Can accounting software replace accountants?

This is a question that often strikes business persons, especially small business owners – can they simply use accounting software to handle all the accounting for their business, to the extent that the position of an accountant is rendered redundant?

Broadly, as we look to understand this aspect, we find that the answer is largely in the negative; in other words, you can’t really expect software to deftly handle all the work that an accountant does. In fact even the best accounting software such as QuickBooks, Peachtree Quantum, QuickBooks Enterprise, ACT, ACT Software, Sage Software, MAS90 Software, and so on too cannot replace human functionality.

At the same time, without a doubt, accounting software certainly makes an existing accountant that much more productive and deft with his or her work. In other words, accounting software serves to complement the work that an accountant does and not necessarily replace that person and the position that he or she is handling.

In understanding this aspect, you need to appreciate the fact that the work of an accountant goes way beyond that which any accounting software does; for instance there is a lot of human communication involved. There is also a lot of documentation to be taken care of as well as physical note making with regard to diverse transactions, both payments receivable as well as the ones that are to be made. With so many different tasks and responsibilities that an accountant is entrusted with, it is obviously no surprise that even the very best accounting software really cannot replace an accountant.

At the same time, when it comes to small businesses which probably see lesser volumes of business transactions than the bigger businesses do, one possibility is to have the owners or proprietors themselves undertake all of the accounting, using diverse accounting software. Of course they need to have rigid training in that software; for that, they can always go in for top notch business accounting software training which is often provided by specialized entities who not only work on deploying accounting software such as payroll software, ERP software and so on, but also provide all of the perfunctory training related to that software.

Thus, with these singular entities, you will actually be able to obtain the software, have it installed on the desired machines, and then subsequently receive training for running that software as well.

In summation, going back to addressing the question of this post, software can certainly complement accountants but not necessarily replace them altogether.

Let software take over all your accounting needs!

When it comes to accounting for and managing the outflow and inflow of money, both from and to your small business respectively, doing the same personally can be immensely taxing. Further, this holds true, irrespective of whether you do the same yourself or hire an accountant for the purpose.

It is for this reason that small and big businesses alike are increasingly opting for accounting software that can easily handle all of the various inflows and outflows of money, into these businesses is concerned.

Further, talking about business and accounting software, there are various companies out there who also provide the requisite training as far as the usage of this software is concerned. After all, most of the software vendors are well aware that without the requisite training, users will never be able to use the software they offer, or be able to maximize the benefits that can be drawn from the same.

As far as functionalities of this software is concerned, you could possibly use it for payroll management, inventory management, barcode reading as well as a wide range of purposes at any given point of sale. If we are to look at the software itself, it includes offerings such as Quickbooks, Peachtree Quantum, Quickbooks Enterprise, ACT, ACT Software, Sage Software, as well as MAS90 to name just a few. Broadly, these software can easily be categorized under the broad heads of Accounting Software, Business Software, and CRM software.

An aspect that is noticed with a large number of small businesses is the fact that they have relatively smaller number of personnel, who are often handling many more tasks and responsibilities, than employees at larger firms. At the same time, cost remains an integral factor that every small business needs to be wary of and ensure that it cuts down on all avoidable costs. It is in this regard that business and accounting software prove to be especially useful – while on one hand, the need for hiring additional accountants is negated, the proprietors themselves can easily handle the accounting, once they have familiarized themselves with the software interface and its functionalities.

With regard to small businesses, we also need to keep in mind the fact that everyone is hard pressed for time, particularly the proprietors. In such a scenario, it is but natural that accounting software of this ilk proves completely invaluable!

5 VERY Basic Peachtree Tips

Once you've been working in Peachtree Accounting for a while, it's difficult to understand how you could have possibly remained stumped for days on how to enter a new vendor, or change somebody's pay rate! However, when everything's new and you’re in the middle of learning, small misunderstandings and little annoyances like hard-to-see buttons and missed checkboxes can hamstring your small business accounting software work for days. Today we go through a few very basic Peachtree procedures that often confuse new users.

Adding new customers
You can either select the field in the transaction dialog box, then double click on it to get to Maintain; or simply select the field and then press + on your number pad.

Setting up a job
Jobs have to be associated with customers, so once you have entered a customers to assign the job to, simply

• Choose Job Costs : Jobs under Maintain
• Assign the customer ID
• Fill in the tabs General, Estimated Exp/Rev and Custom Fields
• If you are entering more than one job for a customer, click Save before repeating steps 2 and 3
  

Insert payments from customers

Remember that this process within Peachtree Quantum or any Peachtree product is only for receiving invoiced amounts. Any other deposits have to go under Miscellaneous Deposits (instructions below!).

• Go to Tasks> Receipts
• Enter your customer ID
• Enter the check number
• Enter the date
• Enter the payment method
• Enter the business account to be credited
• Enter the Amount
• Importantly, remember to click 'Apply to Invoice' so that you don't bill them again!
• Click the pay column
• Click post, then either enter another invoice or close the screen

Merging old and new data

If you've had to restore your Peachtree file from a backup, and have new data to put into it (from another computer),you can export the data to merge it. The Rebuild section in Peachtree help will give you detailed instructions.

Entering invoices

You'll assign each invoice to a particular job - entering your invoice will increase both the sales account and your accounts receivable. Here's how to enter a new invoice:

• Go to Tasks> Sales/Invoices
• Enter the customer ID
• Enter the invoice number, the date, the item, description and the unit price and amount per unit.
• Click Post.

Simple! Once you have been using Peachtree for a couple of months, you'll be amazed at how simple it becomes. In the meantime, Peachtree business software training is available all over the country at very reasonable rates.

