A new product to compete in the enterprise solutions sector of the upper end of the South African accounting software market, Visual AccountMate, has been introduced by AccountMate Africa.
A Softline company, AccountMate Africa holds the sole rights to market, sell and support the California-developed Visual AccountMate international accounting software in sub-Saharan Africa.
AccountMate Africa managing director Stephen Corrigan says that as Softline owns AccountMate California, the company can bring the high-end accounting software into SA on a rand-based pricing model: "This makes the package extremely price competitive against other software that are either US dollar- or British pound-based."
Visual AccountMate is used by 14 of the Fortune 100 companies. The software runs on the Microsoft SQL platform and Corrigan says a major advantage with AccountMate is the fact that users have the ability to purchase a source code version, which allows the package to be modified to meet the unique needs of each purchasing business.
"It was critical for us to be able to offer South African users of accounting software packages provided by Softline Group companies a natural upgrade path. Our aim is to incorporate the best features of these products into AccountMate, making it the most flexible and accommodating package available anywhere."
Corrigan adds that AccountMate is a modular program designed for bigger businesses: "Add-on modules allow users to add just the functionality that they require. The general ledger component is particularly powerful as it is customisable with up to nine user-defined segments that enable users to drill down to substructures providing immense detail."
Features include full multi-currency and multi-language capability, lot tracking, serial number tracking, high user security on both a group and individual basis, exceptional visual user interfaces and full report customisation.
"Much attention to detail has been paid in the development of all of the modules," says Corrigan. "The manufacturing module, for example, has the capability to fully explode each and every job card so that all the detail is available at the touch of a few buttons."
The AccountMate software in SA has been modified to cater for the country`s unique taxation requirements. The tax engine covers VAT, GST and double taxation (central government and regional government) so it is suitable for use in countries throughout Africa.
"This is a very powerful product. The basic package is the System Manager and the add-on modules are General Ledger, Consolidated Ledger, Contact Manager, Sales Orders, Internet Orders, Accounts Receivable; Purchase Orders, Accounts Payable, Inventory, Customer Item Specification, Kitting, Inventory Manager, Manufacturing, Return Authorisation, Price Control, Business Intelligence, Lot Control, and Bank Reconciliation."
AccountMate Africa, as a sister company to Pastel Software SA, is also now responsible for the Pastel Premier accounting software product for upper SME businesses and large organisations. "We have the support of the JSE-listed Softline group, as well as an existing well-established channel and call centre for sales and support inherited with Pastel Premier."
Both the AccountMate and Pastel Premier products, are rand-based, offering users security against the ravages of exchange rate fluctuations that can have a severe effect on costs associated future upgrades and add-on modules. Corrigan says this ultimately translates into major cost savings for organisations embracing the range of products.
An AccountMate development team was specifically assigned to deal with all South African local and regional market issues. This resulted in a highly stable, feature-rich program that caters for local variations in tax, currency and other financial parameters.
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