Strategic Information System for Conduct Accounting Transactions

Discuss about the Strategic Information System for Conduct Accounting Transactions.

Introduction

In the recent time, the use of accounting/financial software/packages is becoming increasing and important because these offers significant opportunities to the users such as small and medium sized organizations to overcome certain costs, gain competitive advantages, improve market share, enhance financial reporting and bring innovation within the accounting and financial transactions. For case, accounting software/packages are important tools that provide real time solution of the financial and accounting issues to the user organizations so that they can be able to improve current financial and accounting reporting systems.

On the other hand, with the effective use of such accounting software, business organizations can be able to perform a wide range of accounting and financial functions more accurately, smoothly and effectively. Moreover, these are much more cost effective and time saving because through these organizations can prepare financial records/reports, conduct accounting transactions. In the same way, the financial reporting system, payroll system, job card system and other significant aspects of business can be improved by the organizations with the use of such accounting packages. This research report would focus on critical analysis of various accounting software used within the Australia. Additionally, the history, market share, development and adaptation, implementation issues, of various types of accounting software would be conducted to fulfill the objectives of the paper.     

Literature Review

Overview of Accounting Software/Packages in Australia:

According to Goel and et al. (2011), a business accounting software is adopted by the organizations to deal with the financial and accounting errors occurred in the financial reports and transaction and such software play a key role in providing the real time solutions of such problems. For instance, with the help of accounting software, a business firm is able to organize and manage accounting data and financial information in a more meaningful manner and offer accurate, specific and exact information when they needed. In the support of Griffin (2009) stated that, such software allows the management of a company or owner to take an informal decision on the basis of outcomes produced by accounting software. At the current time, a lot of accounting software/packages are available and used by both individual and corporate consumers as per their needs. For case, individual consumers can effectively develop and create budgets for their income and expenditure (Morley and Parker, 2009).

On the other hand, Grossman and Livingstone (2009) analyzed that; business users are using accounting software to conduct different accounting transactions and functions more effectively. For example, within the Australia, the most widely used accounting software is MYOB, Recon, and Xero. Additionally, these packages also helped the users to add soundness and exactness within the financial transactions and reports of user organizations. Along with this, these packages also allowed the companies to develop their sale budget, cash budget, operational budget and financial year budget effectively. Moreover, accounting error done by the human can also be effectively addressed by the users of such software. In the same way, a company can be able to make specific financial decisions and improve the accuracy of transactions with the help of such software (Needles, Powers and Crosson, 2010).

History, Development & Adaptation, Market size, Current Gaps of Xero:

In the views of Shim and Siegel (2005), in the Australian industry, Xero is one of the leading companies that offer accounting and financial solution to its users. It is a company of New Zealand that deals in accounting software that was formed by the Rod Drury in 2006 in Wellington city. Initially, Xero software was considered traditional desktop accounting software. But, now it is one of the leading company that offer modern accounting software solutions based on the cloud. Additionally, Xero has entered into the Australian market with software as a service (SaaS) solution to deal with a wide range of issues in the area of finance and accounting. On the other hand, this is developed and adopted by the users as a cloud based software to run business functions more effectively (Xero, 2016).

At the same time, it is analyzed by Harmon and Auseklis (2009) that, this company does not have more market share in the software industry of the nation because of the availability of MYOB and Recon. But, it had gained more than 12% market share within the industry. Basically, this is used by the organizations in order to run and overcome the issues associated with the supply chain management as well as inventory management. For example, with the help of this, the user organizations can analyze their bank balances, invoices, claims and expenses in a more effective manner. In addition, the main issue with this software is that it does not help the companies in managing their core financial and accounting functions. Simply, it can be said that, this provides limited services to their users and they can’t generate long term profit (Kumar and Lu, 2010).  

History, Development & Adaptation, Market size, Current Gaps of Reckon:

Monks and Minow (2008) found that, Reckon is also the major accounting software available within the Australian market that was established in 1987 by Greg Wilkinson as Reckon Limited. First, this software came into the UK market and in 1983; the company had republished its Reckon Limited along with Intuit with a business contract. This software was developed to deal with certain financial and accounting issues faced by the business firms. But, now within the Australian accounting software sector, it is the most selling brands with an approximate18% market share. Additionally, Morley and Parker (2009) analyzed that, it is also used and developed in the form of ERP solution that allows business firms and individual users to overcome the entire real time problem associated with the financial and accounting transactions. For case, it is adopted and developed to perform the functions of payroll and job card system effectively. But, the main challenges/issues associated with this software is that the implementation process is more typical and require more time and cost so there is need to hire a special to guide the users. In this way, it increases operational cost directly (Reckon. 2016).

History, Development & Adaptation, Market size, Current Gaps of MYOB:

In the words of Binu and Meenakumari (2012), MYOB is one of the most used accounting software and most profitable company as compare to others within the Australian software industry in term of sales, market share, customers. Christopher Lee had developed MYOB along with his team at Teleware Inc in the year 1980. Moreover, the publisher of MYOB was Data-Tech Software Company that published this on the market in 1997 along with Best Software. After some time, the company changed the name of software that is known as MYOB Limited. It is also listed company on the ASE (Carol. 2009). 

Needles, Powers and Crosson (2010) defined that, this is developed and adopted to improve the functions related to job card, payroll and taxation. Providing accuracy, speed and efficiency are the major features of this software so that is known as software for real time solution. The main functionalities and features of this software included saving in time & cost, overcoming aggravation, motivation to the staff, and up to date information. Additionally, the company had covered more than 71% market share of the total software industry.  But implementation is the main problem of this software like other software. For case, it requires highly technical and trained staff to install the software. Moreover, data securities, hacking of information, fraud, misrepresentation of financial information, etc. are the major challenges of this (Parsons and Oja, 2012).

Conclusion

Based on the above facts, it is summarized that, the use of accounting software is not only helps the user organizations to conduct financial and accounting functions more effective, but also provide assists them to improve financial strengths by reducing certain costs, saving time and gaining competitive advantages. On the other hand, it can also be concluded that, Recon, Xero and MYOB are the key players in the industry, but MYOB has a maximum market share and market leader in the Australian Industry.

References

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Griffin, M.P. (2009). MBA Fundamentals Accounting and Finance. USA: Kaplan Publishing.

Grossman, T. and Livingstone, J. L. (2009). The Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting (4^th

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Harmon, R. and Auseklis, N. (2009). Sustainable it services: Assessing the impact of green computing practices. Management of Engineering & Technology, 2009. PICMET 2009. Portland International Conference on, 1707-1717.

Kumar, K. and Lu, Y. (2010). Cloud computing for mobile users: Can offloading computation save energy? COMPUTER, 43(4), pp. 51-56.

Monks, R.A.G. and Minow, N. (2008). Corporate Governance (4^th ed.). USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Morley, D. and Parker, C.S. (2009). Understanding Computers: Today & Tomorrow, 2009

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MYOB. (2016). About Us. Available At: http://myob.com.au/ [Accessed on 29 Aug 2016]

Needles, B.E., Powers, M. and Crosson, S.V. (2010). Financial & Managerial Accounting. USA: Cengage Learning.

Parsons, J.J. and Oja, D. (2012). Computer Concepts: Illustrated Introductory (9^th ed.). USA: Cengage Learning.

Reckon. (2016). About Reckon. Available At: https://www.reckon.com/  [Accessed on 29 Aug

2016]

Shim, J.K. and Siegel, J.G. (2005) The Vest Pocket Guide to Information Technology (2^nd ed.). USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Xero. (2016). About Us. Available At: https://www.xero.com/ [Accessed on 29 Aug 2016]

 

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