Best Erp For Small Businesses (2024 Updated)

I had to buy Office 2021 in order to continue using Outlook with Gmail. For that, I am very UNHAPPY WITH GOOGLE because I’m out $220 just to keeping using “free” Gmail in an organized manner via Outlook!!! I’m not stupid enough to use Gmail for sensitive personal information, so I couldn’t care less about Googles stupid “enhanced” security.

As for Office 2021, I had NO PROBLEMS buying it from Amazon and installing it from the Microsoft site. I read about all the people that said they “threw their money away” on Office 2021 because of installation problems or the email link not working.

Perhaps they did not understand the process or their computer did not meet the hardware or software requirements. So I was a little nervous about buying this from Amazon for a savings of only $30 from the MS site.

But $30 is $30 so I tried it and had no problems. Not only did I easily and successfully update from Office 2016 to Office 2021, but I also updated from the 32-bit version of Office 2016 to the 64-bit version of Office 2021.

To do that, I did have to first un-install all of Office 2016 because the 64-bit version will not load if you still have the 32-bit version installed. BTW, the email from Amazon with the link to MS will ONLY WORK ONCE but all you have to do is log onto your MS account and the ability to download and install is all still there.

You just can’t access it directly from the email link anymore. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that somehow the new Outlook 2021 magically found ALL my old PST files without me doing anything, and set up all my Gmail inboxes just like I had them before with Outlook 2016.

I have multiple Gmail accounts active in Outlook and dozens of folders under them, with over 11 Gigabytes of stored messages. So, I am very happy that the new Outlook set everything up just like it was, even though I had already un-installed the 2016 version.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint were the same. Opening them brought up the list of the most recent documents and everything was just like nothing had changed, except now it showed that I was using 2021 instead of 2016 version.

I also don’t know why some people said their documents didn’t work the same, as everything was copasetic with my update. All my documents looked the same and worked the same, including macros, conditional formatting, formulae, margins, headers/footers, etc.

So, other than having to fork out money thanks to Google, I am VERY PLEASED with my Microsoft Office 2021 migration going so smoothly and effortlessly. Not something I can usually say about the Microsoft experience.

PROS: -Improvements over some of the features of my Office 2013. Some features in the 2013 version that had become unsupported like the popup synonyms and dictionary work on the new version. The interface is improved over 2013.

Although my first choice was to continue to use 2013, at least 2022 was available for me to buy, and I didn’t have to rent Office 365. CONS:-I would have stayed with Office 2013 but Microsoft is determined to improve their revenue flow by forcing folks to either rent Office 365 or purchase an update to a newer version of Office.

I like Microsoft Office Home and Student 2022 just fine. It works quite well on my new computer, and the learning curve from Office 2013 was not steep. However. Beginning of a mindless RANT: I’ve been using Microsoft products for at least 40 years, and I’ve spent thousands of dollars on their software.

I appreciate that Windows Home 11 is pretty much free now, and I’m pleased that I no longer have to pay $500 for their word processor. That said, I was very disappointed when I reached the end of the road on my old computer at Windows 10 because the computer wouldn’t run Windows 11.

I gave in and upgraded to new machines to go to Windows 11. That was my choice. I don’t dislike Windows 11, and so far it works well for me, but when I tried to install Office 2013, I was not able to “ACTIVATE” it through my Microsoft account.

I went farther back to my disk for Office 2007. Again, installation was not allowed. Instead, I was encouraged to rent software access for an online connection to Office 365 (A limited “free” version of Office 365 is available for strictly online use in order to compete with Google DOCS, but I would be out of luck if the internet goes down).

I chose to purchase Office for Home and Student 2022 from Amazon instead. I don’t change software or hardware often. For example, we still use Quicken 2013 primarily because we don’t like the “improvements” in the later versions that increase the price while removing features that we actually found useful, and of course, Intuit really wants you to rent Quicken.

Office 2013 lasted me for 9 years on my old machine. If I had been paying $90/year rent for the software, then I would have spent more than $800. That’s more than 3 times what I paid to buy it. If I wanted to do online software, I could have used Google DOCs for free or the free version of Office 365 online.

The last straw for me in this rent software business model is that HP now requires an activation to set up their printer software. I have a friend who got a new laptop. She asked me to setup her printer on the new machine.

