Central Accounting

Central Accounting has been developed in response to the lack of a viable, cost-effective solution for small firms from the main ERP application providers - see www.centralaccounting.co.uk/linkedin. The main advantages of our application can be summarised as follows: 'cloud' based so no expensive hardware or networks to set up and maintain secure remote access from (almost) any location making it ideal for multi-site, and flexible home/ office working Software as a Service' (SaaS) which means no expensive up front investment in specialist software or updates to the latest version includes payroll so no additional cost for payroll software, and labour costs can be captured and analysed by department, project, or job bookkeeping is being done in the background in 'real time' so accountants can spend their time focusing on the business instead of number crunching designed for use by non-accountants with templates for common transactions to reduce error, routines for creating accruals and prepayments, and depreciation on screen resource scheduling so work can be planned more efficiently and the impact of changes on other orders and jobs can seen immediately on screen requirements planning shows not only what purchases or production is needed, but when, so there are immediate cashflow benefits The main disadvantages of our application can be summarised as follows: real time accounting means that it is not well suited to batch input of large quantities of documents, so it would not be suitable for bureau-type operations it relies upon good access to the Internet, and so would not fare well in remote regions or areas where access is poor or unreliable (though this is becoming less of an issue in our view). Of course not all small firms, and particularly very small firms, require the level of sophistication that an ERP application can deliver, and there are a number of similarly priced online solutions available that can handle basic bookkeeping. However it would be a mistake to assume that Central Accounting is only useful for manufacturing operations as it includes functionality which in addition to reporting on the performance of the whole operation, can also report by jobs/ projects, and departments, and is therefore useful for project based operations. Uniquely it also includes 'overhead recovery' functionality which allows Charities and Voluntary Sector Organisations ("VSOs") to report on a 'Full Cost Recovery' basis as required by guidelines issued by the Association of Chief Executive Officers in Voluntary Organisations ("ACEVO").