Selection/Installation of accounting software is mainly done at a time of starting a business or restructuring of organization. Selection of accounting software is crucial decision because it will affect your cost, the way you want to maintain records & generate reports for making decisions, the way you want to integrate your all department through accounting and survival of your business because ultimately your decision will be based on accuracy and indepthness of the report generated from accounting application. So accounting application must be such that it provides accurate & real-time information to make decisions.
Selecting a software is very difficult task, however if you know advantages & disadvantages of all options from which you have to select, you’ll be in better position to take a decision and select accounting application suitable to your organization. In this article I will tell you all that you need to know about accounting softwares, its advantages, disadvantages & preference of accounting software available in market.
Accounting Software 1: SAP
- SAP is advisable only for large scale businesses having multinational, cross border, multi location operation with multi point control for different function.
- It is customized accounting solution for integrating different department say production, sales, human resources, finance, and accounts.
- SAP is advisable for organizations which has no cost constrains for accounting software since it is expensive.
- SAP helps organizations to integrate all information from different department into one platform for making decisions. It is advisable to the companies that want high security of its information via entry log details, restrict pass entry for department, give access to particular person only, want customized report & quick & detail information to take decision.
- But as I said implementing & maintaining a SAP is very costly and therefore SAP is primarily used by Pharmacy sector companies, Automobile industry, IT companies, FMCG companies, Heavy engineering companies, Oil explorations and production companies and by major Audit firms.
Accounting Software 2: Tally
- Tally is advisable for small, medium scale business & newly started enterprises which has limited budget for accounting software, where data volume is not very high and entire operation and management is very closely controlled.
- Tally is mostly preferred due to simplicity, easiness to operate, less cost involved in implementation & maintenance.
- Tally is used by small and medium enterprises, electronics and electrical supply vendors, real estate companies, fashion accessories, leather products, paper companies.
- However if you are more concern about information security, customized report, multi location operation then SAP is advisable over tally.
- Tally is specifically designed software keeping in mind Indian small traders & dealers. Tally is developed by an Indian company.
- Tally is adding new features to its application in every versions keeping in mind Indian business accounting problem.
 Accounting Software 3: BUSY
- BUSY is useful primarily for professionals in the field of sales and finance who want to maintain and update their operational data that is used daily by managerial person for preparing MIS and other operational dashboards, used by companies for managing payrolls.
- BUSY is offered as SAAS model through the clouds. Therefore there is no software to install & the accounting information of the company can be accessed from any computer with an internet browser.
- BUSY is preferable to professionals who are traveling a lot, who want internet based accounting software i.e. accessibility from anywhere, who has very less number of transaction.
Function | Preference in order |
---|---|
Cost constrains | Tally |
Simplicity, Easy to work | Tally |
Newly Started Enterprises | Tally |
Traders, Dealers, Retailers. | Tally |
Single Premises Operation | Tally |
Web –Bases Access, Access Anywhere | QBs |
Professionals | QBs |
Quick Implementation | QBs |
Internet Technology Driven Application | QBs |
Multi –Function/ Multi- Department | SAP |
In depth reports/ Decision making | SAP |
Information Security | SAP |
Customization as per user requirement | SAP |
Manufacturing sector, MNC companies | SAP |
Summary
Accounting software depends upon 3 main features:
- Your industry sector (traders, manufacturer, professional, Service sector)
- Your Scale of Operation & Number of transactions ( Newly started , MNC, Multi Location ),
- Objectives or expectation from accounting department ( Reports requirement, Information Security, Real time information requirement, control all department function based on information derived from accounting application).
Hope this article enables you to decide which accounting software is suitable for your organization.
Suggestion, feedback, queries are welcome. Your valuable feedbacks will be value addition to other readers too.
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