Easy, I thought, even though I worried over, IMHO, HP’s sparse instructions, kludgy software, and an annoying and implacable website. I installed the print drivers despite the bad instructions and user interface.

Then I was taken to an activation page. Activation Page! I tried to sign into her account from when she bought the printer for her old computer, but of course she didn’t remember the password she used.

I tried to set up a new account for her but that was impossible because her email address was already in use. Now I will have to completely uninstall the print drivers, request a password reset and start all over again.

And HP wants her to join their ink-of-the-month club by guessing how much ink she might use. A printer is a physical device. No one is going to make a copy of a printer and give it to their friends to use on an unauthorized machine.

That is one of many reasons that I no longer buy HP printers after years of using nothing else. For my personal use, I switched to Brother, which is not as fast as an HP, but it orders its own ink from Amazon WHEN IT NEEDS IT.

Now ACTIVATION is being used by software companies to force you to discard your favorite old software and buy or rent their new versions. I understand that software companies reach a point where they no longer want to support older software, but I prefer to upgrade on my schedule, not theirs.

And I do upgrade when I’m sure that the features I like will continue, that the new features make the upgrade worth the price, and that I won’t be held hostage to a new file structure or business model.

Therefore, it is my intention to NOT participate in rented software if I can avoid it. I never liked working on main frame computers using terminals and having to deal with centralized control. “Personal computers” were part of the revolution for me because they were personal.

They stood alone for better or worse. They were not at the whim of some faceless tech. The current trend to re-centralize computing operations may appeal to many people, but I shall resist it so long as I can get away with it.

As a final aside, IMHO, the worst perpetrators in this new rental model are the Tax Preparation Software companies that do not clearly document what schedules are included in their entry/base rental price OR their entry/base purchase software.

Only after you get started, do you discover that you have to pay a lot extra to get the one schedule that was not included. Imagine seeing that Schedule C is included but later you discover that it is only for Schedule C to enter income, you have to pay more if you want a Schedule C to include expenses.

Oh, you can enter the expenses by hand, but then the company will not file your tax return that was part of your purchase price: you have to print the return and mail it in. Fortunately, I knew better than to buy anything so woefully described.

Unfortunately, I had to buy a version of the software that included many more features than I needed just to be able to get Schedule C expenses AND free electronic filing. However, that was much cheaper than buying the next version down and then having to pay a large added fee to get the missing expense page.

IMHO, the IRS is squeezing everyone into the online filing mode, and the software companies are coming up with all kinds of schemes to drive up the fees they can extract from their users. Don’t get me wrong, I love online filing, but the misleading ads by the software companies providing these services is open to more abuse than selling timeshares.

If you are selling TAX software, then the ads should clearly state which Schedules your software will provide and note any limitations. End of mindless RANT. Thank you Microsoft for allowing me to buy Office for Home and Office 2022.

I would have been looking for a different software brand rather than signup to rent Office 365.

Quicken for Mac is one of the more comprehensive personal finance apps available but if you’re transitioning from the Windows version, you may be disappointed as the Mac version is less robust in terms of features and friendliness of the user interface.

The user is likely to feel that the Mac version is less intuitive than the Windows version. So, it’s essential that you understand your personal use case and select the Windows or Mac version on that basis.

If you’ve already transitioned to a Mac and need the features offered by the Windows version, you’ll need to run an emulator and opt for the Windows version. It’s not inexpensive. For a few years and since being acquired by a PE firm, the cost of ownership has increased.

Like most software these days, Quicken is subscription based with versions ranging from $42 to $72 per year. At the end of that year, the company prevents you from downloading data directly from your financial institutions.

Further, the system prevents you from importing data to the program. You’re left with a crippled app which allows you manually input every transaction, something I don’t recommend if you value your time.

The most notable changes from the 2020 version were that which related to speed of the app. including: • Faster start-up • Faster loading of charts and graphs • Faster backups One of the more annoying shortcomings is the apps inability to handle warrants and stock options.

If you receive either, the software doesn’t track expiry dates, exercise prices and, eventually, the cost basis of an exercise. You’ll have to track those securities on an Excel spreadsheet.

I wish that when you manually rearrange the order of transactions within the desktop version, as I do so they match the order arrangement in my financial institutions of having cleared, that when you opened the app they would be arranged to match the same arrangement order after syncing.

I wish you could manually rearrange the order of transactions within the app like you can the desktop version. I wish that matched transactions with your financial institution wouldn’t occasionally duplicate.

