Excel is part of the Microsoft Office package. Works is something entirely different and I wouldn't recommend it.
Funnily enough I've used MSWorks 6.0 for years. It can be clunky and difficult to set up but once you've done it, it can work OK. Although the database is rather feeble (and difficult to migrate into a better database program), there are ways of setting it up to look just like a George printout (of pending work).
I do need to use two databases (one for the full round and one for work that needs an invoice) plus the rather sparse spreadsheet program but it can be made to work very well if you get creative with the reports facility and the mailmerge from the word processor (I use mailmerge for printing out invoices plus a few other bits).
It's just one of those things I've grown up with so it doesn't feel difficult.
To update my records at the end of a day takes just a few minutes.
The end of year stuff obviously takes longer but if you keep up with things throughout the year it's not too bad.
If I were to move on beyond sole trader level I might just seek to make things a bit easier - but perhaps not.
MSWorks has probably seemed OK to me because my first intro to such programs was the "Rocket" spreadsheet and the Locoscript database on the old Amstrad PCWs. Those things didn't even have hard drives and I had to store the spreadsheet data for the year on two floppies (I could only fit six month's worth on a floppy). After a system like that (I'm going back to about 1994), believe me, MSWorks was a delight
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