ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE CHARTECH SOFTWARE PRODUCT GUIDE

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SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE CHARTECH SOFTWARE PRODUCT GUIDE BY NIGEL HARRIS

This report is published by the Information Technology Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Council of the Institute. Copyright 2011 ICAEW All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. No responsibility for the loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the author or publisher. ISBN 978-0-85760-214-5 NOTE All publications in the Software Product Guide series, including the product reviews they incorporate, are commissioned by the IT Faculty from independent authors. The overriding principle in selecting the products to be reviewed in each Guide is that the Guide must achieve broad and balanced coverage of the field. Subject to that overriding principle, the Institute may offer software houses the opportunity to pay for reviews of their products to appear in these publications. Drafts of the reviews are sent to the respective software houses for the sole purpose of checking factual accuracy, and this process is identical for all reviews, regardless of whether or not they have been paid for.

CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 5 2. BENEFITS 6 2.1 Time savings 6 2.2 Standardisation 6 2.3 Compliance and ixbrl 6 2.4 Integration 7 3. CONCEPTS 8 3.1 Data input 8 3.2 Data integrity 8 3.3 Handling incomplete records 9 3.4 Templates and postings 9 3.5 Final accounts production 9 3.6 ixbrl requirements 9 3.7 Design and style of outputs 10 3.8 Additional features 10 4. CHOICES 11 4.1 Integration or best of breed? 11 4.2 Importing data 11 4.3 Output options 12 4.4 Reporting 12 4.5 Access and control issues 12 4.6 Added functionality 13 4.7 Compliance 13 4.8 Moving to less paper 13 4.9 Training and support 14 5. RISKS AND REWARDS 15 5.1 Problems with ineffective controls 15 5.2 Automating the disclosure process 16 5.3 Handling specialist reports 16 5.4 Ensuring compliance 16 5.5 Getting the selection and implementation right 16 6. REVIEWS OF ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION PACKAGES 18 CCH 18 Digita 20 Forbes 22 IRIS 24 Sage 26 7. SUPPLIER DIRECTORY 28

1INTRODUCTION Accounts production represents a core software application for accounting practices of all sizes. It is a very mature market in the UK, dominated by two major players, Sage and IRIS, although a sizeable minority of smaller firms and sole practitioners still use manual systems and their own Excel templates. Unlike accounting or bookkeeping software such as Sage 50 and QuickBooks, accounts production (sometimes called final accounts production) software is designed for accountants in practice to produce periodic financial statements for their clients from their manual or computerised accounting records. 2010-11 sees a major upheaval in this market as software suppliers race to produce ixbrl-compliant output to meet HM Revenue & Customs new requirements for the online filing of Corporation Tax returns and company accounts from April 2011. This guide looks at the benefits of using accounts production software, explains the key concepts involved and the choices available, and considers the risks and rewards from using software. It includes reviews of a range of accounts production packages, ranging from standalone systems aimed at smaller firms to fully-featured systems from the market-leading suppliers which integrate with practice-wide tax and other applications. With the support of this guide, practices considering accounts production software for the first time, and those looking to upgrade to a more sophisticated package, will be able to approach the decision-making process from an informed position, appreciating the pros and cons, practical considerations, and financial implications of the choice they make. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 5

2 BENEFITS Accounts production software offers many commercial benefits to users, and particularly in the two key areas of speed and quality. Time is money for practising accountants, who will always welcome ways to reduce the time it takes to complete a set of accounts, although not at the price of a lower standard of finished product. 2.1 TIME SAVINGS Computerisation eliminates many of the routine tasks associated with manual accounts production, from creating working paper templates to the drudge of adding up schedules and proof reading the final accounts. All these tasks are either automated or simply eliminated altogether. In most cases, software can also significantly reduce the need for paper files, or even replace them altogether by functioning as a paperless file system. The biggest time savings can undoubtedly be realised in the production of limited company accounts where presentation and the extensive statutory disclosures are completely automated, at least once the initial client setup has been done in year one. 2.2 STANDARDISATION Software also enables a firm to standardise its accounts production processes by following the approach designed into the chosen package, meaning that all staff will have to follow a similar process. This makes it easier for staff and jobs to move around an office or firm, and for managers to control the quality of work done. For firms adopting flexible working practices, software also facilitates remote and multi-site working. 2.3 COMPLIANCE AND ixbrl Compliance with statutory disclosure requirements is a priority for corporate accounts preparers, but these are effectively dealt with by regularly updated accounts production software. Rules built in to the software are triggered by defined accounts headings or data entries. For example, if an amount is posted to the directors remuneration code the relevant note to the accounts should be generated automatically. On the other hand, if an amount is posted to depreciation but no depreciation policy note has been created the software should produce a warning or reminder for the user. From 1 April 2011 another compliance issue will arise in the form of compulsory online filing of Corporation Tax returns with the accompanying 6 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

computations and company accounts in ixbrl format. While there may be other options, such as adding ixbrl tags by hand or using a conversion program, by far the most efficient solution for most accounting firms and corporate accounts departments will be to use accounts production software. 2.4 INTEGRATION Accounts production software can integrate with Corporation Tax and Income Tax software, although often the best or indeed the only option may be the accounts production package produced by your tax software provider. However, some are sufficiently open to offer a best of breed solution whereby their software can exchange data with other suppliers applications. There are also benefits from linking all your software under a single, integrated practice management suite, sharing common data between all applications. However, accounts production software itself probably benefits least from integration in that much of the data it requires tends not to be relevant to other applications, and even integrating it with a Corporation Tax package offers limited time savings since only limited accounting data has to be entered on the Corporation Tax return. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 7

