Background of the application of accounting software

Discuss about the Enrolling and Authenticating Computing Devices.

Nowadays, the manual process of summarizing, analyzing and reporting the financial data and information is become the old concept in the field of accounting (Biswas 2015). Today majority of companies of all sizes use the accounting software while recording the business transactions. Interestingly, the accounting software records and processes the financial transactions of the business within the application of the functional modules. Accounting software can be easily prepared the statements for financial details. This report will cover history, the accounting process of development and adoption, and the current market popularity competitive advantages among different accounting software.

In the digitalized business field, companies have often faced challenges in the bookkeeping system manually. To incorporate large number of accounting transactions, different size of businesses preferred to record their transactions to utilize accounting software. However, companies needs time to get familiar with a particular accounting software practices. Historically, Intuit was founded in 1983 and played a remarkable role in modernizing accounting for the digital field. There ranges of software is huge, where QuickBooks being the most popularly used worldwide. Though the accounting has evolved over the years, the accounting fundamentals have remained the same. Prior 2000, a lot of small size businesses used paper based accounting systems. After the introduction of the GST, several Australian companies have switching their preferences to use accounting software (Zuo et al 2017). By using different accounting software, companies finds easy in handling ranges of accounting activities such as improved invoice capabilities, facilities of automated data entry system, bank fees, level of security, user satisfaction, advance mobile activities, comprehensiveness, interfaces and level of maintenance and many other facilities.

There are different types of the accounting software/packages available for accomplishing all kind of business requirements. For instance, personal accounting software mainly fulfills the requirement of the home users or small businesses (Janvrin and Watson 2017). Limited accounting functionalities are applied by this kind of accounting software. By nature, the accounting software for small businesses is segregated by “single entry” products and simple and inexpensive with simple functioning such as management of budgets. On the other hand, the highly customized business requirements often use several integrated accounting software system for accomplishing the critical business needs. An integrated approach in accounting helps to monitor and record expenses, income and stock. However every business has different accounting requirements and thus, knowledge about the different accounting packages needs to be collected. Nevertheless, choosing the right software depends on three main factors including price, flexibility and features.

60 percent of the software market of cloud accounting has been captured by MYOB and QuickBooks in Australia (Wilson 2016). However, there are many software accounting providers available which provides bookkeeping online and offline facilities including preparation for statement of business activity such as SAP, XERO, Recon and many others.

QuickBooks is ideal accounting packages for small, medium and growing businesses in almost every industry of Australia. This is the most popular online book-keeping plans for small business. The simple start procedure by investing $13.50 per month is enough for installing QuickBooks into the system. By using QuickBooks, companies manage BAS and GST obligations. This accounting software is perfect for working on PC, tablet, Mac and mobile. Using this accounting software, the company can management automated payroll system freely up to ten employees.  This is one of the competitive advantages of this accounting software.

Concept of Accounting Software/Packages

MYOB is another popular business accounting software for small businesses in Australia. The owner needs to invest $35 per month for installing “MYOB essentials” and $85 a month for “MYOB Accounting Right Plus”. This accounting software gives perfect exposure to reports on PAYG, BAS and GST. MYOB helps in quick invoice processing, establishing link with bank account, easy payroll system and many others. Historically, MYOB has been used for long with their conventional offline desktop software. However, this accounting system has developed their online version to adopt cloud computing system into the company databases (Domeika 2015). This online accounting exposure helps to access from most of the devices anywhere.

Xero was designed on the revelation that desktop accounting software was very difficult to use. Xero retains in the highest spot in accounting software ratings. This accounting software gives the highest customer satisfaction against the investment of $25 a month. By providing 24×7 support, users can reconcile 20 bank transactions simultaneously with the use of Xero accounting software. By registering with Xero, the registered users have the full access to the account.

Reckon is popular accounting software used in Australia. Installing this software by investing $5, the users can manage unlimited bank reconciliation, budgeting, GST and BS reports. Furthermore, multi layered data security has been provided by this software. Providing free 24×7 support and utilized as free mobile app for Android, this accounting software manages finance perfectly on behalf of enterprises.

Sage is another well-known business accounting software in Australia for all size businesses. This accounting software helps in pay bills, instant invoicing, manage inventory and many others. Bringing best in class standards of accounting by Sage 50, users gets beneficial for securing desktop installation, unlimitedly access to support along with new subscription plans for offering the best value for the business. This potentiality has been expanded with cloud and online apps that connect with this software.

