Microsoft Office Accounting is Dead But as Companies Grow They Will Come Back to Microsoft for Dynamics ERP

Microsoft just announced they will discontinue the Microsoft Office Accounting product as of Nov 16, 2009.  Honestly, this product never really took off the way Microsoft hoped it would and this is not a surprise announcement.   At a session at the Connecticut CPA Society last year I saw an industry expert compare the strengths and weaknesses of Office Accounting vs. the entry level QuickBooks product and even I was surprised that Office Accounting held its own and was a nice little package! But he correctly predicted that even if it is a better product, QuickBooks is so entrenched with small businesses and their CPAs that Microsoft just wouldn’t be able to shake it. But in my opinion that is ok, because when companies outgrown QuickBooks, they will come back to Microsoft anyway since the Microsoft Dynamics ERP products are far superior to Quickbooks Enterprise. (Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 and QuickBooks Enterprise 7.0 Comparison Report)

If you want to know more about the Office Accounting announcement read the Office Accounting Discontinuation FAQs on the Microsoft website.  (don’t worry, if you own Microsoft Office Accounting you’ll still get support for the next 5 years and by that time the economy will be booming and you will be ready for Microsoft Dynamics GP).  Plus, something tells me that Microsoft may just offer some kind of incentive to get you to trade up, like they did when Microsoft Small Business Manager was discontinued last year. But don’t quote me on it.

By CAL Business Solutions, Connecticut Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) Partner