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SouthWare
Excellence Series
Expert Analysis, Insight & Commentary
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ASA Research & Accounting Software
Advisor
J.
Carlton
Collins,
CPA
May, 2004
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May, 2004, Atlanta, Georgia
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Southware Excellence Series is one of the most complete and impressive
mid-market accounting solution available today – easily this is one of
the ten best accounting software packages on the market, and in many
regards it is the best value in mid-market accounting systems. Strong
words? Yes, this is a powerful claim, and this coming from a guy who has
championed many other products in year’s past. Read on to find out why
J. Carlton Collins, CPA holds Southware in such high regards.
Background Information
Founded in 1984
(by President James Clemens), SouthWare has a staff of 35+ employees,
50+ active dealers, and 6,000+ customers. The company adheres to strong
values, and they are very proud of the fact that over 80% of their
employees have been with SouthWare for more than 12 years. SouthWare
Excellence Series includes 34 modules which can run on more than 600
different combinations of platforms, operating systems and databases
including Windows and Linux. With more than 6,000 customers, SouthWare
is one of the top selling mid-market solutions available today.
SouthWare’s Home Page on the Web
SouthWare’s Features
Using
current data (compiled as of Spring 2004), we compared SouthWare
Excellence Series’ features to those of other top accounting software
products and found that SouthWare more than passes the test. In a
comparison of 862 inventory (stock) and order entry features for 142
popular accounting software products, we found that SouthWare beat out
126 other products, including popular solutions such as Macola ES,
MAS 500,
Great Plains, e by Epicor, AccountMate, eBPCs, Navision, ACCPAC
Advantage, JBA, Lawson and even Axapta (see comparison report below).
Inventory & Order Entry Feature Analysis for 142 Products
Of course features
should not be the only measure by which you should select an accounting
software package – you should also consider important factors such as
the company behind the product; the underlying technology; the reseller
channel; product stability; the size of the customer base; the financial
strength of the company; product support, etc. However virtually
everyone agrees that features are definitely one of the key factors to
consider. When compared to other top accounting software solutions,
SouthWare consistently beats the competition. For example, based solely
on number of features:
SouthWare’s
General Ledger module has more features than SysPro Impact Encore,
Macola Progression, Scala, Epicor’s Vantage, DataPro’s Infinity,
Deltek’s CostPoint, Best’s
MAS
200, Made2Manage and more than 50 other top products.
SouthWare’s
Accounts Payable module has more features than Axapta, Macola
Progression, JBA System 21, ACCPAC Advantage, Solomon, Ross Systems,
Epicor’s Vantage, DataPro’s Infinity, Deltek’s CostPoint, Best’s MAS
200, Made2Manage and more than 60 other top products.
SouthWare’s Job
Costing module has more features than Navision, Axapta, Macola
Progression, JBA System 21, ACCPAC ProSeries, Ross Systems, Epicor’s
Vantage, DataPro’s Infinity, Deltek’s CostPoint, Best’s MAS 200,
Made2Manage and more than 70 other top products.
SouthWare’s other
modules rate similarly – beating many of the top products on the market
today – the product certainly holds it’s own in terms of accounting
system features.
Very Elegant
In addition to the
abundance of regular features, we found that SouthWare Excellence Series
also contains a wide assortment of modules, capabilities and
functionality, which we can only classify as “way too cool”. For
example, some of these cool functions include: Alerts; Report Card;
Macros; TaskWise; News Flash Report; Explorer View Look Ups; and Map
Point Integration. Each of these innovative features is discussed
briefly below:
SouthWare’s Intelligent Alerts
SouthWare
Excellence Series provides automated alerts - or the ability to alert
users to predefined financial conditions. With this feature a CFO can
create simple or complex formulas that continuously compare actual
amounts against pre-determined values. When that value is exceeded, an
alert pops up on the computer screen and is also sent to the appropriate
people as an e-mail message. For example, a CFO might create formulas to
sound an alert in the event that cash on hand falls below $100,000,
gross margin drops below 20% or the number of days in inventory exceeds
80. In most cases, there is no limit to the number of triggers that can
be created. Alerts are also referred to as “event triggered reporting”
or “management by exception”. Here at ASA Research, we are big
fans of this type of technology and we believe that users should always
look for this capability when evaluating an accounting software system.
