Discuss about the Strategic Information System for Accounting Transactions.
The conception of accounting software extensively falls within the domain of Accounting Information System (AIS) and is considered as computer software that can be used for various accounting transactions in modules (Hall 2012). The modern business accounting software additionally provides assistance in functional modules that are related to managerial decision processes intended for bringing competitive edge. In Australia, the accounting software business has gone through an outstanding change over the last few years because of technological advancements (James and Maher 2013). This research paper aims to assess the existing literature on accounting software present in Australia on the foundation of their historical development, uses, hurdles and adaptability. In addition, the literature review would also attempt to investigate the present market size, market leaders and competitive edge that are a result of the adoption these software or packages. The gaps recognized would be utilized to recommend improvements in the software or packages for future.
Accounting software has its origin traced back to when 9PAC was developed by IBM in 1959. It allowed its users to amass and access structured data from relational databases with the help of their computers (Scott 2015). To assist the jobs that were done in batches, companies started investing heavily to help develop proprietary accounting systems that can cater to specific requirements. With time computers progressed in their capabilities and with that became feasible the ideas to expand the generalized accounting software and include in them flexible functionalities in the early 1970s. Alongside that developed SAP RF that had the capability to handle an extensive range of business operations in the domain of swifter financial decision processes even with having limited intermediaries. One of the first accounting systems, Peachtree (now Sage), was introduced with the aim of simplifying data stores and on the route enables users to derive more value (Sage.com 2017). Peachtree introduced their first developed integrated office suite in 1981 that included spreadsheet and word processor. After two years in 1983, Inuit introduced their Quicken product that brought in a new form of accounting application that boasted of a friendly user interface (Quicken 2017). Teleware joined the bandwagon by introducing a quite striking accounting software in 1993, which caught the eyes of Best Software. After a few years, the official Australian publisher of Teleware product procured the organization and in 1999 changed the name to MYOB Limited (Myob.com 2017). Today, accounting programming handles the greater part of the loose pieces of following the development and employments of cash for basically everybody on the globe. Propels in equipment and the ascent of versatile innovation mean people no longer should be secured to cumbersome and costly boxes to pick up their advantages. Present day UIs are well disposed and open initially, offering everyone more opportunity for the human components of their business (Business News Daily 2016).
The adoption of accounting software and packages are becoming swifter day by day in Australia. Swan (2014) discussed that Xero, the famous New Zealand accounting Software Company carried out a survey of 1622 small enterprises and found that the Australian businesses have moved far ahead than other countries in adoption of accounting software. Australian businesses have started adopting accounting software consistently to help reduce toiling paperwork and the omission and commission errors that comes with it. The accounting process progresses from different ledgers to trial balance and adjusting of entries, and then finally to financial reports. For manually carrying out all these tasks a lot of paperwork gets involved, along with many bookkeepers. The whole process gets easier and quicker with the help of the accounting software, which asks just inputs for correcting accounts and reports are automatically generated. Because of being so effective and efficient, this accounting software is being largely adopted by businesses, and the numbers are growing.
The Accounting Services industry has become in the course of recent years on the back of consistent financial development and expanding interest for industry-particular admonitory administrations. Assessment and review administrations have remained a tried and true wellspring of income for industry firms in the course of recent years, as interest for these administrations does not rely on upon monetary conditions. Furthermore, income got from high-esteem consultative administrations has expanded as customers have hoped to accounting firms for exhortation on trimming costs and turning out to be more aggressive in the midst of testing business conditions. The business has additionally extended its admonitory administrations by joining innovation, for example, information examination and cloud administrations (Ibisworld.com.au 2017). Competition in the Australian accounting software market is growing, and the largest customer segment is the small and medium sized enterprises. Some big players in the Australian accounting software market are Xero, Inuit and MYOB (Heber 2015). These major players have transformed the accounting software and taken it to the advanced levels of cloud computing.
In Australia, Xero has the biggest market share in the accounting software market. Xero has been critically reviewing markets and has identified some gaps in the processes of the desktop accounting software users (Xero Accounting Software 2017). Organizations were faced up with challenges because of the departments being non-autonomous. Accounting departments mainly took care of collecting, processing and maintenance of accounting books; however, the desktop accounting software were not competent enough to reconcile all the different department accounting reports because of incompatible formats and duplication. Thus, reconciliation of annual accounts turned into being dull, lengthy, and full off errors and inconsistent. The utilization of desktop accounting frameworks and information redundancy was the wellspring of the challenge. Numerous organizations in Australia are utilizing cloud accounting software and packages to its integrative capacities (Growthpath.com.au 2017).
