105703 Resource 102302 102466 102466 1130156662203 1130156662203 Controlled Does an accounting system need a web interface?

Electronic debits and credits were a significant advance, but what will the next generation of accounting applications do for us and our customers?

Gave a presentation this past Friday to the Michigan Association of CPAs about Software as a Service. The point was how we are starting to see the idea of business software applications delivered over the Internet take hold in the mainstream. The audience was fairly receptive, but still somewhat skeptical, which I guess is understandable; there are still a number of mountains to climb in Software as a Service.In the Q & A session afterwards, one idea came up that I had not really dwelled upon in the presentation but which resonated with the audience; the idea of an accounting system with channels to the internet, a web interface, if you will. What is it? Is this necessary?  Can we secure it? To be sure, no company wants to publish their accounting system on the Internet; in fact, most companies rightly spend some amount on the security to prevent this. But is there a reasonable amount of information that a company might want to make accessible to a secured audience via the Internet? For example, does it make sense to let customers and partners, or even employees in your direct sales force, see the customer's past orders and create new orders? Or see their A/R balance and make a payment against it? Or does it make sense for vendors to see the A/P balance and scheduled payments? These interactions with customers, partners and vendors may make sense if they offer something useful, a recognizable return, to all parties involved. What's the return? Is placing an order online easier, simpler and faster than filling out an order form and faxing it over? Is online ordering better than filling our an electronic order form and emailing it to your vendor's office?When everything goes perfect in the order entry process, business owners and their customers are likely to say that an online order is roughly the same as one done over the phone, in person, through email or the fax machine. It's when these methods have a hiccup, as they often do, that users see the return from an online order entry system. 5 years ago this may not have been the case, but we have all had the experience of buying from E-Bay or Amazon now. Made a mistake in your online order? It's pretty easy to edit. You don't have to start over and fill out another form and fax it again. And orders don't fall through the cracks, like paper can. Yes, it's true that we cannot see electrons, but overall they are much more dependable than paper order entry. So does an accounting system need a web interface? For companies that are doing Business to Business commerce, it makes sense to open up a sliver of the accounting system to your customer base. Many companies have already done this. Customer adoption of online ordering and payment is easy to measure and it will give you a good idea of how customers accept these changes.What kind of an accounting system lends itself to a web interface? The accounting system of old was installed on a server, or other similar machine, in an office and its only connection was to the other computers in the office. This type of system had no native Internet functionality. To make a system like this accessible to customers and partners requires the talents of several technical resources who write the code that turns a captive accounting system into an interactive accounting system. It can be done, but its labor intensive and it prevents the system owners - you - from changing to a new and better system: You will lose all of the custom code that you wrote. If you're thinking about a new accounting system, you really need to think about a system that incorporates a native Internet presence. Accounting systems that are offered as services, using the Internet as a communication channel, offer a native web presence. Systems like NetSuite do not require the talents and time of several technical resources to make them internet accessible. The NetSuite implementation generates an online order entry system as a matter of course. But the real question is how your customers will accept an online order entry and payment system. Judging by E-Bay and Amazon, it appears that adoption for business customers is assured. 10 application/xml false accounting system netsuite netsuite implementation online order entry Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; T312461; YPC 3.0.1; (R1 1.5); .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 68.250.40.185 68.250.40.185 tfoydel false true false false true 102302 blog blogsite/SightLines/web