Evaluating Accounting
Software:
Evaluating Add-on Tools
This article is part of a series entitled
“Evaluating Accounting Software” in which J. Carlton Collins explains
his quick and dirty 20-minute guide to evaluating an accounting software
package. The article series starts here:
http://www.asaresearch.com/articles/evaluating.htm
The best
accounting software products have taken great efforts to integrate their
products with the most popular report writers, tools and other add-on
applications in the marketplace. As you evaluate your accounting
software candidates, you would be well advised to determine whether the
proposed system works with the following proven add-on solutions:
FRx -
FRx is the industry
standard when it comes to financial statement reporting – nobody does it
better. With FRx, financial statements can be scheduled and e-mailed to
users, or groups of users, complete with password protection both at the
report level and drill down level. The product supports 256 column
reporting, links to data from outside sources (such as a spreadsheet),
and consolidations. If your product works with FRx, rest assured that
your financial reporting needs will likely be met.
Crystal Reports -
Crystal Reports is an
industry standard report writing tool that enables the user to extract
virtually any data out of the accounting system and produce
presentation-quality output. Further, in many accounting software
products all of the reports including check forms, invoices, packing
slips, etc are written in Crystal Reports. This makes it easy to edit
these reports or add additional reports.
Best! Fixed Assets - When it comes to fixed
asset tracking and reporting, nobody has done it better than over the
past decade than Best Software's fixed assets. If your proposed
accounting system integrates with Best Fixed Assets - that's a good
thing.
Microsoft Excel via ODBC -
Of course Microsoft
Excel is the ultimate power users tool. With ODBC drivers it is possible
to hot-link Microsoft Excel directly to the data within your accounting
software system. This process takes only a couple of seconds, and from
there you can reorganize and format your data to produce virtually any
report imaginable - including charts and graphs. Thereafter, you need
only open the Excel file and click refresh to see the real time report.
Microsoft Excel has grown as a report writing solution. Today 100% of
the reports generated in ACCPAC are generated in Microsoft Excel.
Additionally, Navision Attain's Executive Analysis module relies
completely on Microsoft Excel as well.
ACT! or Goldmine - These two contact
management products are widely deployed and used by sales
representatives across the world. Having these products integrate to
your accounting system so that your customer contact information is in
sync can help you save time and avoid problems.
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