Balancing the business books has been made simpler thanks to a Sussex accountant.

Alan Kent has run an accountancy firm in Horsham for 25 years.

He joined forces with Horsham-based software developers WinCash Systems Ltd to become the main distributor for Cashbook 2.0, an accounting package designed to help small and medium-size businesses keep accurate financial records.

Cashbook software has been in development for two years, including a year of trials with businesses in Sussex. It is now being rolled out nationally.

Mr Kent said: "I had been looking for an idiot-proof, rock solid but simple system for some time. Cashbook 2.0 has been designed for small and growing businesses which are unable to afford a book keeper.

"There are more than 2,000 accountancy software titles on the market today but most are extremely complicated to get to grips with or they crash when asked to complete simple funct-ions, leaving the user at a loss.

"WinCash has spent more than 60 per cent of the development time on testing the package to make sure it does exactly what it needs to. I am convinced we are offering the best product in the market place today."

Florist Cordelia Holbrook was one of the first users of the product in Sussex.

Miss Holbrook, a partner at The Village Florist in Lancing, said:

"I had always handled the books myself but was struggling to keep up with the workload after the birth of my son, Benjamin, 18 months ago.

"WinCash has been a great help to the business. We use it for all our accounts and it saves us so much time and effort. You don't have to be a computer whiz. It is so helpful, you can't really get stuck."

www.software.akp.co.uk