This may date me however I remember doing accounting work utlizing Lotus 123. Lotus 123 was the second generation spreadsheet that was the best thing in spreadsheets till Microsoft Excel was created. Lotus 123 worked in a DOS environment. In fact I had it working on a two disk DOS system. I faithfully took my floppy disks with me to clients and I inputted their checks into my little spreadsheet that had my own macros that I used to anaylze the checks.

Though I really loved using Lotus 123, it was such a big improvement over manual disbursements and ledgers. The big advantage was that if a number changed the column did not need to be calculated manually again the computer would do that automatically. Though this saved a lot of time it was not a structured accounting system. So sometimes instead of wasting time with looking for math errors now you could be looking for formula errors.

The next accouting system I used was MAS90, also called State of The Art Software. The concept of MAS90 was to sell seperate modules for General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Sales, Inventory. Imagine instead of installing a single program you had to install several then make sure that all your modules integrated properly. This software was offered to accountants and CPA's at a very deep discount so they would resell it or refer it to their clients. Eventually MAS90 realized that the majority of their client base was not reselling just using their software so they started raising the annual fees to recieve their program. It was actually the first time I saw the 80/20 rule applied in business. They saw that 20% of their resellers was providing 80% of the sales so they made it easier for the 20% and more expensive for the other 80%.

Quicken was the first product offered by Intuit and I admired their marketing strategy. Give out the software for almost free in order to sell and get reorders for the computerized checks. Their software was easy to use, powerful enough to summarize and reconcille a checking account, which is what most bookkeepers and accountants need for their small business client base.

Intuit came out with more products and eventually lost a lot of those check sales to lower priced printing competitors who offered the same checks for less. They also came out with a product that may be the most popular accounting package for small business, Quickbooks. Compared to MAS90 it actually had almost all the features and was easier to use and install and was a fraction of the price.

Now enter the internet and the age of wanting access to your information everywhere as well as collaboration. Add to all those features after Google we expect to get stuff for free so I have tried to give all of these benefits for free just so you might become my accounting client.