Finance and accounting softwareis
widely used by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to save
time and money by automating repetitive processes and simplifying
financial reporting. However, as an increasing number of suppliers
target smaller businesses, deciding which package to choose is
becoming more complicated.
Over the years, software suppliers have been adding more
innovative features to their finance packages, such as web
interfaces and better integration with supply chain and other
applications, and they have also altered products to make them more
useable for non-accountants.
Large software suppliers, such as
Microsoft, SAP and Oracle, have tailored financial software
products to SMEs, and there are also many specialist suppliers and
web-centric service providers.
Enterprise resource planning suites from the likes of Pegasus,
Lawson Software, Oracle and SAP include web-based modules for
common finance and accounting tasks so that multiple employees can
use the system simultaneously from multiple locations. However,
budget constraints mean that most SMEs will still opt for client
server-based systems.
"If you are a larger organisation with more than five accounting
personnel, you may want some international capability,
multi-currency, and a more open coding structure for general
ledger, but at a much lower price point than a full ERP package.
Something like Sage Line 200 and 500 could be a good option," said
Nigel Rayner, research vice-president at analyst firm Gartner.
In addition to Sage, client server-based financial software
packages for SMEs include Intuit Quickbooks, Pegasus Software's
Opera, and Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains.
Microsoft Great Plains
Microsoft's Great Plains suite offers general ledger, accounts
payable, and accounts receivable modules, as well as bank
reporting, cash flow management and easy reconciliation.
Microsoft has also developed Office Accounting Express 2007,
which is a simpler program for managing business finances in small
or home-based businesses.
Pegasus Opera II
Another popular desktop accounts system is Pegasus Software's
Opera II, which is used by about 20,000 organisations. Among these
is Calcot Manor, which uses the software to manage the finances of
its Cotswold-based hotel business.
Calcot Manor has a £7m turnover and employs more than 300 staff.
It requires good payroll and human resources functions in its
finance and accounting software.
The hotel implemented Opera II with a Pegasus XRL business
intelligence tool and Opera's Payroll and HR module. The package
includes Online Filing Manager, which allows Calcot Manor to submit
end-of-year forms via the Government Gateway portal.
Jan Dyne, accounts manager at Calcot Manor, said the migration
to Opera II was quick and easy, taking just a couple of hours. The
product has a Windows interface, which helped with usability, she
said.
"Payroll is easier than it has ever been many of the processes
are performed automatically, so you do not need to be a payroll
expert. This saves time and reduces the potential human error of
the traditional manual procedures," said Dyne.
Intuit Quickbooks
Intuit says its Quickbooks 2006 software requires no previous
knowledge of accountancy. Its Quickbooks Simplestart software was
adopted by Linda Gilligan, the owner/manager of chocolate fountain
business Absolute Chocolate, in 2005.
Despite having a financial services background, Gilligan said
the small business
accounting package that her accountant had recommended was too
confusing. A friend recommended the Intuit software, which she
found more straightforward.
"I found Quickbooks Simplestart very easy to use straight away,
and at first I used it extensively for 'data catch up', so I had a
record of my customers and finances from the very beginning of the
business. It is simple to pull client information out of the
application, and I find that it makes invoices very easy to put
together," said Gilligan.
She receives about five orders a week for her chocolate fountain
service, and said that the bookkeeping software is well suited to a
business of her size.
Coda Dream
In contrast to Quickbooks' approach, Coda's Dream SME accounting
system was "designed by accountants for accountants".
Travel company Roxton Bailey Robinson Worldwide implemented Coda
Dream in October 2005, replacing an accounts system that had
evolved over five years without being properly structured, said
finance director Andrew Murray.
Murray said he had the choice of spending a large amount of
money restructuring the incumbent system or starting again, and he
had implemented Dream at a previous company.
Dream consists of the core nominal, purchase, sales and cash
ledgers additional ledgers for particular businesses administrative
purchasing fixed asset accounting and reporting. Its strength is
its ability to dig into the forms and input documents behind the
financial figures that are represented, said Murray.
Roxton Bailey Robinson installed the software on a single Intel
3.06GHz Xeon server running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, SQL
Server 2003 and a 132Gbyte hard drive.
Murray said that because the system was based on the Microsoft
.net Framework, he was able to write routines in Visual Basic to
extract data from the booking and customer relationship management
systems that also accessed the SQL Server database. The ability to
import this data has saved the company a lot of time, particularly
for the three members of staff who previously had to re-key
information.
Symmetry Bluqube
Although client server finance systems have proved their worth,
browser-based software can offer lower set-up costs and predictable
charges. Symmetry Bluqube is an example of a financial and
management accounting system that is completely web-based, and is
designed for use by non-finance professionals.
The system is aimed at companies that have a turnover of £3m to
£250m, and up to 800 users, and it can integrate with other
financial systems. According to the supplier, the product was
designed to simplify the complexities faced by finance
professionals.
Infrastructure asset management software company Exor migrated
from two standard desktop accounting packages to Symmetry Bluqube
when it needed to extend its finance system to support the firm's
global expansion.
Kay Quance, Exor's finance director, said, "The old system would
regularly fall over we would lose data and it was just too slow. We
also needed to increase our level and sophistication of reporting,
both for our investors and to individual departments in the
business."
After Exor moved to Bluqube, Quance said the firm gained a more
structured approach to implementation and integrating with other
applications, such as Order Book.
"With Bluqube, there is full integration, which means that we
only have to enter information once. And because this is shared
with the core accounting system, we can produce more detailed and
meaningful reports.
"Our month end used to take two people up to a week, now it is
done in a couple of days," said Quance.
Bluqube costs between £20,000 and £180,000, depending on the
products selected and the number of users.
Intrabiz
Intrabiz develops bespoke web-based accounting systems. A system
it built for the National Childbirth Trust has simplified work for
the charity's 330 volunteer branch treasurers, speeding up the
preparation of accounts and centralising the monitoring and control
of financial processes.
Belinda Phipps, chief executive at the National Childbirth
Trust, said the benefits of adopting a web-based system included
having a consistent accounting product across all branches, with
head office gaining on-demand access to the charity's national
accounts and key performance indicators.
She said the cost of the system was lower than an equivalent
client server system, and it gave the National Childbirth Trust the
ability to audit accounts remotely. Previously, the finance
director had to wait until paper copies had been filed by each
branch to audit them.
The web-based system has also cut the time it takes volunteers
to enter accounts data for the quarter. It now typically takes
volunteers a few hours, rather than several days, said Phipps.
Interprise Suite
Interprise Suite is one of an emerging breed of products which
aim to combine the advantages of desktop and web-based finance
software.
Based on a smart client, service oriented architecture (SOA),
Interprise runs as a traditional desktop suite, offering a rich
user interface and easy printing, but it can also be accessed
remotely via a browser, without requiring Citrix or Microsoft
Terminal Services to run.
Interprise Suite uses a single database to offer customer
relationship management, business intelligence, accounts,
e-commerce, e-mail, reports, order processing and trade counter
functions. It is free for a standard single-user version and costs
£1,500 per five-user licence.
Gartner said several finance software suppliers were going down
the SOA route, including Workday, which was founded by
ex-Peoplesoft executives. Some suppliers are also offering finance
software as a managed service over the web.
However, Rayner said there had not been much take up of software
as a service in accounting, because many firms are concerned about
security and integration with their own systems.
"The [software as a service] products at the lower end are still
mostly client server, and all of them have web capabilities, and
perhaps a whole set of web-based modules. The challenge is that
SMEs do not really need a web-based finance or accounting system
because they can run it on a local area network," said Rayner.