Strategic Information System For Reckon Accounting Software

History of accounting software

Describe about the Strategic Information System for Reckon Accounting Software.

The literature review depicts the values and usefulness of accounting software namely as Reckon, in medium to large commercial organizations. The Accounting software package is an instant of computer programs that enables business organizations to manage their financial transactions (reckon.com 2016). The scope of improvement and development for this software is also very high than any other packages. The literature review will critically analyze the history of software accountings.

 In order to reduce the rate of human errors, disruption and data related mistakes adaptation and development of accounting software is enhancing at a large scale in Australia and all over the world. The review will demonstrate the ways in which large and medium enterprises are utilizing the accounting software. Apart from this, the current market size and tough competitions facing by Reckon will also be mentioned.

In previous days, the financial departments of medium and large organizations were commonly used traditional accounting system to manage their accounts (Bahador and Haider 2014). In order to generate automatic payroll management system computerized accounting system was implemented in medium and large organizations. This system was first generated by Arthur Anderson Consultancy well-known as Accenture (Miller, Smith and Smith 2013).                 Reckon software accounting company gives cloud based accounting software to medium sized organizations. The company was introduced in the year of 1987 and the first accounting software version was implemented in 2003 namely as Quicken. Initially, the accounting system was maintained by the employees belonging to the financial departments of different organizations (Stefanou and Athanasaki 2012). However, official usage of accounting software was implemented in the year of 1990 (Lim and Perrin 2014). The implementation of software accounting system becomes necessary while it was found that the traditional fie handing system has become obsolete.

While, accounting software has become geographically specified that time, by developing cloud based software enhanced the global level of financial operations. According to the enhancing demand of accounting software the market is improving globally (Van der Stede 2015). Not only this but also business specified accounting software Reckon is appreciated by all of its users. Though, initially all the features were not supportive but gradually, with increasing budget for research and development of accounting software the system was developed accordingly. Over last three decades, the team of Reckon is providing accounting software solution to the enterprises of Australia and New Zealand as well (Bahador and Haider 2014). In order to change the behavior Reckon launched cloud based software in 2013. It is a computerized spreadsheet that is easy to manage and handle by almost all the employees of the financial and audit department.

Development and adaptation of accounting software

During research and development it is found HubSpot and inbound marketing methodologies collectively helped the small organizations to achieve rapid rate of commercial growth. It also provided effective and efficient opportunity to the enterprises to develop the functionality with digital simplicity. Pandey (2014) stated that, many tools were used to convert impractical software solutions to a practical one but they are still not as efficient as reckon is. According to Curtis and Averis (2014) Reckon is one of the very new and advanced online software accounting package. Moreover, this is a long time distributor of desktop software. Different modules such as payment, transaction are also added to this software and due to presence of cheap programs this is mostly preferred. The framework and design and is easily adoptable and it is the only cloud based accounting program operates different financial data in Australia and New Zealand (Stefanou and Athanasaki 2012). It has several operational options such as automatic banking, unlimited invoice or feedback regardless of geographical boundary and payment transaction.

From the market analysis it has been discovered that, Reckon accounting software package works very efficiently and simply and better than other accounting software. The features include free and automatic updates. It also reduces the overall cost of IT infrastructure (reckon.com 2016). The users need not to pay extra to use this software and it has a facility of twenty four hour service. It also has toll free support for all its consumers. All required safety and privacy technologies are associated to this software.

From a survey it has been found that Reckon has turned to its revenue from $18 Million to $57 Million in six months only. The growth is strictly focused on the volume and it is continuously offering global expansion with international reach. Miller, Smith and Smith (2013)               opined that, EBITDA is constantly monitoring Reckon and the existing business has moves from $4.00 Million to $6.45 Million within 3 years. Particularly, in case of online products the revenue reached 68 Million (Alamin et al. 2015). The subscription based revenue has reached 16% to $36.3 Million. As the revenue is growing at a large rate the number of consumer is also attaching accordingly. Small and medium enterprises are strategically developing the utilization of accounting software packages generating by Reckon (Ji and Lu 2014). The strategic momentum is enhancing and the software development package has proved it stable upcoming future.