SouthWare’s Intelligent Alerts screen is shown below:
SouthWare’s Alert’s Screen
Report
Card
SouthWare’s Report
Card screen is a simple and clever way in which SouthWare communicates
the company’s status at a glance. Similar to the report card format that
we are all used to, SouthWare grades six key factors of business
performance over the previous seven month period. The formulas and
grading scale used are definable by the user. For example, growth rates
equal to 8%, 6% or 4% might equate to an A+, B, or C- for one company,
while another company may establish growth rates of 20%, 15% and 10% to
represent A+, B, and B- results. Once you have established your grading
parameters, whatever they are, SouthWare consistently rates your
company’s performance. The report card screen is shown below:
SouthWare’s Report Card Screen
The following
screen shows the extensive controls which SouthWare provides over the
grading calculations and parameters which is an essential reason why
this tool is so useful.
SouthWare’s
Report Card Screen
Macros
SouthWare provides
macro capabilities that allow a user to record and playback macros to
repeat common or complex tasks. For example, a user might create a
simple macro to print the 26 month-end financial statements, journals
and reports desired by management. Thereafter the user need only play
back the macro each month in order to produce those same reports.
Accounting system macros are not only time savers for experienced users,
but they are also particularly useful to inexperienced users who need
guidance to operate the system. Several top accounting packages such as
Great
Plains and ACCPAC Advantage also provide macro capabilities, but
SouthWare goes a step further by allowing the user to schedule macros to
run at pre-defined times. For example, SouthWare could produce the
various sales reports needed each Monday at 8:00am in time for the
8:30am sales meeting. To record or playback a macro, the user need only
press the F4 key from any screen. Users can also schedule macros to play
a specified times - this feature is shown in the screen below:
SouthWare’s
Macro Scheduling Screen
TaskWise
SouthWare’s
TaskWise module is best described as a combination “CRM
Tool” and “Digital Dashboard” on steroids. It does not do the module
justice to call it just a CRM tool - it is much more than that. For
example, here is a partial listing of some of the features contained in
TaskWise that you won’t find in most CRM tools:
Prioritize and track all “To Do” tasks by company, department, and user
Track all
calls, meetings, and contacts
Track all
relationships (customer, vendor, employee, prospect, etc.)
Track
projects
Display
financial graphs
Display
digital dashboard
Warehouse
management
Review
sales status
Manage
service dispatch
The following
screens show some of the TaskWise functionality:
The financial
graphs screen (shown below) provides visual displays of your company’s
growth or decline in revenue, profits, inventory, and current assets. A
single click on any graph launches that graph in Microsoft Excel so that
further analysis or printing can be performed on the data.
SouthWare’s
Financial Graphs Screen
The warehouse
status page indicates the number of pending and completed orders, as
well as the amount of revenue booked today and accounts receivable
expected in the next 7 days. The user can also use this page to print
labels, inquire on inventories, and check the shipping status using the
UPS or FedEx tracking number on the built-in web browser window.
SouthWare’s
Warehouse Status Screen
The Accounting
Department view shown to the right displays a variety of summaries for
financial amounts such as sales, payables, receivables, and payroll.
Drill-down buttons allow the user to access the underlying details with
a single click.
SouthWare’s
Accounting Department Screen
The ExecuMate view
is just one click away from the Accounting Department view and it
provides even more details such as aging, history, profit margins, and
more.
SouthWare’s
ExecuMate II Module
This sales
information screen is ideally suited for use by the sales department,
from the sales manager down to the service dispatch call takers. Here
you can take orders, issue quotes, inquire about existing orders and
drill down into sale history.
SouthWare’s
Sales Info Screen
News Flash Reporter
SouthWare’s News
Flash Reporter provides a browser view for virtually any SouthWare data.
In the example screen shown below, the News Flash Reporter presents data
from the TaskWise module as well as alerts (shown in box on right) and
task status and summaries. The user need only "flag" a task as being
news worthy and it will automatically be displayed in the News Flash
Reporter.
SouthWare’s
News Flash Reporter Module
This same approach
can be used to display any data in SouthWare. For example, the screen
below shows data for a particular customer. This allows anybody in the
organization to access any data desirable via their browser - which
means that setting up and maintaining systems throughout your
organization is much easier.
Explorer View
With version 9.0,
SouthWare has added an improved data view similar to the explorer
functionality found in
Great Plains
and MAS 90. This new data view is available throughout the system in
lieu of look up fields, and it provides a clean graphical view of all
data in SouthWare. Icons allow the user to display records a page at a
time, or a complete list of all records. The resulting data may be
sorted by any column with the click of a button, columns may be
repositions via drag and drop, and all data can be exported to Microsoft
Excel by clicking on the Excel icon button.
