Cougar Mountain Software — CMS Professional 2009 Accounting

CMS Professional contains numerous upgrade and system enhancements in the
2009 version, including the ability to attach documents to your system data
and the ability to print invoices by aging period. It also offers new sort options
for printing customer history reports, a log file that contains all your credit
card activity, and the ability to block charges from being added to delinquent
customers.

Data-entry screens are easily navigated, with the appropriate lookup options
available throughout. System setup is a breeze with the use of the Setup Wizard,
which takes you through the basics and module set up. CMS Professional uses
a batch system for processing transactions and offers numerous user-defined
fields that can be set up according to your needs.

CORE/ACCOUNTING/SECURITY FUNCTIONS:
CMS Professional 2009 Accounting includes GL, AP, AR, Inventory, Order Entry
and the Data Exchange modules. Add-on modules available include Payroll, Job
Cost, Bank Reconciliation and Purchase Order, along with many others.

The program includes three-year fiscal calendar capability, the ability to
handle multiple companies, and the ability to define budgets for each company.
The AR module can handle an unlimited number of customers, and one customer
payment can be applied to numerous invoices (up to 250). You can also timestamp
all AR transactions, an excellent feature for future reference. In AP, recurring
payments can be easily setup and payment activity monitored by vendor. CMS Professional’s
Inventory module can track inventory levels at multiple locations, use various
valuation techniques for inventory costing, and allow you to easily view inventory
totals and transaction history from a single window.

System security capability is good in CMS Professional with the ability to
assign employee access to individual system functions, modules and data. Audit
trail reports allow you to monitor system usage so you’ll always know
what is going on with the system.

REPORTING & MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS:
Reporting options remain strong in the latest version of CMS Professional 2009
Accounting with reports available within each module. Built-in filters allow
you to define reporting options to print the information that you need. R&R
ReportWorks Infinity, which is included with CMS Professional, opens up your
print options considerably, providing everything from form customization to
data mining capability. Also available is an optional GL Report Generator, which
allows you to create account or fund categories that can be either included
with your reports, or excluded, if preferred. A custom report template can be
created and modified as needed, or saved for future access. The report scheduler
allows you to schedule reports in advance so you’ll never forget to run
a report when you need it.

Handy management tools are found throughout CMS Professional, including data
mining capability and the Snapshot Report feature, which offers business owners
a quick glance at their business statistics. Industry-specific add-on modules
such as the CRM Bridge to ACT!, Job Cost and Advanced Bill of Materials also
offer advanced reporting and management options designed specifically for your
business type.

IMPORT/EXPORT/INTEGRATION:
CMS Professional 2009 Accounting offers excellent integration capabilities.
All modules are completely integrated so add-on modules can be purchased as
needed. Cougar Mountain also offers one of the most extensive lists of add-on
modules that I have seen, particularly for a product designed for smaller businesses.
The Data Exchange module, included in CMS Professional, makes it easy to import
and export data using a wide variety of formats such as Excel, Lotus, Access,
dBaseIII, FoxPro and ASCII. Data can also be imported from other accounting
software, and the data transfer process makes exporting data painless.

HELP & SUPPORT OPTIONS:
Cougar Mountain Software offers several different support options, including
the Software Assurance plan, which is available in both Standard and Premier
levels. The Software Assurance plan provides customers with everything from
access to the customer service center and product knowledge base to all maintenance
and service packs, product upgrades and basic e-learning. You’ll also
get a discount on support and classroom and telephone training. The premier
version also provides 20 hours of online or telephone support. Numerous phone
support plans are available, as well, ranging from two hours to 20 hours of
support per contract year.

CMS Professional offers an excellent Help option, in addition to classroom
and online training through the vendor’s popular e-learning offerings,
which provide access to over 100 online tutorials.

RELATIVE VALUE:
CMS Professional from Cougar Mountain Software is an excellent product. A single-user
system currently costs $1,599. The Payroll module is extra as an add-on module
and costs $425 for a single user. This is an excellent product for smaller and
growing businesses that need flexibility, integration and affordability.

2009 OVERALL RATING: