Cloud Accounting Software for Business-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: Discuss about the Importance of using Accounting Software Packages by Business Organizations. Answers: Introduction The present reports aims to demonstrate the importance of using accounting software packages by business organizations nowadays for staying competitive in the marketplace. In this context, the report presents an evaluation of an Australian company that is using accounting software packages. The company selected for the purpose is Woolworths, one of the largest retail companies of Australia. The report demonstrates the organizational structure of the company, operational problems in its present organizational structure, type of accounting software used by the company and the control problems faced by the system. Moreover, it also develops and describes the sales flowchart of the company. In addition to this, the report also describes the development and adoption of accounting software packages, the current market size, the leaders in the market and the current challenges faced by the users of the accounting software packages. At last, the report provides the recommendations for improv ing the current gaps in the current accounting software packages used in Australia. Current Organizational Structure Coyne (2016) stated that the Woolworths Limited, a leading supermarket giant having approximately 3,500 stores across Australia and New Zealand. The company operates its business areas such as supermarkets, liquor retailing, gaming machines, hospitality services and department stores. Thus, the company has a large complex structure to manage and therefore has adopted the use of computing devices for streamlining its business processes. The company has primarily adopted the use of software tools such as Access and Excel. However, the company faced lot of issues such as data duplication with the use of these software tools. This resulted in large wastage of time of the employees in carrying out their daily operational activities. The company, therefore, opted for the integration of other software packages for synchronizing its business operations and managing its complex organizational structure efficiently. The company currently adopts the use of SAP for managing its complex business operations. The adoption of SAP has helped the company in gaining control over its internal business processes and thus managing them properly (Coyne, 2016). Operational Problem According to Chanthadavong (2016) the organizational structure of Woolworths was largely complex primarily as it adopts the software tools such as excel and access that accounts for various operational errors due to data duplication. These software tools were also unable to compile all the master data of the company and thus it has no shared database. This eventually results in spending large amount of time in integrating the vast amount of organizational data collected from its various business divisions. This impacts the decision-making process of the company leading to decline its productivity and profitability. The company has then recognized the importance of developing and implementing an efficient accounting software packages for streamlining its operational processes. The implementation of the SAP system has enabled the company to simplify the nature of its operational process and performing all its activities quickly and easily. The company recently integrates the use of MYO B and POS (Point of Sale) accounting software package for managing its internal business processes. These accounting software packages has proved to be largely beneficial for the company for easy management of data and therefore aiding in quick decision-making. The software was able to integrate the accounting data from the various operational units of the company and making the organizational structure efficiently (Chanthadavong, 2016). System Acquisition Method Hall (2015) stated that the system acquisition method refers to the type of system procedure adopted for the development and implementation of a software system by an organization. The Woolworths Limited as such as adopted the use of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software system for implementation of is accounting software package. The ERP software system is specifically developed to integrate the information of various detriments units of an organization have large and compiles business structure. The Woolworths Limited is a supermarket giant of Australia and therefore has various departments units. As such it needs an accounting software system that is able to integrate the accounting information from its various departments such as accounting, HR, logistics and manufacturing into a single database. The database can be shared easily across various departments of the company through the use of ERP software system. The MYOB accounting software used by the company is an ERP sy stem that possesses the ability to integrate all the accounting information into one linked platform thus facilitating in easy handling of the accounts (Hall, 2015). Sales Flowchart Various Symbols used in Process flowchart Sales Process Flowchart implemented in the Woolworth through using the MYOB Description of the sales procedure used by the Woolworth in their organization The sales procedure described here is the online and most intensive system used by the Woolworth for making sales through B2C channel. This system is follows series of steps that are mentioned below: A: Sales Department: This department requires looking after the customer order and forwarding them to the credit department. This step is linked with the shopping cart of the customer and followed to the online processing of payment through the secure server. The sales department after verifying the payment from the credit department processes the customer order and sends them to the respective warehouse where goods are stored. Sales department also intimate the customer that their order has been processed and will be shipped on the respective date (E-Commerce: Purchasing and Selling Online, 2017). B: Credit Department: The main objective of the credit department to verify the payment details of the order made by the customer and sends them to the sales department after verification. Credit department uses the secure server to receive the payments from the customer so that their bank details will not been hacked by others. C: Warehouse Department: This Department receives order confirmation of the particular product from the sales department. All the order details have been properly mentioned in the sales order to make the work easy for the warehouse department. After hatching the demanded product by the customer, it passes to the shipping department to make it deliver to the customer. D: Shipping Department: This department receives the goods from the warehouse department and ships them to the customer address as mentioned in the sales order. It also intimates the shipping details to the customer. Control Problems As per the views of Liguo (2014) the MYOB accounting software system besides providing advantage of efficient management of cash flow and payroll of an organization is also associated with some drawbacks. The major control problem associated with the use of MYOB software is that it is not such user-friendly. Thus, the employees of the company need to be well-trained for its use otherwise it may result in poor management decisions and occurrence of unintentional errors in recording and processing of data. The lack of knowledge on employees part to run the software can also result in destruction of valuable data of the company. In addition to this, the use of MYOB accounting software is also associated with the