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Bookkeeper, Public Accountant
List Of Top
accounting & bookkeeping Software For Your Business
Simply put, accounting & bookkeeping is the lifeline of a
business. accounting & bookkeeping deals with summarizing, analyzing
and reporting the financial data and information about a
business. An accounting & bookkeeping software records and processes
the accounting & bookkeeping transactions of a business within its
functional modules. Financial statements consisting of
the balance sheet, profit and loss account, and
statement of changes in financial position can be easily
prepared with an accounting & bookkeeping software.
An
accounting & bookkeeping s...
top accounting &
bookkeeping software,
accounting & bookkeeping software list, modules of
accounting & bookkeeping
software, types of accounting & bookkeeping software
Simply
put, accounting & bookkeeping is the lifeline of a business.
accounting & bookkeeping deals with summarizing, analyzing and
reporting the financial data and information about a
business. An accounting & bookkeeping software records and processes
the accounting & bookkeeping transactions of a business within its
functional modules. Financial statements consisting of
the balance sheet, profit and loss account, and
statement of changes in financial position can be easily
prepared with an accounting & bookkeeping software.
An
accounting & bookkeeping software is all about the various functional
modules that it has. Some of them are- General ledger
which takes care of the company's financial dealings;
Accounts Payable where the company enters its bills and
pays the money it owes; Accounts Receivable where money
received is entered.
The different categories or
types of accounting & bookkeeping software are as follows:
a)
Small business/personal accounting & bookkeeping software which are
mainly meant for home users. They are simple and
inexpensive with simple functioning such as management
of budgets.
b) Low end accounting & bookkeeping software are
for small business markets that are capable of serving a
single national market. Such software are characterized
by 'single entry' products.
c) Mid market
accounting & bookkeeping software are for companies with large
businesses. These software are capable of serving the
needs of multiple national accountancy standards and
facilitate accounting & bookkeeping in multiple currencies.
d)
High end accounting & bookkeeping software are complex and expensive
business accounting & bookkeeping software that are also known as
Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software.
However, you have to keep certain things in mind before
buying an accounting & bookkeeping software, like the prices of the
software, its different features, its after-sales
support and alike. Most of the accounting & bookkeeping software
include all the important accounting & bookkeeping modules. The more
specialized features a software has, the more expensive
it becomes. Your software features must be compatible
with your business. Also, the after-sales support is
important like FAQ package, local service center and
others.
There are a lot of top accounting &
bookkeeping
software available in every category. So, it is not easy
to select the best ones. Below are top five accounting &
bookkeeping
software in every category.
A. Small
business/personal accounting & bookkeeping software:
1. ePeachtree
(Best Software)
2. MYOB Plus for Windows (MYOB
Software)
3. Peachtree Complete accounting &
bookkeeping (Best
Software)
4. QuickBooks Online (Intuit)
5. Small
Business Manager (Microsoft)
B. Low-End
accounting & bookkeeping Software:
1. BusinessVision 32 (Best
Software)
2. MAS 90 & MAS 200 (Best Software)
3.
QuickBooks Pro 2003 (Intuit)
4. ACCPAC Pro Series
(ACCPAC International)
5. Vision Point 2000 (Best
Software)
C. Middle-Market accounting &
bookkeeping Software:
1. ACCPAC Advantage Series Corporate Edition (Best
Software)
2. Great Plains (Microsoft) MAS 90 & MAS
200 (Best Software)
3. Navision (Microsoft)
4.
SouthWare Excellence Series (SouthWare)
5. SYSPRO
(SysproUSA)
D. High-end accounting & bookkeeping ERP Market:
1. Axapta (Microsoft Software)
2. e-Business Suite
(Oracle)
3. MAS 500 (Best Software).
4. Solomon
(Microsoft)
5. ACCPAC Advantage Series Enterprise
Edition (Best Software)
In compiling the above
list, a variety of factors such as feedbacks from
customers, scalability of the software, and after-sales
support are used. Also, the different attributes for
different categories have been considered like for ERP
software, attributes such as manufacturing solution,
supply chain solution and database solution. The above
compilation may not be all inclusive and some people
might choose to differ with it but it is almost near to
perfect list.
How To Choose The
Best accounting & bookkeeping Software For Your Business?
