Reckoning gets bigger

The launch of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions will add to that of the latest version of its accounting software for SMBs, QuickBooks 2003, planned for May. Greg Wilkinson, CEO of Reckon, said 20 per cent of QuickBooks customers had outgrown the software but were still using it because no suitable alternative was available.

“With QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, we will target these 'stretchers', and also our 'churners' – the ones using other brands. It's QuickBooks as everyone knows it, but configured for 10 users,” he said.

“The other QuickBooks gets slow once you get more than five users. Our competitors have ones they say can do more than five users, but in a lab analysis I don't think it's really so.”

QuickBooks 2003 will have improved online banking and integrated payroll, the company said.

Reckon Ltd announced in March it had achieved its first profit since listing in 1999, recording a gain of $2.274 million – using altered accounting practices – for the year to December 2002 compared with a $785,000 loss in the previous year.

Under the old accounting practices, the Australian software developer would have reported a $1.180 million profit.

Reckon has recently overcome one of the major criticisms of its previous software by managing to synchronise software releases with the US. The software is initially sent to Canada, which has a similar GST-style system to Australia. An Australian version is then produced, based on the Canadian code. Reckon Ltd shares held steady on the ASX at 27 cents on Tuesday morning.