accounting software packages

Professional accounting software is a tool that can help any company, large or small. The help comes in the form of better control of costs. It’s usually easier to control costs than it is to increase sales or income. Choosing the right system is tough because there are so many choices. Here’s what to look for when making a choice.

1. Will It Do The Job?

The best investment when choosing software is the time spent in defining what you want. Every business is different and you want a product that will do what you need done. It’s easy to buy software for specific industries and software for certain functions, like payroll. So first decide what you need.

2. What’s It Cost?

Prices vary widely. You may be amazed at how little powerful off-the-shelf software costs. But then industry specific, customized software is often surprisingly expensive. Initial cost isn’t the total cost either. What will it cost to learn the system in time and dollars? Does on-going support cost extra? Can you even get on-going support?

3. Why Not Powerful Software?

Why not just buy very powerful software so it can just do anything? Since off-the-shelf software is inexpensive, why not just “get the best?” Here’s why. Powerful software is more complex simply because it has more functions built in and more options. Often that means more powerful hardware is required too. But even more important than the hardware is the increased difficulty of using the system. Save much time and costs by choosing simple software where you can and upgrade later if required.

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It takes a lot to run a business successfully and as an owner, you have to ensure that all departments of your firm are in perfect working condition. Each department, be it marketing, human resource or finance, have their own contribution towards the profitability of the company. In this context, one of the major aspects of any business is its accounting division. Each income or expenditure that the business incurs can make a major impact on the financial standing of the business. An efficient accounting division should maintain all the records in journals, profit and loss statements and balance sheets to reflect an accurate status of the business. However at times, it becomes difficult for a company to sustain a full-fledged accounts division to maintain its records on a daily basis and this is where accounting outsourcing can make a difference.

Many companies are opting for the convenient and safe option of getting accounting outsourcing done for their business from a third party vendor. The vendor in turn hires efficient accounting personnel who competently maintain the financial records of the clients. Accounting outsourcing ensures that the client has instant access to his financial records as and when the need arises. The regularly updated accounts provided by the outsourced vendor benefit the company by presenting accurate image of the company standing to the shareholders, investors, creditors and the public in general. This increases the credit worthiness and credibility of the organization in the market. Another advantage of having accurately maintained accounts is that the dealings of the company remain above board at all times and no embezzling of funds can take place.

Accounting outsourcing services of a reputable vendor ensures that the financial records of the business are available at a short notice hence there is no mad scrambling to adjust accounts once the tax season approaches. Payment of taxes is an important duty of every business and the scrutiny of tax officials is very detailed. In such a scenario, having accurately maintained accounts of every business transaction creates a positive impression of the company on the tax officials. In addition, the instant accessibility of the records enables the company’s senior officials to take decisions regarding the future growth of the business. Any expansion or diversification can be planned only when you know you actual standing in the market and the accounts are the only source for such information.

However, when you are trying to hire a vendor to handle all your accounting outsourcing work, it is advisable to do a little background research on the vendors before you finalize such a deal. The financial records of any company are highly confidential and the security provided by the vendor should be your utmost priority. Also, ensure that the accounting professionals working for the vendor, who will be handling your accounts, are well acquainted with the latest accounting softwares available in the market. A past reference from other companies is also helpful in selecting the right vendor. Once you have handed over your accounting work to the right vendor you can then rest easy regarding the maintenance of company records.

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Think you’ve maybe outgrown Quicken as a small-business accounting solution? Maybe, maybe not. Small-business accounting systems (including Quicken) are supposed to do three things:

1. Measure your profits and cash flow so that you can prudently manage your business.

2. Track the assets and liabilities of the business so that you know what you own and what you owe.

3. Generate the business forms that you use to transact business.

As long you keep these three accounting system tasks in mind, you’ll find it easy to tell when you’ve outgrown Quicken and should move up to a more full-featured small-business accounting system.

Symptom #1: You want to use accrual-basis accounting

Quicken measures income and expenses using either cash-based accounting or very simple accrual-based accounting. If you want to do sophisticated accrual-based accounting rather than cash-based accounting, you can’t use Quicken. You’ll need a more full-featured accounting system, such as QuickBooks from Intuit or Peachtree Accounting for Windows.

Symptom #2: You need detailed records of more than just cash

To keep detailed records of assets besides cash and your investments, you also need to use a small-business accounting system. For example, if you buy and sell inventory items and want to track those items, you need an accounting system that includes inventory management features. (Most small-business accounting packages provide these features.) If you own a lot of depreciable assets and want to track them, you need an accounting system that includes a true fixed-assets module that easily handles depreciation. (This is a less common feature, by the way.) If you want point-of-sale accounting, or other special features, you also need to upgrade to a more powerful accounting system.

