Ease of Use:  

We have been watching this software since Bookkeeper 2007 and we have noticed a great improvement in the interface and how tools and abilities are presented. Bookkeeper 2009 is easy to use and it walks you through confusing processes, which is especially helpful for small business owners who have never used an accounting program before.

Help/Documentation:  

This software comes with embedded support and a printed book-style user guide; you can also access FAQs and other information online. Avanquest reports that they offer free phone support for registered users, but we had a difficult time finding the support number. It is one of those situations where they want you to go through the FAQs and email options before they give you the phone number, which is understandable.

We did run into an installation problem with this software, so we had to contact them for a legitimate issue, not just to test their support. We sent a non-TopTenREVIEWS type message to Avanquest through an online form, and we are very happy to report that they responded very quickly, within a few hours, and they gave us the information to fix our problem. It ended up that the problem we were having was not related to the software, our problem was associated with a Windows XP update.

Accounts Receivable:  

The accounts receivable module has nearly everything we were looking for except when it comes to shipping. Though it can link to your shipping service, it just does not appear to track shipping or print shipping labels within the program itself. We also could not find a feature for adding a finance charge; you can add taxes, shipping and line items, but we could not find a tool for calculating finance charges. Of course it can also create custom invoices, accept credit cards, cash and checks and it can email invoices in PDF format.

Accounts Payable:  

Bookkeeper does really well in this area; it can be used to print checks and creates customized purchase orders. Bookkeeper also offers a check service for an additional fee.

Payroll:  

The payroll module in Bookkeeper is really easy to use and is directly connected to timesheets for easy configuration. It can be used to create custom fields and can be set to calculate weekly, semi-weekly and so on. Avanquest offers a separate program for access to tax tables.

Inventory:  

This software can track items by product code and supports custom fields and up to five images per item. It can also be used for storing location information, computing average cost and setting retail price. We did not see a tool for grouping items and we did not see a drop shipment feature.

Banking:  

In terms of banking it can do everything we were looking for including the ability to import bank information, reconcile accounts, prepare deposits, enter ATM information, manage EFTs and more.

Time Billing:  

This software can be configured to track project time and pay/invoice by time. It can also create estimates based on time factors. And the invoice module is connected to timesheets for added convenience.

Job Costing:  

This software can be used to track multiple jobs or projects and can include things like to-do lists and notes. It can also create estimates of job costs. With all modules it has the ability to add custom fields, so you can create a wide variety of scenarios.

General Ledger:  

You can easily add a journal entry, which includes things like account, amount, credit/payment, descriptions and more. This software also has a company overview which is a good place for quickly viewing general information like account payable/receivable summaries, to-do lists, account balances and tasks.

Fixed Assets:  

We did not find a tool for entering fixed assets, like property, tools or supplies.

This software is a good choice for small businesses that do not have extremely complex accounting needs and it is very affordable, which is also perfect for small businesses or sole proprietors. It can easily be used to create invoices and estimates and purchase orders, it can also manage hourly or contract payroll. Bookkeeper is extremely easy to use and does not require extensive accounting knowledge to figure out. However, if you are looking for something a little beefier check out one of our higher ranked products or if you need POS capability see our POS Systems Review.