Today, there are many more accounting software providers in the market of Australia. Majority of the small and medium size organizations in the country are now preferred to use packaged accounting software. On the other hand, the introduction of the computerized accounting software provides several competitive advantages relative to paper-based accounting software and helps in real-time data processing as per the company’s financial position (Asnis et al 2015). There are several advantages of typical computerized accounting packages which include:

• On-screen input display corresponding the printout of the sales invoices
• Automatic customer accounts update in the sales ledger
• Record keeping of supplier invoices
• Automatic update of transactions to the general ledger
• Adjustment of stock records (automatic)
• Integration within different accounting modules and business databases with the program of accounting
• Automatic suppliers account update in the purchase ledger recording of bank receipts
• Establish a perfect automated payroll system along with other entries of accounting

After highlighting above mentioned features of accounting software, it can be said that accounting software packages helps business in several ways:

The fast bookkeeping system can be established and a lot of record keeping time can be reduced. Secondly, fast and accurate invoices, purchase, order, credit notes, payroll documents and printing statements can be processed in an automated manner. Thirdly, the level of accuracy in recording the accounting entry can be improved relative to the use of manual process (Contractor et al 2015). Fourthly, the accounting software packages have the capability to run reports for determining accounting payable and receivables within a particular period of time.

Current Market Size

Though there are many accounting software is available in the market of Australia, but the user needs to get time to accustom in practicing particular software effortlessly. In other words, advantages can be achieved after giving manual instructions perfectly. However, technological advances can change the way the operational path of businesses including the way accounting is managed (Wang and Huynh 2013). Evidence suggests that businesses are quite sensitive towards security of the accounting information in a computerized program because the quality of the program are limited or rather restricted itself and the security system of the company. On the other hand, automatic posting of accounting transactions can be done with the help of accounting software packages. However, the accounting packages may find challenges if business entered incorrect information into their databases. Lastly, software program still needs knowledgeable members to use the accounting software effectively. Thus the training exposure needs s to be provided by the management authority of businesses. However, it may be found less affordable for small or medium size businesses. Moreover, use error is a potential difficulty that could create incorrect accounting data for the company.

Businesses in Australia need to follow the recommended steps to get more advantages by the use of different accounting software packages/software into their databases:

The sustainability accounting framework needs to be followed for sharing correct accounting information so that users can record right transactions at the reporting time.

Holding special training sessions for the accounting staff of the organization could be helpful for adapting changes in accounting program or the update to a new version. This step will be beneficial for staff of the company which makes aware about the new features of the accounting software.

While switching to a completely different accounting system, users needs to be careful while transferring data from the previous system. This step is mandatory for maintaining records perfectly till the end of the accounting period.

Conclusion:

The above literature clearly indicates that several accounting software used in the Australian market. The conventional book keeping system is become less favorable compare to computerized accounting software packages. MYOB , Xero and QuickBooks are few  of the most popular accounting software in the market of Australia. Choosing the right accounting software packages, however, still an important decision in the business filed which depends on the financial requirements of enterprises.

References:

Asnis, J., Peterson, M.J. and Kelly, M., Openpeak Inc., 2015. Method and system for enrolling and authenticating computing devices for data usage accounting. U.S. Patent 9,100,390.

Biswas, S., 2015. Application of Accounting Information System: A Study on Listed Banking Companies of Bangladesh. ASA University Review, 9(1).

Contractor, S., Alexander, L.V., Donat, M.G. and Herold, N., 2015. How well do gridded datasets of observed daily precipitation compare over Australia?. Advances in Meteorology, 2015.

Domeika, P., 2015. Creation of the Information System of Enterprise Fixed Asset Accounting. Engineering Economics, 60(5).

Janvrin, D.J. and Watson, M.W., 2017. “Big Data”: A new twist to accounting. Journal of Accounting Education.

Wang, D.H.M. and Huynh, Q.L., 2013. Effects of environmental uncertainty on computerized accounting system adoption and firm performance. International Journal of Humanities and Applied Sciences, 2(1), pp.13-21.

Wilson, R.M. ed., 2016. Researching Accounting Education: Australian Contributions. Routledge.

Zuo, J., Pullen, S., Rameezdeen, R., Bennetts, H., Wang, Y., Mao, G., Zhou, Z., Du, H. and Duan, H., 2017. Green building evaluation from a life-cycle perspective in Australia: A critical review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 70, pp.358-368.