I love how the desktop and app versions sync, but I wish the app was as fully functional, capable, and independent as the desktop version while still being able to fully sync with each other. The one thing I hate is how Quicken reconciles lines of credit like the amount of credit used is a positive balance when reconciling.

It is borrowed money, and should reconcile like the negative balance that it truly is in reality! As a product with an annual subscription, it should renew at 50% less than its current renewal rate. Maybe after 2 years of being a loyal customer even 70% less than its current renewal rate.

That is not a reflection of the value of the product, but rather the value of customer happiness and desire for customer retention for Quicken. Other than that, I love Quicken! It has become an invaluable asset to managing my finances! Other than these things I wish Quicken would do to improve their product, it is an amazing product, and I have not seen another to serve my needs as well.

I have used and purchased many upgrades of Quicken since 1992 and love Quicken except their latest subscription policy. I PURCHASED the last 2019 Deluxe version and although it states that I can continue to use it by downloading the latest version before my subscription expires it became unusable after many attempts to follow their instructions.

I wasted over two hours and multiple attempts on the help line to restore a usable version with no success. I do not need or want upgrades as I am a senior citizen and do not do online banking and just use quicken for my checking account and savings accounts.

The tech support could only make my PURCHASED Quicken program operational if I paid them for a yearly subscription fee which they would not even honor the 40% discount that they emailed me to renew my account but instead gave me a token 20% discount.

It looks like I am forced into a yearly subscription fee even though when I purchased my 2019 CD version it was not a subscription but a purchased version. I am on Social Security and do not have this newly enacted subscription fee in my budget and at my age I do not want to learn a new program and loose thirty years of Quicken records.

I am extremely disappointed with Quicken and their lack of ability of their help line to fix an issue that they specifically say can be used without paying a yearly fee. Jim C.

PROS: -Improvements over some of the features of my Office 2013. Some features in the 2013 version that had become unsupported like the popup synonyms and dictionary work on the new version. The interface is improved over 2013.

Although my first choice was to continue to use 2013, at least 2022 was available for me to buy, and I didn’t have to rent Office 365. CONS:-I would have stayed with Office 2013 but Microsoft is determined to improve their revenue flow by forcing folks to either rent Office 365 or purchase an update to a newer version of Office.

I like Microsoft Office Home and Student 2022 just fine. It works quite well on my new computer, and the learning curve from Office 2013 was not steep. However. Beginning of a mindless RANT:I’ve been using Microsoft products for at least 40 years, and I’ve spent thousands of dollars on their software.

I appreciate that Windows Home 11 is pretty much free now, and I’m pleased that I no longer have to pay $500 for their word processor. That said, I was very disappointed when I reached the end of the road on my old computer at Windows 10 because the computer wouldn’t run Windows 11.

I gave in and upgraded to new machines to go to Windows 11. That was my choice. I don’t dislike Windows 11, and so far it works well for me, but when I tried to install Office 2013, I was not able to “ACTIVATE” it through my Microsoft account.

I went farther back to my disk for Office 2007. Again, installation was not allowed. Instead, I was encouraged to rent software access for an online connection to Office 365 (A limited “free” version of Office 365 is available for strictly online use in order to compete with Google DOCS, but I would be out of luck if the internet goes down).

I chose to purchase Office for Home and Student 2022 from Amazon instead. I don’t change software or hardware often. For example, we still use Quicken 2013 primarily because we don’t like the “improvements” in the later versions that increase the price while removing features that we actually found useful, and of course, Intuit really wants you to rent Quicken.

Office 2013 lasted me for 9 years on my old machine. If I had been paying $90/year rent for the software, then I would have spent more than $800. That’s more than 3 times what I paid to buy it. If I wanted to do online software, I could have used Google DOCs for free or the free version of Office 365 online.

The last straw for me in this rent software business model is that HP now requires an activation to set up their printer software. I have a friend who got a new laptop. She asked me to setup her printer on the new machine.

Easy, I thought, even though I worried over, IMHO, HP’s sparse instructions, kludgy software, and an annoying and implacable website. I installed the print drivers despite the bad instructions and user interface.

Then I was taken to an activation page. Activation Page! I tried to sign into her account from when she bought the printer for her old computer, but of course she didn’t remember the password she used.

I tried to set up a new account for her but that was impossible because her email address was already in use. Now I will have to completely uninstall the print drivers, request a password reset and start all over again.

