All About Accounting Software

Recently, Universal Business Computing Company, a leading provider of high productivity payroll and accounting software, announced the addition of auto-fill and auto-populate features to the general ledger and bank reconciliation data entry screens of their software. The new features in UBCC’s accounting software will help make certain that accountants are compliant with the upcoming 1099 requirements by providing consistency throughout the account coding and data descriptions.

The upcoming change in the 1099 tax compliance law is scheduled to become mandatory in the 2012 calendar tax year, and is of significant concern to accountants and their small business clients. In July, 2010, the Maryland Association of CPAs published a letter written by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which conveyed concerns about the burden that the expansion of reporting in the 1099’s would place on growing businesses.

Ken Garen, CPA, Co-founder and President of UBCC commented, “In addition, these added features contribute to our clients’ productivity and competitiveness in the current economy, and their ability to offer cost-effective compliance services to their clients.”

The newly added auto-fill and auto-populate features in the payroll software provide the capability to “type ahead” by accepting a previously entered account number or dollar entry, or by simply typing over to create a new entry. New entries are automatically added to the table, and the process significantly reduces the amount of time and increases the accuracy in the data entry of checks and journal entries used in the preparation of 1099s.

EZShield has selected Intacct as its new financial management system. With Intacct’s cloud financial applications, EZShield will be able to support its growing multi-entity business of identity theft protection services by automating revenue management and better handling of tracking, approval and reimbursement of employee expenses.

With almost a decade of identity theft protection experience and growth under its belt, EZShield realized its on-premises accounting software was no longer the right fit in the changing times and set out to find a more flexible, cloud-based solution.

In addition to wanting a web-accessible solution, there were several key requirements that EZShield identified for its financial management system. It was critical that the accounting software needed to provide support for multiple business entities and locations and would be able to streamline its key financial processes, including financial consolidation, revenue management and employee expense processing.

Intacct won over EZShield because it was a comprehensive financial management system, at a fraction of the cost and complexity of traditional on-premises financial software. Intacct is well suited for a business like EZShield that operates in multiple locations and impressed EZShield with how easy it was to add additional business entities to the system, following the growth of the company. In addition, EZShield can expect to see an increase accounting department productivity with Intacct helping speed up their financial consolidation and close processes.

Intacct’s revenue management capabilities will allow EZShield to streamline and automate the revenue management process further simplifying the need for spreadsheets and manual data re-entry, and therefore reducing the risk of errors.

Intacct’s employee expense and purchasing modules will be deployed through the company. With these modules, employees can now quickly and securely create and submit expense reports and purchase requisitions from anywhere with an internet connection. Approval, reviews or requests for more information as effortlessly sent back and forth from managers or the finance department when their approval is needed.

RedGear Technologies, developer of TaxWorks professional tax software, has partnered with CYMA Accounting Software to create a software package that will prepare the most complex tax returns as well as provide solutions for a broad spectrum of accounting needs. The new TaxWorks package will be available for the 2011 tax filing season.

RedGear Accounting, powered by CYMA, will be included with the TaxWorks software at no additional charge. The accounting and tax filing software includes general ledger, cash disbursements, cash receipts, after the fact payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank reconciliation, purchase orders and more. Additional modules, or upgrades such as live payroll, are available for purchase.

Including RedGear Accounting at no charge with the purchase of TaxWorks allows tax preparers to meet their clients’ bookkeeping and financial reporting needs. Tax preparers can increase their revenues, and save money doing so because they will no longer need to purchase a separate accounting or write-up software package. We feel that by working with CYMA to deliver RedGear Accounting we are giving our customers the best value on a full featured tax and accounting suite available in the market today.

ArrowBooks Online Accounting Software recently announced the launch of Integrated E-commerce websites. This integration syncs web-based sales transactions with ArrowBooks accounting software, making it easier for users to access the latest information and eliminating the need to enter data twice.

With businesses moving to the online world, it only makes sense to implement a system that allows users to manage their online sales efficiently. ArrowBooks Online Accounting Software does just that by providing their customers with a comprehensive online accounting package. It’s no more a hassle to maintain items on the website or even ensuring that all the item sales have been accounted for. The entire process is automated with the integration of the e-commerce site with the accounting software.

ArrowBooks delivers users with various tools and features, to tailor the E-Commerce websites to their business needs. Using the Website console module in the ArrowBooks software, customers can change the look and feel of their website – from changing the layout, wording to colors and photos etc.  Users can even set/modify the accepted methods of payment, shipping costs, sales tax and more.

