I am currently trialling Solar Accounts (Mac version) and thought I would share my initial thoughts. I would say that overall the software is well designed and easy to use, and my experience has been a positive one. The following comments are my less positive experiences.
To explain my circumstances, I am a self employed photographer, so accounting is very much an inconvenience, and I want it to take the minimum amount of my time.
The main issue I have is batch entering of expenses - there are too many clicks. After entering the expense and clicking Save it returns to the Home page and I have to click Record an expense. Why doesn't the Money Paid window just clear the contents and stay open so I can add another expense? This might also address the issue where the date resets from a date in the past to todays date (I've registered my opinion elsewhere on the forum about this).
I find the Journal Memos "Money Paid Out" or "Invoice Payment from" annoying and have to delete them every time. There is an ID that says PAY or REC which tells me what it is, and I just want to know the name of the supplier/customer.
Creating invoices is not perfect either. After clicking create new invoice, I can Tab through the various data entry fields until I get to Quantity, and then Tabbing takes me to the tick box "Prices Include VAT", so I have to use the mouse to click on the Description box, and then use the arrow keys to move through the next fields in the line. Then use the mouse again to select the quantity on the next line down. This is complicated, time consuming and counter intuitive. It would also be handy to add a line comment in the Description field.
Once I've created an invoice it would be good to see an on screen preview - during the trial I have printed out invoices to find that I haven't entered the terms (or something else), so have to edit the invoice and print again. Also there needs to be a Default Terms options. My customers all (should) pay on 30 days apart from 1, who always pays on a specific date (which isn't one of the options in Solar Accounts). Having to enter the Terms for every invoice is tedious (I have posted about this elsewhere on the forum)
In the List views for Invoices, Purchases and Transactions there is the very handy little triangle that filters the view to Today, This Week, This Year - although the most useful filter is missing - This Financial Year. I realise that I can add a custom search but it would be much quicker to have it in the drop down list.
Also I add payments to Solar accounts as I set them up in my bank, and some could be in the future (for instance a VAT or credit card payment). It would be nice if in the List views future payments were highlighted to show that they are set up but not yet credited to the account.
How about having the ability to specify a Default Business File so that it opens every time I launch Solar Accounts rather than having to select it every time.
Yesterday I got the message about having 45 days left of the trial. Today it has popped up saying I have 44 days left - is it going to bug me every day for the next 43 or until I buy it?
If I am wrong about any of the above points I would love to know.
Cheers
Doug
Hi Doug,
Thanks for your feedback - I'll note your suggestion as options for future development. I'm afraid you will be reminded of the trial period each time you open Solar Accounts from now until you enter your purchase code. To preview the printed invoice on Mac OS X Lion click menu File > Print > OK > PDF > Open PDF in Preview. Finally to add a description-only invoice line: right-click on the table and select 'Insert Line', then populate only the Description field.
Regards,
