DacEasy

DacEasy, Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary (after acquisition)
Industry	Software
Predecessor	Dac Software, Inc.
Founded	April 1985 (1985-04)
Founder	Kevin Howe, Jose Hurtado, Leopoldo Hurtado, and two brothers-in-law
Defunct	2000 (2000)
Fate	Brand phased out; absorbed into Sage Group
Successor	Sage Group (Sage Software)
Headquarters	Dallas , United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Kevin Howe (President), Jose Hurtado (CPA and programmer)
Products	DacEasy accounting software suite, Easy Word, Lucid 3-D (publishing rights)
Owner	Sage Group (from 1991)
Number of employees	280 (1994)
Parent	Sage Group

DacEasy, Inc., initially known as Dac Software, Inc., was a software firm located in Dallas, Texas that operated from 1985 until 2000. It gained recognition for its primary product, the DacEasy accounting software suite designed for IBM PCs. Launched in April 1985, it was distinguished as the most affordable integrated accounting solution on the market, priced below US$50—substantially cheaper than rival offerings which cost several hundred dollars per individual module.

In 1987, Insilco Corporation, a conglomerate based in Connecticut, purchased DacEasy and managed it as an independent subsidiary. Four years later, in 1991, Insilco sold the company to the UK’s Sage Group (later known as Sage Software), which retained DacEasy as a subsidiary until 1999 and continued developing the software under that brand name through 2019.

History

Established in 1985 by Kevin Howe, Jose Hurtado, Leopoldo Hurtado, and two brothers-in-law in Dallas, Dac Software’s leadership team included Howe serving as president. Howe possessed academic credentials in speech, economics, and held an MBA, bringing executive experience from Taylor Publishing (an Insilco subsidiary). Jose Hurtado, born in Mexico, was both a CPA and a programmer who collaborated closely with Howe.

The DacEasy software combined essential accounting functions—such as accounts payable and receivable, billing, general ledger, inventory management, purchase orders, and forecasting—into a single package distributed on one floppy disk. Primarily developed by Hurtado in compiled BASIC, it disrupted a saturated market of over 400 competitors by delivering comprehensive features at just $49.95 (later raised to $69.95), compared to competitors whose combined modules cost between $1,500 and $3,000. Initial sales were strong, with approximately 4,000 units sold monthly and reaching 18,000 units sold in August 1985 alone. By October of that year, it had become the top-selling PC accounting software. The company also introduced an annual $50 support contract to provide customer assistance.

Howe expanded the product range by releasing Easy Word in November 1985—a word processing program equipped with spellcheck and mail merge capabilities—but it faced intense competition and achieved only moderate success. By June 1987, after selling 170,000 copies of DacEasy and generating revenues exceeding $3.7 million, version 2.0 was launched. This update was rewritten in C and distributed across two floppy disks; it improved user experience with online help features and enhanced interfaces while retaining its core modules. Additionally, a payroll module was made available separately for $49.95.

Later in 1987, DacEasy Light was introduced to serve smaller businesses by offering a simplified version without inventory or forecasting modules; this edition sold more than 20,000 copies within six months.

In November 1987, Insilco acquired Dac Software for roughly $35 million—one of the largest software purchases at that time—and continued operating it as an independent subsidiary based in Dallas. Despite initial advantages from this acquisition, conflicts emerged leading to Hurtado’s departure to establish competing firm M-USA Business Systems.

In February 1989, Dac secured publishing rights for Lucid 3-D, a multisheet spreadsheet program; later that year they initiated development for Macintosh but canceled plans for Windows versions following Insilco’s instructions. A hurried release of DacEasy 4.0 in December 1990 resulted in software defects requiring a recall. After Insilco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 1991, it began divesting company assets.

In May 1991, the Sage Group outbid investors from Texas to purchase Dac Software for $18 million. The firm was renamed DacEasy, Inc., operating under Sage’s ownership with peak staffing reaching 280 employees by 1994 before experiencing reductions. The DacEasy brand was phased out around the year 2000 when its website merged into Sage’s platform; nevertheless, Sage continued offering Sage DacEasy software products until 2019.

See also

• Peachtree Software