3 CONCEPTS At its heart, final accounts software is a sophisticated database application, taking financial and other data, combining it with stored templates and procedures, and outputting financial statements as a paper or electronic document. 3.1 DATA INPUT Data input by the user comes in three forms. The initial client setup requires a range of basic standing information client name, address, company registration number, period end date, etc. This will be more extensive for company clients than sole traders in order to comply with the Companies Act and accounting standards requirements. Fortunately, most of this need only be entered in the first year. In integrated suites some standing data may be copied from a central practice database shared by other applications, although this can be problematic if, for example, the accounts need to disclose historical information (e.g. directors names) while the practice database may only hold the latest details. It is important therefore that any integration recognises the different priorities of the different applications and perhaps offers users the option of accepting or over-riding shared data as appropriate. The second type of data required by accounts production software is the actual accounting figures, the debits and credits themselves. If the client maintains full double entry accounts, their trial balance can be entered in the accounts production software as the starting point. The accountant then makes any adjusting journals, say for depreciation, accruals and prepayments, to produce the final accounts. Most final accounts packages can import a trial balance from popular software such as Sage 50 or QuickBooks, or from other sources if a trial balance can be exported first as a CSV file. This is not only quicker but has the additional advantage of minimising coding errors in the final accounts. 3.2 DATA INTEGRITY Protecting data integrity within the accounts production software may be software-controlled, but it is often left to users discretion. Most packages allow unrestricted access to data, allowing users to edit and delete postings at will. Some offer access restrictions which can be implemented at a user level by the software administrator, but these are surprisingly rare. A few allow journals to be locked so that data can only 8 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

be adjusted by posting correcting entries, thereby creating an effective audit trail, but such controls are normally optional and firms often find them excessively restrictive. 3.3 HANDLING INCOMPLETE RECORDS Small businesses often keep minimal records and simply present the accountant with the proverbial brown paper bag of papers. In this case the traditional incomplete records approach can be followed in accounts production software by entering bank, sales and purchases data from prime records. All software on the market can work well from either a trial balance or incomplete records, so the size of firm is not in itself a significant factor in software selection. 3.4 TEMPLATES AND POSTINGS Accounting data is most commonly entered as a journal using a standard grid resembling an A4 sheet of analysis paper or simple spreadsheet where the user records date, account number, narrative details and debit/credit amount. In most packages all data is entered in the same manner, but some offer a range of alternative templates, such as multi column analysis sheets. A few allow the import of data from external spreadsheets, typically CSV files. Ease and speed of data entry is vital and applications that rely on frequent mouse clicking will not suit users needing to enter data in bulk. Ideally software should allow journals to be entered solely by keyboard for maximum efficiency. Generally users can have as few or as many separate posting documents as they wish. Some firms like to keep it simple: one document for the client s trial balance and a second for all the firm s adjusting journals. Others will create a separate posting document for each working paper: fixed assets, debtors, prepayments, bank, etc, mirroring the structure of a standard working paper file. However many postings you make, they are eventually combined to produce a final trial balance and, provided the user has not deviated from the standard chart of accounts, the software will slot the figures into the built-in accounts template to produce the final accounts. At this point a third data set comes into play, combining standard notes and content generated from the nominal codes used with other disclosure data added by the user and specific to the year in question, such as tax and depreciation rates, related party disclosures, security notes and narrative information for the Directors Report. The user may have the option of re-using previous year s data, or of adopting or editing default text provided by the software. 3.5 FINAL ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION The last stage in the accounts production process is the production of the final accounts themselves. If the various items of standing and accounting data have been entered correctly, this should involve little more than clicking a button and watching the financial statements appear on screen. The software should be configured by the firm to ensure that accounts are always produced in their own house style font type, size, page layout, etc. The software will typically hold document templates at three levels: the master template provided by the software company, the firm s own master template or style sheet which is overlaid on this template, and an optional client-specific version of these where individual clients have their own particular requirements or complexity. Most software provides such extensive disclosure and formatting options that users should not need to edit the underlying formats. The existence of such a pool of data within the software means that most packages also provide a range of other reports in addition to the accounts, such as lead schedules, variance analyses, five year summaries, standard letters and dividend vouchers. Some also have workflow and job review documents or checklists. Where the software is built on a standard database, you may also be able to interrogate the data at a firm-wide level to produce lists of clients meeting certain criteria, such as all clients in a particular trade category, or with turnover under or over a certain amount, to produce reports for use in marketing or tax planning. 3.6 ixbrl REQUIREMENTS The advantage of accounts production software is that it will deal invisibly with ixbrl tagging, so users should not need any technical understanding of how it works in order to use it effectively when ixbrl filing of accounts and Corporation Tax becomes mandatory on 1 April 2011. Most software will have a button or option to output the final accounts in ixbrl format, with the option of highlighting the report to show the tagged items for manual review and editing, where necessary. In some cases this may be done through a separate tagging tool provided (at no additional charge) by the software developer, rather than within the accounts software itself. Suppliers of SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 9

multiple accounts production packages have chosen this route in order to reduce their software development cost and effort. In addition to outputting accounts as ixbrl, the software should generate final accounts and reports in Word (.DOC or.rtf) and Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) formats. 3.7 DESIGN AND STYLE OF OUTPUTS While company reporting is increasingly standardised, the design and style of other output will vary enormously between different firms. While it may be tempting to edit the provided formats, or even create your own from scratch, this is a timeconsuming and therefore costly approach. Ideally the templates provided by the supplier should meet your needs and cover all the types of entities and specialist sectors that you need. Suppliers will normally assist in creating a firm s master templates in its house style. Most client-specific editing should be achievable using disclosure options and settings rather than by editing the underlying template itself, particularly in the case of company accounts where this might compromise the integrity of the ixbrl tagging. It is inefficient if presentational changes have to be made to each set of accounts or to each client, with the additional risk that users may fail to make these changes, or make them inconsistently. Standardisation is a key advantage of accounts production software and should be effectively controlled by the software itself. If additional training is required to learn how to edit the underlying templates this will need to be factored into the software budget. 3.8 ADDITIONAL FEATURES While accounts production software is primarily designed to produce final accounts, packages such as Sage SAPA and CCH Accounts Production have also been extended in response to user demands for routine bookkeeping, rudimentary VAT accounting and management accounting too. This can be attractive as firms don t need to buy licences for accounting software too, staff don t need access to and training on multiple programs, plus it avoids the additional work involved in transferring data between bookkeeping and final accounts packages. However, prospective buyers should remember that this is at best a bonus feature, not the core function of the software, and this is likely to be reflected in limited functionality and a lack of many of the features and controls present in typical SME accounting packages such as Sage 50. Nonetheless, this can be a useful and cost-effective feature, enabling users to prepare monthly or quarterly accounts for clients as a management accounting service, knowing that the month 12 or quarter four accounts can quickly be turned into the annual accounts for tax and Companies House purposes. 10 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

