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E-Accounting: Problems and Prospects

Shraddha Verma Assistant Professor G.C.R.G Memorial Trust Group of Institutions Lucknow

Abstract

E-Accounting refers to Electronic Accounting, a term used to describe an accounting system that relies on computer technology for capturing and processing financial data in organizations. The manual accounting systems consisted of paper ledgers, typewriters and calculators. Typewriters were used to type invoices and cheques, and all calculations were performed using calculators. Now E-Accounting or Online Accounting is new development in field of accounting which can save the cost associated in accounting, it minimizes the paper work, Thus, source documents and accounting records exist in digital form instead of on paper in an electronic accounting system. with the help of various management applications like ERP,CRM ,project management e-accounting can be done. In E-Accounting the accountant and employer both feel satisfaction because , this is cheap and without software defaults or failure . Your accounts saves in online server or database , so there is no need to record manually, it does not require any software installation. A survey will be conducted among accounting agencies in order to provide evidence for the hypotheses. E-accounting problems & prospects research paper able to find out some of the basic problems, and prospects in e-accounting in the field of accounting and the research is exploratory in nature. This paper is based on a limited initial review of the literature and provides a brief summary of the theoretical part of the study. It should be regarded as a research proposal of an ongoing research project and as such it may develop and change in the process.

keywords: E-Accounting,Accounts payable, Book-keeping, accouts receiveables.

Introduction

E-Accounting is new development in field of accounting. It means all your transactions will record in online server or data base. E-accounting involves performing regular accounting functions, accounting research and the accounting training and education through various computer based /internet based accounting tools such as: digital tool kits, various internet resources, international web-based materials, institute and company databases which are internet based, web links, internet based accounting software and electronic financial spreadsheet tools to provide efficient decision making. The terms E-Accounting and financial information system are used to refer to any accounting system that depends on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for performing its information system functions. An E-accounting system could be thought of as an inter-organisational system because of its capability to electronically integrate a set of firms. In many operational applications the accounting entries can be generated as a by-product of the underlying transactions. A computerized accounting system is able to handle financial data efficiently, but the true value of an accounting system was that it was able to generate immediate reports regarding the company.

E-accounting involves performing regular accounting functions, accounting research and the accounting training and education through various computer based /internet based accounting tools such as digital tool kits, various internet resources, international web-based materials, institute and company databases which are internet based, web links, internet based accounting software and electronic financial spreadsheet tools to provide efficient decision making. Online accounting through a web application is typically based on a simple monthly charge and zero-administration approach to help businesses concentrate on core activities and avoid the hidden costs associated with traditional accounting software such as installation, upgrades, exchanging data files, backup and disaster recovery. E-accounting does not have a standard definition but merely refers to the changes in accounting due to computing and networking technologies Uses Accounts payable- is a file or account sub-ledger that records amounts that a person or company owes to suppliers, but has not paid yet (a form of debt), sometimes referred as trade payables. When an invoice is received, it is added to the file, and then removed when it is paid. Thus, the A/P is a form of credit that suppliers offer to their customers by allowing them to pay for a product or service after it has already been received. Accounts receivable- also known as Debtors, is money owed to a business by its clients (customers) and shown on its Balance Sheet as an asset. It is one of a series of accounting transactions dealing with the billing of a customer for goods and services that the customer has ordered. Bookkeeping- On a company’s balance sheet, accounts receivable is the money owed to that company by entities outside of the company. The receivables owed by the company’s customers are called trade receivables. Account receivables are classified as current assets assuming that they are due within one year. To record a journal entry for a sale on account, one must debit a receivable and credit a revenue account. When the customer pays off their accounts, one debits cash and credits the receivable in the journal entry. The ending balance on the trial balance sheet for accounts receivable is usually a debit. Business organizations which have become too large to perform such tasks by hand (or small ones that could but prefer not to do them by hand) will generally use accounting software on a computer to perform this task. Online Bookkeeping Process Understanding The Need V Pilot Project V Client Satisfaction V Agreements V Necessary Training V Actual Outsourcing V Implementation V Quality Check V Final Output

