Wayne Kawamoto

Just about anything that relieves the pain of taxes is a welcome thing. And while H&R Block’s TaxCut Premium Home & Business 2003 can’t remove that desolate feeling in your wallet, but it’s a powerful tool for calculating and filing taxes that is worthy competition for Intuit’s TurboTax. This year’s program offers stronger assistance and […]

Another year and another new version of QuickBooks. While the venerable accounting package arrives with the usual marketing hype, it does offer decent new features and is the finest QuickBooks yet. In addition to Basic, Pro and Premier editions, Intuit adds new industry-specific versions for retail, services and manufacturing. QuickBooks is a family of accounting […]

For many small businesses, cash flow is a constant battle. PaloAlto Software’s Cash Compass provides detailed financial analysis that not only helps small companies monitor their cash flows, but manage their budgets and forecast their futures. Business owners and their accountants who want a better understanding of their cash flow will find Cash Compass to […]

For everything and whatever lurks out there, Redcannon’s Fireball CyberProtection Suite acts as a virtual bouncer that stands at your PC’s Internet door. The software offers a firewall and intrusion detection system and comes with parental Internet controls; system assessment capabilities to update the Windows operating system and remove vulnerabilities and Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) […]

Making it easier to track that elusive bottom line, Intuit’s latest Quicken 2004 is easier to set up, has better investment tracking capabilities and maintains past strengths. Although buying the newest version is not a slam dunk decision for those who already rely on Quicken, 2004 is the most powerful version yet. For small businesses, […]

Every fiscal year brings new versions of the popular accounting programs. First out of the chute is the venerable Peachtree. While Best Software is touting new product positioning and features, there’s little here that will be groundbreaking to most small businesses. And for the umpteenth year in a row, Peachtree maintains its past strengths, including […]

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have enjoyed major inroads with home networks and are fast becoming common in enterprises. But what about small businesses with, say, 150 or 200 employees? If you think there’s not much WLAN action in that venue, you haven’t met Rob Shoenfelt, CIO of Celina Insurance Group, a 160 employee property […]

Accounting is a necessary evil that ultimately rewards owners with information to manage a business, view bottom-lines and make savvy decisions. For this, Microsoft Money 2004 returns as a powerful and useful program that can help home users and small businesses manage their finances and fulfill their tax and regulatory obligations. This year’s additions are […]

A bigger player on the Mac than in Windows, MYOB offers powerful accounting solutions for small businesses. For Windows — a crowded and competitive field that’s held mainly by Peachtree and Intuit’s QuickBooks — the company offers MYOB Plus version 12. And for the Macintosh, where the program generally rules, there’s AccountEdge for Mac OS […]

As capable cyber-accountants and virtual finance experts, there’s not much that the latest personal finance programs can’t do. Microsoft Money 2003 Deluxe, Microsoft’s latest annual offering, maintains everything that was good in the prior version, which is considerable, and adds some incremental improvements. There are no new “gotta haves,” but some may like the free […]

Long the underdog, WordPerfect has filled a niche and maintained a strong following over the years. The latest WordPerfect Office 11 offers more polish than useful new capabilities, but some may find the upgrade worthy. Stronger XML tools will help businesses publish documents into the XML format and various enhancements — most notably better document […]

Companies looking forward to a host of powerful new features in the newest Peachtree Complete Accounting 2003 may be disappointed. Best Software’s Peachtree Complete Accounting remains an accounting powerhouse and an excellent program, but while the 2003 version includes some new features and enhancements, they’re mostly incremental improvements that won’t make a strong upgrade case […]