INtex Cassa vX - 1.2
reviewed by Chris Marshall
INtex Publishing http://www.intex-publishing.de/intexsoftenglish/index.html http://www.intex-publishing.de/intexsoftenglish/daily/daily.html Released: July 10, 2006 $19.00 USD, $21.20 CND, £10.30 GBP, 14,90Û Euro Audience: Mac Users who like to be organized (and have too much time and money on their hands). Strengths: Easy to Use, very detailed, letÕs you know exactly where your money has gone (maybe that should be a weakness as well?!) Weaknesses: Over complicated for the task in hand. |
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What they say: Casa vX, made by INtex Publishing, is account management software for your giro accounts, cash and book of household account. Learn where you spend your money, where you can save and what your account«s balance will be in the future.
These are the features:
* modern OS X like Tiger interface
* full integration with Mac OS X features like iCal
* full multimedia compliance with Quicktime and iPhoto integration (scanning of receipts)
* import and export in Excel XLS and ASCII format, pictures,videos in Quicktime formats
* full Filemaker 8 and 7 compatible, most modern and professional database
* MS Office compatibility (import/export)
* rich text editing with fonts, colors, alignments, text formatting palette and ruler
* integrated voice recording
* categorization of entries in as many categories as you want and color labelling
* QuickSearch with saved search values
* sorting of data, visual rating and priorities
* ical appointments from notes
* easy editing due to standard entries
* automization of recurring entries such as rents, income etc.
* screen statements and report printing
* optional record locking prohibits deletion of records
* Applescript support
* URL and mailto links for Internet & communication integration
What I say: This product very quickly put me to sleep!
Seriously I am not an accounting type of person. My wife is though. She can spend hours making our accounts balance, whereas I am more concerned with if I have enough cash on me for a few drinks every now and again.
To be totally honest, I have a good financial background having been a CEO of a number of companies, and raised funds for many more, so I do understand the process and requirements.
I struggled to find a place for Casa though. I started off looking at it as a product to manage my personal cash flow, and found it overcomplicated, certainly with the integration with OS X – couldnÕt really work out why I would want to insert a picture into a cash flow account. Maybe a picture of the car you bought in the New Car account? I thought I would like the option to scan in receipts, but found it easier in the end just to enter the data I wanted from the receipt into the accounts. For larger items that you wanted to keep a receipt for e.g. insurance purposes then this is a really useful feature, but on a day-to-day basis, it didnÕt add anything for me.
Out of interest, I looked at it as a substitute for Quicken, which we use to run our consultancy business, and it wasnÕt robust enough at all – the reports werenÕt strong enough. Again to be fair, they donÕt claim that it is meant for this type of task, but I was trying to find out how I would use it on a day to day basis.
In summary: I canÕt say that there is anything wrong with the product technically – it does an adequate all-round job. I was left distinctly lukewarm over all though, and it is hard to pinpoint exactly why. Fundamentally I think the structure and layout that they use, whilst working exceptionally well in other products that I have reviewed, is just too much in this case.
