Accounting Software used in Australia Accounting Competitors

Question: Describe about the Report for Accounting Software used in Australia of Accounting Competitors. Answer: Introduction Accounting is very important for the proficient knowledge. Every company requires accounting for their day to day working needs which is not possible to do manually these days so many companies prefer to use the accounting software rather than doing these manually. A very crucial role is played these days by the accounting software. Basically accounting software is nothing but the class of computer programs that helps in managing the operations of the business financial transactions. Use of the accounting software is increasing widely as it helps the companies to use their resources efficiently in the accounting departments and helps in reducing the mistakes that are costly while doing the book keeping. The accounting software leads to accuracy in the work and helps in increasing the speed in recording the various transactions. This accounting software helps in generating the reports that are further used in preparing the tax of the business. There are various accounting software tha t are being used in Australia like Myob, QuickBooks, Reckon, Saasu and Xero. The report is related to the very commonly used accounting software in Australia Intuit QuickBooks, Xero, Saasu etc and there details. Many firms in Australia are using the QuickBooks accounting software in Australia for recording their business transactions. History The era of the accounting software began in the year 1955 with privately owned software that was first built in Kentucky, USA for handling the payroll for the general electric appliance factory and was named Univac 1. The early accounting software was bespoke and as there was advancement in technology the innovations continued. The capacity of the computer grew gradually that enabled the various high development tools. Throughout the 1960s the various companies invested in producing various accounting system tailored that suited their particular requirements. However there was a continuous growth in the capability of the computers due to which idea of generalized application began to rise . In the year 1973 SAP RF was introduced that enabled the handling of wide variety of system and business chores. In the year 1983 intuit was founded and it launched its first product Quicken in the year same year. These further increased the accounting application as and when the time passed. In th e early 1980s a very young company named Teleware Inc developed a very eye catching and innovative accounting software that caused the eye of the best software and was purchased by it in the year 1983 and it changed its name in the year 1999 which is very popularly known as MYOB now a days. (Scott 2015)QuickBooks was known as Quicken to the Australian market since 25 years since people recognized it as QuickBooks. QuickBooks was built by the Reckon as its name by investing millions of dollars in the product development and marketing that helped in winning the loyalty and the support of various thousands of businesses. Then in the year 2012 everything was given on and the Quicken was finally recognized as the QuickBooks and Quicken brand names. The company decided to take this step because the QuickBooks was acting as an anchor that was further delaying the progress and rendering them helpless in the era of tough competition. Due to this move the QuickBooks returned to its own foundi ng name that is Reckon and that helped it in placing its confidence with its in house talent and strong culture of innovation. QuickBooks is reckoned as a #1 rated online book keeping and accounting software for the various businesses that includes the small businesses as well. The software is present in 130 countries and is developed by intuit which is the American Company. (Ryan 2012)This software that is cloud based was launched in Australia in the year 2012 after its launch it has been adopted by thousands of users around the country that is further contributing to the increase in the number of subscribers to approximately 841,000 all over the world. Adoption and development of cloud computing in Australia In various countries the excel spreadsheets and shoe box full of receipts was used for managing the accounts of the company that included various small businesses and start-ups. But, due to the advent of cloud computing and the rash of various systems there had been a rapid change for the businesses and the accounting firms that serves them. The company can access the cloud based accounting system by paying a nominal fees to less than $50 per month and hence they can have various different features at their disposal that can help managing their accounts in a less period of time. Due to the arrival of the various cloud based accounting systems like the Saasu, Xero, iBizz and JCurve have made the spreadsheets on the run.(Head 2013) The rate at which the cloud computing is being adopted by the people in Australia is remarkable with almost three out of five businesses that are using the cloud computing for managing their accounts. The businesses that are using Xero as their accounting software has doubled since the month of September last year. (Dinham 2014)But, the main issue that is being faced by the businesses while using the accounting software is the security of the same. Many accountants and bookkeepers are being trained from time to time so that they can easily get adapted in using the cloud computing software. Market size of the accounting software used in Australia According to the various reports it has been observed that there is various accounting software that has been used in Australia like MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks, Saasu. According to the reports of Stanmoulis it has been found that MYOB is the largest accounting software provider in the countries like New Zealand and Australia and Xero is the biggest cloud accounting company. There are about 116,000 subscribers of the cloud as compared to the Xero that has about 320,000 subscribers across the areas of New Zealand and Australia.