Small Business Accounting Fills Product Gap

Small Business Accounting (SBA) will fill a major gap in Microsoft’s product line when it’s launched in the second half of 2005 as a stand-alone product and as part of an Office bundle. Microsoft’s latest effort in small-business financial management, SBA is a step up from Excel or personal finance software and establishes a base for higher-end products, such as Microsoft Business Solutions’ (MBS) Great Plains. Based on .NET, SBA will be extendable by developers, creating opportunities for add-ons and vertical applications. But it will face tenacious competitors and raises questions about overlapping product lines and long-term developer strategy.

Filling the Gap

Financial management software drives the purchase of a first computer for many small businesses, which makes it an obvious market for a suite of inexpensive, easy-to-use small business software. Office fills that role for businesses small enough to keep track of accounts in Excel, but most small businesses need something more to meet tax and accounting requirements and most of them opt not for a Microsoft product, but for Intuit’s QuickBooks.