SouthWare’s
Explorer View Screen
Selecting a record
in this explorer-style look up window also displays more details about
that particular record, as shown below:
This data view may
also be altered by adding other data fields to the view, or by grouping
the data by category as shown below:
Map
Point Integration
Version 9.0
integrates SouthWare's customer data with Microsoft Map Point - an
add-on tool that provides a database of every street, hotel, bank,
restaurant, museum, etc in the
United States, and
throughout the world. Map Point updates itself on line and SouthWare
customers can use Map Point to plan driving routes, obtain directions,
plan where to stay and where to eat on the road, etc. Map Point also
contains the United State census data allowing users to overlay the
resulting maps with critical population data such as average household
income, age, etc.
Customization
Here at ASA
research, we are strong advocates of the ability to easily customize an
accounting system; in fact we think that this is the most important
functionality to look for when evaluating an accounting system. Our
reasoning is that there is no way for an accounting software vendor to
provide every conceivable data field and feature a specific company
might want, and those that try only end up producing bloated software
that is too difficult and cumbersome to use. Today’s best products
strive to provide solid core accounting features and functionality,
along with easy to use tools that allow the company to customize the
product to their particular needs. SouthWare follows this philosophy and
Excellence Series delivers. The Extended Data and WorkFlow module allows
users to add new data fields to files and change the flow of data within
the program without being locked by custom programming. Your customized
changes will continue to work automatically even as you upgrade the core
SouthWare product to new versions.
The Extended Data
module is fairly simple to use, you certainly don’t have to be a
programmer to add simple enhancements to the system. With this tool you
can add new data fields that become part of the normal entry and
reporting for your system. For more advanced needs, you can also use
Extended Data to create stand-alone databases. For example, a boat
marina owner might use a separate database to keep track of all docks,
slips, or boats for rent. As you add extra data fields, you can also
print these fields on invoices, purchase orders (POs), picking tickets,
and service orders, etc. You could also create your own prompts and
defaults, or add new ways to search through your master data files.
The Extended Data
module does not allow for full program development – there are
limitations to the amount of customization that can be performed.
However, these limitations are considered to be far beyond the levels of
customization most normal companies would experience. For example,
Extended Data allows you to add fields to more than 20 different master
files, with up to 26 fields per file. You can link up to 20 additional
screens for a maximum of 546 new fields per file. You can also add
fields to more than 20 different transaction files, with up to 15 fields
per file. Thereafter you can link up to 20 additional screens for a
maximum of 315 new fields per file. Added fields can accommodate manual
or automatic entry, user-defined names, prompts, and defaults. Data for
a field can be validated against your existing data files (ie: customer
names), or a list of valid values. You can create up to 8 new search
fields per file (new fields are automatically integrated into the
standard search feature.)
New fields created
with Extended Data are automatically accessible with ImportMate™ and
ReportMate™ and WorkFlow. Some example uses for Extended Data include,
Adding alternate phone numbers to the customer file; Adding additional
description fields to the inventory stock file; Add more shipping and
credit information about your vendors; Add more reference dates to
customer equipment records; Add a “Date Inactivated” and “Reason Codes”
to G/L Accounts.
Modules
All together,
SouthWare Excellence Series offers 36 separate modules. These modules
and selected key benefits for each module are summarized below.
1. Accounts Receivable Invoicing Adapter
- Maintain
detailed invoice histories, supports service codes, returns, price
adjustments, retainage, credit limit checking, unlimited lines of text
on the invoice, miscellaneous charges, added fields, invoice notes, and
end of day sales register.
2. Accounts
Payable
- Maintains 5 years of history for each vendor, supports multiple
discounts, one-time vendors, payments on hold, customer refunds, check
voiding, 1099 forms, and recurring transactions.
3. Accounts
Receivable
- Maintain 5 years of history for each customer, supports customer
notes, invoice notes, added fields, multiple bill-to and ship-to
addresses, open item or balance forward invoicing, commissions based on
profit, automatic late fees, reprinting of invoices and vendor refunds.
4. AcuODBC Vision
Driver & AcuXFD Technology
- ODBC Connectivity provides the ability to export data to ODBC
compliant applications such as Microsoft Excel.
5. Assembly Work
Orders
- Component features include tracking number, multi-location, conversion
U/M, Fixed or Variable quantity, Confirmation option, W/O Effective
Date; Up to 9999 components per assembly ; creates a stock item from
multiple stock items - components can be sub-assembled for multi-level
assembly.
6. Cash Flow
- Reconciliation report; unlimited number of bank accounts; check number
audit report.
