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Accounting Software in Business Organizations – What Features Do You Really Need?

Accounting Software in Business Organizations – What Features Do You Really Need?

Many businesses are now implementing accounting software in their businesses instead of relying on the traditional use of spread sheets. The benefit of using accounting software is undeniable, whether a business is just starting out or it is an expanding enterprise – saves a business precious time, money and manpower, allowing accounts to be quickly updated and reports to be conveniently churned out.

So Which Do You Pick?

A new business owner may not know what to look out for when choosing the best accounting software for his business. Good for him, there’s lots of choices available. The downside? Not knowing which to pick!

While every accounting software may seem to be the same (You just need to manage your accounts, right?), there are features that stand out in some accounting software that make them better than the rest.

It’s All About the Money… or is it not?

Most traditional accounting software only fulfill the need for account entries. However, recognizing that accounting is interlinked with other elements of a business, advanced accounting software now incorporates other processes as well. Besides the ability to handle high liquidity assets such as cash, advanced accounting software such as Kingdee KIS also includes inventory and receivables.

Taxes such as GST in Singapore, or VAT in China can also be processed with the software. This enables an accountant to generate a tax report in minutes, which would otherwise take more time in traditional accounting. At the same time, a business owner can have a comprehensive view of his accounts, easily exporting it into a spreadsheet, or printing out the reports for paper filing.

Business owners want to save time (and money) and would look for the most convenient way to handle the accounts. Software such as Kingdee KIS not only deliver that purpose, but go one step further by integrating purchasing, sales inventory and financial management onto a single platform.

Consolidating Orders and Invoices

One of the most frustrating things while managing the accounts is consolidating multiple sales orders, delivery orders and sales invoices under the same supplier or customer account. If an enterprise goes through thousands of transactions a month, think of how much effort would be needed to have everything organized for the month’s accounts!

Advanced accounting software such as Kingdee KIS recognizes the need for flexibility when generating orders and invoices. For example, when a business receives multiple sales orders from the same customer, these can be consolidated into a single delivery order and the purchases can be delivered at the same time.

In the case where there are multiple delivery orders, they can also be consolidated into a single sales invoice.
With the ability to consolidate orders and invoices, this also makes it easier when accounting for the inventory and sending or making payment.

Tax Reports

Which business in Singapore wants to risk filing the wrong taxes? If your business performs thousands of transactions a month, think of the hassle of filing the taxes if done manually!

Advanced accounting software gives the user the ability to generate a GST report within minutes. Even if you have other businesses in the region such as in China, software such as Kingdee KIS is able to manage and generate VAT reports and import duties.

Traditional software tends to be geographically limited in this aspect, giving way to advanced accounting software that recognizes that growing trend of businesses globalizing.

The World’s Your Market

Speaking about globalizing, you’ll need a multilingual accounting software that also supports multiple currencies. If your business is expanding off-shore, you should definitely look out for such a feature when choosing an accounting software, such as the Kingdee KIS. This solution includes an auto-calculation of exchange differences, saving you the trouble of having to consistently check on exchange rates.

And if operating in China and Hong Kong is what you’re doing and aiming for, you’ll also need an accounting software that includes languages such as Simplified and Traditional Chinese, enabling your employees there to manage your accounts with ease.

Choosing an accounting software doesn’t have to be an extravagant affair. Hopefully, these pointers mentioned above will help you recognize your accounting needs and make a wise business decision. It’s advisable to consider your future business goals when making your choice, to ensure that these features will fulfill your business needs.

Confused?

How about contacting our team at Reach Technologies to show you how awesome our Kingdee KIS accounting software is?

Does Your Business Really Need an ERP System?

Does Your Business Really Need an ERP System?

ERP System

ERP system is an advanced form of general accounting system; but the benefits are enormous. Many people still don’t know why they should opt for this.

Running a Business?

Running an business is never an easy task, especially when you have monitor many processes and departments, from the ordering of raw materials and supplies to the sales and delivery of your customer’s orders. Every department is inter-dependent with another. Failure of the sales department to meet a target would render an oversupply in the warehouse, while overwhelming sales orders can stress the manufacturing department should it fail to meet the orders on time.

If this sounds like your concern, you are probably considering to implement an ERP system into your business.  So how exactly does an ERP system work and how can it ensure that every department is running efficiently to sustain or even grow your business?

The Modules

In order to understand how an ERP system can benefit your business, think of each department as a module. These modules need to efficiently communicate with one another in order to ensure that business runs as usual.

Let us start with the sales department

This department is in charge of getting orders to ensure that the business runs a profit. Your sales team may have a target to reach every month, and with such information, you may also have a projected sales figure in the upcoming months. But in order to fulfill the orders, you’ll have to deliver right?

