Small Enterprise Association of Australia

Question: Discuss about the Small Enterprise Association of Australia. Answer: Introduction: As per the Halabi, Barrett and Dyt (2010), small scale companies uses accounting software for the purpose of production of the financial statements such as balance sheet, cash flow statement and income statement. It is also found that the accounting information or knowledge is viewed differently by different companies due to which the accounting software cannot be used to their full potential. The accounting software is used by the Australian Tax Office for the purpose of recording and collecting all the financial information. The main reason behind it is that the accounting software facilitates in gaining knowledge regarding different financial transactions. The owners of the firms are required to submit their taxation return which record the information related to income and expenditures made by the firm and calculates its profit or loss in a year (Halabi, Barrett and Dyt, 2010). In the views of Griff (2014), the taxation returns of each entity records the total number of similar type of transactions carried out by the entity such as bank interest received, costs of goods sold, sales, wages paid and so on. For the purpose of taxation, cash accounting is applied. In addition to this, the business operations can be reflected in an appropriate manner by the use of accrual accounting. The qualitative data analysis software package is being used for the purpose of identification of the keywords and categorizing the text into themes (Griff, 2014). According to Breen, Sciulli and Calvert (2003), there are several accounting software which are used by the organizations for recording operational activities rather than for strategic purposes such as MYOB and CAS. Companies are heavily relied on the accountants for the reviewing of the financial statements and carrying out different book keeping services in spite of the implementation of the CAS software in the organization. Nowadays, companies are encouraged to utilize CAS accounting software for the reviewing of the financial statements as it facilitates in reducing the overall cost incurred to review it. After the implementation of the GST in 2000, companies are accepted the usage of computerized accounting software for the reviewing and formation of the financial statements of the company. Besides this, companies require accounting software for the purpose of creation of financial statements in order to take decisions in an effective manner. Such accounting software are easy to use and can be easily used by untrained accountants (Breen, Sciulli and Calvert, 2003). As per Walker and Oliver (2005), nowadays, firms spend considerable amount on the accounting packaged software for the purpose of framing and reviewing accounting information as it facilitates in reducing the time and cost. Some financial services firms adopt commercial packages that suit their needs for which they incur cost in the way of license fees, sponsored development and maintenance (Walker and Oliver, 2005). Curtis (2012) has stated that MYOB is an accounting software considered best for small scale businesses. This software contains different accounting modules such as sales and purchasing modules and inventory modules. It is considered as easy to use business software and can be applied to any type of business. This software facilitates managers to process and tracking bills payable and receivables, sales and purchases. This software is considered as a powerful tool for managing the inventory in an effective and efficient manner. It also facilitates in communicating the financial information to other related parties by the way of e-mails. This software facilitates in the management of cash receipts and expenditure or inventory in an effective manner. This software facilitates in carrying out different functions of small scale businesses such as banking, accounts, purchases , card file, job management and generation of financial reports. MYOB is not only considered as accounting softwar e but also regarded as business and inventory management solution. This software results in gaining real time data and ex;porting of all reports to MS Excel. This software has more than 1000000 users for managing their different business functions throughout the world. This software and its products are developed in Australia since 1990. Besides this, it is alsio used in Malaysia from 1996 (Curtis, 2012). In the views of Deshmukh (2006) MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) is an Australian multinational company that provides payroll, accounting and retail software and web hosting to small and medium businesses. This software is well known and used by majority of the businesses in Australia and New Zealand. The company is listed on Australian Stock Exchange in 1999. The company has also launched new package of online services in the year 2008 which includes e-mail hosting, web hosting and domain registration. The main competitors of MYOB include Intuit and Xero. There is an existence of the challenges faced by users of MYOB which include data security, however, the company has invest heavily in the security of the data (Deshmukh, 2006). As per the Stolowy and Lebas (2006), the computerized accounting software facilitates in improving the speed and accuracy of processing of the accounting information. In addition to this, the information is rolled back from the server in case of occurrence of disasters and hazards. The use of accounting software facilitates in reducing the labor required in the organization as most of the processes is