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Web-based accounting

IT | John Tate | 29 Oct 2009

Despite concerns, web-based accounting packages are finding favour, says John Tate.

Last month saw the results of Sift Media’s software satisfaction awards. Based on a survey of over 8,000 end users the results make interesting reading.

Accounting softwareSmall business accounting software: – KashFlow, KashFlow Mid-range accounting software: – Pegasus Opera II, Pegasus Enterprise accounting software: – Net Suite OneWorld, NetSuite Inc. Web-hosted accounting software: – KashFlow, KashFlow

CRM SoftwareSME CRM software: – Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Enterprise CRM software: – Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Web-hosted CRM software: SERVICEOperations, SERVICEPower

These are fascinating results. Five of the six awards that are not web related go to web-hosted products. Can you believe it? Accountants being happy with the internet to run their accounting software? You can understand it at the small-business end of the market. An organisation with just a few staff is probably already using a web-hosted solution for email and document storage. Running accounting software in this way is a natural extension. Hosted solutions reduce the need for an in-house server and make software easily accessible from several locations.

However in the enterprise space, what a step change in users’ opinions of web-based solutions! Conventional views about security discourage many from allowing their accounting data to be hosted on a remote server. Accounts departments which work full-time on their finance system need web access to be reliable and cannot afford downtime on internet access. Web interfaces can still be a bit clunky and this can discourage users from switching from conventional Windows-based solutions. Despite this a web-based solution comes out top of the user survey in the enterprise space.

In contrast to the success of the web-based vendors, Pegasus Opera won the mid-range accounting software award. Launched back in the 1990s, Opera was designed very much as a desktop-based ‘thick client’ solution. The very opposite of a web-based application – but clearly still much appreciated by its user base.

In the CRM space, Salesforce (another web-based product) won the day. Designed initially for the commercial sector it is consistently winning business in the charity world – particularly at the smaller end of the market.

So, if you are looking for a new accounting system, where do you go? Is your organisation ready to adopt a web-based product? Is your IT infrastructure up to the job? Do you enjoy reliable broadband/web access wherever you need to access your accounting system? Do you trust your data to a third party server? Perhaps most challengingly, do the web-based products provide the functionality needed by charities that typically have more complex requirements that an equivalent sized commercial organisation?

Looking at Kashflow, it was initially developed for the Prince’s Trust. However postings on the web suggest it may struggle with the handling of such areas as gift aid, multiple payments/cost allocations for donors. See http://forums.kashflow.co.uk/general-users-forum/693-repeat-billing-adding-payments.html as an example. The list of charity requirements that are ‘odd’ are well known and include:  

Coding structure for multiple departments/projects/cost centre including the ability to budget/report and post to these at the balance sheet level  Multiple companies (e.g. trading subsidiaries)  Ability to report across multiple years Handling of VAT  Ability to integrate with CRM systems (eg. fundraising/membership databases) Commitment accounting

If you are considering a web solution, the likelihood is that you will not know much about the products available in this area. So make sure you take the time to check that the products you review/select covers your core areas of functionality including the above features, if required by your organisations. Prior to signing contracts I would recommend you run a pilot of the software to make absolutely sure these features work in the way you expect in a ‘live environment’.Alternatively – you may prefer to stick with a tried and trusted locally-based solution. So it is good to see the Pegasus award above as users clearly can be very happy using a ‘legacy’ application.

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