4 CHOICES The choice for buyers of accounts production software is between a small number of wellestablished major suppliers and a second tier of smaller software developers. The age of the different products can be significant as older products based on outdated database technology start to show their age while newcomers who started out with SQL Server and.net have the advantage of much more efficient underlying program code and architecture. Age may also indicate that a major upgrade is due, so a potential supplier s development plans for the foreseeable future should be examined in case the current software is due to be totally revamped in the near future. 4.1 INTEGRATION OR BEST OF BREED? It is also worth revisiting the issue of integration here. All of the leading packages are integrated to some extent with the developer s own tax and practice management products. Some advertise their open database and built-in links to other developers applications, but despite claims that they can be deployed in a mixed environment (the so-called best of breed approach), this is often a second best solution. After all, each package will have been designed and engineered to work best with other applications from the same developers. Whether a best of breed solution is appropriate for you will depend on your investment in other existing applications and whether, for example, the new supplier s tax software is acceptable to your tax department. The latter may not take kindly to being forced to change their tax return software simply to accommodate the needs of the accounts department. Whichever approach you take, you cannot implement a new accounts production package in isolation and will need therefore to consult with other software users in your organisation. Integration with audit software is becoming more important for audit firms. As a minimum, it should be possible to export trial balance data from accounts production to the audit application in order to populate analytical review, planning and lead schedules. 4.2 IMPORTING DATA If a large proportion of your clients use particular accounting packages it will be important to ensure that data from those sources can easily be imported into the accounts production software, and that appropriate mapping tables are supplied SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 11

and maintained by the supplier, or can be easily created in-house. Most software offers easy import of Sage 50 data, but other packages may be less well supported. At the other end of the accounts production process, there may be a facility to pass final journals back to the client, but it is unlikely that data can be exported directly to the client s accounting system. More often a report is available for printing that summarises all the adjustments made to the client s original trial balance. The range of options for manual data entry varies widely between the products currently available. Some appear more suited to data import from other accounting packages or from an initial trial balance, while others offer a wide range of data entry journal types to accommodate firms who work mainly from incomplete records. The nature of a firm s client base will be a key factor in selecting the most appropriate accounts production solution. The availability of a range of journal templates, the ability to post recurring entries or to copy journals from one year to the next may be important features but are not found in all packages. 4.3 OUTPUT OPTIONS There are few substantive differences in the basic output of the different accounts production packages on the market. All produce accounts for sole traders, partnerships and limited companies. However, not all will handle larger organisations, so if your clients include large partnerships, large companies and PLCs, or companies reporting under IFRS and international GAAP your choice may be more limited. Consolidated group accounts may be built-in, an additional cost option or simply not available. Packages offering consolidation as a simple summation of all the group companies individual accounts will require some considerable extra manual input from experienced staff. Likewise, not all products include templates for specialist entities, such as LLPs, charities and pension schemes, or for specialist sectors such as farmers, solicitors or doctors, so if these are important to you the choices are more limited. Software developers have come up with a range of solutions to handle detailed reporting disclosures that cannot be automated from the trial balance, particularly with charity accounts. Some use a system of dummy nominal ledger codes to collect disclosure data. Others require you to type it to the disclosures database manually. Both approaches mean duplicating the entry of such data once in the main accounts and again in the disclosure area so careful proof-reading of the accounts is required. Data integrity is more easily controlled where complex data analysis is captured at the initial journal posting stage, using sub-codes, departments or cost centres. 4.4 REPORTING Reporting options are an important factor in the final purchasing decision (as discussed in sections 3.5 and 3.7). Are users expected to supplement the reports provided with an export facility to Excel, or can all reports be generated within the software for quality control purposes? Can the software produce the range of charts and additional reports the firm requires, and can externally-generated content, such as images and logos, be incorporated in the final accounts? The inclusion of templates for management reports such as five-year summaries and variance analyses can provide quick and easy added-value reporting. If a firm is looking for reporting options across all clients in the system, it will be important to ascertain what database querying and reporting tools are provided, especially if the software uses a proprietary database. More modern SQL-based systems could be interrogated by external query tools such as Excel or Crystal Reports and the appropriate in-house IT expertise. 4.5 ACCESS AND CONTROL ISSUES The increasing use of notebook PCs means that most firms will want to use the accounts production software on computers not connected all the time to the office network. This may involve purchasing additional or different software licences for the notebooks, so there could be a cost implication, but there are also control issues. Most packages allow client data to be exported to a notebook and stored temporarily on its local hard drive for processing off-site, say at a client s premises or by employees working from home. Such clients should be clearly locked or made readonly on the network to prevent other members of staff trying to work on the same client. It is important that the software includes good controls to manage database changes on either the network or the notebook when the client is returned to the network. 12 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

