Quick Books Simple Start 2008 is a free (not a trial) lightweight member
of the QuickBooks family. It doesn't do everything the full-blown version of
QuickBooks does, but you can manage some businesses with it without ever
having to purchase another product.
QuickBooks Simple Start is best for those businesses that have simple
inventory, and no need for sales forecasting, inventory tracking, or
advanced reporting features. If you have employees and need to run
payroll, this latest version now integrates with QuickBooks Payroll
Solutions so you can generate paychecks and tax forms.
QuickBooks Simple Start handles your invoices, payments, and deposits in
a section named Money In. The Money Out section covers writing checks,
recording expenses, and issuing refunds. Customers, Vendors, Bank Accounts,
and some Reports reside in the Your Business section. Handy pop-up message
windows appear when you mouse over an icon. See below.

QuickBooks Simple Start's Pop-Up Information
As your needs grow, so will QuickBooks Simple Start. Intuit offers online
services that will assist you with accepting Credit Cards, paying your
employees, or upgrading to QuickBooks Pro. Upgrading to QuickBooks Pro is
easy since Simple Start is QuickBooks Pro with the advanced services
disabled. The whole process is completed online with just a few clicks or a
phone call to Intuit. You'll be given an unlock code so there is nothing
more to download or install. A free downloadable copy of QuickBooks Simple
Start is available at
www.simplestart.com.
Ken Hess is a freelance technical writer who currently
hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ken writes on a variety of topics including
business applications, open source programs, and databases. He is the
Desktop Linux columnist for Linux Magazine and may be reached via his
website at
http://www.kenhess.com.