Accounting Software Overview

Accounting Overview
Want to stop using an accountant and do-it-yourself? Looking to replace or upgrade your accounting software. Read on for a high level overview of Accounting Software.
Whatever our business - church, construction, fund, inventory, manufacturing, nursery, payroll, project, restaurant, etc - an accounting software system will help you to lower your costs, improve your accounts' accuracy and give you a much better idea of how your company is performing. Also, an accounting software system may just help you with the e-filing (electronic/online filing).

Accounting Software Functionality
Generally, you need to manage your sales**, customers**, inventory and other information along with associated documents. You will definitely want to generate reports.
Ideally - to manage your sales**, customers**, inventory and other information - the 'out-of-the-box' (minimum or no configuration required) accounting software will manage:

• your money coming in (Accounts Receivable)


• your money going out (Accounts Payable)


• your main documents (Billing, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders)


• your inventory (Stock)

• money owed to you


• your staff's expenses and salaries (Payroll)


• project times (so that you can charge for actual work against projects your staff are working on)


• approval processes (so you can submit, then track who approved what and when)

• integration to other systems (normally enterprise systems)


• major imports (when initially bringing data into the system)


• minor imports (for regular use by staff for getting small quantities of data into the system)


• backing up of the accounting system (meta data, as well as configuration of the system)


• reporting/graphs (for high-level views such as Balances, Profit & Loss, Portfolio overviews etc)


• Multiple currencies


• Import ability


• Localisation (allowing you to use the software in your own language)


• Cheque/Check printing

• How are you managing your accounts at the moment?


• How many transactions do you have a month? (manual might be best if you only have a dozen transactions a month for example)


• What type of company is yours? (meaning what type of legal entity is it?)


• How many people wil be using the system?


• Do you know what your business needs? If you know what your business needs, then you will be able to better match up functionality of the accountancy package(s) you are considering.


• What database will the accounting package be using?

• Personal: GnuCash (GPL), Quicken


• Small Enterprise: Microsoft Office Accounting, TurboCASH (GPL)


• Medium enterprise: NetSuite (on-demand), Tiny ERP (GPL)


• Large Enterprise: Oracle Corporation, SAP