Be aware, however, that none of the currently available accounts production software include any form of encryption or other security features to protect data on laptops or data being transferred between users, whether by email or on a removable storage device. Firms should implement their own conventional security procedures to protect data in those circumstances, as they would with other applications, for example encrypting data stored on USB devices and before emailing files. Some firms will require multi-user access to individual clients in their accounts production software, where clients are particularly large or complex, or where accounts production tasks are divided between staff e.g. one person posts the bank accounts while another enters sales and purchase data. This requires sophisticated database controls which will be beyond the more basic packages and will therefore limit purchasing options. 4.6 ADDED FUNCTIONALITY Firms offering bookkeeping, VAT and management accounting should consider whether it is worth looking for this functionality in an accounts production package, or whether it would be more efficient to use a more fully-featured, dedicated accounting package such as Sage 50 or QuickBooks which have much more robust controls over VAT accounting and bank reconciliation. Accounts production software often lacks in-year period end controls to avoid errors caused, for example, by backdated or misdated VAT transactions. 4.7 COMPLIANCE While flexible reporting may be attractive, it brings increased risk. If you can effectively edit everything in the final accounts, how do you control compliance with accounting disclosure requirements? Software that relies on the user manually completing an off-system company accounts disclosure checklist is missing the opportunity to automate the accounts production process and imposing extra cost and work on the user. The best packages control disclosures by reference to built-in compliance tools, generating warnings and alerts when potential non-compliance is detected. This is particularly important for ixbrl reporting, where the integrity of the final accounts generated for HMRC will depend on the strength of the controls within the software. Accounts production software which generates ixbrl accounts itself offers the strongest control over this area. In theory there should be a direct match between the standard chart of accounts used by the software and HMRC s ixbrl taxonomy, so provided the user has not deviated from that chart the final accounts should be fully compliant. Where the final accounts have to be converted to ixbrl from, say, an intermediate Word or XML file via a separate tagging tool additional controls may be required. If manual auditing or editing of the final ixbrl tagging is required, firms will need to consider if they will have the necessary technical skills to do this in the light of the volume of company accounts they will need to file from 1 April 2011. Where a firm s internal controls or audit procedures require the production of a paper or electronic disclosure checklist they should check whether this facility exists within the accounts production software. While all packages claim to produce Companies Act-compliant accounts, not all will generate a traditional company accounts checklist, completed by the software, to demonstrate this. If not, it may be acceptable for the software to produce an exception report listing template changes and default disclosures that have been over-ridden or amended by a user. 4.8 MOVING TO LESS PAPER Many firms are moving to paperless or less paper working methods, and this may be an important factor in selecting a new accounts production package, bearing in mind that accounts working papers have historically been a major consumer of paper and filing cabinet space in most practices. In theory the software can be used to create paperless files, but this needs to be verified in practice. Some of the more basic packages only store one set of standing data, so prior year accounts cannot be recreated with directors, addresses, etc as they applied at the time. In this case, copies of the final accounts, and possibly also the trial balance and nominal ledger, will need to be preserved, perhaps just as PDF files, before the data is balanced forward and next year s accounts are prepared. Even if prior period accounts can be recreated in their original state, the software may limit the number of prior years it retains so even in the most sophisticated packages the issue of archiving will still need to be considered. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 13

4.9 TRAINING AND SUPPORT Training and ongoing support are vital if the new software is to be implemented efficiently and with minimum loss of productive time. The budget, therefore, needs to include adequate initial consultancy and assistance with installation and data conversion from any previous software used, and sufficient training for all relevant staff. This may cost more than the initial software licence. Training is likely to involve a series of sessions over the first six months or more, plus the option of refresher training and the facility to subsequently buy in further training for new staff. Training may need to be delivered separately to different staff grades, with data entry staff perhaps requiring different training to reviewers and managers. Should staff be trained centrally, with the related travel costs, or is it better to repeat the training at each office? Generally the smaller the group the better, with one-to-one training being the ideal (although probably financially viable only for the smallest firms). It may be tempting to train up a small group of power users and use them to train up the rest of your staff, but with the loss of senior chargeable hours, and the risk of the blind leading the blind this may well be a false economy. 14 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

5RISKS AND REWARDS Automating the production of final accounts is especially attractive to firms wishing to move away from pure compliance work into more advisory services. Computerising accounts production can be a more palatable way to introduce change and standardise working processes partners can simply tell their staff that we re going to do it this way in future because that s how the software works. By using software with strong controls, firms can effectively de-skill routine accounts production work, using less-qualified (i.e. cheaper) staff to handle data entry, safe in the knowledge that compliance with legal and regulatory requirements is being dealt with by the software subject, of course, to review of the draft accounts by more senior staff. Streamlining accounts production frees up qualified staff to deal with higher fee-earning, technical or advisory work. However, these benefits are equally attractive to firms wishing to remain compliance-based, whose clients may be mainly unincorporated businesses with incomplete records. Fee pressure from unqualified accountants and low cost outsourced accounts production overseas means that software which makes accounts production quicker and more efficient is increasingly attractive. Of course, cost savings need to be balanced against the need to maintain professional and technical standards. There is a risk of errors arising from unquestioning reliance on software-produced accounts, but in reality there are probably greater risks from poorly reviewed manually-produced accounts. 5.1 PROBLEMS WITH INEFFECTIVE CONTROLS Your chosen software needs to incorporate strong controls to prevent users over-riding the built-in compliance controls. Can junior staff be prevented from amending templates or deleting data that has already been approved? Is there an audit trail, not just of numeric data but of activity on the file itself, who did what and when? If users can edit templates in a way that effectively disconnects them from the master template there is a risk that disclosure updates to the master will not flow down to the client level, with the risk that non-compliant accounts could accidentally be produced. The best software includes extensive disclosure options and editing without affecting the underlying accounts templates to prevent such errors. Software updating can cause problems for firms who create their own accounts templates, SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 15

