Blue Link Elite is the New Challenger in the Entry Middle Market
Micro Monitor
By Alan Salmon
March 2001
Blue Link Solutions Elite adds new competition to the Entry Middle Market accounting software community. With its strong feature set, it offers serious competition to ACCPAC Discovery, ACCPAC Small Business Edition and BusinessVision 32. In the recently completed 2001 Accounting Software survey, Blue Link Elite was second in this category only .01 behind the leader.
Blue Link Solutions was the first Canadian accounting system written in Microsoft Access when it was launched in 1995. The program is real time and contains fourteen modules, including the normal core accounting modules. Multi-currency is built-in. The additional modules include Contact Management, Job Costing, Bill of Materials, Landed Cost Tracking, Contract Pricing, RMA and Freight Management. These additional modules position Blue Link Elite to provide exceptional functionality for wholesale, distribution and service industries.
Blue Link Solutions is written in Microsoft Access and this allows for tight seamless integration with Microsoft Office. You can store an unlimited amount of detailed transaction history, and re-print reports and documents at will. In addition to the standard capabilities, like outputting reports to Word and data to Excel, you can print documents (invoices, purchase orders, etc.) using Word document templates, so you can create as many customized document formats, as you like.
Elite also links to Microsoft Outlook, sharing contacts, appointments and tasks with both private and public folders. In addition, it includes a built-in Contact Manager, which interfaces with Microsoft Outlook and (optionally) third party CRM products such as Maximizer, to provide a single point of entry for all name and address type information. When someone moves, you update the address once only.
Reporting is comprehensive and easy to use. The included Financial Report Writer enables a user to create an unlimited number of financial statement formats. Report options include a preview mode, print, save as a Word document, or an Excel spreadsheet, an HTML document, email a report, fax a report or save a report to file. It provides the capability to print all key reports retroactively, including aged listings (summary or detail), inventory reports and sales analysis.
All the standard report writers, including Crystal Reports, can read the Access database. However, there is no current capability to run a custom report from within Blue Link Elite.
Blue Link Solutions accounting integrates with Web.Venture, its Business-to-Business e?commerce solution. With this add-on module you can use Elite to control the physical look and feel of the web commerce site, define who can log on and what features they can use. Control which products and services are displayed on the site, what descriptive information is published, and pricing rules.
The interaction is in real time, so if you change a product description in Elite, the next time a person requests that product via Web.Venture, they get the new description. And when someone places an order through Web.Venture, it immediately shows up as a pending order in Solutions.
Most businesses need to customize their accounting program to suit their unique needs. Blue Link has developed a methodology for customizing unique capabilities and integrating them with the package, so that users can benefit from a tailored solution, yet still be able to upgrade to future versions at a locked in, affordable price. The best of both worlds: customizable yet upgradeable!
The Blue Link family of products has recently expanded with the addition of Blue Link Controller and Blue Link Professional. These new programs are targeted to businesses who have outgrown a small business accounting solution and need a more comprehensive financial management system at an affordable price.
Controller is an accounting only version that includes general ledger, financial report generator, accounts receivable, accounts payable and banking modules. It is ideal as an accounting engine for integration with custom front-ends, and for use in non-profit organizations. Pricing starts at $2,200.
The Professional edition includes all of the base
modules in the Controller edition plus order entry/invoicing, purchase order,
inventory, bill of materials, contact manager, job cost and Canadian payroll.
Pricing for the Professional version starts at $4,000.
The Blue Link family of products offers full accounting functionality plus the
customization capabilities that derive from its Access database. Wholesale,
distribution and service companies will be well served by the special features
to be found in the Elite version.
Quick Info
Blue Link Elite Version 9.0
Pricing: $7,000 for a single-user license (5 user license in $8,000)
Blue Link Associates Limited
156 Corstate Ave #3
Concord, ON
L4K 4K2
905-660-0599
905-660-8793
www.bluelink.ca