Symptom #3: You need business forms other than checks

One other issue is business forms. Quicken produces check forms and Quicken Home & Business produces invoices and customer statements, but you may need to produce other business forms, such as purchase orders. If you want to automate production of these other forms with an accounting system rather than prepare them manually, you need to upgrade to a more powerful system.

Before you jump to another accounting system: Two Caveats to Consider

Before you purchase a new accounting system to take care of the tasks I’ve just described, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, no accounting system is perfect.

I’ve seen more than one business waste enormous amounts of time, energy, and money pursuing the perfect accounting system. If you have a system that works reasonably well, lets you gauge the performance of your business, and in general does most of the things you need it to do, you may create more problems than you solve by converting to a more complicated new system.

If Quicken works reasonably well and presents you with only a handful of minor problems and irritations, I’d suggest you stick with Quicken.

Also, the more powerful small-business accounting systems generally require you (or someone who works for you) to know a lot more about accounting than you need to know to operate Quicken.

When you get right down to it, all you need to know to operate Quicken is how to use a checkbook and enter payments and deposits into a check register. In comparison, to use a full-featured small-business accounting system, you (or your employee) should know how to perform double-entry bookkeeping, understand the tricks and techniques used in accrual-based accounting (accruals, deferrals, reversing journal entries, and so on), and be able to read and use the financial information contained in a standard set of accrual-based financial statements (income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements). Note that the cash flow statement produced by an accrual-based accounting system won’t look anything like the Cash Flow report produced by Quicken.

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www.mamut.com This video was created by Accountancy Age and shows Mamuts award ceremony at the 2006 Accountancy Age Awards. For the third year in a row Mamut won the Best Software Package for small businesses, having only been in the UK market for three years. This video explains how Mamut have become so successful within the UK over such a short period of time. Mamut is simplifying the way small organisations do their business by delivering software, services and knowledge. Mamut Enterprise is an all-inclusive integrated small business software solution including accounting, CRM, sales force automation, logistics, e-commerce, and services at unparalleled value for money. This small business software solution helps small businesses operate more effectively by focusing on sharing information, maximising efficiency, lowering costs and increasing revenue. Mamut has won numerous awards for its functionality and user-friendliness. The small business software, Mamut Enterprise, gives you and your employees access to over 300 reports, allowing you to access the necessary data for effective decision-making, and focusing on increasing profitability. All employees/ departments are given access to relevant information within the small business software solution from customer contact, to the delivery time of products allowing them to work more efficiently. More than 400000 European customers simplify their daily business with solutions from Mamut. See www.mamut.com

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Accounting software solutions are meant to serve varied needs. These software could be broadly classified into two categories such as software solutions for profit making enterprises and software solutions for non profit making institutions.

Here in this article, we will look into various advantages of buying a non profit accounting software.

1.First things first, like any other business entity a non profit making organization needs to keep record of their inflows and outflows. However, their accounting software doesn’t possess all features that are available in software meant for profit making institution. Custom needs of the organization hold a great importance in choosing one such software.

2.Since all non profit making institutions are accountable to people who have made financial contributions to run the institution, keeping smooth and clear account of incoming funds and outflows becomes mandatory. For a large charitable trust or an NGO, it is quite a task to keep details of expenses manually. For manual accounting efforts most often turn out to be full of inaccuracies. So, these specially designed non profit accounting software become quite a necessity for these organizations.

3.A non profit making institution in any case needs payroll software. For, whether an organization earns profit or not, if it has appointed employees it will have to give back remunerations to its employees. And when it comes to maintenance of salaries and compensations of large number of employees, nothing proves as handy as a payroll accounting software.

4.Also software enables the patrons of the organization to diversify funds in a systematic manner. An efficient diversification of incoming funds would ensure smooth functioning of the organization. Moreover with the help of the software even minutest details of donations made at different stages could be maintained. These details help in ascertaining future inflows.

5.The best advantage of this software is smooth calculation of annual budget. With induction of this software it is no ordeal to ascertain budget of the coming year by analyzing inflow and outflow of the current and previous years.

All in all, to enjoy all these benefits, an organization must make it sure that the software is suitable for their future accounting needs as well. The software must gel with the existing account management system. Its user friendliness should also be ensured before making a purchase.

