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Complete listing of June 1996 reviews
By Joel T. Patz
Although it offers some tools found in high-end accounting software packages, Aptitude's real, well, aptitude lies in the simpler aspects of financial management.
Like many of its competitors, Aptitude starts by asking you to create a company, select your corporate structure and then select a chart of accounts.
The package includes General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Payable, Inventory and Banking modules, plus graph-enhanced business reports.
Frequently used tasks can be included on the customizable menu bar, and options for customizing forms are right on the form, not in a separate setup command. According to Aptitude's manual, you can customize forms in all the major modules by hiding or displaying fields, but it doesn't always work.
Aptitude has surprising limitations. It does not distinguish between cash and accrual accounting, for example. Some features are rather puzzling, such as the scientific calculator that computes sines and cosines. Aptitude Assistants, used for company setup, month- and year-end procedures, are really nothing more than checklists.
Online help, about average in quality, is weak on indexing. I searched longer than I should have to learn to use Aptitude's Report Designer. What the program calls a wizard is really a very thorough flowchart that displays all the functions for a particular task, such as creating a credit memo or issuing a purchase order.
The bottom line: Compare different products to be sure Aptitude's limitations won't hold you back.
Info File
Aptitude
Price: $99 (street)
Pros: Ease of use
Cons: Lacks some features
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1x
Disk space: 23MB
RAM: 4MB (12MB recommended)
Aptitude Software Corp.
800-460-7675, 713-888-0278
WinMag Box Score: 3.5
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