Further, the integration of ArrowBooks Online Accounting software with the E-Commerce website allows users to upload items onto the website easily with the help of the inventory module. Users just need to select the items they want uploaded and the inventory module does the job for them. There’s no need to upload items to the website again. The software also manages and tracks the online sales transactions as and when they occur, making the tracking process more efficient.

ArrowBooks’ integrated E-Commerce Website provides a simple and comprehensive solution to manage an online business. This application is ideal for any business big or small and increases productivity and efficiency.

Acclivity released the latest Mac version of their small business accounting software -AccountEdge2010. This new edition of the accounting software is ideal for businesses that need web store integration. The web store called EnStore, developed by Acclivity’s Checkout partner, Sofa, enables businesses to provide their customers with a good online shopping experience. It offers users, data on the detailed tracking of item information, profitability of sales analysis and bank deposit slip printing.

Irrespective of the size of the online store, EnStore is a easy-to-use application that can be seamlessly integrated with other systems. For instance – Information related to products, images, pricing and other details can be managed in AccountEdge and integrated with EnStore. This allows users to have the latest information and enhances workflow efficiency.

Further, the pay as you go, web store allows users to customize the look and feel of their store with the help of various templates the application offers. Users can add their own pictures, descriptions and even modify the store with automatic shipping, tax rate lookup, credit card payment options and more.

Apart from the customizable features, AccountEdge 2010 also provides businesses the ability to track and manage their online inventory with ease. For instance- they can track item weight, price, tagging functionality, brand association etc. What’s more, it even lets you analyze and monitor the profitability margin of every sale with the help of Show Profit Analysis button. It offers users a fair analysis of the gross profit margin, cost of each item, cost of the entire invoice, profit analysis from an order quote and an invoice. Users even have the ability to modify the prices of items to analyze how it affects the profitability.

AccountEdge 2010 offers a plethora of tools and features to effectively manage an online store. It comes integrated with good support manuals and user guides to help customers get started. Their Auto Update feature automatically updates the software for any new updates ensuring customers have the latest features to work with.

To make it easier for you to decide on the best accounting software in the market, we have developed a Top 15 Accounting Software vendor report, which lists the top vendors, product features and more.

There are a host of accounting solutions available to small-business owners. A number of sites offer basic accounting and payroll solutions for free, and then there are the low-priced products offered by Sage, Intuit Software, and their competitors. This month in the United Kingdom, two London-based designers are adding their own accounting solution to that list of those catering to SMBs: Brightbook.

Borne of the two designer’s disinclination to keep books, Brightbook is intended to change the way people feel about accounting. The founders are James Henderson and Warwick Leicester, who both run small businesses and were unsatisfied with Sage’s Peachtree application—Henderson notes that Peachtree wasn’t especially lacking in features, it just wasn’t the simplest, most straightforward offering for him.

Brightbook therefore aims to make the bookkeeping process painfully simple, and during their first stage of business (and marketing), the product is free. The founders’ goal is to build a user base offering the bare bones, gratis platform, and then eventually monetize by developing paid features. They also hope to begin working with accountants on the platform—Henderson claims he has already proselytized his own clerk.

There are a number of risks in offering a free product, but Brightbook already has about 1,200 users singed up (many of them leveraged through the accounting product’s Facebook page), which adds to the idea that the Britons might really be on to something. It will be interesting to see how Henderson and Leicester are able to grow this very simple product into something more—and whether they become serious competition for the larger SMB accounting software providers.

There are myriad accounting solutions out there for businesses of all sizes, but sometimes the simplest business models just need a straightforward payroll solution—enter Halfpricesoft.com.

Founded in 2003, Halfpricesoft provides user-friendly 1099, W2, and payroll packages for accountants at small- and medium-sized organizations, and their ezPaycheck payroll solution offers a hassle-free program for small business accounting. ezPaycheck caters to small business owners—people with an entrepreneurial spirit who are completely capable but can still use an extra hand when it comes to accounting.

In addition, fledgling businesses sometimes can’t afford to staff an accounts payable department, nor can they support the IT costs sometimes necessary to maintain a multifaceted financial management solution. In cases like these, programs like ezPaycheck are a good choice, as they allow users to print payroll checks, create and maintain payrolls for multiple companies, and automatically calculate withheld taxes. And like the majority of software solutions that are most attractive for small businesses, Halfpricesoft’s products can be easily installed without difficult software configurations.