This is when the purchasing department comes in

Are there enough raw materials or supplies available to meet the orders from the sales department? If there isn’t, the purchasing department inputs its orders of raw materials into a system and sends an order to your supplier. And where should these orders be delivered to?

The warehouse, of course

That’s where everything is stored for delivery or for manufacturing. The raw materials go nowhere and have no value to your customers. So, after the warehouse has reported the availability and supply levels of the raw materials, you are ready to turn the raw material into something valuable and deliverable to your customer.

The manufacturing process begins to product sufficient quantity to meet your sales orders

Can they produce enough to meet deliver the finished products to your customers on time? Unfortunately, if the answer is ‘no,’ then an OT may be scheduled to meet the production dateline. When the production is completed, they may go back to the warehouse to be delivered, and that’s when you collect your money.

The finance department not only collects your money

It also has to ensure that your suppliers are being paid for the raw materials they delivered. Did your manufacturing department clock in OT hours? If so, they can easily see the figures from the ERP software and pay your employees accordingly.

Human Resource Management

Were your employees payed accordingly? Did you have to hire new staff to speed up the manufacturing process? Did your employees feel that they were under-compensated? The human resource department can easily look for relevant data to investigate such instances, which can easily be accessed on the ERP software.

Uh-Oh, Bad Customer Feedback

What do you do with bade customer feedback? To minimize damage, it would be wise to act promptly and find out what happened. Was the quality of the orders compromised because you had speed up the manufacturing process?

Was the quantity not what you had promised? The ERP solution not only allows you to manage your customers, but also allows you to investigate what possibly went wrong during the process.

As a business owner of a growing enterprise, it’s essential to know exactly what’s going on in every department. Communication needs to be efficient and operations need to be carried out without a glitch. But you can’t spend all your time going to every department to check – you need to focus on developing your business!

That’s when ERP software such as the Kingdee K/3 solution will come in handy. See how your business performs overall from a single software, and monitor the processes easily with reports. If you want to run an efficient and sustainable business, you should consider implementing an ERP software like Kingdee K/3.

Speak to Reach Technologies today and we’ll help you customize an ERP solution that meets your growing business needs

5 Myths of Accounting Software Debunked

Accounting Software vs Manual Accounting in Spreadsheet – Know Which is Better

Despite being in the age where technology is highly relied on to complete tasks such as accounting, there are still a lot of businesses who rely on manual accounting on a spreadsheet. Don’t be surprised – we even knew a customer who uses BOTH accounting software and manual accounting!

The reason for using both?

“Just in case something goes wrong with the system, I still have my manual spreadsheets.”
But technology is far advanced now, to the extent that back-ups can be easily copied and restored onto other computers. This allows business operations to continue smoothly without major hiccups!

So if you’re reading this and thinking… “I still prefer manual accounting,” let’s help debunk some of the myths and concerns with implementing an accounting software into your business.

1. It’s expensive

Price tends to be the first thing most business owners look at. Sure, doing your accounts manually is cheaper because after all, you just need a spreadsheet right? But if an accounting software can save you time, would you consider it?

Accounting softwares, like the Kingdee KIS, are developed to make your tasks easier – not difficult. Maybe it’s a bit costly; but it can increase your productivity and will help you keep your accounts neat and clean.

Time is money, and if you’re paying an accountant, implementing a software not only helps make the work easier for him/her, you may end up saving money too. If you hire a part-time accounting, you don’t have to pay him/her as much as the hours involved will be significantly reduced.

 

If you have a full-time accountant(s), they can get things done much quickly and you know your accounts are always up to date whenever you need to refer to them.

Remember the business who uses both manual and software accounting? They were behind in their accounts for at least 2 months before they were convinced to fully implement the accounting software.

2. I need to spend time to learn how to use it

This is also a big myth. Accounting software is easy to implement can be used as soon as it’s installed into the computer. The features and functions are labelled according to accounting terms, so once you get used to the interface, it’s not difficult at all.

If you have employees who don’t use English as a first language, the Kingdee KIS Accounting also has Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese interfaces.

Besides, Reach Technologies offers training and support, so that you’ll know how to make full use of every function in the accounting software.

3. I still need to calculate taxes manually

Accounting software has revolutionized over the years, and GST reports can now be generated in the Kingdee KIS accounting software. You can generate a GST report in minutes. So start putting down that spreadsheet and stop wasting time!

Besides Singapore taxes, an accounting software such as the Kingdee KIS accounting also supports the China VAT. So if you have a business in China or perform transactions there, you can rely on the accounting software to do it for you quickly.

4. I have specific accounting needs that can only be done manually

Accounting software such as the Kingdee KIS is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s true that every business has different needs, which is why the software allows you to customize settings accordingly. Cheques and payment vouchers can be printed using the software too!

A bonus: Kingdee KIS also enables you to consolidate multiple sales orders into a single delivery order, as well as multiple delivery orders into a single sales invoice. Now, how long does it take for you to do this manually?

