You'd hardly have thought the cramped small business accounting market needed another challenger, but ASI's Ability Accounts, an inexpensive challenger to Sage Instant Accounts, is aimed at startups without much accounting experience.
Given the program's target market it isn't surprising that Ability offers a startup wizard, but it falls short of being easy to use. To set up a new company (up to 99 are supported), you must - inexplicably - first enter a two-digit company number. If this clashes with a previously-entered company number, the only indication given is that you won't be able to continue to run the wizard.
The rest of the setup is similarly inscrutable: you choose the accounting period, for example, by selecting an number from 1 to 12 corresponding to the current accounting period. This would hardly pose a problem to experienced accountants, but it will flummox newcomers. We'd rather have seen the ability to tailor your accounts to your type of business, as you can in MYOB Accounting.
Elsewhere, the application is extremely plain. The Spartan main window includes a toolbar where you can summon an overview of company performance showing the balance of your debtors, creditors, bank and VAT. From the same toolbar you can trigger customer, supplier and nominal ledger account queries.
Here again the approach is plain. Enquiry windows, like those for invoices and purchases, comprise two fields: one to enter the relevant customer, supplier or nominal code; the other to search existing records. Unlike some accounting programs, you'll also need a handle on double-entry book-keeping when entering invoices and receipts.
Feature-wise, there isn't much to complain about considering the program's price. Ability Accounts includes daybooks and matching sales, purchases and stock control. There's support for VAT, and although there's no stock control, the program tracks product details including selling price - and handily you can specify special selling prices and discounts.
Alongside the standard audit trail and trial balance, you can generate 30 other reports. Again, weaknesses lie in usability rather than function. The supplier analysis report, for example, shows supplier codes rather than names, which makes it more difficult to decipher.
And that's the main problem with Ability Accounts. It's neither the best value package around nor the easiest to use. Both MYOB Accounting and Sage Instant Accounts are simpler, while the free Microsoft Office Accounting Express is much better value and perfectly adequate for small businesses setting up an accounting system.
System Specifications
Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista
Verdict
Billed as a cheap product requiring no specialist knowledge, but there are better-value and easier to use rivals.
Author: Tom Gorham
PC Pro Online