Halfpricesoft.com recently released the latest version of their main small business accounting solution, ezPaycheck 2010. At the beginning of each year taxes loom, and the current season is surely why ezPaycheck is getting press right now—but rather than just parrot press releases, we at CompareAccounting.com are going to take the opportunity to look at simple accounting and finance solutions for small businesses, and later look at when exactly growing businesses should consider a more complex platform. So be sure to check in next month!

If the first months in a year are any indication of the success to be had in 2010, then AccountMate has set the pace for an auspicious year. In January, they scored big in the business software market by integrating with RedTail Solutions (and EDI and GDS provider), and just this week, they scored an account with logo-products manufacturer Kolder, Inc.

RedTail caters to mid-market suppliers and manufacturers, and their integration is taking AccountMate beyond just simple accounting processes. RedTail offers managed service solutions for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Global Data Synchronization (GDS), and they’ve recently enhanced their UI to integrate with the latest version of AccountMate (v 7.6). Both companies target the mid-sized enterprises, and the new integration will allow companies processing large volumes of EDI transactions to cut costs, improve efficiency, and quicken the “order-to-crash” cycle. The new interface was designed by a third party, Figtree Consulting.

Kolder, Inc. implemented AccountMate through one of the company’s Elite Solution partners, and integrated AccountMate’s Manufacturing and CRM modules during deployment. Kolder is responsible for producing licensed and novelty products for some pretty big names—NFL, NBA, NHL, Anheuser-Busch, Coors, and over 130 colleges to name a few—and sought an accounting and finance solution that was integrative with manufacturing processes. Kolder’s solution also needed to meet the scalability they required for national product distribution.

Kolder had recently acquired another company, and each was using a different ERP solution. The AccountMate remedy chosen was AccountMate SQL with Manufacturing Conductor, as well as the AccountMate CRM module. The open architecture AccountMate offers was allegedly a large factor in Kolder’s decision, and the new implementation has allowed them to cut administration staff by 35%.

We don’t like to sound too much like press-release trumpets over here, but when the news is impressive it’s good to take note. A lot of the accounting software news we see is Intuit-related (which is not a bad thing), and it’s interesting to see companies that have grown their accounting products into more complete packages that include ERP and CRM functionalities.

Intuit and Microsoft announced today they will be partnering to create web applications that will automate tasks for small businesses. The main progression is for Intuit, which will now be able to reach out to the Microsoft .NET and Azure developer network.

The companies will be integrating the respective capabilities of their cloud platforms—Microsoft Windows Azure and the Intuit Partner Platform—with an aim to allow developers and channel partners to deliver products to enterprise users of Intuit’s QuickBooks. Developers can currently access the beta version of Intuit SDK for Azure, and toward the end of 2010, they’ll have access to Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which includes SharePoint, Exchange, and Communications Server.

Intuit execs said the partnership will help them build a best of breed suite of applications for small businesses, which will eventually provide them collaboration abilities both internally and with business partners. Some tech pundits, like Dennis Howlett, see Intuit’s larger goal as this: using Platfrom-as-a-Services as a way for delivering lots of aaS functionality, expanding their reach, and developing deep domain expertise to encourage growth.

We’ll likely have to wait till later in the year to see what comes of it.

Intuit Inc. completed its acquisition of Mint.com last November, and is now moving to phase out its Quicken Online software in favor of that purchase.

To tell the story of Quicken Online and Mint.com is to examine the financial management preferences of different age groups. Mint.com began as an online personal finance management platform in 2006, and as such, a large number of its users were in their 20s and 30s. Intuit’s products, meanwhile, were desktop applications used by Baby Boomers and some older Gen-Xers. Like most new web-based applications, Mint was sleek and simple, and appealed to fiscally-responsible young people who didn’t care for the (seemingly) excessive data entry associated with Intuit’s products.

At the time of Mint’s inception, Intuit had easily cornered the personal finance market with Quicken, and two years after Mint.com began, Intuit released Quicken Online to compete. Needless to say, Quicken Online never took off, and Intuit acquired Mint.com last fall. Upon purchasing Mint, Intuit officials said Quicken Online would be phased out—this leads us the present.

Mint.com is going to retain its brand, and Quicken Online software will be combined with Mint’s technology. Quicken Online users will be transitioned to Mint.com, and users will be able to manage personal finances between the internet and their home computers. There have been some questions as to whether or not Quicken users will adapt to Mint.com. It’s always difficult switching from a system with which you’re comfortable, so the change will likely be difficult for some older users. Still, Mint has a sharp offering—and is going to start offering mortgage management soon—and its interface differences don’t preclude its being liked by former Quicken Online devotees.