Sage 200

7:47 PM imran ali

Several of the deals have come from Sage 200 customers, he says. “We see Sage as a donor of business.

The installed base of Sage low-end to mid-end customers is phenomenally large, but we find that businesses looking to control complexity often find a home in the Dynamics product set,” he says.

He says customers like the Dynamics Dashboard because accounts clerks, accounts managers and financial directors can be given different views of the same accounting information.

Sage remains the company to beat in the UK accounts market. Cynthia Alers, Sage Group director of investor relations, says that the company has 772,000 Sage accounts users in the UK, and continues to add 30,000 new customers each year.


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CODA 2go

7:46 PM imran ali

CODA – a once traditional accounting software house – has demonstrated a top ten aged debtor list on a Blackberry, using its CODA 2go SAAS product offering, which it launched six months ago.

CODA 2go is targeting the Saleforce customer base of 1.2 million users.
“We began looking at the cloud market two years ago as we saw a delivery method that was on the uptake and one that could give us inroads into markets that traditionally couldn’t afford CODA’s high-end solutions,” says Jeremy Roche, chief executive of CODA Group.

“When we looked at building our own SAAS platform, the investment we would have had to make to scale and provide security and up-time and everything else, would have been enormous.

“By going with Force.com, we were taking advantage of the investment that Salesforce.com had already made, which let us concentrate on building the cloud version of CODA 2go.” CODA 2go costs US$125 per month per user.

Microsoft Dynamics product marketing director Gary Turner says that Microsoft “wants to embrace the best part of classically deployed software, and the internet generation” through its ‘Software Plus’ service – installed enterprise-wide software, but linked to the web.

He points out that Tenon, a large UK accounting firm, already deploys Dynamics accounting products as an outsourced, hosted product accessible over the web.

Turner acknowledges that the UK Dynamics business is “blunted”, but no more so than the rest of the market.

“I don’t expect to see the kind of growth that we experienced in the last 24 months during this year,” he says.

New business deals in the £10,000 to £50,000 bracket are still being signed, he says; businesses are looking for ways to manage customers more efficiently, to control cashflow and improve inventory levels.


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Credit Hound

7:44 PM imran ali

Richard Reavely, director of Draycir, says that sales of its Credit Hound package have picked up in the last two months.

Credit Hound takes creditor information from Sage and Microsoft Dynamics accounting software and automatically emails creditors when invoices are due, or schedules telephone appointments if an invoice are late.

“Resellers are joining up because they are looking for new products to sell to their existing Sage customers," he says.

However, the biggest technology change by far is undoubtedly Software as a Service (SAAS) offerings from new and established suppliers, even though the majority of traditional accounting software suppliers and resellers continue to insist that SAAS is not happening on their patch.

They give two reasons: their accounting customers see no need for it, and large accounting systems are already integrated into other applications which can only be operated and maintained on a local server or local network.


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Outlook to Exchequor

7:43 PM imran ali

Users can also enter data into Exchequor from Outlook, blurring the distinction between accounting software and a user’s everyday mail and calendar package.

Both Access Technology Group and Microsoft have launched a carbon emission dashboard, allowing companies to track carbon emissions using data held within the accounts software they already use.

“We think companies are beginning to take their environmental reporting seriously. We were the first to bring out a carbon emissions tracking system from within an accounts package, and have made the package free,” says Alistair O’Reilly, group managing director for Access Technology Group.

“While new business licence sales have slowed (although bread and butter deals continue to be signed worth £30,000 to £60,000) the demand for consultancy on existing systems is on the increase,” he adds.

“We need to provide features that allow personnel across the business to gain access to financial data, including bespoke reports and business documentation.”

O’Reilly says that Access Technology has added electronic document management, a scheduling module and a web-based professional services
module to its Access Accounting product set.

He says there is also interest in a new leasing scheme, which is offering customers lease rates of 3.5%, less than most leasing companies are able to offer.