And HP wants her to join their ink-of-the-month club by guessing how much ink she might use. A printer is a physical device. No one is going to make a copy of a printer and give it to their friends to use on an unauthorized machine.

That is one of many reasons that I no longer buy HP printers after years of using nothing else. For my personal use, I switched to Brother, which is not as fast as an HP, but it orders its own ink from Amazon WHEN IT NEEDS IT.

Now ACTIVATION is being used by software companies to force you to discard your favorite old software and buy or rent their new versions. I understand that software companies reach a point where they no longer want to support older software, but I prefer to upgrade on my schedule, not theirs.

And I do upgrade when I’m sure that the features I like will continue, that the new features make the upgrade worth the price, and that I won’t be held hostage to a new file structure or business model.

Therefore, it is my intention to NOT participate in rented software if I can avoid it. I never liked working on main frame computers using terminals and having to deal with centralized control. “Personal computers” were part of the revolution for me because they were personal.

They stood alone for better or worse. They were not at the whim of some faceless tech. The current trend to re-centralize computing operations may appeal to many people, but I shall resist it so long as I can get away with it.

As a final aside, IMHO, the worst perpetrators in this new rental model are the Tax Preparation Software companies that do not clearly document what schedules are included in their entry/base rental price OR their entry/base purchase software.

Only after you get started, do you discover that you have to pay a lot extra to get the one schedule that was not included. Imagine seeing that Schedule C is included but later you discover that it is only for Schedule C to enter income, you have to pay more if you want a Schedule C to include expenses.

Oh, you can enter the expenses by hand, but then the company will not file your tax return that was part of your purchase price: you have to print the return and mail it in. Fortunately, I knew better than to buy anything so woefully described.

Unfortunately, I had to buy a version of the software that included many more features than I needed just to be able to get Schedule C expenses AND free electronic filing. However, that was much cheaper than buying the next version down and then having to pay a large added fee to get the missing expense page.

IMHO, the IRS is squeezing everyone into the online filing mode, and the software companies are coming up with all kinds of schemes to drive up the fees they can extract from their users. Don’t get me wrong, I love online filing, but the misleading ads by the software companies providing these services is open to more abuse than selling timeshares.

If you are selling TAX software, then the ads should clearly state which Schedules your software will provide and note any limitations. End of mindless RANT. Thank you Microsoft for allowing me to buy Office for Home and Office 2022.

I would have been looking for a different software brand rather than signup to rent Office 365.

I finally buckled down and bought this for three reasons:1. ) I don’t want to deal with never-ending subscriptions, of course. I want to OWN something if i pay for it. 2. ) The spell/grammar check in microsoft word is, imo, the best out there.

I’ve tried SO many alternative word processors, all the free ones you can think of. None of the spell-check features lived up to what microsoft word’s is capable of (again, imo). I highly value Word for its spell-check, because i’m usually writing stories, scripts/dialogue for small games and projects in the software.

and3. ) Before now, I would occasionally use the free microsoft word that you can access through web, but i wanted something I could use even if I didn’t have internet access or something. I saw another review that was worried about being unable to redownload, so before i bought this for myself, i checked online resources from microsoft’s page to verify that it’s possible to redownload/reinstall.

I don’t know if I can post links, but you can access purchase again by looking into your account settings/services after signing into your microsoft account online. This will allow you to reinstall at any time.

You can do this because the purchase is tied to YOUR personal microsoft account, not to a single device (I haven’t done this for myself yet, but this should mean that I should be able to also install this on my both my laptop and main PC- just so long as i’m accessing it with the microsoft account it’s tied to.

I’ll edit this review if that doesn’t work out for any reason because i don’t want to mislead anyone). You can search this for yourself if you don’t understand and want to see specific steps on how to reinstall.

No issues from me!.

I chose the Business Standard edition because it provided the full stand-alone (Premium) apps for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and Teams. It also allowed one user to use the apps on more than one computer, which is what I wanted.

(Read the descriptions carefully–some bundles are multiple users on one computer and some bundles required you to be connected to the internet to use them. ) However, the business edition assumes you are a small business and you want to set up an administrator account, domain name and business email account.

This is a more complex process and you end up with multiple sign-ins and multiple email accounts and the setup is not very user friendly. Microsoft chose my email domain name for me even through I tried skipping that step during set-up.

