Financial Accounting Software

At one time, the terms financial accounting and financial accounting software referred specifically to systems that supported external financial reporting.  However, the meaning is now often expanded to refer to systems that support the overall financial management of the enterprise, such as: 

• Budgeting
• Financial Reporting
• Financial Analysis (although linked to the above, systems requirements vary significantly)
• Cash Forecasting & Cash Management
• Government Compliance & Internal Auditing
• Strategic Planning
• State Sales Tax Reporting
• State, Federal and Foreign Income Tax Reporting

Aside from the first two systems, most SMBs don’t use integrated systems to address the categories of requirements listed below.  And, in fact, most budgeting is done in Excel, which is often not really integrated with the Accounting Software System being used.

In general, the scope and integration of systems is increasing, partially to deal with increased complexity of operations as well as more sophisticated management requirements and more intensive reporting and compliance issues.  Thus given the increasing cost of financial management talent, even smaller organizations now need to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing some of the applications noted above, formerly the domain of only Fortune 1000 level organizations.