CYMA Systems, Inc. — CYMAiv Client Write-Up

From the September 2005 Review of Sales
& Use Tax Software

Founded in 1980, CYMA Systems, Inc. is one of the oldest personal computer
accounting software companies in the United States. The CYMA product family
consists of three native-mode 32-bit Windows accounting systems, CYMAiv Financial
Management System, CYMAiv Not-For-Profit Edition and CYMAiv Client Write-Up.
Each of the systems is offered in modular form. CYMAiv Financial Management
System is a sophisticated and comprehensive accounting system, designed for
small to mid-sized enterprises. CYMAiv Client Write-Up is a version of the Financial
Management System modified to serve the write-up needs of professional accounting
firms. Adding strength to CYMAiv are the various vertical market solutions that
have been developed to integrate with CYMAiv.

CYMAiv Client Write-Up requires the use of additional third-party products,
including Crystal Reports, F9 Financial Report Writer (included with purchase
of Client Write-Up), and a special database engine — the Pervasive.SQL
V8 Database. CYMAiv Client Write-Up includes a run-time engine for Crystal Reports
that supports all standard reports, including check formats, invoice formats,
W-2s, payroll forms and general reports. If the user desires to modify the standard
reports and layouts, or wishes to create new reports, they must license a separate
version of Crystal Reports.

CYMAiv Client Write-Up consists of general ledger, after-the-fact payroll
and financial reporting. Also included is the F9 Financial Report Writer. Client
Write-Up may also be run on an integrated basis with CYMAiv Financial Management
System’s AP, AR, Bank Reconciliation and Purchase Order modules.

LEARNING CURVE & EASE OF USE — 4 Stars
The learning experience is straightforward, following a step-by-step approach,
which is provided to create and modify clients in CYMAiv Write-Up’s System
Manager. After setup was completed, I was able to quickly enter data into journals
and produce reports. Data entry was easy and heads-down.

REPORTING & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS — 4 Stars
Financial Reporting is comprehensive, using either Crystal Reports or F9. Frankly,
I would have hoped to find an easy-to-use, flexible report writer that would
be proprietary to CYMAiv Client Write-Up. Crystal Reports and F9 are current
state-of-the-art, top-line report writers, but they don’t give me a warm
and fuzzy feeling. Now if this was a commercial accounting system for small
to mid-sized enterprises and not a write-up program, I might be less concerned.

INTEGRATION, IMPORT/EXPORT & PRODUCTION PROCESSING — 3.5 Stars
CYMA offers high-powered integration with other CYMAiv modules. Otherwise, data
must be imported through use of the General Import in the System Manager. As
well, exports are available via the same.

SCALABILITY & PORTABILITY — 4 Stars
Written to take advantage of advanced Windows features, CYMAiv runs on low-end
to higher-end Windows operating systems with support for Microsoft network operating
systems. While I can’t see any future deployment with Windows 95, high-end
systems are well suited to CYMAIV’s functionality. Scalability is apparent
from single-user to many concurrent users on large networks. Were it not for
the use of third-party products, I would give high grades on portability.

SUPPORT, TRAINING & HELP SYSTEM — 4 Stars
Comprehensive context-sensitive help is available throughout CYMAiv Write-Up.
Traditional telephone technical support is available in both per-incident and
unlimited support packages. CYMA also offers a professional services consulting
group that can help with installation, report writing, data repair and a wide
variety of consulting tasks. CYMA offers Online Coaching to help walk users
through program tasks, and live support is available via web-enabled virtual
classrooms.

2005 Overall Rating — 4 Stars