although most suppliers have now improved the update process to avoid over-writing customised templates. The software should control the reports available to each client, for example preventing the production of small company accounts for a medium-sized company, or at least generating a prominent warning. This requires the supplier to maintain and update the database of company size thresholds, which should be date driven so that only those applicable to the accounting period in question can be applied. 5.2 AUTOMATING THE DISCLOSURE PROCESS One of the biggest attractions of accounts production software is the automation of much of the company accounts disclosure process. This in itself poses potential risks as it relies on the supplier updating and maintaining compliance data promptly and accurately. It is virtually impossible to assess the quality of updating for yourself, but if the supplier s history of software updates over the last year or two shows numerous upgrades you may need to question whether updates are being released prematurely. Discussion with existing users should confirm whether this is a problem area. You should ascertain whether updates are installed automatically or have to be downloaded manually. Are they rolled out automatically across the network, or do you need to update each PC separately? In multi-user installations this can be a major chore, especially if files saved in the latest software version cannot be opened by users with the previous version, or where off-site notebook PCs are used which might not be updated as regularly as desktop machines. 5.3 HANDLING SPECIALIST REPORTS Firms with very specialist requirements should ensure that their chosen software can provide the reports they require. Can the software really handle such cases comprehensively, or will users have to resort to Word or Excel for the final reports, with all the risks and problems that might entail? On the other hand, firms which don t require more specialist reports currently should consider if they might need them in the foreseeable future and make sure the software will be able to cope with their changing needs. 5.4 ENSURING COMPLIANCE Many firms currently looking at new accounts production software, or considering it for the first time, will have been prompted by the introduction of ixbrl. Suppliers have not made this easy by delaying the launch of their full ixbrl-capable software until late 2010 or early 2011, making a proper working evaluation very difficult in the time available. If you feel there simply isn t enough time to fully evaluate the options before 1 April 2011, particularly where a decision will also impact other users and software in your firm, it may be prudent to consider a stop-gap solution of a standalone ixbrl tagging tool to convert accounts produced in, say, Word format (either manually, or from an existing software package) into ixbrl format. A growing number of these are available, requiring varying degrees of technical and user input. This will buy some time to enable you to make a more considered decision on new accounts production software later. Although ixbrl may represent an additional cost now (for first-time software users, that is most suppliers are providing ixbrl functionality to their existing customers at no cost, simply as part of the normal annual software updating), many firms hope it will save costs in the long term. It creates an ideal opportunity, albeit under coercion from HMRC, to review the firm s use of IT and to upgrade to current, more efficient software generally. 5.5 GETTING THE SELECTION AND IMPLEMENTATION RIGHT Software evaluation poses its own risks. The salesman may not be the best person to handle technical questions, and prospective customers should ask to speak to technical developers and support staff when necessary. A live trial period may seem attractive, but bear in mind that you will need to invest sufficient money and nonchargeable time to ensure that your staff are adequately trained to give the software a realistic testing. It may be better to ask the vendor s staff to visit you and work on some actual client accounts, perhaps in parallel with your existing system, so that you can see it working in practice without needing to be fully conversant with its operation yourself. You should also ask to speak direct to users from some of the vendor s other customers, ideally from firms of a similar size and 16 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

structure and with similar client bases, to get their impartial views. Changing software will involve a considerable amount of down time for some of your staff. A deciding factor may therefore be the extent to which suppliers are able to transfer or convert data from your old system to the new one. How much data can be retained, is it standing data only or can transaction data (i.e. prior year accounts in their entirety) be imported into the new software? It is worth verifying sales claims with existing users who converted from same software. As with any new software, trying to cut corners at the implementation stage can come back to haunt you and cost you dearly later. Proper preparation for data conversion and transfer, and comprehensive staff training are vital. Firms need to balance the risk of making the wrong choice with the danger of making no choice at all. If your current system cannot handle ixbrl the latter may not be an option. Of all the software used by practising firms, accounts production software tends to be changed the least often and is used by the largest proportion of firms staff. The wrong choice or the right choice implemented badly will therefore have the widest impact on job profitability, staff efficiency and morale for the longest period. On the other hand, a wellresearched and informed choice and carefully planned and implemented installation should have exactly the opposite effect. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 17

6 REVIEWS CCH Accounts Production TARGET MARKET Firms with two or more partners, including large multi-site practices. COST On application. USER BASE CCH Accounts Production software is in use in over 1,300 practices of all sizes, from sole practitioners to top 20 accounting firms. CONTACT DETAILS Website: www.cch.co.uk Telephone: 0844 561 81811 18 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

OVERVIEW CCH is part of the international publishing, software and training group Wolters Kluwer. The CCH ProSystem suite of applications runs under SQL Server, or smaller firms (up to 100 users) can use the free SQL Server Express version. The software has been developed using Microsoft s.net rich client technology which gives the user the experience of a fully-featured desktop application although the software runs entirely from the server itself. A copy of the program and client data can also be installed on a notebook PC for use off-site. CCH provides an integrated solution based around a single central database and host program called CCH Central, which it provides free of charge. Applications such as time and fees, tax and accounts production are supplied as plug-ins to Central, using the central database for standing data. As such they add functionality to the system, which operates as a single product rather than integrating separate applications, an approach which CCH describes as clientcentric rather than product-centric. This integration is seen on the home screen, which has tabs to access the Central database, Accounts Production, Corporation tax, etc all the applications the firm has licensed. As you select a tab the Task Bar changes to reflect the options applicable to that application. Any accounts client s standing data which already exists in the Central database will pre-populate the relevant sections of the accounts screens; the entry of any remaining accounts-specific data is quite intuitive. The Officers screen, for example, lists all relevant information on company directors in a single grid. Data is posted on a grid-style sheet as receipts or payments, with automatic double entry to the bank account, or as general journals, with plenty of keyboard shortcuts to facilitate quick batch entry of volumes of data. Grids are used extensively, and can be manipulated, sorted and filtered like a spreadsheet or simply sent to Excel where they open fully-formatted for further analysis. For bookkeeping work there is also a facility to link to sales and purchase ledgers, and future upgrades will add full VAT period locking and controls. Data can also be imported, at trial balance or transaction level, from Sage 50, CSV file and most popular accounting packages. The fully customisable chart of accounts can be set up with unlimited divisional analysis, and with up to 99 nominal sub-codes there is huge reporting flexibility. Disclosure data is gathered together in a simple tree format, following the structure of a set of accounts, where all types of non-accounting data are entered, whether text, a grid or yes/no/na answers. Final accounts are based on Master Packs, which can be customised at firm or client level. However, customisation is stored separately to the Master Pack itself, so these changes can easily be applied to new Master Packs as they are issued, thus avoiding the need to customise reports each time templates are updated by CCH. Presentational aspects are dealt with by Themes which are held and customised separately from the accounts templates themselves. Reports are available for sole traders, partnerships, limited companies of all sizes, plus charities, farms, LLPs, pension schemes, probate and trusts. The software calculates company size and offers appropriate reports. When displayed on screen, you can drill down on any item in the accounts and edit it, from standing data to the underlying database, and on numeric data down to individual transaction level, and edit the source data if required. The report can then be refreshed with the revised data. Master packs include XBRL tagging for the automated generation of accounts in ixbrl format. These can then be reviewed using the integrated tagging and review tool. This has the advantage that users can easily review automatically generated tags, edit and add others by dragging them onto the face of the accounts. Exceptions are highlighted for further attention. There is an option to use only the restricted, minimal list of tags required currently by HMRC or the full list. The ixbrl review tool can also be used on a stand-alone basis to tag accounts produced in Word, say by a client, rather than from Accounts Production. CONCLUSION CCH successfully addresses the issue of integration with its Central database and host program. While CCH Accounts Production could be used by itself, it offers significant advantages in terms of database management and efficiency when used as part of the full CCH suite of practice management, accounts and tax solutions. Firms looking to change software should therefore be prepared to evaluate the whole CCH suite rather than the accounts package in isolation. It is an effective solution for practices of all sizes and larger companies wishing to automate their accounts production processes. It is provided as an out-of-the-box solution for smaller practices and a customisable solution for larger and multi-office firms with a reasonable degree of in-house IT capability. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 19