Xero software is based on the model of software as a service (SaaS). It offers a free API for third-party providers and clients for integration of other applications onto a single united ledger in the cloud (Xero Accounting Software 2017). SaaS is the capacity to give clients applications working on a cloud framework and worked through a thin UI, for example, simple web browser. Xero has made the entire business tremendously more productive for everybody. It has increased the aggregate number of clients essentially. Numerous private companies that were beforehand utilizing spreadsheets and shoeboxes to maintain their business are presently utilizing Xero’s easy to understand offering. Xero’s membership based plan of action is boundlessly better than the old model of offering ceaseless licenses on a circle. Under a cloud model, the product is overhauled and enhanced without the client notwithstanding taking note. The circulation cost is near zero. Regardless of Xero’s specialized points of interest, the exchanging costs for clients are still high. Most organizations have numerous types of information put away in their current frameworks, making them hesitant to move crosswise over to something new. By offering free movement, Xero has been spending a great deal of cash attempting to conquer this obstacle yet numerous private ventures will even now stay with what they know (Johnson 2017).
Cloud computing has changed the scene of IT by putting up improved cost viability, quicker time for sale to the public, advancement, and scale to request. Nevertheless, the absence of security is a crucial issue for the clients on cloud computing software. Indeed, even with the current safety efforts, for example, firewalls, clients are still not feeling secure of non-approved access by remote entities. The explanation behind this issue is that cloud computing needs security principles and cloud suppliers utilize their own restrictive security benchmarks and advancements. There is a danger of digital crimes to data resources connected with cloud computing (Business News Daily 2017). In understanding these difficulties of cloud accounting packages, an Identify Management (IDM) apportions to convey verification of services and clients in light of attributes and qualifications. Data driven security is an approach reached out to control information and security in the cloud. The information should act self-shielding and descriptive, in any computing environment. Through Trusted Computing system, data driven security is conceivable. As indicated by Kumar and Vajpayee (2016), predicate encryption is necessary for computing frameworks to permit programming to run and compute on a situation described by cipher texts. With these safety efforts, future cloud computing software would be the most flexible framework for competitive advantage, productivity, data security, and cost adequacy.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, accounting software has seen an exceptional history of advancements since the innovation of computer language; from basic programs to complex computing frameworks. Australia has three greatest accounting software suppliers that contend in a market described by steadily developing little and medium sized organizations. Xero, Intuit and MYOB have overwhelmed Australian accounting software market by coordinating accounting software into cloud, as a method for unraveling challenges connected with desktop accounting packages. In any case, there are security risk challenges identified with cloud computing. The procedures to manage security hazards confronting cloud computing incorporate validation measures, data driven security, and predicate cryptography.
References
Business News Daily. (2017). 8 Reasons to Fear Cloud Computing. [online] Available at: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5215-dangers-cloud-computing.html [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Business News Daily. (2017). Best Accounting Software for Small Business 2017. [online] Available at: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7543-best-accounting-software.html [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Growthpath.com.au. (2017). Review of Cloud Accounting (Xero, Saasu, MYOB Essentials, QuickBooks) | Business IT. [online] Available at: https://www.growthpath.com.au/Business-IT/review-of-myob-liveaccounts-and-xero-accounting-in-the-cloud.html [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Hall, J.A., 2012. Accounting information systems. Cengage Learning.
Heber, A. (2017). The cloud accounting supremacy war in Australia. [online] Business Insider Australia. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/charts-the-battle-for-supremacy-in-australias-cloud-accounting-market-2015-4 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Ibisworld.com.au. (2017). Accounting Services in Australia Market Research | IBISWorld. [online] Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry/accounting-services.html [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
James, D. and Maher, W. (2013). 7 accounting packages for Australian small businesses compared: including MYOB, QuickBooks Online, Reckon, Xero. [online] BIT. Available at: https://www.bit.com.au/Review/344651,7-accounting-packages-for-australian-small-businesses-compared-including-myob-quickbooks-online-reckon-xero.aspx [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Johnson, S. (2017). The case for investing in accounting software. [online] Financial Review. Available at: https://www.afr.com/personal-finance/the-case-for-investing-in-accounting-software-20160516-govw2q [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Kumar, S.N. and Vajpayee, A., 2016. A Survey on Secure Cloud: Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing. American Journal of Systems and Software, 4(1), pp.14-26.
Myob.com. (2017). Accounting Software & Business Solutions | MYOB. [online] Available at: https://www.myob.com/au [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Quicken. (2017). Intuit launches Quicken 2016. [online] Available at: https://www.quicken.com/about-us/press/intuit-launches-quicken-2016 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Sage.com. (2017). Accounting & Business Management Software Australia | Sage AU. [online] Available at: https://www.sage.com/au [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Scott, B. (2017). The Accounting Journal: 60 years of Accounting Software – The Pulse Australia. [online] The Pulse Australia. Available at: https://www.myob.com/au/blog/60-years-of-accounting-software-introduction/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Swan, D. (2017). Australian SMBs ahead of the cloud accounting curve. [online] Theaustralian.com.au. Available at: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/australian-smbs-ahead-of-the-cloud-accounting-curve/news-story/2369a42be5910eca02d6215b4d405734 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Xero Accounting Software. (2017). Online Accounting Software – Free Trial, Free Support | Xero. [online] Available at: https://www.xero.com/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2017].
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download