Peachtree User Problems Solved]

Peachtree Quantum, and all the other Peachtree Accounting programs, are very comprehensive offerings. There is a lot that they can do, many different ways to do the same thing ... and sometimes even little errors that slip past the eagle-eyed developers! So today we check out some of the recent problems and queries that people in the Peachtree business software user community have been experiencing, and the solutions to them.

Paying a company owners without a payroll

Having a payroll is not only a headache with few employees, but a massive extra training and tax expense. Some users have recently been asking about how they should pay themselves within Peachtree software without setting up a payroll. Of course, owners' equity accounts can be set up within Peachtree, but really this question is one for an accountant that has your full financial details rather than the software developer.

Disappearing quotes

One mysterious problem that Peachtree's internal support was actually unable to answer has been solved by the intrepid and expert small business accounting software user community. The problem occurs in Peachtree Quantum 2009; some quotes are not disappearing after they are converted into sales invoices, they remain in the quote list. The short-term solution is to simply manually delete it from the quote register. However, some people have been able to get their quotes to automatically convert by switching from SMART POSTING to REAL TIME POSTING. As a note, though, in the 2010 release, quotes will not disappear from the list after they have been converted - this is a deliberate change.

Printing issues with journal entries

Some users have had problems printing journal entries, with the problem occurring in both the sample and real company, and when the journal entry is dated. This appears to be a symptom of corrupted data or files - running data verification and reinstalling the program has fixed it for some Peachtree Accounting users.

Accounting Software Keeps Businesses on Track

I
was so excited when my small bakery started to grow after only two years in business. I knew that I offered some of the best baked goods in the area and had the market cornered on cookies alone. The only problem I had was keeping accurate books. Trying to do it without the right small business tools was almost impossible.

After researching several of the accounting software on this site, I chose the Peachtree Accounting software for many reasons. The first reason is because they software can be installed by one of the many Peachtree professionals. By not having to install the accounting software myself, I knew that it would be installed on my small business computer correctly. The second reason I chose this software is I was also able to take classes on how to use this particular type of accounting software. The classes are taught by professionals that are certified in the all of the Peachtree family of accounting software products. They can even help with trouble shooting when running this software in a small business.

A great feature about using this type of Accounting Software is that it comes with many security features that help to protect your small business information and can help if any data might become lost. Peachtree products are designed to create a secure setting with its accounting software for all your business data.

Since I have been using this software, it has helped me to spend less time doing bookwork and payroll. I can now focus on making my famous cookies and cakes instead of spending most of the workday in the office. By using the Peachtree software has also helped me to not only save time, I have also saved money by keeping my own books.

By using the Peachtree Complete software in running my small business, has helped me keep more accurate records. This type of software is perfect for all my small business needs. I now have an accurate record of the money coming in and going out of my small business.

Accounting Software for an Ice Cream Shop

Owning my own ice cream shop has been very rewarding. Not only do I get to make ice cream all day, I also get to eat it. The only thing I hated about owning my small business was doing the bookkeeping every day. Trying to keep up with the accounting and payroll seemed to take up most of my business day instead of interacting with my customers all day.

My wife suggested that I get new accounting business software for my ice cream shop. Not only would it be easier to keep track of all my accounting needs, it would also cut my time spent in the office so I could spend more time up front with all of the customers.

By buying Accounting Software it can help people that own a small business like mine, simplify the accounting part of their small business. Since purchasing the Sage software, it has become a valuable piece of equipment for running my small business efficiently. This is because the Peachtree Accounting software offers training to help understand and run their computer programs in a small business application.

The training that is offered by the Peachtree Company is always complete and comprehensive. They can help to show small business owners and their employees how to apply their software to help simplify bookkeeping and save time, such as using the MAS200 software. The certified instructors are always able to help small business owners choose the right accounting software for their specific needs.

Once the software is purchased and installed a small business owner and their employees can attend classes at a Peachtree facility to learn how to use these small business tools. The certified Peachtree software specialists can also be hired to help install the software programs on to the owner’s computer or computers.

Purchasing one of the many great Peachtree products is a great investment for any small business owner. When questions or concerns arise Peachtree is always their to help trouble shoot. That is why many small business owners become repeat customers of their many accounting products.

Small Business is Still Big Business

No matter if you have a small home office out of your den or have a medium to large business employing many, it is imperative that you not open up the door for business until you some kind of accounting software to keep track of your daily business. Even if you are a one person business, you still need to have a way to keep up with billing, invoicing, inventory, and banking. If you think you can do without it just because you are very small, you might be losing money that you didn’t even know about.

Running a business is much more than just selling your product or providing your service; you have to account for your income to report to the IRS. Software, such as Quickbooks, can help you keep track of this very important information and make tax time a whole lot less stressful. If you have a log of expenditures and inventory as well as income brought into the business, this will help your tax account figure out what deductions you qualify for and how much tax you will pay come April 15.

There are many types of small business accounting software programs on the market so you will need to research them to find out which one is best suited for your business. Many of the programs keep track of payroll, inventory, and billing, which are three of the most important parts of running a successful business. There are programs that will grow with your business and expand to meet all of your business needs. It is crucial that you start your business on the right foot because it doesn’t take long to have stacks of bills and invoices piled up on your desk which leads to more work than you really need to do.

Running a small business takes a great deal of time and effort and if you are spending too much extra time on bookwork you are taking away from the time you could be building your business. Quickbooks and other accounting programs like it are designed to support small businesses and are simple to use and easy to understand. Other programs require some extensive training so be aware of these qualifications before you purchase the software for your small business. You can research all the different accounting programs online or call a professional accountant to get a recommendation for a program that is just the right fit for your business.