EconoAccounting is a small business/home business accounting system and takes a totally unique approach to accounting.
It removes 90% of the troublesome data capture process. This is the time-consuming work, which is prone to errors. Anyone who has spent a day capturing a company`s bank statement and reconciled it knows all about it! The final balancing of a bank statement can be very frustrating, when human error turns a debit amount into a credit amount, or switches values, ie R23.87 becomes R23.78.
Keith Levenstein, CEO of Econoserv SA, explains: "I find it such a waste of time that a bookkeeper or accountant has to re-type all accounting transactions into their accounting system. All our customers already use Internet banking, to pay accounts, transfer funds and to enquire upon their bank statements. The old-fashioned approach was for a person to download his bank statement from the Internet or to collect it from his bank and then re-type into his own accounting system.
"EconoAccounting has the ability to automatically import an Internet banking statement directly into the system. It calculates closing balances and immediately allows the user to reconcile his bank statement, his credit card or even home loan statement. In a business environment it easily allows the manager to see transactions in the account. Not only is this a far faster way of capturing transactions, but completely accurate as it is based on actual bank statements. The system calculates the closing balance, and if it matches with the balance given by the bank statement, then you can be sure that all the data imported is completely accurate, and many hours will be saved in searching for that elusive 9c."
At the same time, when transactions are imported automatically into the system, they can be automatically allocated to the relevant expense account, and VAT included if necessary. The auto-allocate feature of the software allows the users to setup keywords, which helps in automatically allocating transactions to the relevant income, expense, asset or liability account.
As an example we took a law practice that had been doing manual accounts since 1999. It banks with Nedbank, which fortunately keeps all customer history. Within three hours, we were able to download every single bank statement since the account was opened and import it accurately into EconoAccounting in another five minutes and reconcile the bank accounts. Using the auto-allocate feature we were able to allocate more than half of all the four years of transactions within 60 minutes.
"Our tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign says 'Fire your accountant`, and we sincerely believe that all the data capturing work currently done by an accountant can be completely replaced by the automatic import feature of EconoAccounting. Obviously an accountant is still needed to do the financial analysis, tax and auditing, but it is really a waste of money to pay an experienced person to capture transactions for hours on end. We know of small businesses with more than 30 pages of printed bank statements per month.
"Some people have told us that they do not have access to their accounting information - that it is given directly to their accountant, and the accounting function is done off-site. This, of course is not entirely correct. All businesses make out their own invoices, do their own banking and write out their own cheques. Many business owners are using the Internet to transfer funds. Using EconoAccounting to import banking transactions and with the auto-allocate feature will take five minutes per week.
"All small businesses face the challenge of the day-to-day running of the business, and often the accounting function is ignored for weeks on end. Many businesses are unable to produce a balance sheet or income statement on demand. Before a bank will advance an overdraft they will require financials. The excuse we hear (and used to give ourselves) was `my accountant is still busy with our financials`. EconoAccounting makes it now possible to produce a trial balance and income statement instantly without extra work," explained Levenstein.
"It is also very important for a businessman to know the financial status of his business. Due to time pressure, and lack of accounting knowledge this important task is done late, or delegated. Experts agree that businesses fail more due to lack of financial controls and cash flow than lack of sales.
"We designed EconoAccounting to be easily understood and used by business people, not necessarily financial experts. For example we have limited the use of the words 'Credits` and 'Debits`. All the user needs to know is 'Was money put into my bank account (a deposit), or paid out?` The system automatically allocates the transaction and includes VAT where applicable. Included also is an invoicing and debtors module.
"More and more people are using Internet banking due to its convenience, and it saves money, compared to writing out a cheque. It is also far safer, and funds are transferred almost immediately. The trend is going to increase, and with it, the use of EconoAccounting."
Within the Gauteng area the sale of EconoAccounting includes free on-site installation, free training and free support,
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