Ernst & Young announce first BASDA EMU accredited software packages

BASDA has announced that software auditors from the Dutch member firm of Ernst & Young have successfully completed the first series of EMU compliance tests on accounting packages and a total of six packages have been awarded BASDA EMU Accreditation. Packages from Baan, Navision, SAP, Scala, SquareSum and TAS Software are now confirmed as EMU compliant for multi-currency conversion and triangulation in accordance with the BASDA EMU Advanced Accreditation Checklist and the BASDA EMU Specification.

"Ernst & Young has been testing software to meet the auditing requirements of a number of European countries since 1989 so, although these were the first set of packages to be tested under the BASDA EMU Accreditation Scheme, the testing programme was very straightforward," explained Ivo Bolderhey from Moret Ernst & Young in Utrecht, The Netherlands, who undertook the testing. "As well as testing the software for euro compliance in conversion, rounding and triangulation, using our own euro test data, we also assessed the quality of the supporting documentation and the development organisation. In order to achieve accreditation, the software developers had to meet our requirements in all of these areas."

"The tests do not provide an opinion on the base currency conversion utility, country specific requirements or the overall reliability or continuity of the software."

Dennis Keeling, BASDA`s Chief Executive offered congratulations to Baan, Navision, SAP, Scala, SquareSum and TAS Software who are now entitled to display the BASDA EMU Accredited Software logo on their package. "There has been strong demand from users for an independent accreditation to cover the handling of the euro", he said, "And this is reflected in the number of companies (25 so far) who have applied to have their software tested. We expect the testers at Ernst & Young to be pretty busy during 1999."

"Once national local legislation has been finalised, we will provide a full accreditation which will also include the accounting system conversion routines. At present, the software suppliers cannot complete work on those elements of the software because the detailed regulations have not yet been passed in each member state."

In the meantime, BASDA has recommended that user organisations that require euro compliant systems, implement BASDA EMU Accredited software, to deal with triangulation, multi-currency conversion and rounding but continue to operate their accounting systems in the local currency until later in the 3 year transition period. The conversion utility to convert their accounting base currency to the euro will be available well before 2002, when it becomes compulsory to account in the euro.

Packages Accredited:

Baan, CODA Financials, Version 7.0

Navision Software, Version 2.00

SAP R/3, Version 4.0B

Scala, Version 5.1

SquareSum, Dream Version 2.6

TAS Software, TAS Books Accounting Plus Version 3.15

@EditorNote = Editors note

BASDA is a UK based international trade association, representing 300 of the world`s leading developers and suppliers of business and accounting software including SAP, GEAC, Sage and Oracle.