Examining The Important Functions Of Accounting Information Technology Essay

Accounting is one of the important functions of any organizations as it entitles in itself a proper way of recording, exposing and analyzing the transactions related to finance of any organization or business. With growing sizes of the organization both in domestic and in international markets, the entry, reporting, analysis and reporting of these big numbers has become a hard task to be done by an individual. Hence, the accounting software is also as important in any organization as is the Accounting itself. There are different organizations with different sizes and functions, few are well developed and big companies while few are start-ups and few are small and there are also the medium businesses for which the software is needed. As per the needs and the functions of the company, the specifications in the software may change from simple to complex functionaries. The present study is to analyze the different aspects of one such software prevailing most in the medium sized businesses and to analyze the feasibility of this software with the Masdar Corporation. Any software designed for any should be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. (Financial Accounting) (What is Accounting?)

An Accounting Software gives many advantages when compared to manual job by saving the important resources like time, money and effort of the organization, reducing the risks of wrong entry or any fault. The software, along with this offers solutions and functions that are completely impartial, it is inclusive of many features and criteria, frequent updates and revisions of the software allows it to be kept up-to-date with the prevailing standards. Any product has its own disadvantages and is not complete any time, some or the other additions are to be made to the present version. In the same manner, any accounting software has its own disadvantages like vulnerability of data to unauthorized people through hacking and phishing, the data should be authenticated; ones a wrong figure is entered, the whole process should be re-started. Any accounting software should have a proper and good amount of security and safety without which there would be data theft and also any accounting software which doesn’t comply with the system requirements and configurations needed, creates more havoc than when it is not used at all. (What are the advantages and disadvantages of computerised accounting systems Part-2, 2006)

SAGE SOFTWARES (PEACHTREE)

Sage Group, a United Kingdom based firm for providing software solutions and consulting in the fields of accounting and ERP is a major stock holder of the UAE market. The company offers its solutions and consulting to around 1500 customers in UAE itself. The products range of the firm differs with the size and nature of the businesses they offer solutions to. The company even helps the clients and customers to find out which type of solution would be helpful to the clients. The present study is about Peachtree Accounting Software solution offered by the Sage Group. This software is chosen because of its distinct features and the merit it has within the firm and among the customers. Peachtree, being an Award Winning Software in the Accounting stream which provides solutions for small Businesses is a major achievement of the Sage Software. This software design is done with an aim to provide better management of the accounting operations and the streamline operations of its clients. This software has solutions provided to every need of an organization, right from the basic to the advanced needs. The firm provides solutions for each specific industry i.e. the software differs for each industry in which the client operates. It provides solutions to non-profits, manufacturing firms, distribution and the construction firms. (Sage Group, 2011) (Tally Accounting Software Dealer Dubai UAE)

Major Features:

The main features of this software include:

Simpler startup and easy to understand

Standard accounting like the General Ledger, Inventory, Accounts Receivable, Payroll Solutions, etc.

Analysis as well as reporting

Time saving and also is customizable

This software is simpler to integrate with the MS Office tools like word, excel or outlook.

This software is much user friendly.

It has a stable database

The firm offers software solutions at different versions with different typical features necessary for each of the businesses. The products based on different utilities are: Peachtree Quantum; Peachtree Premium Accounting; Peachtree Complete Accounting; Peachtree Pro Accounting; Peachtree First Accounting, with Peachtree Quantum offering most number of features. The product features of typical Peachtree Software include Checklist Preparation, Accounts Payable, Customizable Financial Statements, Bank Reconciliation, Internal Accounting Review, Credit Hold, Inventory Assembly, Bill Pay, etc among many other features helpful for maintaining the financial information of an organization. (Tally Accounting Software Dealer Dubai UAE)

Disadvantages:

This software does have a few disadvantages like: it doesn’t support multi-currency, it does not possess a good database that can import web orders, and it is unable to merge the customers. Overall assessment of the disadvantages of the Peachtree software shows that the firm needs to improve the database and restructure it to better serve the customers apart from other disadvantages. (Advantages and Disadvantages of Peachtree)

Application of accounting system in MASDAR CORPORATION

Masdar Corporation is an enterprise driven commercially so that its operations reach the broader boundaries of renewable energy and technologies in industries that are sustainable. It was established in the year 2006. It has mainly five units which are integrated to each other, also it has its reach to the education fields and its main aim is to become a leader in the renewable and clean energy technology. The organizational performance has been in an increasing trend which resulted in the company having a competitive advantage over the peers in its own industry. The company’s subsidiaries are Masdar Power, Masdar Capital, Masdar Power, Masdar City and Masdar Carbon. (AboutUs)

As it can be seen, the firm’s main aim is to achieve a reputed position in the clean technology and the renewable energy fields. The company which is a medium-sized business firm with diversified operations in different fields, needs accounting software. Now, an analysis is made on whether the Sage Software would fit better in this organization. If it does not fit, what should be the improvements made in the firm and what should the firm do in order to fit the software’s compatibility into its. (AboutUs)

Critical Evaluation of Software

The subsidiaries of the firm are of more reputation like the Masdar Institute is a research-oriented institute with co-operation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It has an aim of making available a large portfolio with the world’s clean technological firms which is taken up by the Masdar Capital. Similarly, each firm is established with a big and long-term oriented goals and objectives. In order to achieve these objectives and attain its goals, the firm needs to ensure the public, the government and the other firm related entities its financial position. The firm hence needs good and effective accounting software which can save its time, energy and also its resources with minimum errors. These set of requirements can be mostly met by the Peachtree software. The software provides best functionaries for operations in different fields and as the firm has its operations spread around different fields, the software would best fit the organization. But, the limitations of the software may sometimes result in negative performance. The flaws in the software and its implications may be: support to multi-currency- the firm may sometimes need to deal with multi currency (like for Masdar Capital) at some situations for which the software cannot be used. The firm deals with many aspects right from research oriented to the capital and this requires a strong database as different types of data are needed to be integrated at one particular place. Merging the customers is not possible in the Peachtree software which would certainly affect the firm’s job which has operations in many fields. The Peachtree software does provide customized financial statement preparation facility which can be helpful for the firm as it may need to prepare different reports for different subsidiaries. The software also enters the data by using the employee ID unlike many other software solutions which use the employees’ name. This would be difficult in situations when there are a large number of workers and Peachtree helps in this regard. (Advantages and Disadvantages of Peachtree)

Overall analysis of the Peachtree software and the Masdar Corporation says that the software can be best fitted in the organization. While there are a few improvements to be made like making multiple currency facility available, improving the database to best fit the diversified organization and to update its version in order to merge the customers which may be needed to the Masdar Corporation to integrate different customers related to each of the subsidiaries.