PRONTO-Xi Financials is a complete financial management software tool that allows you to automate many of your financial processes, establish greater security around those processes, manage cash flow better and gain enhanced insights into your operations. The functionality can be scaled up or down to suit your individual business needs making it suitable for businesses of any size. Integrate your financial management tasks to drive efficiency throughout your operations Focus on the data output rather than collecting the data in the first place Make better business decisions with accurate data captured and delivered to you in a timely fashion via robust business processes Complete set of financial tools including General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets and Payroll

key functionality & benefits

Period End close – produce accurate quarterly and annual financial statements for individual business units or your entire business that comply with regulatory, organisational and stakeholder requirements. Corporate Risk and Governance Compliance – develop structures and business processes to comply with organisational and recognised compliance standards. Integrate your financial supply chain – strengthen every aspect of your financial supply chain with integrated, robust processes, including establishing electronic purchase request and authorisation limits. Streamline payments and invoices – improve your Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable management and drive payment efficiencies. Multi-company consolidations – consolidate any number of companies quickly and easily. Cash flow management – track, identify and manage your cash flow, liquidity and your exposed financial risk quickly and easily via integrated, automated processes. Monitor financial performance – report on key financial metrics and develop an accurate understanding of your true financial position at any point in time.

Company’s all accounting project can easily outsourced by E-Accounting system:

A.P.O. A.P.O means accounting process outsourced APO is the new and developed form of BPO according to research report APO is growing very fast. This industry has jumped 60% annual growing rate. This industry has reached up to 60 cr. Of Rs.

Pay pal Payment system is popularizing in Online Accounting Some of Indian professional accountant gives the accounting services to USA customers under A.P.O. Now they can easily get their service amount from paypal way . Paypal gives you the facility of withdrawing your service fee with following ways:

a) If you want to deposit your service amount in your bank account in India for more than RS. 7000 you can easily transfer without any cost of transferring , if upto RS. 6999.99 you want to transfer in your account you will charge Rs. 50 b) You can get the cheque by giving request in the website under your paypal account c) You can also withdraw funds to your card also.

Willis and ACE Achieve e-Accounting First in London Insurance Market The London-based operations of ACE, a leading insurance company, and Willis Limited, the UK insurance broker, announced the successful launch of a full electronic accounting process between the two companies -a London Market Group (LMG) Non Bureau project first. E-Accounting is a data-based process for facilitating financial agreement and subsequent settlement of premiums and claims with insurance carriers, and replaces paper in the accounting and settlement process. E-Accounting substantially improves the quality, integrity and certainty of process, allowing Willis and carriers to synchronise their operations and improve client service. Implementation benefits include: prompt advice of premium and claims due, enabling simpler reconciliation improved settlement cycle resulting in speedier premium and claim settlement the secure exchange of critical closing and settlement information reduction in queries and early query resolution Graham Card, Executive Director and Business Lead for Willis’ e-Accounting roll-out, said: -London Market modernisation has long advocated the elimination of paper from the process and the introduction of electronic accounting. This is a major reform that will show benefits for both parties in the future.- -ACE are continually looking at ways to improve service to clients, making payment of premium easier and payment of claims faster. e-Accounting and closer collaboration with our clients will enable ACE to achieve this. -This project with Willis has been a great success with a real sense of partnership, and ACE is looking forward to working with Willis to expand the use of e-Accounting capabilities further with our clients and the wider market through the LMG sponsored Non Bureau project.- Willis and XL Implement e-Accounting London, UK, September 26, 2011 -The London-based operations of XL Group plc, a leading global insurer, and Willis Limited, the principal UK broking company of global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings plc (NYSE:WSH), announced the successful launch of a full electronic accounting process between the two companies. Through better synchronisation between brokers and carriers, the online system markedly improves client service by enhancing the quality, transparency and integrity of the accounting and settlement process. Willis Group Holdings plc (NYSE:WSH), announced the successful launch of a full electronic accounting process between the two companies. Through better synchronisation between brokers and carriers, the online system markedly improves client service by enhancing the quality, transparency and integrity of the accounting and settlement process.

However, with the introduction of PC-based Accounting Systems, both the computer hardware and the accounting software have become cheaper, creating an opportunity for organisation to adopt e-accounting. Nevertheless, there are several factors that determine whether an organization adopts e-accounting or not. Studying the factors that influence computer adoption, internet adoption and accounting software adoption

Relationships between company size and Internet Adoption

Company size Internet (No of employees) connected 50-99 41 % 10-49 30 % 1-9 16 % Objective

The objective of this research is first to describe the present state of the art of e-accounting in organisation bookkeeping agencies in U.P region(mainly lucknow) as well as identify managers’ intentions towards adoption of e-accounting ;what are the problems they are facing with the adoption of E-Accounting and the future prospects of E-Accounting system second to empirically study factors that influence the adoption of e-accounting, and third to study the problems that e-accounting may have in general and more specifically on the accounting procedures and practice in small and organisations bookkeeping agencies that have adopted an e-accounting system.

