Accounting Posts

A friend recently asked if I could recommend to her an an online accounting system which is web based and most importantly affordable, preferably allowing payments to be made on a monthly basis. photo credit: alancleaver_2000

She needed to be able to pay for the accounting system on monthly basis because she cant afford to purchase a brand new system which requires a huge up front capital investment. There’s simply not enough funds to go for a high end accounting package for now.

Also, she needed her accounting system to be online / web based so that she could easily share her accounts with co workers who are based at various locations.

Based on her requirements, I searched around and discovered one which fits exactly what she needs. It’s called SalesOrder.com

The reason why I have no doubts recommending SalesOrder.com is because it provides a 30 days full functionality free trial. If it doesn’t fit her requirements, she can just cancel the account without any obligations whatsoever. Continue Reading »
An affordable web based online accounting system

In a previous article “List of fixed asset depreciation calculation software“ a list of software was provided that caters for depreciation calculation. Today we will be looking more specifically at depreciation as it would typically apply to different classes of assets. Photo by Thomas Claveirole.

Before looking at appropriate depreciation rates, we need to first discuss the theory and reasoning behind the need for depreciation calculation in order to give you a better understanding of the overall objective of doing depreciation calculation.

The guidelines of generally accepted accounting practices globally require of accountants to comply with some principles, and one of them is the matching principle. This would mean that an accountant cannot show income this year that is not yet earned.

Let’s take a very simplistic example to illustrate the concept. If for example a 5 year contract has been allocated and money is received in advance by an organization, only the income that pertains to what is earned in the first year would be allocated within the Income Statement for that first year, regardless of when the cash was physically received. Cash received in advance of it being earned, or cash received only after it had been earned, will not impact on when the income will be accounted for in the Income Statement. Continue Reading »
List of fixed assets and their appropriate depreciation rates

If there is one type of software which an IT manager, a General Manager and an Accountant would have almost equal interest in, it is software that keeps track of fixed assets as well as work out the monthly depreciation that applies automatically. Photo by Thomas Claveirole.

The IT manager has a need to ensure that IT equipment is managed well, that the organization always knows how much of what is available, how old each item is, what its value is and where it can be found. The General Manager needs to know the same for all assets, including furniture and office equipment.

The task of the Accountant however, is to provide depreciation entries in the books every month, and to keep track of the book value of each asset after accumulated depreciation has been taken into account . The method of depreciation is not the same for all organizations. The potential of the asset to contribute towards earnings need to be matched with the cost of the asset in the most effective way in order to comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP). Continue Reading »
List of fixed asset depreciation calculation software

In yesterdays article we introduced the concept of free open source accounting software (Part 1) and we looked at GnuCash, TurboCASH, Lazy8Ledger, Pbooks and AdminsoftAccounts. Photo by Jake Wasdin.

Today we will be looking at some more options of free open source accounting software available.

• Front Accounting includes enterprise resource planning (ERP) elements and is web-based.
• It is suitable for small to medium companies.
• It supports multi-currency and multi-branch companies.
• Software requirements: Apache, PHP 4.3 or 5.MySQL 3.1

Continue Reading »
List of free and open source Accounting software (Part 2)