In an extension of one of my previous articles, Why do enterprise interfaces suck?, I have recently had many experiences with terrible interfaces in a search for accounting software for Intelli-Computing. There seem to be a lot of terrible interfaces in the accounting business. The first software that we tried as Peachtree Pro Accounting by Sage Software, which had an intimidating interface that seemed powerful, but was completely unintuitive and felt like it had been designed for Windows 95 and not updated in a decade.

Peachtree Accounting

After a lot of trial and error, I eventually settled on a disturbing conclusion: the best small business accounting software currently in existence is made by Microsoft. I was hesitant, but upon installing Microsoft Accounting 2007, I was astounded to find an interface that was extremely easy to use, that simplifies common tasks and shows how they relate via diagrams. It isn’t often that an interface surprises me like this one, and it is truly enjoyable to use.

Microsoft Accounting 2007