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Personal Computing's benchmark graphs are presented in two sections:
Performance and Practicality. Performance scores are based on the
power and features included in each package and on the quality of
implementation of these features.
Power categories we examined include size of account codes,
maximum dollar amount, number of companies and departments the packages
can account for, maximum number of fiscal periods, quality of the
audit trail and error handling, data reconstruction utilities, number
of integrated modules, availability of source code, and also expandability
to OS/2, networks, and minicomputers. Features considered include
the ability to add new accounts during journal entry, the ability
to automatically insert reversing and recurring transactions into
journals, the ability to consolidate from within the general ledger,
and the number and flexibility of reports.
Solomon swept the performance ratings, except for Capacity,
because of its excellent balance of features and aids to using them.
Solomon earned a high report score because it comes with both a good
selection of predefined reports and a powerful report writer that
can be used to alter an existing report or to write one from scratch.
RealWorld, likewise, comes with a powerful report writer, although
its selection of predefined reports is scanty. BusinessWorks includes
a very good selection of predefined reports but its report writer
is not capable of creating custom reports from scratch. Thus, RealWorld
and BusinessWorks earned much lower scores on reporting capability
than did Solomon.
Platinum, which came in second in performance, is less expandable
than RealWorld (which can be upgraded to run on minicomputers as well
as OS/2 and PC networks). But, unlike RealWorld, Platinum comes with
enough predefined reports to get an accountant started right away.
Testers' evaluations of error handling involved similar issues.
All the programs tested check for unbalanced transactions. All prevent
manipulation of key data. RealWorld, Solomon, and Platinum all provide
some means of regenerating databases in case of catastrophic failure;
Manzanita automatically saves every transaction on disk as it is entered,
so it does not need to regenerate databases. But Platinum, which gives
the illusion of fast response during data entry, got low marks for
data handling capability because it does not give prompt notice of
even such obvious errors as illegal dates or lack of initial balances.
Solomon, BusinessWorks, and Harmony, on the other hand, are more interactive
programs; all give more immediate feedback and were therefore judged
to be better at overall error handling.
Finally, we judged Practicality of the accounting packages
in terms of Ease of Installation, Ease of Learning, Ease of Use, Documentation,
and Support and Maintenance. The excellent interactive guidance that
BusinessWorks, the least complex of the packages, gave to users at
all levels of expertise made it the clear winner in Practicality.
We were also pleasantly surprised at how well both Solomon and Harmony
supported users who were required to perform sophisticated accounting
tasks. The results of our practicality tests are true indicators of
how difficult these complex programs are to learn and use‑showing
us that Platinum's lack of an index or centralized list of error diagnostics
and RealWorld's poor documentation and cumbersome interface make them
significantly harder to learn and then to use than they should be.
-Joseph Devlin
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