Digita Accounts Production V.5 TARGET MARKET Digita Accounts production is aimed at the mid-market, 3-partner firms upwards, although it is entirely useable in a sole practice looking for ixbrl-compliant accounts production, either as a standalone solution or as part of the Digita integrated practice suite. COST Price is on application. USER BASE Digita software is unusual in being installed in firms of all sizes, from sole practices to top four firms. There are currently around 1,000 firms using Digita Accounts Production, together with a growing number of corporates. CONTACT DETAILS Website: www.digita.com Telephone: 01395 270 311 ICAEW ACCREDITED 20 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

OVERVIEW For many years a specialist tax software developer, Digita, part of Thomson Reuters, only launched its Accounts Production in 2002. It therefore has the advantage of working specifically with the latest Microsoft operating systems, SQL database and.net platform without needing to cater for older legacy technologies or to support existing customers running on a variety of operating systems. Digita Accounts Production can be run as a standalone application, or can integrate with other Digita applications such as practice management, personal and corporation tax. When integrated in this way, standing data is held in a common practice database shared by all Digita applications, and accounting data can be pulled directly into the tax applications. In either case, users can check a client out of the system onto a laptop or memory stick to work remotely. Data input is extremely flexible, with a range of posting documents available, from simple journals to multi-column spreadsheet-style grids resembling an analysed cashbook. Digita has developed some simple but effective solutions to common problems. For example, a posting sheet can be suspended, enabling the user to close it while incomplete, and then return to it, unlike most software which only permits journals to be closed once debits equal credits. Users have the option of carrying forward any or all posting documents (without the numbers!) to speed data entry next year. An unusual feature is the ability to switch posting sheets to active or inactive inactive sheets are ignored, so you can easily create what if scenarios for management reporting. Using posting sheets is fairly intuitive, particularly as the software behaves as a standard Windows product; navigation, menus and right mouse clicking behave exactly as in Microsoft Office. Data can be imported from Sage 50 direct using ODBC and from other applications via a CSV file, at transaction or trial balance level. Digita Accounts Production offers optional audit locks on data. These can be set at each completion or review stage in a job, making all postings prior to setting the lock read-only, thus creating a very effective audit trail. Digita has an innovative approach to prior periods. Each period is stored intact, including the comparative figures used that year, so a prior period s accounts can always be re-run using the standing and disclosure data applicable to that period. Separate tabs in the user interface access non-accounting data areas, such as numeric data for farmers stock reconciliations and non-financial company disclosures such as depreciation rates and accounting policies. The software calculates from the accounting data whether the company is small, medium or large and offers only the disclosures relevant to a company of that size. All levels of company disclosure are catered for, from small and FRSSE up to large, with PLCs and IFRS due in 2011. Security levels determine which users are authorised to edit default disclosures. Working Papers include the usual internal documents such as trial balance, nominal ledger, lead schedules, performance ratios and audit trail, plus profit and loss account and balance sheet with full drill down to transaction level. Reports are the final accounts, with full and abbreviated company accounts. Sole traders, partnerships, LLPs, charities (incorporated and unincorporated) and pension schemes are also supported. Consolidated group accounts, including multi-level groups, are included within the basic price. Management Accounts have been added following user demand for added-value services in the form of flexible management reporting by department, segment and period. Accounts are template-based, using the Digita master, the firm s own organisation template or a client-specific version. Edits are stored separately to the master templates, so when the latter is updated for legislative changes, etc these edits are simply applied to the new master template, ensuring that accounts disclosures are always up-to-date. The style of reports is based on independent themes (cascading style sheets), so template changes do not affect presentation styles. ixbrl is integrated seamlessly into the software. Running the relevant report, ixbrl-tagged figures are highlighted on screen and a button to generate the ixbrl file becomes active. This file can then be picked up by Digita Corporation Tax or any other ixbrl-enabled Corporation Tax software. CONCLUSION Digita Accounts Production is a sound choice for a firm looking for a best of breed solution but still wanting to have the option of moving to a fully integrated suite later. It is suitable for sole practitioners and small firms but has the power and sophistication required by large practices too. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 21

Forbes Accounts TARGET MARKET Forbes Accounts is aimed at smaller accounting firms. COST 335 per computer, unlimited clients. USER BASE There are 1400 offices using Forbes Accounts, primarily sole practitioners and firms with a few partners. A branded version of the software is also marketed as Absolute Accounts by Absolute Accounting Software Ltd. CONTACT DETAILS Website: www.forbes.co.uk Telephone: 0845 456 2338 22 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

