Discuss about the Processes Of Selecting An AIS/ERP To Make Informed Decision For Investment In Accounting Software.
The success and growth of any enterprise depend upon the resources utilized by them for managing and operating the business processes. With the growth and development of organization simply depending upon the accounting software is not enough, the business organization has to implant certain software which will help them in the decision-making process and allied activities. These software’s follows an interactive approach that will help the business managers to make strategic decisions and give business a new height. Apart from accounting certain ERP and decision support systems help the business in managing key areas of accounting, taxation, inventory management payroll management, budgeting, ratio analysis and control, business forecasting, etc (Van Der Aalst, 2013). In the current report of B bakery firm researcher discussed need and relevance of integrating the above-mentioned software in the current business process. Various benefits, system requirements and selection process of different ERP tools are discussed along with.
The particular assignment works related to a family owned bakery group known as B bakery. The particular family owns the respective business since last 50 years and currently, it is smoothly running around with around 70 workers and employees working for the group. Over the period time, the business has attained an immense growth and development in terms of revenue and profitability. In the recent past as it is depicted in the financial statements that the group revenue has reached to the benchmark level of $ 13.50 Million. The current business process of the company deals with selling of bread and other bakery products to the B2C market and B2B market. The particular firm with the overall aim objective of growth and development has introduced a wide range of products to its stock portfolio. This includes the introduction of new range of healthy products into the external market by the B bakery firm. The family bakery firm has witnessed several ups and down in financial terms over the span of time. The financial analyst while focusing on the last period accounts has witnessed the fact that due to enhancement in the level of competition the company has lost few of its key customer accounts. The management of the firm should develop its strategic planning approach in such a manner that it ensures the development of a process that it meets out the requirement of changing external environment requirements.
The current accounting and financial management process of the company revolves around the traditional approach of accounting which includes recording and fetching of accounting data from the manual accounting records (Harmon, 2010). There is no analysis and reports generated out of such accounting systems that will help the management of the bakery group in taking better decisions. The current accounting systems of the business group cater only the structured problems and issues and the output generated has very little analytical capabilities. These systems are currently inflexible to the external environment changes (Scheer, 2012).
Certain systems are needed to be developed by the management in order to take decisions with a long term approach that will help the firm to meet out the business objectives. In place of the normalaccountingsystem, the firm must implant a decision support system that will support not only the accounting jobs in relation to the firm but also will cater the management requirement of utilizing the output information for various sources. It will help the management in the key areas of operational control and other decision-making functions in relation to the firm. Not only it will cater the structured issues and problems but also provides the suggestions for the semi structured and unstructured issues.
As the current bakery organization is facing out the competition due to the high price of its certain products the company can utilize the system of Decision support system technique in order to manage the cost complexity. Individual product cost is evaluated using the relevant costing approach as a part of DSS helps the firm to ascertain the actual price that has been incurred in making particular products for the customers. Budgeting control as a technique of DSS supports the management in controlling the cost to maximum possible manner. These budgets will set up a benchmark for the production department to get the particular product developed at the desired cost (Power & Sharda, 2009). With the help of particular DSS, a variance report is generated on a timely basis which will figure out the deviation and present them to the management in pictorial formats using graphs, charts, tables etc.
As in general each and every process of the organization is of due relevance and indispensable but there are some key areas which are needed to be catered on the priority. Financial and cost accountancy management is a basic area of importance which is needed to be taken care of on the higher part. In the particular case of a B bakery family owned firm, the particular organization in spite of achieving high growth is facing out the issue of losing certain customers due to high competition in the external market environment. The management of the firm is now realizing the fact that mere creating the dependency on the financial statement for the decision making purpose is not enough, it requires additional support systems and ERP tools to effectively and efficiently work out the overall decision-making process (Bradley, 2008).
The prime focus of implementing the above-mentioned systems is to be flexible and adaptable in the decision-making process. The cost accounting part of the system evaluates the fact whether the cost calculated for the product is accurate or not. It is not necessary to implant a pre-packaged system the organization can go for the tailor made systems which can meet out the current requirement of the firm. Some of the requirements of the B bakery group are detailed as follows –
The current process of the family owned group is in relation to the manual or computerizedaccounting part. There are certain issues and lacking with the accounting part. The company needs to implant certain systems in its current process that will support the overall decision-making process of the firm. The management of the bakery firm installed these systems in order to attain certain outcomes and fulfill the overall objectives of the organization. Some of them are bulleted as follows-
For effectively manage the company operating the Baker can make the use of the accounting software which will help the company to identify the area where they could reduce the cost and improve the quality of outcome. Generally, all the accounting software are same but there is acertain feature which differentiates between them and the company on the basis of their feature should make the choice of the software (Murthy and Abeysekera, 2015).The baker in order to attain the objective of their IT investment requires certain feature in the new software which is as follows-
Analysing and reporting – The Baker will require the analyzing and reporting feature in the accounting software which provides the information to the management in the challenging business environment in relation to the various aspect of the business (Foster, et. al., 2008). The software should have robust reporting and analyzing technique to get the insight of the crucial accounting activity and assist the company to comply with the government and industrial regulation (O’Connell, et. al., 2015). Thus the software should assist the management to identify the shortfall in the existing process to make the improvement in quality and reduce cost.