7. Collections
Adapter
- Manage collections by scheduling collection calls and entering
collection call information. Supports automatic selection of customers
who need a call, review previous calls, record who you talked to and
what they promised, call date and promised date tracking, and zoom into
the details of any invoice.
8. Contract
Management
- Contract assigned to service location, territory, and route sequence;
handles contracts based on meter usage; create proposals / turn into
contracts; generate scheduled service orders.
9. Database
Director™
- Store or replicate your data in MS-SQL, Oracle, Informix, ISAM,
Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and Sybase (for history files), Btrieve, C-ISAM,
generic ODBC.
10. DocTransfer™
- Directly exchange documents with customers and vendors who also use
the SouthWare Excellence Series™. Exchange EDI documents with customers
and vendors.
11. Equipment
Servicing
- Track by serial #, tag #, or system; specific warranty dates based on
model; loan, rent, out-of-service indicator; up to 10 schedules per
equipment model; based on time elapsed or metered usage.
12. ExcelReport™
- The ExcelReport allows you to produce a report card summarizing six
success factors; trend analysis, GPA analysis using an A-B-C-D-E-F
grading scale.
13. ExecuMate II™
- ExecuMate provides a window into the financial health and activity of
your business and includes a summary of the following data: company
totals or profit center detail; cash and aging totals; trigger “Alert”
warnings; financial statement totals current balance; cash worksheet;
last 10 weeks actual cash flows; next 10 weeks projected cash flows;
actual trends; A/R and A/P aging; today’s sales; activity statistics per
day, week, month, etc.; trigger “Alerts” for G/L accounts or financial
ratios.
14. Extended Data™
- Add new data fields to standard files. Create your own prompts and
defaults, add new search keys.
15. Fixed Assets
- Tracking, valuing, and depreciating your assets. Supports 15 character
asset ID numbers, property tax report locations, cost basis, salvage
values, replace costs, insurance coverage amounts, usage, owned, leased,
or borrowed indicators, straight-line, declining balance, usage-based,
sum-of-the-years digits, statutory, ACE, and non-depreciable, and
partial period conventions.
16. General Ledger
- 16 column reporting, source and use of funds report, cash flow in
compliance with FASB 95, multi-company consolidation, 4 segment account
numbers, 5 year comparisons, and on-screen zoom to detailed
transactions.
17. ImportMate II™
- ImportMate II is an add-on module you can use to automatically input
data into selected Excellence Series files. ImportMate II prompts you
for all the information it needs and checks to make sure that the data
you are bringing in is valid.
18. International
Transactions™
- Record, track, and report multi-currency transactions involving
international trading partners. Features include unrecognized gain/loss
report, history of gain/loss report toggle display between natural
currency and base currency (dollars)
19. Inventory
Control
- Comprehensive line of modules for your inventory-related operations.
Sophisticated Inventory Control includes tracking numbers
(serial/lot/etc.), various costing methods, multi-location flexibility
and many related capabilities to help you manage inventory levels and
information. Purchasing features help you buy what you need, when you
need it, and at the right price. You can track the assembly of items
from inventory, returns to vendors and returns from customers. Sales
options include Point of Sale, Order Entry (and related shipping
processes) and Rentals. Plus, powerful management tools ensure that you
always know where you stand in reaching your goals for profitability and
service.
20. Job Cost
- Completed contract or percentage complete; copy function to quickly
duplicate a job; AIA Invoicing option; subcontractor retainage; change
order; overhead allocation; and up to four breakdowns such as phase and
cost category.
21. Order Entry
- Customize the keystrokes and security features per operator ; text and
notes for the order ; special purchase, drop ship, and handle as
surplus; backorder, substitute and cancel options; sell from multiple
locations on an invoice.
22. Payroll
- Distribute salary to multiple G/L accounts ; employee notes; added
fields; pre-check authorization report; direct deposit; retirement,
review, leave reports; 401-K, cafeteria plans, and garnishments.
23. Point of Sale
- Numerous pricing options; serial, lot, or other tracking numbers;
option to display suggested related items; allows miscellaneous add-on
charges; calculates proper sales tax; any combination of cash, check,
credit card, or on account payment; calculates change due; optional
interface to electronic cash drawer.
24. Purchasing
- Suggested order quantity based on EOQ, movement class, quantity
discounts, prior usage, min/max; safety stock - fixed or based on usage;
option to “freeze” order controls for items; Info about out of stock
situations; seasonal indicator and movement class generates POs for
stock based on current item status and order controls replenishment,
expedite, exceptions, review cycle, scheduled receipts, vendor
performance, and other reports.