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Library Package controls and centralizes the whole distribution process reducing loss of books, over ordering and replacement costs thus saving money and time. Any User of Library Package can customize the system to feel easier for data entry. Library Package provides informative help for each form of the system to makes it easy to understand and also describes each field on the form

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Your business, no matter how small, needs an effective accounting management system to sustain its day-to-day viability and establish its long-term financial goals. But when you are already multitasking as the CEO, the manager, and the salesman, you don’t really have time to be an accountant too, do you? Yes, actually, you do.

With a good small business accounting software program, you can still manage your cash flow hands on, without spending too much time. A few clicks here and there, and you can forecast revenues, pay bills, and generate reports. But what functionalities should you look for in accounting software? What do you really need and what can you do without? Read on for some tips.

Look for user-friendly software. Choose accounting software with an interface that resembles its traditional paper counterparts so that you can immediately navigate your way around it. The more familiar the layout of the software is to you, the easier you can intuitively explore its functionalities.

Internet and e-commerce features can also be important. If your small business relies on sales and orders via the worldwide web, you definitely need accounting software that seamlessly connects to e-Commerce functionalities. Find something that you can easily hook up to your bank’s online payment portal, for example, so you can automatically track payments made to you and bills you have to pay.

Search for compatibility with frequently used programs. If most of your records are Windows based, find small business accounting software that easily synchronizes with Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft Office applications. Such a feature will let you integrate your existing records without the risk of corrupting data. There are also specialty accounting software programs available for other platforms.

Examine the professional reports included in the software. Beware of some software packages that can generate hundreds of kinds of reports – you probably won’t use more than half of them, so why pay the extra price? Concentrate on essential reports instead, such as statements needed for tax filing and time-billing reports, if you use such.

There are other extras worth considering. If your business is quickly expanding, it might be a good idea to invest in expandable, multiple-user accounting software that integrates payroll functionalities, inventory tracking, job costing, and other productivity features. These types cost a little more, but are definitely necessary for any fast-growing small business.

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Call accounting software is a system that records, translates and reports on telephone call activity. The software is used by most corporations to control expenses, allocate cost and increase productivity. Hotels, hospitals and other hospitality environments utilize call accounting to resell telephone calls to their clientele.

Over the years call accounting has evolved from a single processor MS DOS system to elaborate SQL databases with globally accessible web-based solutions. Web browsers are either pre-installed with the operating system or freely available downloads from the internet. Browsers are popular because they can access information remotely from a public IP address or via a virtual private network (VPN). Therefore an individual can access his stock quotes, read the latest headlines and review call accounting reports through various tabs on the browser. Web browser based systems allow enterprise users to easily manage many sites from a centralized location.

Various vendors of robust call accounting systems utilize DBMS systems such as MS SQL, MySQL and Oracle. These backend databases are crucial for large enterprises that require rapid consolidated reporting. This method of open standards based architecture allows for third party data access and virtually unlimited scalability.

Closed architecture legacy systems could take hours or even days to produce the same results. These legacy systems are often ill-equipped to store more than a small window of call activity (usually 1 to 3 months). Many corporations require access to many months of data because of corporate policy, audit or adherence to stringent government regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley (SOX). An SQL based system can generally return query results in a matter of seconds.

Call accounting is constantly evolving. The traditional system that studied call detail records (CDR) from the PBX are strictly one dimensional. Call accounting now needs to concern itself with desk phone, hand held devices, VoIP services etc. There is no longer one entry point into an organization. There are many facilities such as auto attendant, IVR, voice mail, wireless etc. that require consolidation into a complete communication management system (CMS). Resource Software International Ltd. (RSI) (News) provides detailed analysis of such services under one umbrella.

The business case for call accounting has generally revolved around the traditional benefits of cost recovery, network analysis and contact center management. There are many creative uses for call accounting. Selecting the proper application requires a proper analysis of the corporate objectives. Some vendors specialize in professional bill back, others focus on the unique requirements of hospitality environments and others offer generic solutions for general business requirements.

There are many choices for an average business. It is virtually dependent on your budget and needs to determine a viable solution. You should keep in mind that whatever solution you select should be backed by a good maintenance program for software updates, tariffs and inquiries. The software should be available to trial. You should consider installing the software before purchase to determine if it fits your needs. This will give you a good idea about the quality of the software and the company providing the solution.

RSI is recognized as an industry leader in the field of communication management. The communication management product portfolio includes tailored integration to the most popular switching and network manufactures. RSI has been granted Nortel Developer Partner status with recognition for its core portfolio as Compatible Products. RSI is a Cisco Technology Partner, Siemens HiPath Ready Standard certified, Avaya DeveloperConnect Member, Mitel MiSN Member, Adtran Complementary Solutions Provider, NEC Univerge Partner and Alcatel Applications Partner.

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