Graph and chart – The software should also provide the graph and chart it is the most powerful tool to present the trend and the other concept which couldn’t be conveyed by the number alone. They will also assist in directing the staff towards the goals which the company is planning to achieve (Armbrust, et. al., 2010). Also, they provide the clear picture of the current state of the company and make the future forecast on the basis of same.
Automatic update – The external environment of the business is continuously changing, therefore, the software should have the feature to update as per the requirement of the condition such as tax laws, regulation and financial practice which change over time (Ismail and King, 2014).
Customize – The Company requires the software which suits as per the existing structure of the company and requires fewer changes in implementing the system. This will require less effort by the management to implement the new system and get maximum benefit out of the same.
Cloud back up – This the latest feature highly in a trend which helps in creating the backup of the data which can be accessed from any place at any time. The software should have the feature of sending and receiving the digital document and handle the electronic fund transfer (Buyya, et. al., 2008). This will reduce the fixed expenditure of the company as the employee can work at any place as per their connivance. Also, this feature will help to prevent the loss of data and easy availability of the same from any location (Tijani and Mohammed, 2013).
Interoperability–The data which is recorded in the accounting software could be used by various applications in HR, sales, logistic and another key segment of the business. So while looking for the accounting software the company needs to ensure that whether they interoperate with the other software to assist the company existing operation.
Scalability – The company is running the business with the objective that they will grow in the near future thus at the time of making the choice of the accounting software the company needs to ensure that the software is prosperous in the year ahead. The company should look for the software that upgrades progressively with the number of users and increased amount of financial transaction and data (Christauskas & Miseviciene, 2012).
Business expansion–The accounting software developer needs to add on certain module which allows the customer to slap extra capability to its product and provide apath to full ERP environment (Vakalfotis, et. al., 2013). The software should have added on feature which assists the business to make the changes as per the increase in the growth of the business.
Security – The major concern at the time of making the choice of the accounting software is of security as it records the confidential information in relation the business and the loss of the same may hamper the company working. For example, the company records all the list of the debtor in the accounting software the loss of the same will affect the profitability of the company. The company needs to assess the built in security feature and the way it relatesto theon-site security of the company (Daneshgar, et. al., 2013). The software should as for proper authentication before use to prevent loss of data and manipulation in accounts.
The Bakery has earned the revenue of $13.5 million in the last year and employee around 70 employees thus can be categorized as a medium to large scale company. After visiting few of the accounting sites such as SAP, XERO, Quickbooks, MYOB I have created understanding over the few of the level of the accounting software.
Entry level accounting – this softwareis ideal for that organization which helps you an employee and operates at the smaller level and is generally sole proprietor and micro Enterprise. These organizationsrequire basic accounting function such as account payable and account receivable and basic financial reporting required by the small Enterprises (Venkatraman and Fahd, 2016). The cost of the software is pretty much slow and many of the vendors offer this package free of cost oh for a limited time on a trial basis. In spite of the basic feature, many of the retailers uses the software to add on to their existing build system (Scheer & Nüttgens, 2000).
Small to medium business accounting – The software apart from entry level products contain acertain additional module for the other key aspects of the business operation such as inventory, human resources, purchases and point of sale. At this level software perform more than just financial function as is referred as enterprise resource planning solution (Trigo, et. al., 2014). The software provides around 25 simultaneous users which are helpful for retail business which is operating at a different level and needs to co-ordinate with each other to smoothly run the business process. Also, thesystem facilitates generation of certain reports which has the management to create understanding over the current working on the company (Bodnar & Hopwood, 2001).
Enterprise accounting – The software is basically designed for the bigger organization as there is too many transactions of the company. There are few of the similarities in the software in comparison to those of small and medium business accounting but these features are more advanced and robust (Marand, et. al., 2013). Also, the software offers anunlimited number of simultaneous users as the business operates at the new location and needs to co-ordinate with each other. The software has ahigher price and the requirement cannot meet by other Apps. Also, these software’s have advanced security features which prevent theft of organization data which maybe you misuse by others.
