AllBusiness.com Readers Rate AP/AR Software

(Total responses: 93)

2. Computerized AP/AR Used

Not all of you use a computerized system, but among those who do the majority uses one of two popular choices: Intuit's QuickBooks/Quicken small business accounting or Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet. Each choice was tied at 29% of readers surveyed. Sage Software, which owns a range of accounting software brands including Peachtree, MAS and ACCPAC, was a distant third choice used by 6%.

Which program?

• CheckMark MultiLedger — 3%
• Cougar Mountain Accounting — 1%
• Intuit QuickBooks, Quicken — 29%
• Microsoft Dynamics (including Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon) — 3%
• Microsoft Excel — 29%
• NetSuite — 1%
• Oracle — 1%
• Sage (including Peachtree, MAS, ACCPAC, etc.) — 6%
• Don't Know —14%
• Other — 12%

3. Quality

For the remaining questions, we analyzed only the three most widely used systems. The AR/AP solutions we didn't include were used by comparatively few readers surveyed. We felt that one or two exceptionally high or low ratings would unduly skew the results and unfairly represent user opinions.

Readers were asked to rate quality on a scale of 1 through 5, where 5 represents the best. Users of Sage Software products were the most satisfied with the quality, rating them at 3.8, while Microsoft Excel was lowest with a still respectable rating of 3.3.

Are You Satisfied?

• Intuit QuickBooks, Quicken — 3.5
• Microsoft Excel — 3.3
• Sage (including Peachtree, MAS, ACCPAC, etc.) — 3.8

4. Price and Value Readers were asked to rate the price/value ratio on a scale of 1 through 5, where 5 represents the best. All three ranked relatively highly, in a tight range, between 3.7 and 3.8.

Worth the money?

• Intuit QuickBooks, Quicken — 3.7
• Microsoft Excel — 3.8
• Sage (including Peachtree, MAS, ACCPAC, etc.) — 3.7

5. Support Readers were asked to rate support on a scale of 1 through 5, where 5 represents the best. Microsoft Excel and Sage Software tied for top honors, while Intuit's support wasn't as highly regarded.

Were they there for you?

• Intuit QuickBooks, Quicken — 3.3
• Microsoft Excel — 3.8
• Sage (including Peachtree, MAS, ACCPAC, etc.) — 3.8

6. Next Time Readers were asked to rate whether they would buy it again on a scale of 1 through 5, where 5 represents the best. Sage Software earned the top score, followed by Intuit's products and Microsoft's spreadsheet.

Buy again?

• Intuit QuickBooks, Quicken — 3.8
• Microsoft Excel — 3.6
• Sage (including Peachtree, MAS, ACCPAC, etc.) — 4.2