Net Worth Express from KISS Computer Company and AKG Solutions, Inc. promises to be a great tool for practicing accountants. A quick, easy to use tool specifically designed to do one thing, and do it very well. Hopefully the next version will do that, because Version 1.0 unfortunately doesn’t.
The first thing I noticed upon loading the program was that the interface is most definitely “consumer” and certainly not “professional". It appears to have been developed using a RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool, (probably Delphi) and consequently has a look and feel consistent with small-shop developers’ products of the 1990s. It’s just plain clunky as compared to modern interfaces developed with state of the art tools.
The system walks a practitioner though a series of screens logically designed to obtain all the required data. While technically accurate this question and answer format misses many chances to capture valuable information. For example, the “Mortgage” section captures the securing property but fails to pull that information from the asset section. [Could one actually secure a mortgage with property they DON’T own?] The schedule input goes on to efficiently call for the balance, mortgage holder and the monthly payment, yet misses the obvious chance to record the term and/or rate [the second could be calculated]. Big holes like this tipped me off to continue to carefully watch the sub-schedules.
The system is sub-schedule based and while some of the simpler schedules are complete the more advanced often miss opportunities. Life insurance? Good questions, but no input for the insured, the owner, the beneficiary, or the premium. All important and valuable information. The instructions will tell you to “use the notes to financial statements” which, while a nice feature, in this writer’s opinion, would be misused for this type of data.
Net Worth Express does provide a professional looking report, but unfortunately the report is not modifiable (other than a few basic choices) or exportable. Call me crazy, but my 30+ years of working with practicing accountants tells me there is a wide diversity of opinion regarding the look of reports. I doubt that the one provided, although very attractive, will satisfy the majority of users. The publisher would be wise to provide an export to Microsoft Word or another method to allow modification.
My final disappointment came in repeated phone calls to KISS. Each and every one over a three day period were met with the same “All of our lines are currently busy ….” automated attendant telling me to “press 1 for customer service or 2 for technical support”. Unfortunately, both choices delivered a “Thanks you for calling” followed immediately by a dial tone.
Net Worth Express is a great idea, but is under-developed by a company clearly not prepared to deal with the rigors of supporting busy professionals. Stay tuned and I’ll report as this product and company improve. When it’s “ready for prime time” I’ll so report.
gll
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