None.
There is a concept that I learned in graduate school that provided a lot of insight into how information was disseminated across the world. The concept was simple, data is information that is broken down to bytes and atoms is the infrastructure that moves the bytes.
The bytes in accounting is financial data and the presentation of the data to make a decision. The atom is the software that articulates the bytes into a useful presentation.
The first major industry vertical that I worked in was construction. A significant amount of construction companies use a software called Timberline. The software was designed to manage the construction accounting data to articulate results in the format digested by construction companies and their users. Management used the reports to run the business, however, the bulk of the reporting was used for tax, bank and bonding company purposes.
Given my professional experiences, I have touched several of the major industry verticals and for the most part, each industry vertical has its own software that it generally uses. As an accountant, I think it is important to learn what the software can and cannot do for a management team. How is the data manipulated to make a decision? Some software packages can bridge across industries and produce useful data without significant manipulation.
I think the most important things to keep in mind when thinking about accounting software is simple:
- What is the data (bytes) and how is it produced?
- Who are the users of the data?
- What information is needed with the data to generate useful actionable reporting?
- When or how fast and accurate can the data be produced?
If you keep these things in mind, knowing an accounting system is important, however articulating the data that it produces is more important!