Packaged accounting software vs SaaS software

“Reports are an important part of any business, and no accounting system can provide every report that everyone wants,” Cowie says. “MoneyWorks has always come with a report writer in it, and we have substantially enhanced that in the last version. And that’s pretty well unique in the SME business market.”

Another important factor is interactivity. With the rise of real-time retailing and inventory systems, particularly driven by e-commerce activity, it is important that companies are able to input and access information from their accounting systems for use in other parts of the business as it is needed.

Cowie says Cognito has also worked to ensure that MoneyWorks will interact with other software.

“We’re very much of the belief that MoneyWorks is not going to do everything for everybody, and so our job is to provide a very good core accounting engine, but with hooks into other systems. So you can chose your CRM system and the chances are it will hook up to MoneyWorks.

“As businesses get more and more sophisticated, they want more and more functionality, and there are always going to be better solutions from specialist providers of those solutions than by general purpose suppliers who try and do everything.” 

INTEGRATING THE WEB

Dixon says the new version of QuickBooks is ‘web-enabled’, meaning it can interact with other applications across the company network or over the internet. This means that information can be more easily accessed and entered through different applications, and maintained in real-time.

“You can integrate web applications and have them called from within the user interface and it can be, if it is done well by the third party, more or less seamless,” Dixon says. “We see already some examples of sophisticated applications are able to be added onto QuickBooks without having them embedded within the product itself, and I think that will help us in maintaining a reasonable level of sophistication for most of our customers.”

MYOB even went so far as to acquire a web hosting company, ilisys, to help its clients get set up and trading online.

“Small businesses are becoming more aware of the advantages that technology offers and are starting to look to technology to assist them with their business,” Reed says. “For example, more and more small businesses are realising the benefits of establishing a website to advertise themselves as well as a platform for delivering goods and services.”