Ease of Use:  

CYMA IV Accounting is easy to use. The tool bar at the top of the program lets you navigate from section to section easily, and the Quick Reference Guide on the main page is also useful. The only improvement we'd suggest to make CYMA IV easier to use is the look of the screens—these aren't organized intuitively.

We had no problems with download or setup. CYMA IV requires two separate downloads if you don't have Pervasive SQL 2000i on your machine.

CYMA IV has straightforward navigation, specifically the top navigation bar. The program also displays the section you are working with under that bar.

Help/Documentation:  

CYMA IV has an excellent Help Section, complete with a search tool and topic guide. One other help feature CYMA IV offers is called eDesk. This is the opening screen with a toolbar at the top so you can find help subjects easily. eDesk lists all the sections, new features, and offers a few financial calculators like Cash Flow and Loan Comparison.

Accounts Receivable:  

The Accounts Receivable Section is powerful enough to do the job. You can create invoices: Standard, Recurring, and Volume Billing. You can also accept credit cards and calculate the finance charges for each item. One missing Accounts Receivable tool was the ability to track shipping. Within Invoices, you can estimate the cost to ship, choose the shipping address and shipper, and print shipping labels. This section has sixty different AR reports available.

Accounts Payable:  

The Accounts Payable Section is the same as Accounts Receivable, but you can post invoices to the Accounts Payable Section. (Logically, the Purchase Order Section should be integrated into Accounts Payable in CYMA IV.) With the Purchase Order Section, you can make and print purchase orders. And within Accounts Payable you can also print 1099 tax forms (to report capital gains). This section has forty-four reports available.

Payroll:  

The CYMA IV Accounting Payroll Section is excellent. Within this section you can manage all payroll needs; you can write checks, make direct deposits, and make adjustments. You can also print 941 and W-2 tax forms within Payroll as well as run fifty-four different reports.

Inventory:  

This section is important for a retail business; we were disappointed that CYMA IV didn't offer it.

Banking:  

You can retrieve data, mark cleared transactions, and enter adjustments in the Banking Section. You can also reconcile accounts and prepare deposits, but you can't void existing checks. This section has seventeen reports available.

Time Billing:  

Time Billing isn't available within CYMA IV Accounting.

Job Costing:  

In this section you can track jobs, set jobs as active or inactive, and calculate the cost of the job before you begin. You can also prepare invoices, reopen closed jobs, and move closed jobs into history. There are eighteen different job reports available.

General Ledger:  

This section lets you make journal entries, record beginning balances, and add prior year adjustments. You can also make recurring journal entries here. There are thirty-eight different reports available for the General Ledger; categories include: Worksheets, Financial Statements, Ratio Analysis, and other reports.

Fixed Assets:  

Fixed Asset tracking isn't available within CYMA IV Accounting.

CYMA IV Accounting for Windows is a good small business accounting program. If the manufacturer added both a Time Billing and an Inventory Section, this software would serve small business accounting needs much better.