Research Methodology

The data for this research was collected by means of a questionnaire. Questions are both open ended and closed ended. The study was, for practical reasons, the research is done in the UP region (mainly lucknow) . Besides, demographic data including gender, age, position in organization, accounting background, professional qualification, experience in current system, level of understanding and knowledge related to the system, were measured by different scales. Finally a data of total of 90 persons were collected generating a positive response rate of approximately 35%. I have identified 12 questions that most effectively measure the no. of persons acquiring e-accounting in their organisation:

Q1. What kind of firm do you have?

Q2. How many no. of accounting staff do you have?

Q3. Does your firm use computers in operations?

Q4. Does your firm make use of accounting software in operations?

Q5. What kind of accounting software’s are used?

Q6. What are the aim of implementing E-Accounting?

Q7. What problems are faced by the firm while implementing E-Accounting?

Q8. What ways do you suggest for improving the system for easily access to E-Accounting?

On the basis of the data collected from both medium & small firms we found that only 35% of the firm out of hundred is successful in implementing E-Accounting. The firms like ACE & Willis a leading insurance company, and Willis Limited, the UK insurance broker, announced the successful launch of a full electronic accounting process and for the positive respondents the goal of implementing e-accounting are timely information management, large storage capacity, reduction of clerical work, cost effectiveness. Whereas for the left percentage 38.8% face problems like lack of constant supply of electricity, frequent breakdown of the system, inability to import/export data, inability of the system to support large volume of data or all of the former problems in implementing E-Accounting.

Findings and Suggestions

To further investigate the actual benefits of e-accounting, empirical studies of some ten small and medium-sized accounting agencies will be undertaken. These companies will be selected among the adopters group and chosen with the help of reference lists from software application providers and from information gathered in previous studies. The main data collection method will be face-to-face, structured interviews with managers of these organisations or, when necessary, telephone interviews. All interviews are planned to be tape recorded. The firms are facing problems in — Data security – All your data resides on a remote server: however, a back up can be taken regularly. Speed – Most of the currently available online office suites require a high broadband Internet connection. Lack some features available on the offline office suites: but this is progressively becoming available (MS LIVE, Google online-Suite, Think free, Zoho Office, Internet Office .Biz and e-Desk Online) A network connection (usually Internet access) is required to send and receive changes. That is, internet dependence makes it more difficult to work offline and also most of the firms don’t want to invest in purchasing accounting software. The results also indicate that interpersonal communication channels, such as training sessions and consulting, are considered as the most useful ways to achieve knowledge of new e-accounting innovations. Internet is also considered as a useful means of providing information. The use of accounting software makes the task easier and also saves the valuable time.

Conclusion

The study provides strong evidence that the use of E-Accounting has contributed to the effectiveness of tasks as expected. The study shows that the use of E-Accounting may improve the effectiveness of accounting and reporting tasks, budgeting, controlling and auditing which may reflect on the organizational effectiveness as well. An improved quality in the system may provide better support for the tasks performed by the system. This study finds that the most significant impacts of E-Accounting are on accounting and reporting and budgeting task performance respectively.Future studies could place more focus on the inter-organizational factors affecting the adoption rate. Moreover, future research could focus on the attitudes and resources of the business partners of accounting agencies. The contribution of this study will be twofold. First, the contribution of this study lies in the empirical analysis of the determinants of e-accounting adoption. The results of the study may give some evidence on the managers’ intentions of small and medium-sized accounting agencies towards e-accounting and thus predict future use of e-accounting systems. Second, this study aims at providing some understandings of the actual benefits of the use of e-accounting systems.

References

OECD, 1998. SMEs and Electronic Commerce. Working Party on SMEs to the OECD Ministerial Conference on Electronic Commerce. October 1998, Ottawa. (October 7, 1999).

Amidu, M. and Abor, J. (2005), Accounting Information and Management of SMEs in Ghana, The African Journal of Finance and Management, 14(1), pp. 15 – 23.

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Accounting Act (AA, Kirjanpitolaki ) 1336/30.12.1997

Hall, J. (2007). Accounting information systems. Quebec, Canada: Thomson Higher Education.

www.acegroup.com/uk