Out With the Old, in With the New: Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting Invites Customers to Get Rid of Their Old Books

REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 16, 2006 — As part of its long-term commitment to help small businesses reach their full potential, Microsoft Corp. today introduced one year of free, unlimited support and savings for customers who purchase Microsoft® Office Small Business Accounting 2006 full package product at participating retailers in the U.S. This special offer makes it easier than ever for small-business owners to replace their old books with confidence — whether pen and paper, Microsoft Office Excel®, or QuickBooks accounting system — with Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006, a financial management program that has the familiar look and feel of Microsoft Office.

As part of this special offer, the one year of free, unlimited personal support begins the day of product registration and includes — but is not limited to — assistance with installation, product functionality, technical questions and migration tools. In addition, when advertised from today through April 30, 2006, customers can receive up to $100 in savings off the retail price of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 at the following participating retailers: Best Buy, CompUSA, Office Depot, Staples and OfficeMax. At the same time, hardware partner Dell Inc. is shipping Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 and Microsoft Office Small Business Management Edition 2006 on select Dell small-business computers, including Dimension and Optiplex desktop PCs and Latitude notebooks. Dell will offer promotional pricing and related offers online at http://www.dell.com/sba and over the phone. Further, in conjunction with this promotion, Microsoft is offering accounting professionals a Small Business Accounting Starter Kit with the tools they need to assist clients that are looking to make the switch from their old books. Additional details on all aspects of the promotion can be found online at http://www.officesmallbusinessaccounting.com.

“The beginning of the New Year is a perfect time for customers to move to a better way of bookkeeping,” said Guy Gilbert, group product manager for Office at Microsoft. “We are eliminating any barriers that may have been keeping small-business owners from ditching their outdated bookkeeping methods to realize the benefits of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting.”

Small-business customers utilizing Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 have already experienced the significant savings in time and money. “If I had stayed on QuickBooks, I would have had to farm out a lot of this work, but with Small Business Accounting I can easily do it myself,” said Rob Gorski, CEO of JBG General Contractors LLC in Canton, Ohio. “This saves the business at least $2,000 yearly.”

Designed for companies with up to 25 employees, Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 provides a full set of tools to manage accounting, inventory, sales order and purchase order processing, job tracking, banking, and payroll processes in the familiar Office environment. The software’s easy wizard helps customers get Small Business Accounting installed, connected and working in less than an hour. The wizard also allows customers to import existing financial information from QuickBooks or Microsoft Office Excel.

Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting was named one of the top 10 products of the year for 2005 by Small Business Technology Magazine (http://www.sbtechnologymagazine.org/awards/2005/index.htm).

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