(Heber 2015) According to the reports of Small Business Administration it has been found that the Intuit has about 89% market share of the small business accounting and the tax software. According to the reports of SBA there are approximately 1.3 million small bookkeeping and accounting firms which means that the average gross revenue of the company is about $43,000.(Rives 2015) Leaders in the Cloud computing market in Australia The various organizations weather big or small is replacing the traditional desktop accounting software with the cloud accounting software. According to the latest report of capioIT , it has been found out that about 27% of the businesses and the various accounting firms that accounts to about 67% have already moved to the online cloud accounting software. According to the reports that are available from the various accounting organizations it has been found that the Xero is the market leader in the online accounting software in Australia. (Dinham 2014)There are about 147,000 Australian customers of Xero in the year 2014 that has increased to about 96% in the succeeding year. Intuit was enjoying the position of the market leader earlier that was given tough competition by the Xero in the year 2014.(R G Technologies 2014) Competitive advantage with Xero as a market leader in Australia It is cloud based The Xero software is cloud based unlike the QuickBooks it was built from the ground up for the cloud. The users are free to access their accounts any where any time provided they have an internet connection. Simple and Intuitive UI This software was basically built for the people who are not accounting professionals but it is also smart enough for the accounting professionals. It has an Intuitive User interface.(Annoynomous 2014) Xero tops with its rich features There are various unique features that help the Xero to be on the top. The accountants are not required to prepare the files manually for inputting the data in to the software. Challenges faced by the users while using the accounting software Though the accounting software has made managing the accounts of the various companies very easy but still there are various disadvantages that are being faced by the users of the accounting software. Some of the challenges that are faced by the users are: Cost For using the accounting software the user is required to buy the software and the various additional licenses for using that software on the other computers. There are various upgrades that are required to be purchased for the additional features. Fraud There is extra level of security that is required by the accounting software so as to prevent the various problems like embezzlement and fraud. The users can easily alter the data that can lead to various frauds. Additional software There are various software that require additional software if the user wants to review the reports. As for example there are some programs that allow the user to export the PDF file or Excel spreadsheet this additional software may require additional expense for the user.(Morris 2014) Training The accounting software requires the time of the user to make him understand and learn on how to use the software. The user needs to learn what each button in the software and the menu does. Human Error There are various errors that are committed by the users while working with the software like typing errors. Entering the data in the software very quickly often results in various errors.(Crowder 2014) Suggestions to overcome the challenges Proper Training The users of the accounting software shall be given proper training for using the accounting software so that they do not do mistakes due to lack of proper training. Password protected The Software shall always be password protected so that the unknown person does not have the access to the software and cannot alter the various information of the software. User shall not enter the information very quickly So as to avoid the human errors due to entering the data in a very fast manner the user shall always take care that he enters the data correctly and not in a hurry. Sometimes in a hurry the data can be entered wrong due to which there are various issues and the reports of the companies may lead misleading assumptions due to wrong entered information so that shall be avoided by the user.(Stock 2014) Conclusion From the various researches it can be concluded that accounting and bookkeeping has been made very easy with the help of various software in various countries like Australia. Though there are various drawbacks of the same but it can be avoided with proper measures. Proper training is required to use this software. This software has made entering information quickly. Bibliography Annoynomous 2014, bpoconnect, viewed 25 August 2016, https://bpoconnect.com.au/top-7-reasons-xero-accounting-wins-competitors/. Crowder, CD 2014, Tech In., viewed 25 August 2016, https://techin.oureverydaylife.com/disadvantages-accounting-software-1965.html. 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