Strategic Accounting Software Package-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Write a Literature Review on an Organisation that is using accounting software packages in Australia. Answer: Introduction The modern corporate world is characterized by great competition in providing quality business services to different clients. Many organizations are therefore seeking to establish a competitive advantage in the areas of quality, efficient and cost effective service provision. With the increase in organizational activities, the coordination of all activities to bring about quality output is dependent on the organization management systems (Ismail and King, 2014, p. 13). Great emphasis is laid to the performance measurement tools in any organization which necessities organizations to develop and adopt software packages which can help them meet the business needs as well as the needs and demands of their clients. Some of these business softwares include the accounting software packages which have been adopted by many businesses or organizations among them been the Hansens Accounting and Business services firm in Melbourne, Australia (Chenhall and Moers, 2015, p. 6). This study, therefore, seeks to provide an understanding of the structure of this organization or firm and its interactions with business software and how the organization has adopted the use of accounting software packages. It will also provide an understanding of the competition the company faces from other users of the same software in a bid to understand what gives them a competitive advantage in the market as well as analyze some of the challenges experienced by the users of the accounting software packages. The Hansen Accounting and Business organization structure The Hansen accounting and business services firm was established in 1997 and has since been in forefront of providing quality business services to their clients. The organization or firm is based in Waverley, Melbourne, Australia but has a wide network of clients in many other parts of the world. The organization is specialized in providing business services across the fields of business consultancy services, accounting, auditing and other specialist services. It has been recognized for offering quality services to their clients such as provision of annual financial statements, business activity statements, management consulting and reporting services and financial budgeting as well as auditing services among others (Broida and Flora, 2015, p. 46). The organization is structured into different departments which specialize in different business services but all work together towards the common goal of achieving the objectives of the company and that is to meet their clients needs in offering solutions and quality services to problems or challenges from their clients. The organization has a business service department which specializes in offering accounting services, business consultancy, booking keeping, payroll among other services (Blount et al. 2016, p. 193). It has also a tax and audit department which specializes in offering tax and audit related services to their clients as well as a specialized services department which deals with special clients needs like customized client services. However, the departments are linked together by the management and serve a common through the efforts of specialized and competent staff. Organizational operational problems However due to the many organizational activities involving huge financial data and great number of clients with high demands, the Hansen Accounting and Business Services company has been experiencing great complaints from their clients most of which result from errors in financial reports or budgets and increasing costs resulting from inefficiency of the current systems (Lim Perrin 2014, p. 3). Such problems having been analyzed by the management of the company were found to be very critical to the organization success as their clients needed to be satisfied with the quality of their services as well as help them reduce the costs associated with lack of utilization or adoption of accounting software (Mas et al. 2014, p. 103). The management, therefore, seeks to acquire accounting information system software packages that will help them cut the operational costs, improve their efficiency as well as perform the various task in the shortest time possible to meet the rising demand from their clients. The software should help the company eliminate some of the human errors reported by their clients as well as allow for effectiveness and consistency by fulfilling the business needs. Acquisition of system software The management is therefore tasked with the responsibility of making a decision on acquiring a system accounting software in which their decision can be to adopt or acquire commercial software, custom software or ERP software. However the acquisition of accounting software packages is supposed to fall under the context of the existing organizational structure and depending on the organizational needs, the software should, therefore, be compatible with the existing organizational structure as well as improve the efficiency of the currently existing structure (Starinsky 2016, p. 3). The commercial softwares are usually ready-made softwares for resale to the end user and therefore in most cases they are used by small organizations at start-up of their business operations however they may not be applicable to large organizations with an already established structure as the system software may not be compatible with existing current structure (Chenhall Moers 2015, p. 8). The acquisition of custom software will mean that the company will have to adopt software that is designed or developed to meet specific user or organizational needs. However, the development or acquisition of ERP software allows the organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and also automate many other office functions related to technology, services and also a human resource (Cassidy 2016, p. 2). Therefore, in this case, Hansen Accounting and Business services are likely to acquire ERP software as it will provide a platform for the company to integrate the fu nctions of various departments according to the specific client needs to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the existing organizational structure. Organization sales system flow chart The success of an organization is not only dependent on the services provided but also on the sales strategy adopted by the company. For Hansen Accounting and business services to attain its success objective in service delivery to their clients, it needs to develop a systems flow chart for the company sales procedure (Peppard Ward, 2016, p. 2). A system flow chart is a representation of the steps or actions that the organization or company needs to take in order to achieve maximum effectiveness in service provision to their clients. The figure below is a sample of system flow chart showing the sales procedures