OVERVIEW Forbes Accounts was launched in 1992 and has become wellestablished among smaller accounting firms. Forbes pioneered the implementation of XBRL, filing the first XBRL submission to Companies House in 2005, submitting the first XBRL tax computations to HMRC in 2006, and in September 2010 they filed the first ixbrl abbreviated accounts at Companies House. Forbes Accounts has been able to produce full HMRC-compliant ixbrl company accounts since November 2009. This is not the most sophisticated looking accounts production software, but it is deceptively powerful. Written in C++ with data stored in a totally open XML format, it can be run entirely from a server or more usually with data held on the server but the program run on the local PC. Laptop users can take client data off-site to use remotely and then re-synchronise the data on returning to the office. Reporting is possible across the entire client database, and the open nature of the data means that standard reporting tools such as Access or Excel can also be used. Creating a new client is very straightforward, and for new company clients is even easier as all relevant data can be downloaded from Companies House directly into the software if the user has the company s online authentication code. Financial data can be imported from a huge range of applications, including the main bookkeeping packages, online accounts services such as Arithmo, KashFlow and Xero, and many other accounts production systems. However, mapping tables can easily be created for other systems as required. This is strictly a final accounts production package, so output is limited to full, abbreviated and dormant company accounts for small and medium-sized companies. The company has found that users prefer to produce management reports from general bookkeeping software or in Excel. Sole trader, partnership and LLP accounts are also supported, with pensions schemes and charities accounts formats due for release in 2011. Report templates can be edited and customised by users with only a minimum of training. There are no built-in controls over the selection of the correct company template, so users need to ensure that companies qualify to use the relevant small, medium-sized or FRSSE disclosures. On screen the ixbrl tagging is clearly indicated in blue on the face of the accounts, which support full drill down to individual transaction level. Forbes Accounts is tax aware, capital allowances and disallowable expenses being recorded within the accounts software itself and completed tax computations automatically transferred to the separate Forbes ProTax software (users of other tax software need to attach the Forbes ixbrl accounts to computations generated by their own software). In many cases users will find that no data need be entered in ProTax at all prior to filing the CT600, computations and accounts electronically. ProTax offers the facility to review and report on the ixrbl tagging used in the final documents filed with HMRC. CONCLUSION This is a competitively-priced and fully functional final accounts production package from a developer that has pioneered the implementation of XBRL and ixbrl filing. It will meet the requirements of smaller firms not needing the additional bookkeeping or management reporting features of more expensive packages. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 23

IRIS Accounts Production TARGET MARKET IRIS s target market covers all sizes of practices, from sole practitioners to top 50 firms. COST On application. USER BASE 14,000 organisations use one or more IRIS applications, ranging from sole practitioners to multi-office firms with several hundreds of users, including 60% of the top 50 firms. CONTACT DETAILS Website: www.iris.co.uk Telephone: 0844 815 5550 ICAEW ACCREDITED 24 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

OVERVIEW IRIS Accounts Production is a module within the IRIS suite of practice applications that include practice management, tax and company secretarial. Most IRIS users have Accounts Production, either as part of the full suite or in conjunction with other suppliers tax or time and fees packages. The suite has the advantage that is uses a single, common SQL database across all modules so that standing data is entered only once. Both program and data are held on a central server, although additional portable licences can be purchased to enable clients to be worked on off-site. User access can be as a normal user or superuser (including the ability to edit or delete charts of accounts and other key components), or individual user permissions can be tailored to suit their role. New client creation screens are identical across all IRIS modules, and pull in data such as addresses where these are already held elsewhere. Creating a new accounts client initially requires only a minimum of standing data and, if the user has access to the Company Secretarial module, much of the company data can be downloaded direct from Companies House. Conversely, new companies can be incorporated from within the software. Client types catered for are sole traders, partnerships, limited companies, LLPs, and pension schemes, plus specialist charts of accounts for doctors and farmers. Charity accounts can be purchased separately as an optional extra. Accounting data can be imported directly from Exchequer accounts, IRIS s online solution OpenBooks, or from any other accounts package via a CSV file. A mapping table is provided for Sage 50 and others can be created by the user. A range of standard posting documents is supplied, including bank, sales and purchase day books with automatic double entry, automatically reversing accruals and prepayments and general journals. There are sophisticated nominal account code lookup and search options. Users can open multiple windows, for example the trial balance, to check an account or review the results so far, and current posting entries in another window IRIS has an extremely robust audit trail. Whenever an entry is edited, the system automatically deletes the original posting and creates a new one, and both entries are retained when viewing nominal accounts and posting lists. Disclosure data is entered in Data Screens, accessed via an expandable tree view which follows the structure of a set of accounts. You work down through the tree or use the Auto-pilot button to step through the relevant pages, starting with manual selection of company size. Notes can be edited or created from scratch as free text, or using a simple table creator to add notes with current and prior year financial data. The Expressions facility allows the insertion of financial data into notes from the nominal ledger, such as a single account, a range of accounts or even a formula applied to several accounts values (e.g. sales or profit growth rate), or from standing data, such as the current year end date. This ensures that each year the note refers to the current data rather than needing to be manually checked and updated. A wide range of reports is available, and these can be previewed on screen, printed or output to PDF, Word or Excel. In addition to full, abbreviated and dormant company accounts, ratios and variance reports (three or five years) can be produced, as well as lead schedules and monthly or quarterly management accounts. IRIS users have been able to file XBRL abbreviated accounts at Companies House directly from the software for two years now and this facility has been very popular with users. The output of company accounts in ixbrl became available to all customers in version 10.4 of IRIS Accounts Production. The tagged accounts can be viewed in the new Tag Editor, which highlights all tagged items. The exception report tab highlights errors which will fail HMRC validation, while the warning report identifies untagged amounts which may require manual tagging. The final ixbrl preview tab shows how the accounts would look to HMRC. IRIS has opted to automate only the minimum compulsory tagging list, although users can tag additional elements if they wish. The Tag Editor works only with accounts generated by the software and cannot be used to tag externallyproduced accounts. CONCLUSION IRIS was the first fully-integrated practice suite and has remained popular with firms of all sizes, boasting a 97% customer retention rate. It delivers a very efficient and versatile solution with an almost minimalist screen which avoids icons and menu bars most of the time. The audit trail and user access controls are good, and the range of reports better than some of its competitors. Its implementation of ixbrl is simple and efficient and, like the rest of the application, is largely intuitive to use. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 25

