Description:
A thorough, comprehensive guide to enhancing a small business with computer technology, this book explains the key issues involved in buying, setting up, and using a computer. Underdahl begins by answering the "why" questions of frugal small-business owners, providing a convincing argument for business computerization. He then discusses hardware, the physical stuff that makes up a computer system. You'll get the goods on desktops-versus-portables, PCs-versus-Macintoshes, and the virtues of various hard-disk interfaces (IDE, EIDE, SCSI, and so on), for example. After walking you through the buying process, he takes you through the process of setting up your new acquisitions. His explanation is fine if you encounter no problems, but you'll be looking for help elsewhere if you run into trouble.The author then gets into software, explaining what kinds of programs you'll most likely need and detailing the differences among various publishers' offerings. He goes into particular detail on QuickBooks Pro, the popular accounting package from Intuit. You'll learn how to create invoices and pay bills in QuickBooks--this is enough to get you started and may be all you need in addition to Intuit's documentation. A companion CD-ROM contains loads of shareware, freeware, and demonstration utilities plus a trial version of QuickBooks Pro. --David Wall
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