In the late 1980s, just after I started my Canberra Computer Accounting Systems consultancy - a strictly one-man business, just me and a telephone answering service with the ever-changing voices of all those invisible girls who made my clients think they were dealing with a large computer software house - I fell in love with NewViews, developed and sold by Q.W Page Associates of Toronto. Those Canadians are pretty smart when it comes to recording their loonies!
It was a dream-come-true accounting software for the accountant who had been handed the proverbial shoebox full of invoices, receipts, cheque stubs, and back-of-an-envelope scribbles from which to construct a set of financial books. One could dive right in and start recording from any point for any period as NewViews was totally flexible and non-modular and totally date-driven. It offered the feel and flexibility of an endless array of spreadsheets, created on the fly, while preserving the integrity of Pacioli's double-entry bookkeeping together with an unalterable audit trail.
The flexibility came with a trade-off, however, as NewViews was perceived by some to have a long learning curve, and to require a greater investment of time and effort to create a customized accounting solution. In a software review published in InfoWorld, NewViews was compared to "going to a tailor and handing him a bolt of cloth and a pair of scissors. The result will suit you perfectly, but at a greater cost of time and effort than if it was ready-made."
I took to NewViews immediately and found it a pleasure to use and I did a lot of bespoke-tailoring with it! I am pleased to see that today, forty years later, it is still alive and well! For more YouTube clips, click here.
P.S. Graham, you could've bought NewViews instead of asking Ganesh Sharma Krishna to write that speadsheet-based accounting software!!!