SAGE Accounts Production Advanced TARGET MARKET Mid-size and large accountancy practices. COST On application, based on the number of users and clients required. USER BASE A broad range of users from sole practitioners to key accounts, including two of the biggest four UK accountancy firms. CONTACT DETAILS Website: www.sage.co.uk Telephone: 0845 111 1111 ICAEW ACCREDITED 26 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

OVERVIEW Sage Accounts Production Advanced (SAPA) was originally acquired from Hartley in 1999 and rebranded by Sage, and has remained largely the same program with some cosmetic changes and regular template updates to reflect legislative changes. It is based on a proprietary database although Sage is due to transfer it to Microsoft SQL in the near future, with the launch of the Interactive Financial Statements (IFS) module. Until then there are no facilities to interrogate the whole accounts client database. SAPA has a traditional look and feel, with several ways of accessing most options very quickly drop-down menus, tool bar and vertical task bar. Client setup is straightforward using a series of tabbed pages. Details of banks and professional advisers are taken from a central list within the system but all other data has to be entered in full, even if it already exists in other accounts clients. A new client can, however, be set up and worked on with only a minimum of standing data. Accounting data is input via a standard debit/credit journal posting grid which is very quick to use for batch data entry. Automatic double entry can be used, say for bank statement entry, and there are options to use VAT analysis, quantity accounting and automatic sequential cheque numbering. Nominal analysis can be extended using up to 99 sub-codes and cost centres. Data can also be imported direct from Sage 50 or via a number of other programs and file types. A lot of non-accounting numeric data (e.g. corporation tax rate, employee numbers) is entered using rather cumbersome memo codes, effectively an extension of the chart of accounts beyond the standard nominal ledger range. These are used very extensively to produce the funds analysis and notes for charity accounts. Other disclosure data is entered or customised in a variety of places report options to change settings such as company size and presentation options, report pad for text entry, and setup screens for details such as depreciation rates and dates of approval and signing of reports. These are easy to use with practice but mean that SAPA is far less intuitive to use and takes much longer to learn than newer accounts production solutions. Reports are available for sole traders, partnerships, farmers, companies of all sizes, LLPs, charities and groups, although an additional optional module is available to assist with consolidation calculations. One of SAPA s strengths is the range of additional reports such a five year summary, variance and ratio analyses, and an impressive Management Information Pack which includes much of these plus a range of simple graphs formatted for mono printing. This can only be output via Microsoft Word, which is an option for all other reports, although it is quicker to generate reports via the internal report generator. Sage also provides a PDF printer. Compliance is controlled by a good range of error and exception reports, although it is still beset by problems with rounding errors in funds statements and the notes to charity accounts which are resolved either by laborious re-posting of small amounts or simply editing in Word. Templates themselves can be edited by users but require considerable additional technical training (available from Sage). Other report templates are supplied for lead schedules, dividend vouchers, standard letters and some basic workflow and job review documents. Accounting periods can comprise between one and twelve periods, which facilitates the production of monthly or quarterly management accounts. There are no built-in VAT controls, although for use in bookkeeping jobs there is rudimentary VAT reporting and a bank reconciliation option. SAPA has good data export links to Sage and many other tax products and the CCH ProAudit audit automation system, making it a good choice for firms going down the best of breed route. The IFS module gives SAPA users more flexibility and ease of use to produce final accounts, and includes inbuilt ixbrl intelligence to automatically tag the accounts behind the scenes. The module provides tagging of UK GAAP accounts using the full HMRC tagging list, not just the minimum list. Users can review, add and edit tags, and compare the final SAPA and ixbrl accounts on screen to ensure consistency. Data is held on the server while the program is run on the user s PC. Data can be transferred to a laptop to use off-site, but Sage charges additionally for laptop licences used this way. CONCLUSION SAPA is beginning to look dated but is undoubtedly a powerful and very reliable workhorse for any but the smallest firms. It is particularly versatile for the production of company accounts and offers a wide range of reports beyond the basic accounts. It is a good option for firms who wish to mix and match professional applications from several suppliers due to its good data import and export options. SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE 27

7SUPPLIER DIRECTORY ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE PRODUCTS Absolute Accounting Software www.absolutetax.co.uk APS Xcede www.aps-advance.com CaseWare www.caseware.co.uk CCH www.cch.co.uk Digita Accounts production* www.thomsonreuters.com Forbes Accounts www.forbes.co.uk IRIS Accounts Production* www.iris.co.uk Keytime Accounts Production www.keytime.co.uk Keytime Final Accounts www.keytime.co.uk PTP Accounts Production www.ptpsoftware.co.uk Relate Accounts Production www.relate-software.com Sage Instant Accounts Production* www.sage.co.uk/software_and_ services/practice.aspx Sage Accounts Production Advanced* VT Final Accounts www.sage.co.uk/software_and_ services/practice.aspx www.vtsoftware.co.uk * ICAEW accredited (see www.icaew.com/accredit) The full list of HMRC recognised ixbrl software can be found at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/efiling/ctsoft_dev.htm 28 SOFTWARE GUIDES ACCOUNTS PRODUCTION SOFTWARE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nigel Harris BA CTA FCPA trained with Thornton Baker (now Grant Thornton) in Bristol, qualifying in 1981. He subsequently worked as a tutor for a training consortium and then returned to public practice with several small West Country firms before joining six partner Bristol-based chartered accountants Burton Sweet in 1991 to run their Shepton Mallet office. He manages 15 staff and some 600 SME and private tax clients, taking a particular interest in tax and IT issues. Since 1999 he has been a regular contributor to AccountingWeb.co.uk on practice and IT topics, and is part of their annual budget reporting team. He is the author of the IT Faculty s guide to Practice Management Software.

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