TOP 20 ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE COMPANIES - BY 360QUADRANTS

1
TOP 20 ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE COMPANIES - BY
360QUADRANTS Best Accounting Software is used by
accounting professionals to manage day to day
accounts and perform other accounting
operations. It is systematized practice, work or
process of communicating and recording financial
data. A business organization use accounting
software for various purposes including internal
and external audits, required reports and
financial analysis to meet legal or internal
managerial requirements. Accounting software
ranges from simple and easy, single-entry
programs for individual record- keeping to more
urbane, double-entry systems that can process
accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll
and inventory, among other functions. 360Quadrants
, the most granular comparison platform, has
released a quadrant on accounting softwareto
help businesses make quicker and more informed
decisions. The quadrant has QUICKBOOKS, SAGE
SOFTWARE, FRESHBOOKS, and NETSUITE (BY ORACLE)
sharing space as Visionary Leaders. 360Quadrants
are generated post analysis of companies (product
maturity and company maturity). Quadrants will
be updated every three months based on market and
regional analyses and developments in accounting
software. 360Quadrants also list the 20 best
companies in the accounting software
space. QUADRANT HIGHLIGHTS 40 companies
offering accounting software were analyzed of
which top 20 companies were shortlisted and
categorized on a quadrant under Visionary
Leaders, Innovators, Dynamic Differentiators,
and Emerging Leaders. ACUMATICA, BLACKLINE,
THOMSON REUTERS, FRESHBOOKS, NETSUITE (BY
ORACLE), ODOO, ORACLE CORPORATION, QUICKBOOKS,
SAGE SOFTWARE, SAP Business One (SAP SE),
WORKDAY, XERO LTD., and ZOHO CORPORATIONhave been
identified as visionary leaders as they have
established product portfolios and a robust
market presence and business strategy. MICROSOFT
has been identified as innovators as it has
focused product portfolios, but a mediocre
business strategy in accounting software
space. FREEAGENT, SUNRISE, SYSPRO, and WAVE have
been recognized as dynamic differentiators as
they have strong business strategies, but a
weaker product offering as compared to other
market players. These companies are known to
focus on specific product offerings as opposed to
an elaborate portfolio. THE GNUCASH PROJECT, and
INFOR INC have been identified as emerging
companies as they have a niche product offering
but poor business strategy. 360Quadrants conducts
an in-depth SWOT analysis and accurately analyses
the companies considered for evaluation. This
helps service providers in learning about new
opportunities and areas where they lag their
peers. It also helps clients in choosing the most
appropriate vendor for their requirements.
2

• Top 10 Accounting Software
• NetSuite
• FreshBooks
• QuickBooks Online
• SAP Business One
• Sage Intacct
• Microsoft Dynamics GP
• Sunrise
• Xero
• Vyapar
• Traverse
• Key benefits of Accounting Software- Time
  Saving-
• The major advantage of accounting software is
  that it saves a lot of time over manual
  bookkeeping. With a computerized accounting
  system, front end business documents and back end
  transaction recordings are accomplished
  simultaneously. For instance, one can create
  customer invoices, prepare bank deposits and
  write checks in the program, with the added
  benefit that the system records each
  transaction. The software also helps to manage
  all over the working of accountancy within few
  times.
• Financial Statements-
• As compared to the manual accounting system, the
  computerized accounting system enables monetary
  articulations for any time frame to be created
  with the snap of a catch. This allows a business
  head to continuously monitor an organizations
  monetary execution and address any issues before
  they get to be risky.
• Cash Flow Management-
• With accounting software, it enables you to
  record receivables and payable in every system.
  This allows the system to estimate your cash
  flow position into the future. For instance, if
  you have submitted all your bills and customer
  invoices in the system with their due dates, the
  system provides a print report that will give
  clear picture if you will have enough money
  between what you have now and what you expect to
  be coming in to cover the bills that are due. It
  provides a detailed record of all bills and
  invoices. This future planning tool helps you
  avoid overdraft charges and late fees and fines.
• Enhanced Productivity-
• If a company owner wants to select a single suite
  of digitized resources to boost results,
  accounting software should be his / her first
  choice. Such programs dig deep into
  organizations most inefficient, day-to-day
  operations, gather, arrange, and analyze their
  most valuable data and what is most important,
  allow more efficient use of their resources.