Analysis of the current market size of Reckon

In order to choose the best suited accounting software for an organization many factors come under consideration. At first the supplier website and the pricing features are analyzed. All over the world over 1.0 million consumers are spontaneously using the Reckon accounting software packages to handle their financial management system. Each and every supplier offers different opportunity to different banking enterprises. Stefanou and Athanasaki (2012) stated that, based on the price distribution add on functionalities are different for different software packages. The competitors to Reckon are as follows:

Features	Reckon	Xero	Quickbooks	MYOB
Basic with different add on	Starter	Essential	Essential
Monthly Cost	$20	$25	$25	$35
User permission	Multiple users	Multiple users	Multiple users	Multiple users
Cloud based	yes	yes	yes	yes
Feedback	yes	yes	yes	yes
Expensive	yes	yes	yes	yes
Payroll management system	yes	yes	yes	yes
Time sheet solution	yes	yes	yes	yes
Mobile access	Possible	Possible	Possible	Possible

Table 1: Competitors to Reckon

(Source: McManus 2013, pp-145)

During analysis many issues are encountered relevant to accounting software packages. Though the technology associates different challenges but still for small businesses this is one of the best options. The challenges relevant to this are as follows:   

Cost: Most of the business accounting software is reasonable and affordable by banking enterprises. It also needs basic or standard for digital systems such as the RAM, speed of the processor, memory management and hard drive (Miller, Smith and Smith 2013). Therefore, if any single feature is found to be attacked then, the entire process will be in vain.

Time management: Time management is another factor that comes under consideration while implementing accounting software packages (Dunbar, Laing and Wynder 2016). Sometimes, the processing took more than expected times if inappropriate application and timely management is neglected by the users.

Difficulties: Some of the accounting software is designed for non accountant purposes. If any of an organization elected one of that software then, handling of those will be threat to the users (Miller, Smith and Smith 2013). Improper setup of accounting and incorrect implementation might create major issues.   

Maintenance:  The maintenance of this software took 60% of total efficiency. If any innovations took place within the software then, maintenance charge will increase accordingly. If the users do not spend the required time and money for the up gradation, then, it can create major issue (reckon.com 2016). 

Many issues are associated to the accounting software packages and those are needed to be resolved by introducing some digital features to it. These are as follows:

Cost and simplicity: Reckon is not costly but while any kind of cloud based innovation is needed to be added to it the cost increases sharply. Sometimes, the cloud services and other subscription planning lock the entire financial system. Switching between the systems also become difficult and the complexity increases. Thus, simplicity is required so that all the employees form the financial department can handle it.   

Identification of the leaders in the market who gives competitive advantages

Backup: The backup property is not manageable thus, this feature should be added to Reckon accounting software package.

Inventory management: The software must be capable of inventory management so that monitoring becomes easier.

Integration: The payroll management should be well integrated so that employees can check for the past and present payment details whenever required.

Conclusion

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that, Reckon has now become one of the most widely used accounting software package for small enterprises. The traditional method of financial management and the advanced utilization is mentioned in this literature review. The development and adaptation of accounting software is mentioned in this literature review. In addition to this, how different SMEs are adopting Reckon accounting software is mentioned in this literature review. The current market size of Reckon accounting software package and different challenges that are facing by the enterprises are mentioned in this literature review.

References

Alamin, A., Yeoh, W., Warren, M. and Salzman, S., 2015, January. An empirical study of factors influencing accounting information systems adoption. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Third European Conference on Information Systems. ECIS.

Bahador, K. and Haider, A., 2014. Skillset to Assimilate Information Technologies in Accounting SMEs (Doctoral dissertation, IGI Global).

Curtis, V. and Averis, L., 2014. Bookkeeping For Dummies-Australia/NZ. John Wiley & Sons.

Dunbar, K., Laing, G. and Wynder, M., 2016. A Content Analysis of Accounting Job Advertisements: Skill Requirements for Graduates. The E-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching, 10(1), p.58.

Ji, X.D. and Lu, W., 2014. The value relevance and reliability of intangible assets: Evidence from Australia before and after adopting IFRS. Asian Review of Accounting, 22(3), pp.182-216.

Lim, N. and Perrin, B., 2014. Standard Business Reporting in Australia: Past, Present, and Future. Australasian Journal of Information Systems,18(3).

McManus, L., 2013. Customer accounting and marketing performance measures in the hotel industry: Evidence from Australia. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 33, pp.140-152.

Miller, F.L., Smith, K.T. and Smith, L.M., 2013. Development of and student reactions to an international accounting GIS case problem. International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 4(3), pp.195-217.

Pandey, U., 2014. Context based document classification and analysis.

reckon.com, (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.reckon.com/au/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2016].

Stefanou, C.J. and Athanasaki, M.T., 2012, June. Management Accounting Practices in ERP Environments: A Research Agenda. InProceedings of the 9th International Conference on Enterprise Systems, Accounting and Logistics.

Stefanou, C.J. and Athanasaki, M.T., 2012, June. Management Accounting Practices in ERP Environments: A Research Agenda. InProceedings of the 9th International Conference on Enterprise Systems, Accounting and Logistics.

Van der Stede, W.A., 2015. Management accounting: Where from, where now, where to?. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 27(1), pp.171-176.