Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008

Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008 is a free edition of Microsoft Office Accounting that is currently designed for small businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom. While there is no restriction on who may download the free Microsoft software it will be difficulty to use the software in different markets because it has been specifically designed for those two countries.

The download has a size of roughly 230 Megabytes and Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008 is compatible to Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server and Windows Vista. The most important question is in my opinion about the differences between the free Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008 and the other available editions. We all know that Microsoft likes it complicated, just take a look at the editions of Windows Vista to know what I mean. The same is true for Microsoft Office Accounting. Five different editions are available including the free Express 2008 edition.

The other ones are Microsoft Office Accounting Standard, Microsoft Office Accounting Professional, Microsoft Office Accounting Professional Plus and Microsoft Office Accounting Professions 3 User Edition. The express edition lacks several features of the paid editions and everyone should take a look at the comparison table linked above to see if this version is sufficient for his needs.

The features of Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008 are:

Save time on everyday tasks

• Get started in minutes with a step by step interview wizard
• Create invoices, track time and expenses and bank online
• Enter data once and share it seamlessly with other Microsoft Office system programs
• Manage payroll and accept credit cards with affordable add-on services that save you time and money

Get a complete view of your business

• See customer, vendor, employee and financial data in one place
• Get business insights with customizable reports
• Easily share your books with your accountant through Office Live

Grow your business online

• List items on eBay, manage sales and download transactions
• Email invoices and get paid faster with PayPal
• Process credit card payments directly in Office Accounting

Update: Please note that the Microsoft Account product has been discontinued. It is no longer available, and we have removed the download links from the article as a consequence.