What is an Accounting Software?

Accounting software is basically a GST software package that usually manages all financial accounting and planning for a business.

Any business either small or large uses accounting software for invoicing, sales and purchases, inventory management, tracking incomes and expenses, and taxation such as GST or VAT.

However, accounting software is specially used by bookkeepers, accounting professionals, and business owners largely to process transactions in accounting.

Keeping track of business operations is difficult when there are a large number of transactions going on in a business or an enterprise.

Therefore Accounting software boosts the performance of business accounting.

And it helps our business in recording analyzing and interpreting financial transactions and delivering outputs in the form of reports.

Defining a business accounting software

Accounting after all means Business accounting because accounting is the backbone of a business.

For example, think of industries and businesses where a large number of transactions occur every single day.

Business accounting software helps to manage these transactions because without a software accounting task would never be easy task.

Realbooksis one such example of accounting softwareand a full-fledged accounting systemfor small business.

Business accounting includes a wide range of activities such as payments, receipts, sales, purchases, incomes, and expenses, etc.

To capture all these transactions a business accounting software comes in place where all the transactions feed into one accounting software.

Manual Accounting can complicate a business therefore a business accounting software is used instead o get clear pictures of the final accounts.

This allows business owners to get the right information in place and focus on what needs to improve.

Key Modules of an Accounting Software for Small Business

There are 3 basic key modules available in any accounting software to simply accounting task along with a multitude of features.

Accounting software usually consists of the accounting module, the inventory module, and the payroll module.

While payroll modules may or may not be an integrated part of accounting software.

Therefore some accounting software provides basic payroll integration in accounting software and some accounting software provides payroll as a separate module.

a) Accounting Module

The accounting module in any accounting software simplifies accounting tasks for businesses.

And make the process of accounting easy by automating a task that is required to do manually.

It accepts an accounting entry only once and processes the data to provides reports n number of times as and when needed.

Therefore it makes your data accessible very easily without the loss of any information.

And simplify your business process and compliances.

RealBooks is one of the examples of accounting software that is ideal for micro small and medium enterprises.

So what can you do with RealBooks accounting software?

With the help of  RealBooks a business can

• Create unlimited Ledger and Ledger Groups
• Customize invoices with your own format and logo
• Payments, Receipts, Journals, Contras & Invoices
• Cost Analysis via Cost Centres
• Bank Reconciliation via Bank File Upload
• Tags: Additional Grouping of Ledgers
• Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss, Cash Flow
• Trial Balance & Ledger Group Reports
• Ledger Report, Tag Report
• Cost Reports
• Generate Exception Reports
• Send Reminder Email/SMS to Parties for Outstanding
• Export Reports in Excel, PDF, and Excel Pivot formats
• Drill Down Reports all the way to Voucher Entry Screen
• Foreign Currency Accounting

b) Inventory Module

The Accounting software actually provides a basic inventory management module by default.

And it is not a separate module in any of the business accounting software available.

Inventory is always an integral part and parcel of accounting software that allows businesses to keep track of stock and manage their inventory.

The inventory module usually adds inventory to stock automatically when there is an item-wise purchase.

And the same stock is deducted from the inventory as soon as a sale occurs.

Some accounting software process barcode for the stock so that a sale or purchase transaction can be automatically fed into the system through a barcode machine.

Therefore the inventory module helps you to keep track of your inventory and stock automatically eliminating the extra work for calculating your stock separately.

The inventory module also processes reports such as stock valuation and stock summary which helps the business to identify the status of stock in the business.

RealBooks provides a very user interface to manage your stock and inventory.

Here is what do with the inventory module in RealBooks

• Create unlimited Items, Units & Godowns
• Simple Purchase, Sale, and Stock Journal
• Stock Valuations & Capturing Additional Costs
• Item Reorder Levels
• Tax Configuration: Defined at Item Level
• Debit note, Credit note, Purchase Sales Return
• Stock Reports: Consumption & Availability
• Stock Movement Analysis
• Purchase & Sale Register
• Godown Reports
• Manufacturing Accounting
• Order to Pay and Order to Cash Cycle

c) Payroll Module

The payroll module is usually not available in most accounting software, but many do offer a payroll module like an accounting module that is integrated into accounting software.

Payroll may or may not be treated as part of the accounting software because payroll is often seen as a separate part other than accounting in most accounting departments.

So what payroll software basically does?

It automatically calculates the payroll of every employee within an organization based on the employee’s pay structure.

Therefore the payroll module eliminates the task of manually calculating the salary of your employees saving hours of time.

When it comes to RealBooks accounting software, RealBooks provides a separate payroll module for business owners.

The payroll module in Realbooks allows you to track attendance and calculate the salary of employees.

Therefore if you would like to know more about what payroll offers in RealBooks.

So what can you do with RealBooks payroll module?

Here is what the payroll module has to offer where you can seamlessly

• Upload Offer Letters and Employee Documents
• Leave Management
• Advances and Adjustments
• Flexible salary structures
• Salary calculations
• Branch-wise salary processing
• Upload Investment Declarations
• Automated mailers for Pay Slips
• Employee log-in for accessing Salary Slip
• Sync Data automatically to Accounts
• Compliance Reports
• Time Sheets for Project Costing & Profitability

What is the Future of Accounting Software in 2021 and Beyond?