With more and more people self employed and
setting up businesses from home accounting & bookkeeping software are
becoming much more of a necessity. If your business is
lucky enough to be growing rapidly you may have trouble
keeping a track of all your finances. If you don’t want
to spend every evening yourself going thorough the
accounts you could pay an bookkeeper, public accountant to do all this for
you, but this is costly and not feasible for small
businesses that are starting out. The best way is to
bu...
accounting & bookkeeping software,
With more and
more people self employed and setting up businesses from
home accounting & bookkeeping software are becoming much more of a
necessity. If your business is lucky enough to be
growing rapidly you may have trouble keeping a track of
all your finances. If you don’t want to spend every
evening yourself going thorough the accounts you could
pay an bookkeeper, public accountant to do all this for you, but this is
costly and not feasible for small businesses that are
starting out. The best way is to buy reputable
accounting & bookkeeping software. And if you get this right is could
be a major investment for your business. But you don’t
want to spend a lot of money on accounting & bookkeeping software only
to find out that a few months down the line your
business is growing so rapidly and your accounting &
bookkeeping
software cannot handle it.
The problem with
accounting & bookkeeping software is that there is no single best
product that suits every businesses needs. To find the
best software you need to evaluate what your needs for
your particular business are. Some of the questions you
need to ask are:
• What exactly do you want the
software to do?
• Will it cope if my business trebles
in a year’s time?
• Will the software meet my current
and future needs?
• Does the package provide web
integration?
• Can the software be customized? If so
will it be capable of meeting your full requirements?
• Is the vendor reputable and do they offer customer and
technical support?
• Does the software produce the
reports your business needs?
• Is it easy to use?
The best way forward is to research your particular
business accounting & bookkeeping needs. Read reviews and find similar
companies to yours and find out what software package
they use and ask all the pros and cons of that
particular software. There are many websites that
evaluate and review software for you, but remember many
businesses have different needs and are of a different
size. And if your business is successful and growing
rapidly then your accounting & bookkeeping software needs to be able
to have the resources to take on the extra accounts that
it might produce in the future.
You must be
careful not to buy accounting & bookkeeping software because of its
price. You may find some software that is very
reasonably priced and then only to find out you have to
upgrade it to it can run your business effectively. But
this does not necessary mean that the more expensive
software packages are any more suitable for your
business. This is why you must be careful before you buy
any software, research is a must. You might find all the
different software packages on the market quite daunting
and be put off and just buy one that’s in the price
range you have available. And you may also use the
excuse that you have little time to research what
software package is most suitable. But a little amount
of time spent before you purchase your software could
save you an awful lot of hassle and time in the future.
Don’t be afraid to ask companies for advice, they may
tell you some horror stories they had and how to avoid
these yourself.
accounting &
bookkeeping
Professionals: Are They Necessary?
Does your business needs an outside
bookkeeper, public accountant?
It all depends. If you require an
audited or reviewed financial statement, then, yes, you
need a CPA. In any event, it is always a good idea to
maintain a relationship with an bookkeeper, public
accountant no matter how
small your business. Whether your bookkeeper, public
accountant is a CPA is
up to you. The real question is: To what extent do you
need outside accounting & bookkeeping services? That also depends on
you and the nature of your business.
I always
start with...
bookkeeper, public accountants,
accounting & bookkeeping
Professionals, CPA, Non-CPA
Does your business
needs an outside bookkeeper, public accountant?
It all depends. If
you require an audited or reviewed financial statement,
then, yes, you need a CPA. In any event, it is always a
good idea to maintain a relationship with an bookkeeper,
public accountant
no matter how small your business. Whether your
bookkeeper, public accountant is a CPA is up to you. The real question is:
To what extent do you need outside accounting &
bookkeeping services?
That also depends on you and the nature of your
business.
I always start with the admonition:
The Buck Stops With You! You cannot afford to dissociate
yourself from understanding the meaning of your
financial statements. If you solely rely on your
accounting & bookkeeping staff or bookkeeper, public
accountant for completely accurate
financial data, then you are asking for trouble. If you
are going to own or manage a business, then you have a
responsibility to learn how to speak the language of
business. The language of business is accounting &
bookkeeping
knowledge.
