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AccountForce is a new name to us, but this package has been around since 1990. We took a look at a beta copy of version 4.00 of the program ... and
found ourselves rather impressed.
The basic version of AccountForce comprises invoicing, Sales, Purchase and Nominal Ledgers, Cash Book, Stock Control, Job Costing and Sales Staff
Control, all for a very reasonable price. Additional Sales Order and Purchase Order Processing modules are available together with Payroll.
The first and most obvious thing about AccountForce is that it looks nice. The screens are a pleasant mix of greens, reds, greys, blues and soft
purple. Apart from the purely cosmetic aspect, use of different colours helps to organise and pinpoint data on the screen. We looked first at the customer accounts on the sales ledger. AccountForce starts by
displaying a list of all the customers. You down arrow to the one you want, then press Enter to see the name and address details or F4 key to see all the outstanding invoices on screen. Down arrow again to see one
of the invoices, press Enter and the original invoice entry screen is displayed in full detail. If you then want to see one of the lines of the invoice, down arrow to that, and the screen displays all the details, a
very nice feature. Even better you get the same facility in the Purchase Ledger, which is most unusual. Since most management information in a computer system derives from the sales or purchase invoices, the more
detail you can record at invoice entry time the better. AccountForce seems to have got this exactly right. For example, when recording product purchases through a purchase invoice there is a danger of double booking
into stock because the products may have actually arrived a month ago and been booked into stock then. However, AccountForce avoids this problem. When stock first arrives you enter the supplier’s delivery note. When
the purchase invoice arrives later AccountForce looks to see if there are any delivery notes outstanding from this supplier and asks if this invoice refers to any of them. Very neatly you avoid the double booking
and you can also immediately authorise the invoice for payment because the delivery note is right there in front of you.
On the accounting side AccountForce displays a more traditional face. Whereas the modern tendency is to update all the accounts immediately as soon
as the transaction is entered, AccountForce saves them on file to be updated as a batch at the end of the day. Similarly, AccountForce updates to the Nominal Ledger only at period end, this means that all account
balances are not up-to-date “real time”. But on the other hand it does reflect the way many bookkeepers and accountants actually prefer to work, that is to reconcile the Cash Book to bank and Purchase Ledger to
supplier statements first, and only then post to the Nominal Ledger. We found the accounting side of AccountForce to be well sign posted with helpful menu options such as “Non-Ledger Bank Payments” and “From Bank to
Petty Cash Box” which most bookkeepers will immediately understand. Accounts staff used to traditional manual procedures will warm to this product.
On the whole we feel there is a lot of potential in this product. [The suppliers] claim that it achieves the best of both worlds - a solid and
reliable set of accounting ledgers, together with a very modern ability to extract and display the maximum possible management information. On first viewing we are inclined to accept they are right. AccountForce
deserves a warm welcome. Properly marketed it could become a major player in the entry-level accounts package market.
AccountForce’s solid batch-based ledgers will appeal to many accountants and bookkeepers. But it is wholly modern in its
ability to extract and store maximum information for management. Nice looking and very easy to use, at a modest price, AccountForce looks a very strong contender.
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