Accounting software drives me mad!
February 6, 2012 2 Comments
A few years ago, when setting up the business, I decided to buy a well-known accounting software package because I wanted to be able to easily share my accounting records with my accountant, who also used the same program. I mistakenly thought that accounts programs were pretty much similar in function. I mean we are only talking about tracking basic financial transactions aren’t we?
Accounting software is not just about making sure the statutory company accounts are prepared but providing management information so I can run the business effectively. The program I bought takes three steps when only one step is really necessary. The conclusion I have reached is that the software has simply replaced the old manual accounting process. I have shared my thoughts on this with the company concerned and they have assured me their latest program is better. If they haven’t got it right by version 14 I somehow doubt it will be much different now.
Anyway, I am now looking out for a new accounts package. This time I am looking for something that has a far better interface, easier to use and allows me to share my data, not just with an accountant that uses the same software but any accountant I choose. Standards support in packages is important to me. I have only just started my research but there are worrying signs. I want to issue electronic invoices to my clients and receive them from my suppliers. I am not talking about PDF or emails here. I am talking about real Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), structured data that easily be shared between different accounting packages. Standards support for things like eInvoicing is weak. When I asked one company what standards their software supported they told me that they supported one particular one and they don’t have many requests for this functionality. To be fair to that company this is a common response to this type of question. Maybe there is an opportunity here for another company to develop a simple ‘translator’. Anyone fancy investing?
Hi Kevin, your experience is not unusual and there are now, fortunately, a fair number of solutions available to you depending on your requirements and a number of these offer “cross company” / non-affiliated invoicing, there are two methods I have seen for this:
1 – “Solution-centric”, such as http://www.xero.com other users of xero can invoice each other through the “xero key”. NetSuite can be customised to send and receive both invoices and purchase orders (to other NetSuite instances).
2 – “Silo-based”, using services such as ob10.com as a relay.
What we don’t have, as you rightly point out, is a communications “standard”, like .ics for calendar invites, that everyone can use to send invoices (and purchase orders, amongst others) to other business management systems; I use “business management” systems on purpose of course, this kind of EDI is desperately needed not just in accounts but in shipping, warehousing, project management, pretty much every area of business operations.
We have the infrastructure, through API / WebServices, but as much as I would love to see this type of solution unfortunately I think the person that invents it will make as much money as Tim Berners-Lee made from HTML!
Hi Tristan, there are a number of data standards already in existence that will meet the requirements, including those for the shipping, warehousing and project management areas that you mention. The challenge is to make users aware that all this is possible if the software applications implement those publicly and ‘free to use’ standards. In this field UN/EDIFACT has been around for years but we also have OASIS UBL and UN/CEFACT XML. Understandably, software companies are reluctant to invest in development work if there is no user demand so it is a bit of a ‘chicken and egg’ situation. Sometimes what you need is a big client, like a government, to encourage or require it for their systems. Last year the UK government signalled that it would be requiring Building Information Models (BIM) on all its major building projects within 5 years and challenged the construction industry to respond. A consequence of not complying could well mean contractors and professionals losing access to a significant market. Maybe that is the type of intervention we need.