Local software developer GreatSoft is in the final stages of creating account production software to prevent corruption within business institutions in Africa.
Bruce Morgan, MD of GreatSoft, says the software will be released with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) - a set of accounting standards enforced by a group of global accounting bodies, established after the Enron disaster.
"The purpose of these standards is to make sure financial statements produced in London, Cape Town or Nigeria are disclosed in the same way," says Morgan. It allows investors to really understand what the financial statements of companies mean, on a level playing field with global disclosure rules, Morgan explains.
The software is going to be released to live sites from 1 October, and is aimed at accountants, auditors and commercial financial accountants in Africa, says Morgan.
Manage risk
Most firms produce accounts using a combination of Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel, he notes. These are fraught with possible problems which IFRS is trying to solve.
GreatSoft has built an account production generator that will provide for all aspects of IFRS. "If a set of accounts is not IFRS compliant, then the management report will tell the accounting firms which parts are not compliant and will help them manage their risk."
Morgan says the only problem in changing business accounts to make them IFRS compliant is it will create added costs, time and effort to change the financial statements. "It could add as little as two days and as much as two weeks of time to ensure every set of accounts produced by the firm is IFRS compliant, which is quite a long period in business terms."
Morgan notes, however, it is an important procedure and failure to do so may lead to issues similar to the Enron scandal.
Share