Integrating Accounting Software and Payment Processing Systems

Question: Discuss about the Integrating Accounting Software and Payment Processing Systems. Answer: Introduction Accounting software is a type of computer software, which is used by the accounting professionals in order to manage accounts as well as for performing various operations of accounting (Hingorani, Beasley and Bradford 2015). Accounting software is used in both small and large-scale enterprises. According to Gebhartet al.(2013), implementation and development of accounting software in small business are very much reasonable. The adoption of accounting software in various industries creates number of challenges due to insufficient abilities of users in accounting section. This particular assignment describes the historical background and its market share including benefits of a particular accounting information software in Australia namely Xero. It is utilized for performing various operations related with accounts in small enterprises of Australia. The assignment reviews various literatures of Xero in order to discuss the history, adoption, development procedures of the accounting software and their competitive advantages. History of Xero in Australia It is stated by Kosalge and Ritz(2015), that when Rod Dury and some of these accountants realized that the traditional desktop accounting software is not up to date then they started implementing cloud based accounting software. In this way, Rod Dury founded Xero in order to keep the accounting software updated. It was officially founded in Wellington in the year 2006 (Hingorani, Beasley and Bradford 2015). The organization enters the market of Australia in the year 2008. The accounting software mainly reflects on the market of Australia for developing Xero in the market. Adoption and Development of Xero It is stated by Erturk and Fail (2015), that for proper as well as efficient development of Xero in the market of Australia, millions of dollars are invested. After researching for 12 months, it is found that almost 60% of the business of Australia is dependent on cloud computing. The business of Australia is preferring cloud computing due to some on the unique features (Dunbar, Laing and Wynder 2016). The accounting software Xero is adopted by the users of Australia, as the software is fully dependent on cloud. Figure1: Stages of development of Xero (Source: Muratovski 2016, pp-46) The development process of Xero occurs in several steps. Firstly, the Xero accounting software was developed in as working software so that the software becomes easy for people for the use of the people. After then a prototype specification is provided as the blueprint of Xero in the development process (Trivedi and Gangwar 2013). In order to achieve efficiency and effectiveness the prototyping specification is communicated in the form of documentation. This is also done in order to avoid misunderstanding and poor implementation (Hingorani Beasley and Bradford 2015). Colors and graphics are quite important and t for developing the experience of the users. The design prettygraphics helps in making the software dramatically better and the required development time is drastically less. Market Size of Xero Accounting Software Xero accounting software has grown in a spectacular fashion in the market of Australia. It helps in providing accounting software to very small enterprises by utilizing Internet. It is opined by Wyslocka and Jelonek (2015), that the growth of the company is fully dependent on the trend of moving the business out from traditional accounting software. The organizations are expanding enormously and as a result, the revenue that is collected on a yearly basis is around $30.3 million (Trivedi and Gangwar 2013). The main reason behind the growth of the company is continuous growth in various fields of product development. The company is facing some challenges as the share started rising by 493%. The price rate of the accounting software stands at 88 times based on 12 month, which indicates it is one of the most expensive as well as significant proportion as compared to other competitors in the Australian market. It is stated by Muratovski(2016), that there is 80% rises in revenue in the year 2014 based on the current market capitalism. The acquisition of the customers and the revenue number of the accounting software is increasing by 80% (Why Xero | Xero. 2016) If the market is targeted, Xero have 19% of the market share of New Zealand and only 4% of Australia. Identification of leaders in the market of Australia The distribution of various types of accounting software is changing and it quite different from one country to another. It is used in both large and small enterprises for various accounting operations. It is considered as one of the most widely used software package in the market of Australia (business accounting software | Xero. 2016). It constitutes almost 6% of the market share of the country. It is stated by Trivedi and Gangwar (2013) that the statistical records are reflecting that the accounting software is flourishing in the market of Australia due to some of its significant features. If large business enterprises are considered then Xero accounting software is faster as well as reliable. Competitive advantage of accounting Software The accounting software Xero have some significant as well as unique features as compared to other competitors including MYOB and reckon and as a result, it faces huge competitive advantage in the market of Australia. It is opined by Muratovski(2016), that Xero accounting software is fully cloud based and as a result, it offers number of other advantages to its users. The advantages offered by Xero include accessibility and proper connection of internet (Erturk and Fail 2015). The users of Xero can access their account from anywhere at any time, which is not possible for other accounting software like MYOB, Intuit and Sage. Figure 2: Comparing different companies of accounting Software (Source: Dunbar, Laing and Wynder 2016, pp-56). The integration system of Xero is great and thus it helps in collaborating as well as encouraging other application services, which is important for improving the processes. This type of collaboration with other application services in not present in other application service. Xero contains simple as well as intuitive user interface. It is stated by Baguma et al.(2013), that the institutive user interface, which is used in the accounting software of Xero, helps in making it easier to use. Xero accounting software helps in making the processes easy as well as fast. The price of the accounting software is reasonable and therefore it is economically wise in the various markets of Australia (Hingorani Beasley and Bradford 2015).It has the capability to auto-enter data for various processes of reconciliation which other accounting software cannot. Due to this entire feature, Xero gains competitive advantage in the market of Australia. Identification of current gaps and challenges Xero have certain disadvantages due to which the accounting software faces lot of issues. The accounting software is not secure and as a result, the users have to use certain applications in order to keep their data and information safe. If Xero is not capable to maintain its security properly then it is quite important for the accounting data to be hacked by the hackers (Kosalge and Ritz 2015). One of the most significant challenges of Xero is that it cannot be accessed without internet connection. Poor internet connection does not allow the users to work on Xero efficiently properly. The file of Xero can be accessed as long as the subscription is activated. In order to have proper as well as efficient access over Xero, it is quite important to have fast internet connection. The process of automation can be avoided due to its complexity (Dunbar, Laing and Wynder 2016). If the process is used by an enterprise, then they need to train their employees. The company for accounting software supplies webinars to the users. Conclusion It can be concluded that Xero is widely used in Australia irrespective of the size of the enterprises. This is due to some of the important as well as unique features of Xero. It is analyzed that Xero can be accessed from anywhere because it is fully cloud based. There are number of challenges and gaps that the organization faces. The most important challenge that Xero have is unavailability of internet connection. The accounting software is not authenticated and as a result, the users must use strong password in order to avoid hacking of data and information. Several recommendations are also provided in the paper in order to resolve the issues which are associated with accounting software. Recommendations In order to make the utilization of Xero better, some of the suggestions that are provided include: Adding new features: It is quite important to add some new features while developing Xero accounting software. The new features not only help in benefitting the company but it also helps the international users of the software. Training: It is important for the organization to provide proper as well as effective training to the users of accounting software so that the software can be handled effectively by the users. Training also assists the workers in acquiring knowledge about the different operations of the accounting software. Authentication: The accounting software should be authenticated such that the dataand information is impossible for the hackers to hack. Development: It is very much important for Xero to develop its accounting software in the fields of design and security for benefiting the users. References Baguma, R., Myllyluoma, M., Mwakaba, N. and Nakajubi, B., 2013, September. Usability and Utility Needs of Mobile Applications for Business Management among MSEs: A Case of Myshop in Uganda. InIFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction(pp. 764-773). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. business accounting software | Xero. (2016).Xero. Retrieved 3 December 2016, from https://www.xero.com/accounting-software/ Dunbar, K., Laing, G. and Wynder, M., 2016. A Content Analysis of Accounting Job Advertisements: Skill Requirements for Graduates.The E-Journal of Business Education Scholarship of Teaching,10(1), p.58. Erturk, E. and Fail, D., 2015. 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