Small Business Accounting, Retail Linked

Small retailers can link Microsoft’s retail point-of-sale software with its new Office Small Business Accounting (SBA) product by using software developed by a Microsoft partner and made available to customers as a free download.

Connecting point-of-sale systems to SBA will give small retailers faster access to data about cash flow and other business parameters. The software was developed by EVT Solutions, which specializes in retail solutions using Microsoft’s Retail Management System (RMS) software. The software links SBA with either Microsoft’s Point of Sale (POS, designed for companies with only a single retail store), or RMS. Data from a point-of-sale register will then flow directly into SBA.

SBA integration echoes an offering made available earlier in 2005, when Microsoft offered a free download that linked its two retail point-of-sale solutions with its Great Plains and Small Business Financials products, which are for larger businesses than those likely to deploy SBA.

The POS Connectors for Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006, for both Microsoft POS and RMS, can be downloaded from microsoft.com/downloads. They are located under the Business Solutions link.