I know this ranks lowers than making the software work, so not expecting immediate action.
There are several “competitors” on the market that have “work flow” type interface (NCH Invoice, QuickBooks, etc). I think this type of interface (or option of) would make this a much easier introduction for the (very) small business user.
For the hard core book-keepers that make up most of this forum this will seem a bit banal. However, I know a lot of small business (1 - 3 man consultancies) that muddle along with spreadsheets and the like because book keeping becomes a daunting task, and they don’t want to be a full time book keeper.
Can you explain what you mean by “work flow” type interface.
I am a small business and I reviewed a large number of accounting programs including NCH Invoice and Quickbooks and I chose this program because it was by far the simplest program to use. The program is intended for small business rather than accountants.
So I am not really sure what you mean as I found this program more intuitive and simpler to use than both Quickbooks and NCH. Quickbooks had far too many features and while simple to use compared to most accounting programs,was still too complicted to use because of all the features most of which I would never use and NCH I personally found the interface did not work for me as it was lacking in functionality that I did actually want!
If you mean the dashboard look, yes I would agree that would make this program even simpler to use, but the program is so simple to use, the dashboard is not really necessary. However, its not a bad idea for long term as the dashboard look is more intuitive than other any format.
I agree with @dalacor. I, too, chose Manager after a lengthy search precisely because it was so easy to use. In fact, one of the things that concerns me is the never-ending stream of requests for additional or different, and usually more complex, features. If @lubos acceded to all of them, Manager would be a full-fledged enterprise resource planning (ERP) application. I’ve paid my dues with those and know where to turn if I ever need one again.
While many of Manager’s features are useful, I like the fact that it opens with a Summary that is the functional equivalent of both balance sheet and P&L to date. A daily look at that page will take you a long ways. Plus, even though it isn’t bloated with features like many competing programs, we can still disable many things we don’t need.
Of course, it helps to have a little understanding of the principles of accounting, never a bad thing in business. But when I decided it was time to graduate beyond mere cashbook record keeping, Manager was the perfect solution.
Trying to get Luddites (re:people that still do it with paper) to move to software book-keeping it is a real visual aid. People look at the “dashboard” and can see which step they want. With experience they might use the “alternate” UI, which would be the existing one.
In terms of simplicity, I use one that is even simpler than manager.io, but it lacks some features and drives my accountant mad. Hence, the search for something simple like this.
And, it was a long term suggestion; because things can never be too simple to use.
I do actually agree with you. As simple as manager is, I have also noticed that a dashboard look is more intuitive (that workflow that you were talking about) and is more interesting from a visual standpoint. I am sure that Lubos will eventually consider a dashboard look. But I want him to prioritise missing features such as status of quotes first. So this will definitely be a long term thing but a good idea.