Technology is evolving at a rapid pace so are software such as accounting software and apps.

Earlier accounting was largely carried out manually.

But then came spreadsheets, next dos and windows based accounting system, and now to e-accounting and cloud accounting.

There is context to the future of accounting, we can see the future is the cloud and mobile devices.

And accounting software has already taken the revolution on the cloud by storm.

Nowadays small businesses are shifting their accounting to the cloud.

And then came the blockchain, another technology platform that is rapidly increasing its presence in the online world.

Blockchain – The Future of New Cloud Accounting

So what is blockchain?

Blockchain was conceptualized in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto to serve as the backbone of bitcoin.

Bitcoin, as you must know, is a form of cryptocurrency.

The Blockchain works as a decentralized, public ledger that aggregates and authenticates every single transaction from anywhere in the world.

A blockchain is transparent, has a constant update, and highly secured.

It is nearly impossible for someone to alter it via unauthorized means and can single-handedly overturn the entire industry.

When implemented, Blockchain can save banks 30% on their infrastructure costs.

Blockchain also creates a decentralized ledger of all transactions.

Wherein all records are updated and accessible to everyone in real-time.

This changes how monetary transactions are made and logged i.e. it makes transactional data readily available and verifiable.

And this helps in automating manual processes and creating an easily traceable asset management process.

Applications of Blockchain in Online Accounting Software

Blockchain is secure as it has shown itself to be in the last several years and may open the avenues of a secure and transparent medium of transactions.

Businesses, whether big or small need to keep track of their cash flows, receivables/payables, and other financial information.

You need regular access to this kind of information.

Be it during an important meeting, traveling, or even post-office hours when you are sipping a cup of your favorite latte and planning for the future.

Offline software is installed on a specific computer in your office

And you or your accountants can access it only when you/they are physically there.

In this age of digitalization where technology is the need of the hour.

You need to Stay Connected all the time and at the same time stay safe and secure during online payment and transactions.

Blockchain provides a way to securely and efficiently create a tamper-proof log of sensitive activity.

So, say goodbye to old archaic desktop-based software and step into the Cloud base world of Accounting.

And simple tasks like invoice generation, viewing reports, bank transfers, GST filing, etc., can all happen on the move

Thus resulting in a much more efficient management system.

Here are some interesting key points to consider regarding the impact of blockchain technology on accounting in the future.

a) Smart contracts

With technology like blockchain, we can start making ‘smart contracts’- these are contracts that can automatically process invoices and bank balances.

The highlight is the fact that these would be done with absolute transparency.

b) Consolidated Bookkeeping

Companies can maintain one joint registry to maintain all their transactions instead of having multiple records for the same.

c) Standardization in Auditing

Auditors would be able to verify larger amounts of data much faster and easier with the immutable standardization which comes with Blockchain.

d) Security and Trust

In a blockchain, every transaction is recorded as a ‘block’ which contains a timestamp and a unique ‘fingerprint’.

Hacking an entire blockchain is equivalent to hijacking all the computers connected to the ledger network.

This is the reason why it’s considered the most secure data management system ever conceived.

e) Less paperwork for accountants

Theoretically, Blockchain would reduce or eliminate the dependency on paperwork in the coming future.

For example, companies would no longer need to file tax returns;

Everyone would be automatically taxed fairly.

Why Online Accounting Software is Must for Every Business?

Online accounting software is an easy to use accounting software and tools that simplify your daily task.

From accounting to billing and invoice and managing your stock these tools are essential for every business.

Therefore online accounting is a must-have tool for every business, that seamlessly allows you to collaborate with your team and manage tasks more efficiently.

Here are some of the best tips when it comes to choosing the best accounting software for your business.

And the reasons to choose your accounting software.

a) Pay As You Go

Sign-ups generally have no upfront costs and can be as simple as clicking a button.

Software companies, who keep improvising on their products through updates, charge nothing extra and likewise, you can simply stop paying when you don’t wish to use it further.

b) Safety Backups

Stakeholders in the online accounting software market ensure a cast-iron guarantee to keep all your data private, secure, and safe.

They ensure real-time backup of all your data, so even if some calamity strikes your office, you can be up and running in no time- just get another PC and you’re done.

c) Accessibility Anywhere, Anytime

You can do your accounts from any location at any time.

So, information is accessible as easily as your email without any delay whatsoever.

Not only that, within your office you don’t have to decide who will have the accounting software loaded on their computer.

It is password protected and available on any laptop, PC, or via an app.

d) Multi-Location Accounting with Real-Time Consolidation and Reporting

Companies that have multiple locations constantly face the problem of centralized accounting and gathering information from all their branches.

And RealBooks solves this problem very easily.

Therefore cloud based accounting ensures that each location has access to the same software and does its accounting itself for their individual branches.

And consolidate all data automatically on a real-time basis.

The management has easy access to all reports and other information.

e) Ease of Communication between locations

The ease of communication gap with your manager or the partner or your team would be maintained even after working in far-off places.

f) Economically Priced Products

Offline software requires installation, physical support, and has high initial costs plus an annual support cost.

Whereas accounting software online is usually payable on a per-user basis without any upfront costs unless you require some specific customization or configuration.

So are you ready to experience and step into an easier business world?

Try Realbooks today and tell us how has it made your business more efficient.