Many companies and organizations are still relying on legacy systems and software to manage their day-to-day business activities running. In this digital age, good and efficient accounting and business software can make the difference between a successful and failed business.

Because every company relies on data to make decisions, it is essential that your business employs efficient and state of the art business and accounting software that will not just give you a realistic overview and detail of your business but also help your employees do their jobs with maximum efficiency.

But with so business and accounting software companies springing up every day, how do you know which one will bring the biggest return on investment? This list of the best 4 accounting and business software will guide you to make the right decision.

1. Infor Sunsystem

Deployed by over 200,000 organizations in over 180 countries worldwide, Sunsystem is ranked by hundreds of financial software review companies as the leading business and accounting software worldwide. That is because Sunsystems is so easy to use but very powerful and robust in how it works.

What is Infor Sunsystem?

To be precise, Sunsystem is a complete ledger accounting system and business management software created by Infor that transcends borders, languages, and currencies while giving you access to critical, real-time information to help you make the right decisions. Sunsystem is used by over 200,000 companies in over 180 countries.

Sunsystem has the following comprehensive functionalities;

1. support for configurations of each business as separate locales within one deployment. Each configuration can have its own base currency, chart of accounts, and business rules to meet local requirements. Each configuration can have its own independent setup, or multiple companies can be supported within a single business entity.
2. While only one accounting period can be specified on a transaction, different accounting periods can be created for reporting. As data is retained at the transaction level, it can be reaggregated to different periods as required.
3. SunSystems can be run as a single system, running simultaneously in multiple languages, and with different users accessing the system in the language of their choice.
4. SunSystems supports four currency dimensions for each transaction: transaction currency (variable), the base currency (fixed per business unit), reporting currency (fixed per business unit), and fourth currency (variable).
5. Simple, but flexible tax calculation capability that can integrate with common taxation platforms and provide automated maintenance of rules and rates.
6. Since some countries require companies to code financial data to a statutory chart of accounts structure, Sunsystems is also made with that capability as organizations can have various charts of accounts structures for different entities.
7. In addition to the actual accounting transactions, another 10 books (transaction sets) are available for each company. These books share the same accounting structure and setup but hold separate transactions—allowing the capture of budgets and commitment transactions, as well as enabling adjustments to be recorded for alternative treatments (such as local GAAP, US GAAP, IFRS, or tax adjustments).
8. SunSystems allows you to define additional data to be captured and stored on all source transactions—as well as refine what data is required for different accounts or types of transaction.
9. SunSystems can be run in the cloud or on-premise (depending upon specific requirements to facilitate global access). a unified modern experience and the ability to create configurable workflows and alerts to help optimize business processes.

To inquire more about Infor SunSystem, contact Flaxem (Infor’s certified partner in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda & the rest of the East African region) on +254 202 305 051 (Kenyan office) or +256 414 665 846 (Ugandan office) or email info@flaxem.com

2. Oracle NetSuite

NetSuite is a cloud ERP solution, providing a suite of applications, from accounting and financial planning to warehouse management, eCommerce, inventory management, and beyond.

What is NetSuite?

Netsuite is a cloud-based business financial management software that includes business accounting, ERP, CRM, and eCommerce software. Since it is cloud-based, it can be an advantage or disadvantage to some organizations.

Being cloud-based means you do not need to purchase expensive computing equipment to run it. You can procure normal computers and smoothly run it no matter how heavy the software might be. Sunsystem also has the cloud-based version and the local version of their system. The only challenge with software that runs completely on the cloud is that availability is not guaranteed; poor internet and cyber attacks can affect your functionality.

NetSuite Capabilities / features;

1. Follow your lead from start to finish. Learn about opportunity management, order management, revenue recognition, invoicing and reporting.
2. Manage purchase order entries, approvals, and vendor payments with NetSuite’s end-to-end procurement monitoring.
3. Accelerate your financial close and consolidation processes using period close process, currency, and elimination management.
4. Provide transparency across all entities within your business using advanced dashboards and detailed reporting summaries
5. Optimize all of your customer and internal experiences with shopping, checkout, website management, and shipping.
6. Stay on top of your demand planning, inventory management, and procurement with powerful distribution management.
7. Build your system with fulfillment in mind. Manage your bill of materials management, work orders, and production in one seamless process.
8. Keep your project management, resource utilization, project accounting, time, and expenses in check and on track with NetSuite.

3. Sage

Sage is a British multinational enterprise software company based in England. Sage is UK’s leading and world’s third-leading create of Enterprise software boasting 1.6m small business customers worldwide. Sage is mostly used by medium and small business as it offers much more affordable financial management solutions but with limited capabilities. So we are only including Sage specifically with small businesses in mind.

Sage has four accounting modules; Sage Intacct, Sage Fixed Assets, Sage X3, and People.

In this article, we are discussing Sage Intact

With the Sage Intacct multi-dimensional analysis capabilities, organizations gain deep operational and financial insight while slimming down their chart of accounts by up to 99%. Sage Intacct is the first and only preferred provider of the AICPA—not only does the AICPA set the professional and technical standards for the CPA profession, but it is also the world’s largest member association representing the accounting profession, with over 400,000 members in the US and abroad.

Contact us for inquiries about Sage.

4. SAP ERP

The Germany native leading ERP, SAP has been in the ERP business for more than 40 years now. The system is used by over 50,000 customers in over 25 different industries.

Processes powered by SAP;

1. Operations (Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, Production Planning, Logistics Execution, and Quality Management)
2. Financials (Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Financial Supply Chain Management)
3. Human Capital Management (Training, Payroll, e-Recruiting)
4. Corporate Services (Travel Management, Environment, Health and Safety, and Real-Estate Management).

Capabilities of SAP ERP;

1. Asset management: Achieve operational excellence by planning, scheduling, and executing asset maintenance activities with integrated processes.
2. Finance: Simplify accounting and financial close processes and improve treasury and financial risk management processes.
3. Manufacturing: Improve production planning, support complex assembly processes, and enable seamless manufacturing engineering.
4. R&D and engineering: Improve project control and development, manage enterprise projects effectively, and streamline product lifecycle management.
5. Sales: Maximize revenue with order and contract management, drive sales performance, and support your sales force and sales managers.
6. Service: Deliver exceptional, personalized, and reliable service with holistic analytics and integrated service management.
7. Sourcing and procurement: Streamline operational purchasing, automate sourcing and contract management, and centralize procurement processes.
8. Supply chain: Provide more accurate commitment dates, integrate transportation management, and streamline warehouse management.