Brand New - Full UK Retail Boxed - Exactly the same as amazons - Price includes VAT and invoice supplied.

I have used QB pro 2001 for many years and found it to be excellent. However I only ever used the basic bits so SimpleStart looked absolutely perfect. Within in minutes of setting up SimpleStart I hit hurdles such as not being able to use old company backup files. Each time the stock answer was "you need to upgrade to Pro". This product is useless by itself and is just a way of dragging you into buying the proper software. I was going to live with this and upgrade and then the new VAT rate landed. This is a disaster - Even QB's own support site says it can be done the way the HM Revenue would like but will take a day's work or you can do it in a way HM Revenue doesn't approve of in 30 minutes but then you have to do each VAT calculation manually. They then go on to say they aren't intending to fix it! In short, this software had serious flaws until the new VAT rate came in - Now it has been rendered completely useless.

Having used quickbooks for years - 2004 pro/2006 regular, I cannot believe how appalling this is. You cannot do accrual, the reconcile is under 'for your accountant' and you cannot enter supplier bills!!!! What??????!!!!!
Simple Start? Too right it's simple. A simple con so you have to upgrade to quickbooks pro. It will be going back and we will be changing to sage!
Take heed Intuit!

SimpleStart is easy to use if this is what you are looking for `simplicity' then this is the package to buy. Ease of use is essential for the smaller concern one or two people who are looking for something straightforward, that does not require lots of time or complications.

SimpleStart is not aimed at the VAT registered business, if you are VAT registered then use caution perhaps before purchasing.

No particular problems were noted whilst using the software this seemed quick, easy and functional.

If this product should be on a short list of options, I am sure that no one would be displeased or regret the purchase of this software accountancy package.

As a small buisness owner myself - this product arrived with interest!

At first gance all the key areas are here for anyone wishing to manage & operate their accounts - invoicing, estimating and bank reconciliation - are pretty well covered. You can also create invoices through a hyperlink on the homepage and email both estimates and invoices as PDF attachments.

Reporting wise we have again all the usual suspects including a trial balance and ad hoc reports such as "total sales per customer". Interstingly (and a hint towards the target market) - the language used is in very plain English without any accountancy-speak - quite a useful feature for a one man business wishing to comply and comprehend, purely the basics!

My main gripe is what it has always been with Quickbooks - it is not transportable nor (im my experience) compatible with other programmes - maybe I'm wrong, but I could not export an invoice to Word for top and tailing, nor extract data to Exel for further analysis. To me this is a minus as risk aside I don't think the package is complete enough to operate on a stand-alone basis.

In summary - just about sufficient to manage small business accounts without payroll and stock - let down by incompatibility issues and inflexibility.

I've used quicken for my home accounts for years...and I was looking for something to help me with my self employment business.
I trialed the Microsoft Office Accounting Professional..but found it a little complex to set up without some accounting knowledge..so...Simple Start seemed like a good plan.
I currently use a number of spreadsheets for my accounts..and Quickstart is basically a number of spreadsheets/work sheets which you can access from the main menu...there are some nice repoting facilities which you can't get too easily from excel unless you are clever!!
Having said that...my problem really was needing to be able to input historical data...so it would be a really useful program.
I'd say it does what it says on the box....it's straight forward to set up
but get it before you've done three years of work and it takes too long to input!!!