The online help videos were outdated and based on an older version of 365. Unfortunately none of the other bundles that Microsoft offered met my needs. After spending about 3 hours on the phone with Microsoft support, I got something that was workable, but not quite what I originally wanted.

It probably would have been easier to buy the apps I needed separately than try and get a deal on the business edition. (But it would have been more expensive. ) If you know what you are doing, I am sure it was fine.

However, the business edition adds a new layer of complexity if you haven’t dealt with it before. Microsoft support was great however and the tech support it is included in the Business Standard package.

I bought this software because my current 365 software was expiring. What I did not know was if you fail to update your old 365 subscription there is a possibility you could lose all of your file information associated with the outdated subscription.

I searched around and found BestBuy to be the most economical for my needs. I constantly use Excel and Word to work from home. Grammarly and Editor are my go-to programs in Word for writing emails and letters.

They keep me from making spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes when sending out letters and emails. Excel is just a workhorse for anything with budgets and general accounting. The charts and graphs in Excel work perfectly for creating slideshows and complicated spreadsheets.

The help function in Microsoft 365 helps you find answers to computing functions in programs and alleviate the navigating of the internet. It is right there at your fingertips. The installation was quick and easy to install.

Incredibly precise PC, has amazing capacity & the keys are backlit all the time. Lightweight & portable & no heating up on the bottom of the laptop. Love it & use it at work, as you can operate with multiple tabs simultaneously.

When ordering, I obtained a free upgrade package worth £54, which included a free 1 year antivirus & upgrade to windows 11. The help & support I received from the AO team was nothing short of incredible, & delivery was smooth & like clockwork.

AO’s prices are the most competitive on the market, with a 1 year guarantee with my item. The help system built into my laptop is easy to navigate. I was up & running on my ACER the very day it was delivered.

All in all, I would describe the RAM & SSD memory of my laptop like the “Ferrari” of the computer world. All my kitchen appliances are also from AO. com as I trust this company implicitly, plus their team & delivery guys are the most patient & the kindest I’ve seen in the 21st century.

Such a relief for a 53 year old NHS nurse. I’m excessively busy at work & need to use a company that can just operate seamlessly around my hugely busy schedule, & AO have done this on around 10 purchases for me.

I don’t have to give them any do’s & don’ts as they are pretty slick already. 10 stars from me, to be honest.

Having a great deal of trouble in back-and-forth with Corel itself. Functionality is MISSING. There is no Document / Compare. Indexing is flaky, in as that the heading keeps cutting off the first letter of an entry when going back and forth with markings or to tweak a heading.

Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) doesn’t directly work in this version, though the DNS dictation box works well. The spell checker is illiterate and stupid. And I can’t often switch between open files through the “Window” menu (they’re often greyed out), instead having to use the bottom of the screen, above the taskbar to click on files listed there.

I’ve used much better versions in the past. EW, Tue, 8/23/22, 4:50pm.

I am extremely disappointed with the purchase of Word Perfect (Corel) Home and School software. It has disabled ALL of the WordPerfect files which were on my computer. I cannot format a new document to have Columns/Rows (I do not want a Table).

Previously created documents cannot be printed. I have a business creating and making greeting cards. ALL my files are disabled. Many incoming messages are in a Page Code and I have to read through as many as 4 pages to find 4 or 5 lines of information.

When opening a file in Word Perfect I get the error message “Cannot Initialize. ” I have contacted Corel directly, twice; followed their directions and all without a solution. At first I was upset. Now I am ANGRY.

My rating for this product is 0 stars. I have happily used Word Perfect exclusively for over 30 years. This is certainly a game changer. Patricia A. Walsh.

I find it’s better than OpenOffice, but still lacking compared to Office. I mostly bought it for the presentation software. OpenOffice impress is very broken. While this is more stable, basic things like drawing vectors and adding background color to text is missing.

It also takes an unusually long time to open. The splash screen appears, then disappears and the app still hasn’t opened for another minute or 3. It’s very frustrating if you’re trying to open something for a quick reference.

I used WordPerfect at work for years. Then the government switched all of us to Microsoft Office. I learned Office, particularly Word, and liked it. But recently Microsoft wants me to purchase a new subscription every year.

I don’t like that. So I bought WordPerfect Suite. It is like an old friend. I immediately remembered how to use it, and it is a standalone CD. No yearly subscription charges.