drawback of occurrence of fraudulent activities within the company. The data security is one such issue in this context as the use of accounting software packages can result in breach of privacy of confidential data by sharing it online which becomes vulnerable to be attacked by hackers. The sharing of confidential data on online platform by accounting software can result in the occurrence of loss of valuable information of the company to the competitors. As such, the company is required to develop efficient security checks to prevent the loss of valuable data by adopting the use of accounting software packages (Liguo, 2014). Development and adoption of the accounting software packages Mageto (2017) stated that the use of accounting software packages is on increase among Australian organizations as such software helped the businesses to automate their manual accounting processes and improving the operational efficiency. The introduction of accounting software has changed the system of accounting functions in Australian business firms. The Australian businesses at present largely incorporate the use of cloud based accounting software such as Xero, Quick books, MYOB and many others. This accounting softwares are based on internet and are very helpful in integrating the accounting information from various sources into a single linked platform. The businesses largely face the problem of integrating the accounting information from its various business units into a single platform before the development and adoption of cloud based accounting software. There was lack of co-ordination among the various operational units of an entity such as sales, production, logistics, in ventory and distribution. As such, the businesses face large problems in managing the organizational structure and streamlining their business processes. This led to the development of accounting softwares that are able to synchronize the business operations and thus leading to increased flexibility in the organizational structure of business entities. The increased popularity of cloud based accounting software for improving the operational efficiency has led to its larger adoption and integration among Australian business firms (Mageto, 2017). As per Hall (2015) this was mainly because the traditional accounting system is associated with the major limitation that it is not internet based and needs to be installed properly on each computer device. However, the cloud based accounting software is integrated in nature and internet based and therefore requires less time in implementation and adoption. The major benefits provided by cloud accounting are automation and integration over the traditional accounting software. This software proves to be largely useful to the business firms for developing sales and purchase order, conducting multi-currency transactions, integrating payroll and doing online bill payment. The Woolworths has also incorporated the use of cloud based accounting software that is MYOB for managing its internal and external, business structure efficiently (Hall, 2015). Current market size There is increased demand of cloud based accounting software in the Australian market among both SMEs and large scale companies. There are large number of accounting software available in the market such as Xero, Zoho books, Quick books and MYOB. The increased demand of this software is attributed to the automation and integration benefits provided by them. This has lead to the strong growth of the accounting software industry in the Australia driven by increased online connectivity. The industry is expected to record a growth of about 7 per cent in the coming five years with the increase in revenue to about 8.5% (Software Publishing in Australia, 2017). Leaders in the market and their Competitive Advantage The top leaders in the accounting software industry of Australia are Xero, MYOB, Quick Books and Zoho books. The XERO has largest market share of about 65% followed by MYOB. There is intense competition among these as they offer almost similar accounting software package. They compete mainly on the price that is based on the scale of operations business nature and structure. These software companies attain their competitive advantage by achieving customer loyalty through providing good customer service (Software Publishing in Australia, 2017). Current gaps or challenges encountered by users or customers of accounting software/packages According to Terkper (2008) the current gaps in the accounting software packages are as follows: Lack of Security: The cloud based accounting software are internet based and therefore the data shared can be accessed by the hackers resulting in the theft of confidential information. Inadequate Reporting Service: The users face problems in getting their data out from the accounting software packages as it is easy to input the data but rather difficult to retrieve it back. Lack of Efficiency: This accounting software is not such user-friendly and thus requires lots of efforts on the part of the users for their easy use and maintenance. The users also cannot customize these software as per their demand as the features are extremely complicated to be understood. Compatibility Issues: The accounting software is sometimes not compatible with the user programs and thus the users cannot import some data into their program due to compatibility issues (Terkper, 2008). On the basis of above accounting software challenges, it is recommended to business companies to adopt the use of traditional accounting procedures for managing confidential accounting data. This is necessary for prevention of theft of data that can result in sharing of valuable information to the competitors. Also, the companies integrating the use of accounting software should develop strong security architecture for data security and provide proper training to all its employees and leaders for proper use of accounting software (Rangaraju and Kennedy, 2012). Conclusion It can be summarized from the overall discussion held in the report that cloud accounting software is largely useful for businesses to automate their accounting procedures. However, the business companies need to adopt proper security procedures for avoiding the safety issues such as theft or illegal activities that can occur through the use of accounting software References Chanthadavong, A. 2016. Woolworths upgrades HR system to the cloud with SAP. [Online]. Available at: https://www.zdnet.com/article/woolworths-upgrades-hr-system-to-the-cloud-with-sap/ [Accessed on: 22 August, 2017]. Coyne, A. 2016. Woolworths makes fixing IT a priority. [Online]. Available at: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/woolworths-makes-fixing-it-a-priority-434957 [Accessed on: 22 August, 2017]. E-Commerce: Purchasing and Selling Online. 2017. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/IPEI_ebiz_ecomm.pdf [Accessed on: 22 August, 2017]. Hall, J. 2015. Accounting Information Systems. Cengage Learning. Liguo, Y. 2014. Overcoming Challenges in Software Engineering Education: Delivering Non-Technical Knowledge and Skills: Delivering Non-Technical Knowledge and Skills. IGI Global. Mageto, J. 2017. Accounting Softwares in Australia. An Overview. GRIN Verlag. Rangaraju, M.S. and Kennedy, H. 2012. Innovation in Management Challenges and Opportunities in the next decade. Allied Publishers. Software Publishing in Australia. 2017. [Online]. Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/information-media-telecommunications/except-internet-music-publishing/software-publishing.html [Accessed on: 22 August, 2017]. Terkper, S.E. 2008. Accounting Challenges for Semi-Autonomous Revenue Agencies (SARAs) in Developing Countries, Issues 2008-2116. International Monetary Fund.