How involved you become in the
accounting & bookkeeping process will be determined by time schedules,
your mental pre-disposition, desire for control,
cash flow, etc. One scenario, if you can afford it, is
to hire an internal accounting & bookkeeping staff to prepare
financial statements on a monthly basis and have an
external bookkeeper, public accountant check them over. Another common
scenario is to prepare part of the compilation yourself,
such as preparing a sales journal and a cash
disbursements journal, and then hire an outside
bookkeeper, public accountant to prepare a bank reconciliation and the
financial statements for you. Some do this on a monthly
basis, others quarterly. Some business owners do the
books themselves all year and turn them over to the
bookkeeper, public accountant at the end of the year to verify the balances
and do the depreciation entry for tax purposes.
There are numerous ways to work with an bookkeeper,
public accountant.
Regardless, you should learn enough about accounting &
bookkeeping to
be able to communicate intelligently with your
bookkeeper, public accountant. Since you are intimately involved in your
business you may recognize danger signals that not even
your bookkeeper, public accountant will see.
Selecting an bookkeeper, public accountant
Relying on the yellow pages to find
an bookkeeper, public accountant can be risky. The best way to find any
professional is by a referral. However, you need to
interview prospective bookkeeper, public accountants before signing on. One
of the first priorities is to find out what their
experience level is. Your business may have very
specific accounting & bookkeeping and tax issues that require a
certain amount of expertise. Perhaps you have a
manufacturing concern. What does the bookkeeper, public
accountant know
about raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods
inventory accounting & bookkeeping? Does the bookkeeper,
public accountant know how to
set up job-costing and overhead burdens? Ask for
references from other like-kind businesses.
Keep
in mind, that you may go to an established firm with a
good reputation, but with whom are you going to have a
relationship? Is your account large enough to warrant a
relationship with a partner? You need to feel confident
with the person assigned to your account. Perhaps a
smaller firm with four or five bookkeeper, public
accountants who are all
seasoned veterans might
work better.
You
will also want someone with whom you can relate. The
ability to communicate is a crucial factor. Your
bookkeeper, public accountant may be technically proficient but can you
understand what he or she is telling you? Does he or she
listen when you ask questions? Don’t be afraid to ask
for someone else if you are having difficulty
communicating.
Another important criterion is
“accessibility”. Is your bookkeeper, public accountant too busy to talk to
you? Can you get your questions answered within a
reasonable period of time? Do you feel important to him
or her? Situations may arise where you need information
immediately to make an important business or tax
decision, will your bookkeeper, public accountant respond quickly?
Last, but not least, are the bookkeeper, public
accountant’s billing
practices. Billing practices vary from firm to firm.
Some firms are very aggressive and put tremendous
pressure on staff and partners to bill every minute they
can. Some firms require a review process before any work
goes out the door. This means that every person who
performs
any work on your account, including the
person who puts the stamp on your envelope, bills you
for it.
Find out in advance what happens if you
call the firm to ask a simple question that takes less
than five minutes to answer. Are you billed for five
minutes or are you billed in increments of fifteen
minutes even though you only talked for five? Some firms
justify this increment billing by explaining that you
are paying for the bookkeeper, public accountant’s expertise that may have
taken years to acquire, therefore, they say, it’s worth
it.
Some accounting & bookkeeping practitioners charge a flat
rate for services rendered or a combination of flat
services and hourly charges. For instance, an
bookkeeper, public accountant
might charge $200 a month to prepare a monthly financial
statement but charge $100 an hour for special projects.
Within the monthly fee, the client can call to ask
questions that last fifteen minutes or less for no
additional charge. This way the client is not reticent
about calling. Getting your question answered may
prevent little problems from later becoming bigger
more expensive problems.
Very often projects
take longer to complete than anticipated. Complications
arise and the practitioner should be paid for his or her
work. Always insist that, if there are going to be
additional charges over and above what has been agreed
upon, that the bookkeeper, public accountant gets your approval first. Be
sure to clarify these procedures before engaging an
bookkeeper, public accountant in an “engagement letter”. This is a document
that spells out the responsibilities of both parties and
how the relationship is going to work.
Remember,
there is absolutely no reason to be intimidated by your
bookkeeper, public accountant. After all, you are paying for the services,
and I promise you, the bookkeeper, public accountant wants your business.