This page maintained by Micro Management Associates 
Last updated January, 2024

For ACCPAC Plus help, please go to: www.mmanyc.com

ACCPAC Plus is the venerable, old (ancient), easy-to-use, beloved DOS-based accounting system originally from Computer Associates. As of this writing, there are still thousands of companies that continue to use ACCPAC Plus.

HISTORY
The original product, EasyBusiness Systems, was developed for the CP/M operating system in 1976 by the Basic Software Group and distributed by Information Unlimited Software. EasyBusinessSystems was ported to MS-DOS and the IBM-PC in 1983.

Computer Associates acquired Information Unlimited Software in 1983 and ran it as an independent business unit. In 1984, Easy Business Systems added payroll processing and supported multiuser networking. In 1987, it implemented a multi-window interface (Windowing System Manager) to allow moving between different modules. Easy Business Systems was renamed ACCPAC Plus in 1987 with the release of version 5. The name ACCPAC is an acronym for 'A Complete and Comprehensive Program for Accounting Control'.

Computer Associates' ACCPAC division was eventually spun off by Computer Associates into a company called ACCPAC International although still controlled and majority-owned by Computer Associates.

In the late 1990's, while ACCPAC International was struggling to come up with a Windows version of ACCPAC Plus to meet it's competition (Great Plains, Solomon, MAS, etc.) that already had Windows-based accounting software, Softrak Systems (an ACCPAC Plus 3rd party developer in Vancouver, B.C. Canada) rolled out it's initial release of Adagio (Adagio Ledger V6.5), an accounting software package that was database compatible with ACCPAC Plus, and had the business logic, look and feel of ACCPAC Plus with similar screens and reports.

The first releases of ACCPAC International's Windows accounting product were burdened with a hardware dongle protection scheme and were received unfavorably by ACCPAC Plus users because of it's very difficult to configure and maintain Btrieve back-end database (a thunky precursor to Pervasive), difficult and expensive data conversion, need to completely re-train users and completely foreign screens and reports.

The Windows successor products to ACCPAC Plus from ACCPAC International and Best/Sage Software have been variously known as ACCPAC Plus for Windows, CA-ACCPAC/2000, ACCPAC for Windows, ACCPAC Advantage Series, Sage Accpac ERP and Sage 300 ERP. These products all require a complicated, hard to maintain back-end database and look and act nothing like ACCPAC Plus.

In 2004, ACCPAC International was sold to Best Software, the North American subsidiary of Sage Software for $110 Million. Best Software was later merged with the international brand, Sage Software.

ACCPAC Plus was discontinued and designated End of Life in 2006 by Sage Software. No R&D has been done on ACCPAC Plus since the late 1990's except for a few fixes at the end of 1999 in a vain attempt to make ACCPAC Plus Y2K compliant. Sage Software no longer sells, supports or develops ACCPAC Plus. ACCPAC Plus LanPak's, product upgrades and payroll tax table updates are no longer available. Sage Software has discontinued using the ACCPAC name. It's successor product is now called Sage 300 ERP and it no longer has the function to convert ACCPAC Plus data.

ACCPAC Plus is DOS-based. The last Windows version that can run a DOS-based program is Windows XP. Microsoft ceased selling Windows XP in June, 2008 and stopped providing extended support for Windows XP in April, 2014. It has become increasingly difficult and risky to run ACCPAC Plus.  ACCPAC Plus was designed to use dot-matrix printers  and print only using COM: or LPT: ports. Most modern printers use a USB connection which cannot be printed to natively by a DOS program.

It has become a risk to your business to continue running ACCPAC Plus. Most current users of ACCPAC Plus are still running it on decades old computer hardware. When that hardware fails, they have trouble finding a computer with Windows XP to run it on and installation media to reinstall it. Running a no-longer supported version of Windows that no longer receives security updates leaves the user exposed and vulnerable to a Ransomware attack. It is axiomatic that ACCPAC Plus always fails at the worst possible time! There is no longer any technical support available from the manufacturer and there only a very few consultants in the world who remember and provide help with ACCPAC Plus.

Adagio is a registered trademark of Softrak Systems Inc. ACCPAC and ACCPAC Plus are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sage Software in the United States and other countries. All other marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Sage Software has no relation with this web page.

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