NetSuite offers an online integrated business applications system that operates off of the company’s remote servers. NetSuite clients are provided with an onscreen “dashboard” that provides them with online functions and reports. It is an instant integrated system for midsized companies that may have several business locations which need centralized accounting and operations information with multiple points of access.

Records that are provided include performance indicators such as sales information on an annual basis, by location, by sales person, and so forth. The software handles customer relations, marketing programs and an entire e-business subdivision. The marketing program, for instance, can analyze customer buying characteristics in order to target market segments. The program will also provide an ROI for each marketing campaign it devises.

Clearly, NetSuite’s product is all things to all operations departments. The accounting functions are a mere portion of this omnibus software package. But it is indicative of the functional growth of software targeted at midsized companies.

You can shop for accounting software by scrolling through the applications that are available, selecting those that you need, and finding a software program that provides them. It is easy to purchase a program in this field and find yourself using twenty five percent of its functionality.

General business tasks include accounts payable and receivable; payroll; the general ledger; budget planning and tracking; purchase orders and sales analysis.

For invoicing functions you may need a ‘time and billing’ component, for professions such as the law where your product is your time. A point-of-sale or cash register system and inventory tracking can be tied to the invoicing system. Other specialized features might include tax preparation and job costing, work order and project management.

These modular accounting solutions software packages try to build multiple variables into their products. Microsoft has a business solutions product that “plugs into Microsoft Office” and includes a financial solutions component. The solutions referred to are more the analytical and projection tools, designed to streamline business operations. But underlying all those tables and charts is a full-fledged accounting system.

There are many components to the Microsoft Dynamics suite and purchasing one would require a good deal of discussion and debate. Their contribution to the continuing trend of modular customization is the ability to choose a software configuration based on industry. This accounting and business solutions software can be selected for businesses in the following categories:

• Construction
• Distribution
• Education
• Government
• Healthcare
• Life Sciences
• Manufacturing
• Not-for-Profit
• Retail
• Professional Services

Further choices are in the business components such as e-business, retail, financial management and so on. There are more detailed menus beneath each of these categories as well. Accounting solutions software is designed for the customer seeking an electronic, record-keeping system to meet business needs. Once the needs are established, the components are locked together into a system.

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Computer science is the physics, chemistry and mathematics behind chip design, computer design, and the functionality of all the pieces of hardware in the industry. Fiber optics and network router design are parts of computer science. In many universities, computer science majors are housed in the electrical engineering department, where the science began.

Information technology (IT) is often a separate field of study. The academic subdivisions of IT include: Networking. Database design. Maintenance and security. Software design. Computer programming.

Universities and colleges often offer information technology degrees with areas of concentration such as database design.

Technical schools do provide some technology certification programs in such areas as network maintenance and system security. More often, however, these operational jobs are taught at the level of an associate’s college degree.

Online colleges provide degrees in computer technology that cover both areas of study. University of Phoenix Online has a fairly inclusive bachelor’s degree program in IT. Their technology school offers the following degrees: Associate of Arts in Information Technology. Associate of Arts in Information Technology/Networking. Associate of Arts in Information Technology/Visual Communication. Bachelor of Science in Business/ e-Business. Bachelor of Science in Business/Information Systems. Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. Bachelor of Science in Information Technology/Information System Security. Bachelor of Science in Information Technology/Visual Communications. Master of Business Administration/Technology Management. Master of Information Systems. Doctor of Management/Information Systems and Technology.

University of Phoenix wraps many of their IT majors into business degree programs. They do not offer courses in the area of computer science.

Colorado Technical University has an online program that qualifies as a computer school of its own. They offer a Bachelor of Science in Software Systems Engineering that combines electrical engineering with the integrative techniques used in computer design. It’s an interesting mix of academic focal points: Fundamentals of Computer Programming. Electrical Engineering Techniques. Database Design and Management. Software Engineering.

Another online computer school is CDI College, which provides training programs in IT that prepare students for certification. Their scholastic selections include nine networking courses of study, including one designed to meet certification for Cisco network products and designs. They have five choices in the Programmer/Developer area, two of which are focused on the Web. CDI College also has a number of certification training programs. For software, they offer courses for business applications specialist and Microsoft Office specialist. CDI teaches certification courses for computer programmers and office information technology specialists, as well.

These are three online colleges with distinctly different types of curricula. CDI can make you a certified tech in a matter of several months. Colorado Technical University has degrees available in computer science and in software development. University of Phoenix focuses on the business side of IT. These are only three examples: a little research will find you the online tech school that you need if you haven’t found it here.

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What was missing was a program for the employee on the P&L side, the employee who could analyze what the salesman was bringing in and company operations was putting out. What was missing was an accounting system, and then in 2004, Microsoft introduced their Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting (SBA) program. Microsoft’s SBA was truly targeted at the small business operator. This new program would benefit the entrepreneur who had outgrown Excel’s limited book keeping functionality but had not yet reached the level requiring Microsoft’s Small Business Manager Accounting, which at the time was a more sophisticated and far more expensive program.

Office SBA effectively ties together the limited functions of the other Office programs into an integrated small business set of books. Invoices created in word and sent to a contact name in Microsoft Outlook are logged in an Excel spreadsheet using the engine contained in the Small Business Accounting software. The software also offers capabilities for tracking sales and customer accounts receivable, disbursements and vendor accounts payable, and banking and financial reporting.

You can create customized forms through Microsoft’s Small Business Accounting software, providing that desktop-created professional look. SBA even has a program for converting appointments logged in Outlook into billable hours, which is the principal product for may attorneys and other consulting professionals.

You can run a payroll accounting system through Microsoft SBA that utilizes Excel as the platform. But the three principal accounting functions that the software provides are

: Creating invoices and purchase orders, Recording purchases, receipts, bank deposits, and bill payments Generating financial statements and other reports.

Small Business Accounting also will create flowcharts that provide the visual aid for following business transaction records. The newer versions of the software have converted some of the Outlook functions into a Business Contact Manager function.

The 2006 version of Microsoft Small Business Accounting opens with a setup record that walks you through the process of setting up your business accounting structure. This is an invaluable function, saving hours of headaches for the entrepreneur who is new to and confused by the book keeping functions of small business. You can select a type of business during the setup process, and the wizard will set up a chart of accounts designed to manage that type of business. You can import your contact list, or portions of it into the chart of accounts and already you have established the core of your business monitoring operation.

With a little practice, you’ll learn to utilize the flow charts and other analytical tools to predict business behavior. Microsoft Small Business Accounting, now several iterations old, has become a solid competitor in the small business accounting software field.

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