Comparison between the software
The company in order to acquire most helpful and productive Accounting software need to compare the product available in the market, for instance, the overall score of the QuickBooks is 9.4 in comparison to that of Net Suite ERP score which is 9.1. By comparing the software you can make the choice of the software which best suits the existing needs of your business (Troselj, 2013). For this, you need to identify which software matches with your need and review all the possible accounting software based on the same.
|
Basis |
Net Suite |
QuickBooks |
|
Current score |
The current score of the software is 9.2. |
The current score of the software is 9.5. |
|
Satisfaction of the client |
The vendor has delivered quality service the result of which is that 99% of the customer are satisfied with the software. |
Have 96% of the customer satisfaction which is little less than QuickBooks. |
|
Cost |
The cost of the software is determined by Quote as per the requirement of the customer |
The cost of the software is flat $10.36 |
|
Payment schedule |
The usershave to pay monthly for the software (Lacity and Reynolds, 2014). |
The users are available with the wide range of payment methods such as monthly, one time and annual subscription. |
|
General description |
The software is time tested with general financial management feature which changes with the growing business need and provides real time visibility for better decision making. |
The software is pioneered with the windows that look like the real life forms and offers most of the feature which business needs (Chen, et. al., 2014). |
|
Language supported |
The language supported by the software are USA,UK, Canada, Germany, Japan and China |
It supports USA, UK, Canada and international |
|
Supported integration |
· The software can integrate with existing CRM and investment in the Web · Net Suite CRM · Net Suite e-commerce · Net Suite professional service automation · Third party solution such as Birst, Epay, Bron to etc. |
· QuickBooks online · QuickBooks premium · QuickBooks enterprise solution · QuickBooks accountant · QuickBooks for Mac |
|
Types of software |
The vendor manufacture the software for medium and large enterprise |
The vendor manufacture the software for all small, medium as well as large enterprise |
|
Feature |
Accounting such as order-to-cash, audit trail visibility, procure to pay and management of tax. Assets management Management of payment Planning of the company demand Management of the inventory (Chong, et. al., 2014). |
Multiple attachment Customize email template Track sales Track payment Create estimate |
After making a comparison between the software available in the market the company needs to make the choice of the software which best suits with the existing structure of the company. As per the current requirement of the business, Net Suite will be the best software for the company. The following are the reason why the company can for Net Suite accounting software.
Unify the business process across the enterprise – The software facilitates the Baker to automate the key business function across the department such as sales, marketing, finance, purchasing employee management etc. Also, the company doesn’t have to re-enter the data in the different system, wait for the batch update and rectify inconsistent and inaccurate data (Kachur and Kleinsmith, 2013). It provides the employee to share the data on a real-time basis which increases collaboration among the different department and increase the productivity of the company.
Better decision making – The Net Suite will customize the Dashboard and provide real time access to a key performance metric, supporting intelligence and will assist the Baker to make a timely decision in relation to the business. Also, the software will record the data of the customer in more efficient and highly personalized sales, service process, and fulfillment.
Extends the process to supplier, customer and the partner – The Baker as per the requirement of the business expansion needs to work closely with the partner through extended enterprise. The Net Suite provides the feature which provides the self-service portal to enhance B2B and B2C collaboration (Venkatraman and Fahd, 2016).The software provides a proactive response of the partner and accelerates process cycle and improves responsiveness to ensure your position as the preferred partner.
Customize the software with Suite Flex – The software is customization with the simple industry standard tool which allows changing the business process to meet the requirement of the industry and the company.
Get superior service with the affordable solution – The Baker is the middle size company which cannot make much investment in the accounting software thus can go with the Net Suite which provide comprehensive support package at the affordable price (Lacity and Reynolds, 2014). It eliminates the costly and the time-consuming integration and associate with the patch of the disconnected system.
Conclusion and recommendation
So from the above study, it is clear that the accounting software is the effective toll for recording and processing business transaction. The Baker is the medium size organization so can make the use of the accounting software for the purpose of business expansion. The software will help the company in connecting their business process and provide analysis of the business operation and transaction data for the decision-making process. The company if adopt the Net Suite and it will assist in building coordination between the different department of the company thus improving company operations. The new system will help the company in transforming meaningful information that will provide easy access to business intelligence function. Also, it will help in framing competitive strategy and understanding potential customer and better customer relationship management.
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