sage accounting software uk including sage line 100 financial accounting solution for medium to large companies as well as custom finance software packages from Whitegate Computing Ltd UK

	International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Financial Software
	Furniture supplier uses business and accounting software to reduce reporting timescales by 80%
	Whitegate wins Customer Service Award for Excellence
	Small and Medium Sized Companies Are Wasting Thousands of Pounds Every Month
	BASDA Elects New Chairman - PDF - 30KB
	Exchequer Software Launches Enterprise v5 - PDF - 79KB
	Exchequer Software Receive ICAEW Accreditation - PDF - 38KB

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Financial Software
September 2003

All listed companies within the EU must adopt IFRS in 2005. If you have a December year-end you may also need to prepare an IFRS compliant balance sheet as at 31st December 2003 for comparative purposes.

The Risks

Amongst other things, you will need to consider whether your system provides Flexibility in General and Flexibility in the area of Reporting. If your software does not suffice in either of these two areas it will, without doubt, increase the time spent in producing and reconciling reports necessary to comply.

Remember, the standards which will apply in 2005 will not be fully known until after the beginning of 2004, so be particularly careful if you are in the process of changing imminently; you will want to be sure that the system is flexible enough for the future or run the risk of either having to change your software again or working manually to compensate for the software's weaknesses.

Some things to think about

	Does your system allow you to move a nominal code including transactions from one category heading to another so that items recognised under GAAP as one type of asset or liability but are a different type of asset or liability under IFRS can be easily reclassified?
	Are you able to easily produce P&L and Balance Sheet reports in two or more formats e.g. GAAP and IFRS? Since entities must explain how the transition affects their reported financial position, reconciliation's will need to be performed between the two.
	Does your system allow a dynamic link to be created between Excel and the accounting data? Most of us are familiar with Excel - it allows the reports to be formatted in the way you want. Imagine being able to do this without having to re-key accounting data allowing for ultimate flexibility when you need to produce consolidated management reports for any period and any year.
	Does your current software allow you to Drill Down from the TB to the source transaction and does it allow you to Drill Down from the reports produced in Excel? A time-saving feature especially when reconciling and you need to quickly identify how a figure has been made up.

When do you need to act?

Bearing in mind the need for comparative figures, the sooner, the better. However, it's important to take the time to investigate whether your software is going to cope with these and other requirements. If you need to change, choosing software that is going to provide a long term return on investment means that it has to be flexible and easy to use. Of course, if the software is truly flexible it will be possible and economical to bring in the historical closing Trial Balances for each month allowing for quick comparative analysis, therefore, if comparatives are required from 31st December 2003 you don't have to go live immediately.

Furniture supplier uses business and accounting software to reduce reporting timescales by 80%
September 2003

Dovetail Contract Furniture Ltd, a service-based supplier of office furniture, has completed an order valued in the region of £40,000 with Whitegate Computing Ltd for business and accounting software, Exchequer Enterprise.

Exchequer Enterprise was chosen for its flexible job costing module and comprehensive OLE report writing functionality. It replaces a software system put in place by Dovetail's sister company, part of WPP Group.

The versatility of the OLE report writer module is bringing significant benefits to Dovetail, which it is using to provide a seamless link between Microsoft Excel and the financial management data held within Enterprise. This enables Dovetail to integrate information with ease from one database to another, providing access to real live data at any given time, which greatly reduces the need for manual intervention that is time consuming and prone to errors.

The job costing module combined with Enterprise's reporting capabilities is enabling Dovetail to track the status and profitability of individual jobs. Bruce Taylor, Financial Director at Dovetail, explains, "Our business information is now far more transparent as we are able to spot mistakes quickly, address them and learn from them to improve our processes and become more efficient. Day-to-day financial management is far easier as we can very easily allocate incoming invoices to jobs as soon as they are received and run reports to check the status of jobs, such as when the customer is due to be invoiced, whilst alerting us if any job margins have slipped."

He continues, "The reports we have access to now are at least three times more relevant and valid than what we had before, but it only takes half of the time to produce them. Overall, the key business information we draw from the system only takes about 20% of the time it used to take via the old software as the information is now available at my fingers tips. We therefore have far greater control of the business as a result of improved reporting."

