventory quantities can be turned on or off for each user. On a global basis, you can allow or disallow prior-month posting as well as other settings.