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Objective or Importance or Advantages of Ledger:

6:14 AM imran ali

A ledger is a principal book so that it has a great importance of achieving the goal of accounting and book-keeping. Some objectives may be as follows:
  1. Knowledge of debtor: A ledger gives the information to the proprietor about his debtor to whom he has sold goods on credit and amount due from him to be received.
  2. Knowledge of creditor: A ledger also discloses the amount to be paid to creditor from whom the business has purchased goods on credit.
  3. Knowledge of total sale and purchase: It helps to know total sales or purchases of a certain period through sales account and purchase account.
  4. Knowledge of expenses: For each head of expenditure, a separate account is opened. It helps to know the amount spent on different heads of expenditures.
  5. Knowledge of income: Like the expenses, ledger accounts also help to disclose the incomes generated by the firm during a certain period.


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Ledger Account

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Meaning of Ledger:
Journal as we have discussed in previous chapter, is a chronological record of business transactions which does not record relating to a particular subject, thing or person at a place if they occur on different dates. To avoid such limitation of journal, a statement is prepared to collect all the transactions of same nature at one place which is called 'ledger'. In other words, a ledger is a book of recording transactions in a classified way according to their nature and type.

According to Mukharji and Hanif "The ledger is the principal books of accounts where similar transactions relating to a particular person or thing are recorded." From this definition, we know that a ledger is a principal book of account. All similar transactions are collected at a place. For example, transaction relating to cash are assembled under a ledger i.e., cash account. A separate account is opened for a particular transaction generally on a separate page or sheet.

Before preparing the ledger, journal entries must be passed. For every journal entry, one ledger account is to be debited and another is to be credited. Such process of transferring the transactions which have been previously recorded in the journal into the appropriate ledger accounts is called "Posting".


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5:52 AM imran ali

Trustees
The Foundation’s Board of Trustees is an independent body of leaders in their professions with diverse backgrounds and expertise in areas of business, finance, investment, accounting, government, investor advocacy, education, and other professions involved in the activities of the financial and capital markets. The Board is currently comprised of 16 members and, other than the chairman, Trustees serve a single five-year term and until their successors are elected and qualified. To provide for appropriate continuity of leadership, the Trustee serving in the capacity as chair may be re-elected to successive terms without limitations on the number of terms he or she may serve. The Trustees, in their capacity as the members of the Foundation, have sole authority to elect all Trustees. Three Trustees must have extensive experience as fi nancial offi cers or as elected offi cials of state or local governments and candidates for these positions are nominated by the nine governmental organizations that helped form the GASB under the Foundation. Nominations for the remaining at-large Trustee positions are solicited from a broad array of market participants.

The members of the FAF Board of Trustees are:
  • John J. Brennan (chairman, FAF), chairman, Vanguard;
  • Robert T. Blakely (vice chairman, FAF), executive vice president and CFO (retired), Fannie Mae;
  • W. Steve Albrecht, associate dean of the Marriott School of Management and professor, Brigham Young University;
  • Rick Anderson, chairman, Moss Adams LLP;
  • Frank H. Brod, corporate vice president, Finance and Administration, and chief accounting officer, Microsoft Corporation;
  • Ellyn L. Brown, president, Brown & Associates;
  • Jeffrey J. Diermeier, retired president and chief executive offi cer, CFA Institute;
  • Cynthia P. Eisenhauer, former chief of staff for Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack;
  • Timothy P. Flynn, chairman, KPMG;
  • Edward M. Harrington, general manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California;
  • Dennis Kass, chairman and chief executive offi cer, Jennison Associates LLC;
  • John J. Perrell III, retired vice president–global policies, American Express Company;
  • Susan M. Phillips, dean, George Washington University School of Business;
  • James H. Quigley, chief executive offi cer, Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu;
  • John J. Radford, state controller, Oregon;
  • Paul C. Wirth, global controller, Morgan Stanley.


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AN INDEPENDENT STRUCTURE

5:46 AM imran ali

Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
The FASB is part of a structure that is independent of all other business and professional organizations. Before the present structure was created, financial accounting and reporting standards were established first by the Committee on Accounting Procedure of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) (1936–1959) and then by the ,Accounting Principles Board, also a part of the AICPA (1959–1973). Pronouncements of those predecessor bodies remain in force unless amended or superseded by the FASB.

Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC)
The FASAC has responsibility for advising the FASB on technical issues on the Board’s agenda, project priorities, matters likely to require the attention of the FASB, and such other matters as may be requested by the FASB or its chairman. At present, the Council has more than 30 members who represent a broad cross section of the FASB’s constituency.

Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF)
The Foundation, which was incorporated to operate exclusively for charitable, educational, scientifi c, and literary purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, is responsible for selecting the members of the FASB and its advisory councils, ensuring
adequate funding of their activities, and exercising general oversight with the exception of the FASB’s resolution of technical issues.

Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
In 1984, the Foundation established the GASB to set standards of financial accounting and reporting for state and local governmental units. As with the FASB, the Foundation is responsible for selecting its members, ensuring adequate funding, and exercising general oversight.


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Certain precepts in the conduct of its activities

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  • To be objective in its decision making and to ensure,insofar as possible, the neutrality of information resulting from its standards. To be neutral, information must report economic activity as faithfully as possible without coloring the image it communicates for the purpose of influencing behavior in any particular direction.
  • To weigh carefully the views of its constituents in developing concepts and standards. However, the ultimate determinant of concepts and standards must be the Board’s judgment, based on research, public input, and careful deliberation about the usefulness of the resulting information.
  • To promulgate standards only when the expected benefits exceed the perceived costs. While reliable, quantitative cost-benefi t calculations are seldom possible, the Board strives to determine that a proposed standard will meet a signifi cant need and that the costs it imposes, compared with possible alternatives, are justifi ed in relation to the overall benefi ts.
  • To bring about needed changes in ways that minimize disruption to the continuity of reporting practice. Reasonable effective dates and transition provisions are established when new standards are introduced. The Board considers it desirable that change be evolutionary to the extent that it can be accommodated by the need for relevance, reliability, comparability, and consistency.
  • To review the effects of past decisions and interpret, amend, or replace standards in a timely fashion when such action is indicated.
The FASB is committed to following an open, orderly process for standard setting that precludes placing any particular interest above the interests of the many who rely on fi nancial information. The Board believes that this broad public interest is best served by developing neutral
standards that result in accounting for similar transactions and circumstances in a like manner and accounting for different transactions and circumstances in a different
manner.


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THE MISSION OF THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS BOARD

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The mission of the FASB is to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information.
Our financial reporting system is essential to the efficient functioning of the economy, That is because it is the means by which investors, creditors, and others receive the credible, transparent, and comparable financial information they rely on to make sound investment and credit decisions. Accounting standards are an important element of the financial reporting system because they govern the minimum required content of financial statements of U.S. public companies.
To accomplish its mission, the FASB acts to:
  • Improve the usefulness of financial reporting by focusing on the primary characteristics of relevance and reliability and on the qualities of comparability and consistency;
  • Keep standards current to reflect changes in methods of doing business and changes in the economic environment;
  • Consider promptly any significant areas of deficiency in financial reporting that might be addressed through the standard-setting process;
  • Promote the international convergence of accounting standards concurrent with improving the quality of financial reporting; and
  • Improve the common understanding of the nature and purpose of information contained in financial reports.
The FASB develops broad accounting concepts as well as standards for financial reporting. It also provides guidance on implementation of standards. Concepts are useful in guiding the Board in establishing standards and in providing a frame of reference, or conceptual framework, for resolving accounting issues. The framework will help to establish reasonable bounds for judgement in preparing financial information and to increase understanding of, and confidence in, financial information on the part of users of financial reports. It also will help the public to understand the nature and limitations of information supplied by financial reporting.
The Board's work on both concepts and standards is based on research aimed at gaining new insights and ideas. Research is conducted by the FASB staff and others, including foreign, national, and international accounting standard-setting bodies. The Board's activities are open to public participation and observation under the "due process" procedures established by the Board. The FASB actively solicits the views of its various constituencies on accounting issues.


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International Accounting Standards Boards (FASB)

3:31 AM imran ali

Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board(FASB) has been the designated organization in the private sector for establishing standards of financial accounting. Those standards govern the preparation of financial statements. They are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Financial Reporting Release NO.1, Section 101, and reaffirmed in its April 2003 Policy Statement) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Rule 203, Rules of Professional Conduct, as amended May 1973 and 1979). Such standards are important to the efficient functioning of the economy because investors, creditors, auditors and other rely on credible, transparent and comparable financial information.

The SEC has statutory authority to establish financial accounting and reporting standards for publicly held companies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Throughout its history, however, the commission's policy has been to rely on the private sector for this function to the extent that the private sector demonstrates ability to fulfill the responsibility in the public interest.


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