Accounting Software Utilization

1. Designing an Effective Accounting System
An effective accountinginformationsystemsprovidesaccurate,timelyinformationregardingyour
businesswhile meetingregulatorycompliance. Inordertoachieve this,organizationand
systematizationisrequired. Thismeansthatdutiesmustbe segregatedtocomplywithinternal control
guidelinesandGAAP. Anotherkeyelementissoftwaresystemsthatare integratedthatomitmanual
rekeyingof data. Data structure conventionsthatmeansomethingtoyourcompany,customersand
vendorsisthe mostimportantpart of a soundfinancial system.
In orderto achieve the propersystematizedandorganizedAccountinginformationsystem, careful
planningmusthappen priortoimplementation. Masterfilesforthe General ledgershouldbe
departmentalizedmirroringyourproductorservice flow sequence. General ledgeraccountsmustbe
setup usingnomenclature thatcompliments extensive filteringcapability,forexample: (GLaccount
codes=XX-YYY-DDDDD-AAA),whereeachcomponentprecedingadash meanssomethingtoyou,your
employees, customersandvendorstoallow forachievingfurtherfiltering andreportingrequirements;
thiswill lendflexibilitytoyourreportingsystem byallowingmultiple dimensionsof lookingatyourdata.
If your companyhas inventorythenarrangementsmustbe consideredfordatastructure inorder to
effectivelyutilizefilteringfieldsatthe masterfile level. Inadditioninventorynomenclature shouldbe
designedbysegment: example (sku=XX-YYY-DDDDD-A),whereeachcomponentprecedingadash
meanssomethingtoyou,yourcustomersandvendorstoallow for the filteringrequirements;thiswill
lendflexibilitytoyourinvetory reportingsystem.
In caseswhenyourorganizationoperatesinanindustrythathasa National StockNumberingsystem, or
doesbusinesswithavendororcustomerthat hasstandards,youmay be requiredtouse the National
Stock Numberorstandardas the SKU. In these instancesthere are systemsthathave featuresto
manage such a situation. However,inthe case where youhave a cannedpackagedsoftware system,
there maynot be a specificfeature todeal withthisskuissue. Whenthatsituationarisesitissimple to
explore alternativewaystouse the software toattainthe accommodation. Thisisalsowhy the data
structure nomenclature mustbe considered,inordertoaccommodate filtering,reportingand
compliance.