completed automatically such as plotting graphs, charts and calculations. Nowadays, businesses expand their businesses across national boundaries due to several reason such as presence of cheap resources, better tax regulations and trade liberalization which has resulted in an increase in the bearing on the accounting procedures and processes of the company. The increased volume of the accounting information results in the exposure of the information to errors due to the presence of complexity of the accounting information system. The use of accounting information system helps in storin g large amount of financial information due to presence of large storage and processing capability (Stolowy and Lebas, 2006). According to Needles and Powers (2008), the accounting software packages facilitate in provision of the whole accounting system to be run on computer. The main reason behind it is that it facilitates in keeping accurate and up to date accounting and inventory reports. There is a requirement of maintaining complex financial information in an accurate manner as the businesses expand their businesses across the globe by acquiring new customers, new markets and adoption to the changes taking place in the technology to remain competitive in the market. The computerized Accounting System helps in streamlining, simplify and integrate the business processes and provide a clear picture of all the business processes to the users. The use of accounting software is becoming popular among different businesses due to reduction in the computer prices and accounting software. In Australian, majority of the small businesses uses accounting software and packages to record financial transactions (Needl es and Powers, 2008; Kolitz, 2016). Lewis and Trevitt (2003) has suggested that improvement in technology has resulted in the adoption of the computerized accounting systems and results in the replacement of the manual accounting systems. The computerized accounting system facilitates in processing the information which is earlier performed manually. This has helped in gaining accurate, valid and reliable results from the financial information. Besides this, it also facilitates in improving the overall performance and productivity of the organizations. The computerized accounting system has applied same logic of journal entries, ledger, reports and statements in a manual system. It also facilitates in generation of the financial statements in an easy and quick manner for the purpose of its review by the management of the company. This system helps in combining the accounting concepts and principles with the concept of information system for the purpose of recording, analyze and production of the financial statements to its users so that they can make effective decisions in a quick manner (Lewis and Trevitt, 2003). As per Ahmed (2008), the benefits of CAS such as adoption of the user friendly accounting software, quick, huge storage capacity, provision of accurate and reliable results have forced small and medium enterprises to adopt the system in order to record the financial transactions in an effective manner. Besides this, there is also a need for managers to consider different factors before the adoption of the accounting software and packages such as consistent and timely data in different reporting formats. The computerized Accounting system facilitates in reducing the time to record financial transactions. This facilitates in providing accounting information in a simple manner in the accounting software. This also helps in reducing the time spent by the staff in preparation of the accounts (Ahmed, 2008). Besides this, Turner and Weickgenannt (2008) have suggested that it also helps in reducing the audit expenses by keeping up to date and accurate information. It is important for the organizations to store information in the system for indefinite time so that they can view the information in future for the purpose of making comparisons in future. Besides this, it also facilitates in distribution of the information to different stakeholders of the company in an easy manner. The generation of the financial reports of the company helps managers to monitor its financial performance and make quick and accurate decisions with regard to the business (Turner and Weickgenannt, 2008). References Breen, A.P.J., Sciulli, D.N. and Calvert, C. 2003. The role of external accountant in small firms. 16th Annual Conference of Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand, pp. 1-11. Halabi, A.K., Barrett, R. and Dyt, R. 2010. Understanding financial information used to assess small firm performance: An Australian qualitative study. Qualitative Research in Accounting Management 7(2), pp. 163-179. Walker, R.G. and Oliver, G.R. 2005. Accounting for Expenditure on Software Development for Internal Use. Abacus 41(1), pp. 66-91. Griff, M. 2014. Professional Accounting Essays and Assignments. Lulu Press. Curtis, V. 2012. MYOB Software For Dummies. John Wiley Sons. Deshmukh, A. 2006. Digital Accounting: The Effects of the Internet and ERP on Accounting. Idea Group Inc. Turner, L. and Weickgenannt, A.B. 2008. Accounting Information Systems: Controls and Processes. John Wiley Sons. Ahmed, N. 2008. Financial Accounting: A Simplified Approach. Atlantic Publishers Dist. Lewis, R. and Trevitt, R. 2003. Vocational Business Financial Accounting. Nelson Thornes. Needles, B.E. and Powers, M. 2008. Financial Accounting. Cengage Learning. Stolowy, H. and Lebas, M. 2006. Financial Accounting and Reporting: A Global Perspective. Cengage Learning EMEA. Kolitz, D. 2016. Financial Accounting: A Concepts-Based Introduction. Routledge.