Microsoft Office Accounting

Microsoft have today announced that Microsoft® Office Accounting will no longer be distributed by Microsoft after 16th November 2009.  As such, MPAN (Microsoft Professional Accountant’s Network) membership will also be closed to new members on this day.  Finally the complimentary download of Office Accounting Professional 2009 and the Office Accounting Customisation will be discontinued as well on the same date.

Well, that’s the bad news for anybody who decided to swap from Sage 50 or equivalent, to what, on the face of it, appeared to be a good solid system.  The good news is that Microsoft, effective today, have transferred customer support for Office Accounting in the UK to Mamut Software Ltd.  Product support for Office Accounting will continue in accordance with the published Microsoft product support life cycle.

Microsoft thanks the many dedicated users and partners who have been enthusiastic supporters of Microsoft Office Accounting and MPAN.

We were puzzled when Microsoft originally announced their intention to release Office Accounting in the UK, because we already have too much in the marketplace, which simply confuses business owners.   We also know that once a company makes a decision to use a particular piece of software, it’s a pretty difficult task getting them to use something else, unless there are real business benefits.  Whilst Microsoft offered a straightforward conversion from Sage 50 to tempt users onto Office Accounting, the only real benefit  was a lower initial cost of the product. 

Have a look at sage vs Xero to decide which software to use.