The Accounting software reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004
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Accounting software

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Accounting software is computer software that records and processes accounting transactions such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and trial balance. It may be developed inhouse by the company or organization using it, may be purchased from a third party, or may be a combination of a third-party application software package with local modifications. It varies greatly in its complexity and cost.

Since the mid 1990s, the market has been undergoing considerable consolidation, with many suppliers ceasing to trade or being bought by larger groups, notably by Sage and Microsoft.

Table of contents
1 Software Categories
2 See Also

Software Categories

Free software

Personal Accounting

Mainly for home users that use accounts payable type accounting transactions, managing budgets and simple account reconciliation at the inexpensive end of the market suppliers include:

Business - Low End

At the low end of the business markets, inexpensive applications software allows most general business accounting functions to be performed. Suppiers frequently serve a single national market, while larger suppliers offer separate solutions in each national market.

Suppliers include:

Business - Mid Market

The mid-market covers a wide range of business software that may be capable of serving the needs of multiple national accountancy standards and allow accounting in multiple currencies.

In addition to general accounting functions, the software may include integrated or add-on management information systems, and may be oriented towards one or more markets, for example with integrated or add-on project accounting modules.

Suppliers include (external links):

Business - High End

The most complex and expensive business accounting software is frequently part of an extensive suite of software often known as Enterprise resource planning or ERP software or still the software packages p2p such as the BWA being able to do without the system customer / server. Suppliers generally operate globally and include:

See Also

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