5. I have business overseas that have different accounting needs

Businesses are no longer confined within a region and it makes perfect business sense to expand to other parts of the world. So, if you have a business in Singapore with branches in Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, it will be an extremely tedious task to manage all these accounts manually. You may even have to employ several different accountants for each branch.

But accounting software like the Kingdee KIS eliminates the tediousness of it. You can handle the accounts of all your branches in the single software… and have we not already mentioned that it saves you LOTS of time?

Still having second thoughts about hopping over to using an accounting software like Kingdee KIS? Rest assure that the software comes with a robust security system, so that you will always have a backup should there be any system failures that result in data loss.

Besides, you can also export the data into a spreadsheet, “just in case.”
Also, your accountant will thank you for it! In fact, we’ve never seen an accountant who isn’t happy to have an accounting software to help do the job.

So what are you waiting for? Come find out more about the solutions Reach Technologies offers today!

5 Mistakes People Make When Choosing an Accounting System

5 Mistakes People Make When Choosing an Accounting System

Choosing an Accounting System is a Crucial Step

Account is the backbone of any business organization. So, choosing your accounting system is the most crucial step towards a transparent account and of course a better business.

In the long past manual accounting was the only process to maintain a history of your business transactions. But it was not only a slow process but also was very prone to errors. But today, hardly any organization, apart from the small ones, maintains manual accounting; instead they use accounting software.

So, are they very happy with these accounting applications? If you perform a short survey, you’ll know that most of them are trying their best to adjust with the problems and drawbacks of their application. But, remember, you’re in fact compromising with your business.

Didn’t they make enough research before purchasing their accounting system? In fact, in most of the cases, they aren’t much aware about what exactly they should ask about an accounting software. If you don’t want to repeat the same mistake, here are some guidelines for you.

Unsuitable User Interface

Do all accounting software operate the same way? Not really. The features may be similar, but the user interface tends to differ. Small details such as language can easily be overlooked, especially if you intend to expand your business overseas.

Many Singaporean businesses grow towards China and Hong Kong, which is why Kingdee KIS Accounting offers not only English, but also Traditional and Simplified Chinese interfaces.

Impractical Logic and Database Structure

Though we are not software developers, but we should know that every software works as per the logic structure. The better the logic will be, the better outcome you will get. Often it takes several years to design a software with perfect, intelligent and error-free logical background.

So, ask your software provider to explain the logic of the application. Beware! Don’t be fooled by the geeky terms. Compare it with other accounting software and judge which is better for your business. Never purchase a software without knowing its logic structure.

Also, find out what type of database is being used. While it may seem impressive when a developer claims to have its own developed database, it may not be well-designed, clogging up the system and significantly slowing it down. Always look out for reliable database integration.

For example, the Kingdee KIS Accounting integrates with Microsoft’s My SQL, which is strongly reliable even as a database fills up.

No Taxation and Localisation

Sometimes, business owners get too excited about the extensive list of features in an accounting software that when they jump into a purchase, they later realize that it was a big mistake, because taxation and localisation is not available in the software!

If you’ve tried filing GST reports or import duties manually, you’ll understand that it takes LOTS of time. You may even miss out on reporting some of the taxes, which can seriously mess up your accounts. So always check if the accounting software you’re purchasing supports at least the taxation of the country your business is operating in.

A bare minimum is that it needs to be able to file GST reports. If you’re intending to expand your business to other countries out of Singapore, make sure that your accounting software supports the taxes of that region too.

No Backup Option

Have you ever thought, what will happen if one fine morning you come to know that your software has crashed? Yes, it can happen for several reasons. In such situations you’ll feel just helpless if you haven’t kept any backup of your data.

But this doesn’t mean you need to be tech-saavy to do a backup. Always check how a back-up can be made in your accounting software. For example, Kingdee KIS users can easily backup the database into an external thumb drive.

Such convenience means that you don’t have to be a genius to perform regular back ups, and you don’t have to be worried when your computer crashes!

No Option to Upgrade

It’s common that accounting software goes through upgrades over time, to meet the demands of businesses and make improvements and bug fixes. Failure to keep up will cause an accounting software to be phased out eventually, losing to newer and advanced competitors.

Also, if you were to switch to another accounting software, this can be a hassle as the database may not be supported in the newer software. Thus, it’s a wise choice to ask if an accounting software offers the option of lifetime updates.

Because Kingdee Software Group has been around for years and is one of the leaders in business management solutions, it’s unparalleled technological advancement enables the company to keep up with market trends. Thus, should you choose to implement the Kingdee KIS Accounting into your business, you can rest assure that updates will readily be available.

If you want to avoid these mistakes or think you may already dropped into a pithole by comitting any of these, we can help you!

Talk to us at Reach Technologies and our team of experts will help you make the right choice.