To deliver further efficiencies in the organisation, Dovetail will also be looking to take advantage of Exchequer Enterprise's Paperless Module and the time sheets within the Job Costing Module. The paperless module will enable the finance department to send out documents and reports, such as orders, invoices and statements, in a secure format, by fax or email, saving a considerable amount of time and money on stationery, postage and administration, while use of the time sheets will enable better project planning and improved cost control in project management.

Commenting on the implementation support from accounting software consultancy specialist, Whitegate, Taylor says, "Exchequer Enterprise is a very modern, easy-to-use system, however Whitegate invested an impressive amount of time and effort ensuring that we are getting the most out of it. They listened to our business issues and then customised certain aspects of Enterprise to suit our requirements."

Whitegate wins Customer Service Award for Excellence
February 2003

When it comes to providing complete business and accounting software solutions, Whitegate specialise in delivering astonishing customer service using inspirational accounting software. Recent implementations have included organisations in shipping, television production, publicity, marketing, furniture, government and a variety of charitable and non-profit organisations.

Established in 1990 and headed up by Tony Reissner and Joanne Quinlan, Whitegate are now one of the UK's leading accounting system solutions centres. Providing primarily Exchequer Enterprise and Sage Line 100 accounting software along with associated project management, consultancy, training and support. Based in Hatton Garden, London, EC1 and employing qualified and experienced accounting, management, support and training staff Whitegate are ideally positioned to offer top service levels on award winning software.

Their philosophy is to demonstrate the return on investment achievable to the client and then provide an efficient service with an honest and friendly approach.

More information including a range of sample client sites and case studies can be found at www.whitegate.co.uk, on stand 206 at ProfIT or by calling 020 7831 2777.

Small and Medium Sized Companies Are Wasting Thousands of Pounds Every Month
February 2003

"Growing companies with between two and fifty accounting users are being let down by problematic and inefficient software", claims Rob Steele, co-founder of accounting and business software author, Exchequer Software.

"For many businesses, accounting software has become no more than a glorified calculator; a tool for adding up at the end of a month, quarter or year; or for producing reams of endless and sometimes pointless reports," Steele maintains.

At Softworld Accounting & Finance, Exchequer Software will be holding a series of educational seminars and on-stand briefings, aimed at fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses. During the seminars and briefings, Exchequer Software will be presenting the findings of a new report that enables companies to evaluate their current accounting software against a check-list of 17 measurable time and money saving features including:

	How to get reports that actually help you manage your business better
	How to avoid analysing rows & rows of figures and instead just look at the exceptions
	Use simple, available technology to alert you to potential problems (or successes!) in your business via automatic emails or even text messages to a mobile phone

Small and medium-sized businesses will find out how they can save thousands of pounds every month, cut workloads by up to 50%, learn how to achieve better financial control across all departments and make better decisions by using accounting software more efficiently.

Rob Steele says, "Our seminars and briefings will be extremely beneficial for any forward-thinking company that is looking to significantly increase profitability, efficiency and productivity, or simply reduce costs through better use of business software."

He continues, "On average, we estimate that small and medium-sized companies that have replaced outdated accounting software with Exchequer Enterprise have achieved a cost saving of between £1700 to £2900 per month, and this figure has been as high as £5000 per month."

Visitors to Stand 404 and seminar attendees (Room A10) will also receive a free multi-media CD with inclusive Return on Investment (ROI) calculator. This ROI calculator enables businesses to key in variables such as the size of their company, number of departments, and the average time spent on processing invoices, in order to discover how they can maximise their time and cost savings.

Steele says, "We can prove that companies who are not able to truly multi-task within their accounting software will waste 37 minutes every day, simply reversing out of menus and then having to navigate through other menus, only to get distracted and lose concentration. This adds up to 148 wasted hours per year, per user, or £1000 per user, per year, based on £7.50 per hour!"

He continues, "More significantly, Financial Directors spend an average of 27 hours every month, re-keying or linking spreadsheets to exported data. That's over £7000 per year based on £25 per hour. Instead of spending time on such mundane, manual tasks, they could be looking for other ways of being even more profitable as a business!"

Exchequer Software has won the Accountancy Age Award for Best Mid-Range Accounting Software three times in the last four years. It is also the current holder of 'BASDA's Best Mid-Range Accounting Software Award'. In a recent AccountingWeb IT Zone survey, Exchequer Enterprise came first against all other leading accounting software providers, in terms of combined product and user support satisfaction.