that Hansen Accounting and Business Services can adopt and implement to help integrate the sales objectives of each and every department in the company. The figure above shows some of the processes involved in the company accounting department involving the sales. It outlines the office interactions channels with their customers and the steps the company needed to take to ensure they offer effective, transparent and consistent services to their clients (Simkin et al. 2014, p. 4). It is important for the organization to follow and assess its sales flow chart as it ensures the company achieves financial success and helps to eliminate the financial errors resulting from the business transaction. Such a flow chart provides the organization with an opportunity to monitor the sales procedures and is able to solve any complaints from their clients. Understanding of development of accounting software in the organization and its importance With the extensive growth of the Hansen Accounting and Business Services, the company is at the threat of experiencing financial frauds, errors, lack of consistency or having a prompt repository mechanism to deal with client complaints or even address their concerns (Hafeez Andersen 2014, p. 46). It is, therefore, necessary for the company to adopt or develop an accounting software package that will help the company to manage payments with the organization for employees as well as their contractors, process invoice for their clients, ease the employees workload of calculating payment and tax deductions for each and every employee in the organization. The accounting software package will help the company to record as well as process all accounting transactions within functional module developed through the ERP integrated system such as accounts payables, accounts receivables, company general ledgers (Starinsky 2016, p. 2). Some of the available and most applied accounting software pa ckages include Quick Books, MYOB, Cash flow managers, Zero-online, sage among others however the adoption and implementation of any of the packages are dependent on the business need of the company, its compatibility with the existing organization structure as well as the existing company technology. It is therefore recommended for the organization to develop or adopt the use of MYOB accounting software package. The software has gained the confidence of many businesses across Australia and New Zeeland with over 1.2 million businesses using the package. The software offers a range of solutions and products which make it applicable to both small businesses as well as large businesses. It provides an easy and fast way to manage an organization or company cash flow and also ensure compliance with ATO requirements. Its cost effective as it helps the organization to reduce the costs of having accountants as its simple to use and anyone can use it and it also automatically updates the system in any incidence of the tax change. The software will, therefore, help the organization manage its client purchase orders, work with multiple clients accounts as well as manage employees job time sheets (Geary et al. 2017, p. 703). It is also easier through MYOB software for the management to track job progress, track the organization profit and loss as well as the inventory levels. It completely revolutionizes clients experience by offering products which the range can integrate with the existing accounting software to add immense value to the organization. The competitive advantage of other organizations over the Hansen Accounting and Business Company The existence of other firms and companies offering the same services in the Australia accounting market has increased competition faced by the company. The Hansen Accounting and Business services are a privately owned firm and have a range of 11 to 50 employees with over 40 years of existence. However, the company has not grown its networks to other nations other than serving clients from different regions (Mueller et al. 2014, p.8). Their client base cut across several nations with some of their great clients been Price Waterhouse Coopers among others. However, it has not established partnerships with other small firms in different regions as compared to their competitors and other leaders in the industry such as the Greenberg and Companies which has partnerships with other firms locally and internationally. The partnerships have given these companies a competitive advantage in that it has helped them reduce their operational costs in other regions (Chang 2016, p. 3). The companies can also learn from the different organizational structures used in different regions that enable them to understand their market well and also strategically plan for their future strategies. With the companies enjoying the economies of scale, they can offer affordable prices to their clients for their products and services and therefore increase their competitive advantage in the international market. However, the development and adoption of accounting software packages in most businesses have encountered a number of challenges. With organization having different organizational culture, the adoption and development of these packages has interfered with some organizational culture and in most organizations the idea has not been implemented as may prompt the loss of jobs to certain groups of people in the organization including accountants, financial controllers, analysts and experts (Seethamraju 2015, p. 483). The system is also bound to have technical challenges which mean that the management cannot write off the functions of accountants in the organization yet maintaining both the system software as well as the accountants may increase the cost element of the organization. The softwares in another case may not be user-friendly as not everything that can be integrated to meet the employers requirements. Conclusion The development and adoption of accounting software packages are very paramount to the success of modern businesses. However, it calls for great efforts from the management team to ensure that the software developed or adopted meet the needs of the business as well as those of their clients. With increased competition been experienced in the modern corporate world, the quality of services provided by the businesses and their competitors will determine the success of the businesses. It is, however, important to note that it would be difficult for businesses to survive in the current corporate world without the effective use and implementation of business softwares compatible with the current technology. List of References Blount, Y., Abedin, B., Vatanasakdakul, S. and Erfani, S., 2016. Integrating enterprise resource planning (SAP) in the accounting curriculum: a systematic literature review and case study. Accounting Education, 25(2), pp.185-202. Broida, M. and Flora, D., 2015.The status of computerized accounting software in small American businesses. 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