3
Learning Curve- Another major benefit of
accounting software is learning curve, especially
if one hasnt used it before. Generally small
business owner face difficulties to spare time to
learn how to use the system appropriately, which
leads to errors and reconciliation issues. Proper
training is crucial to get most out of your
accounting system. It becomes easy to cope with
errors in small businesses. Features to be
considered in best Accounting Software- Analysis
and Report- Analysis and reporting are one of the
crucial features the best accounting software
must possess. Reports record maintenance is a
key requirement of any business to analyze and
report in the critical financial situation. Easy
and quick access to the records can enable the
major tasks and meetings within organizations.
This analysis and report will help the management
during key decision making and save their
maximum time as well as the stress. User-friendlin
ess- This is also an important feature a top
accounting software should have. User-interface
of any software is the core of attracting users.
Generally, not every person has the sound
technical knowledge and if a software interface
is difficult to understand user might get more
tangled. If the software isnt user-friendly it
will take more time from the accountant to
understand its procedure and use the
software. Integration of billing and invoicing
features with inventory management- Generally,
all accounting systems have different basic
functions and features, and most of them offer
basic billing, invoicing, and inventory
management. But, if all of them are integrated in
one system, then it will help to reduce a
significant amount of time transferring or
migrating data from one system to the
other. Secure sensitive data- Financial
information is crucial and sensitive data, and it
should never go into the wrong hands. Keeping
this in mind, the best accounting software should
provide complete and solid security features. Go
for user-based access features, as this is always
a good security measure. With this feature on
place, a best accounting software can only be
accessed by an authorised person in your finance
team with a permit. Moreover, their access is
restricted only to what their tasks are. For
instance, the person assigned to payroll
management will only have access to data relevant
to payroll needs. Data Sharing- A top accounting
software is customizable according to the
business need and requirements. Each business
has its own measures and ways of handling
modules. If a software is not customizable then
it may create hurdles for the accountants and
finance team to work according to the
organization needs and requirements. The
software must be convenient in customization of
data and reports according to the clients ease
and requirements. The Future of Accounting
Software- 1. Artificial Intelligence Reduces
Redundancy
4

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) will never fully
  replace your accountant, but AI-based accounting
  software is already performing several tasks.
  One of the major achievements of AI is
  automatically matching transactions from
  connected bank accounts to invoices and expenses.
  This helps to reduce the amount of time needed
  for bank reconciliation. Additionally, with an
  AI-based system there is no need for more
  pressure over paper statements every month to
  make sure the transactions match your journal
  ledger. By permitting AI to handle redundant
  tasks, the margin of error is much lesser.
  Obviously, some tasks will always need oversight,
  but AI-based accounting systems will alert you
  whenever data needs a human touch.
• Blockchain Will Make Accounting Simpler
• Disruptive and driving technologies like
  Blockchain, which is at the core of
  cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, are making waves
  because of its resistance to fraud and ability to
  record transactions without a middleman. For
  instance, businesses must use a third-party (bank
  or payment gateway)to accept money from a
  client. But with blockchain technology,
  transactions take place instantly and are
  digitally recorded without the use of a bank or
  payment gateway. In accounting, blockchain
  technology helps to automate the auditing process
  and reduce the frauds or almost impossible. But
  it is too early to see any extensive changes yet
  as the technology is still flourishing.
• OCR Eliminates Manual Receipt Entry
• With so many destructing and driving
  technological developments like AI and
  blockchain, it almost appears unfortunate to
  talk about a technology that has been in
  development since as early as 1914. The
  beginning of converting characters into telegraph
  code is now standard practice in the financial
  sector, where OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
  saves too much of processing time by means of
  machines to read handwritten characters and
  interpret them into electronic data.
• Today, users can take pictures of receipts with
  their smartphones and upload them to mobile
  versions of their accounting software, which
  automatically generates expenses complete with
  vendor name and amounts. This significantly
  reduces data entry time and manual errors that
  come along with it.
• 360 SCORING METHODOLOGY
• Top Accounting Software will be rated using the
  following methodology -
• A highly experienced team of researchers and
  senior analysts conduct extensive research to
  generate a list of vendors (competitors).
• A patent-pending algorithm is used to collect
  inputs from key stakeholdersindustry
• experts, buyers, vendors, and 360Quadrants
  analystsbased on criteria for Product Maturity
  and Company Maturity.
• Criteria under Product Maturity include breadth
  and depth of product/service offering,
• product features and functionalities, product
  differentiation and their impact on customer
  value.
• Criteria under Company Maturity include
  geographical footprint, partner ecosystem,
  financial stability, and client coverage or
  sector footprint.
• 3. Approximately 30 in-depth parameters will be
  considered for research for the accounting
• software. These parameters will be updated every
  6 months to ensure latest developments are taken
  into consideration.

5

• 4. A weight is assigned to each stakeholder based
  on information gathered pertaining to the above
  criteria as well as inputs from stakeholders.
  These inputs follow the order of priority given
  below
• Buyers
• Industry Experts
• 360Quadrants Analysts
• Vendors (Competitors)
• The inputs are analyzed, and a final rating is
  assigned to each vendor (competitor).
• After the finalization of ratings, each vendor is
  placed in the most relevant quadrant based on
  their score.