25. Rental
Department
- Ideal solution for the business that both rents and sells items;
multi-location option, base rate for rental table, serial number
tracking option, Cost/Value/Price info; other info such as bin location,
turnaround requirements; rentals, sales, and service in single
transaction; option to sell or exchange rental items; grace period,
cutoff times and weekend pricing; security deposits.
26. ReportMate™
- Access the data in any major file in SouthWare and produce a report.
Relationships between files are already set up; test a field to be less
than, greater than, equal to, not equal to, greater than or equal to,
less than or equal to, or match on masking characters ; report formats
include printer, screen, or file, HTML file, browser table, DIF,
delimited, merge file, XML data, fixed-position or fixed-length text, a
file to use with ImportMate, as ExecuMate II statistics; “WYSIWYG” entry
lets you see and edit what the report will look like, up to 264 columns
per line.
27. Return
Authorizations
- Lets you manage your inventory in conjunction with items being
returned from customers and items being returned to vendors; Tracks
item/serial#/equipment info; estimated cost; return status info.
28. SalesMark®
- Integrated contact management system 36 user-defined record types;
multi-screens per record; up to 10 search fields per record; client data
linked to A/R customer; territory masking; conversation records; hot
keys; history of letters, literature; mailing lists and labels ;
automatic phone dialing; data import to create prospect records from
purchased databases; create selective call campaigns.
29. Service
Invoicing
- System for service businesses that handles credits, special orders,
pricing adjustments, and payments on account credit limit checking;
generate invoices from contracts, service orders, equipment service
pricing.
30. Service Orders
- Option for multiple service locations problem description, problem
codes, estimates, comments, and actions taken, track dates and times for
each step; option to service multiple equipment on one service order,
multiple technicians per service order; display service orders to be
dispatched along with a list of possible technicians; check technician
skills, territory, priority.
31. Shipping
Interface
- Send order-related information to and from a third-party shipping
software package; interface to/from StarShip™ (by V-Technologies);
interface to/from Clippership™ (distributed by Evcor); open interface
can be utilized by other shipping software that supports ASCII file
transfer/polling.
32. SouthWare
NetLink™
- Provide partners controlled browser-based access via the Internet to
review and update your business data. Valid requestor logins; security
masking per requestor and request.
33. SouthWare Thin
Client
- Provides graphic interface via UNIX or LINUX servers. Faster and
easier to set up and administer. Performs faster, even on slower
computer workstations. Results in tighter security. Reduces network
traffic. Reduces total cost of the system.
34. SouthWare
WorkFlow™
- Create customized program changes for your needs while remaining
compatible with the standard version.
35. SwiftMate™
- SwiftMate is SouthWare's system manager module which allows users to
configure menus, security, styles, hardware, etc. SwiftMate keeps track
of who's logged into the system and what they are doing. It can send
e-mails between users. SwiftMate enables you to program new features
with Objects, Field-Level Objects, and Field Filters. You can also
create "Zoom Views" to provide unique summaries of your data.
36. TaskWise®
- Combines the functions of task management, relationship management,
exception management, and information sharing into a single company-wide
system. Tracks contacts, opportunities, prospects, alerts, financial
graphs, trends, tasks, etc.
SouthWare’s Technology
SouthWare was
originally written in the Cobol programming language – the most widely
used programming language in the world. Some consultants and pundits
consider the Cobol program language to be antiquated; however, this is a
myopic view. All programming languages today are descendants from older,
obsolete programming languages. Cobol is no different. Improvements to
Cobol in recent years has kept this popular language competitive with
other comparable languages such as Visual Basic, C, or C++. Several
years ago, SouthWare recompiled their product using a San Diego,
California-based version of Cobol called AccuCobol. The result was to
reproduce the entire SouthWare product into a 32-bit, windows-based
product. This is similar to what Best Software did years ago when they
used ProvideX technology out of
Canada
to recompile MAS 90 from a 16-bit DOS-based product into a 32-bit
windows-based product. In both cases, these accounting system’s
well-proven business logic remained primarily unchanged while the
underlying technology was brought up to date. Once converted, the
programmers at Best Software then re-worked their user screens to
ultimately give the product a fresher windows-based “look and feel”. The
programmers at SouthWare made different decisions and reworked their
user screens in such a way as to allow their product to continue to run
on dumb terminals and monochrome monitors. They did this because a
large percentage of their customer base had older dumb terminals and
monochrome monitors. As an act of loyalty to their existing customers,
SouthWare’s management decided not to force their users to implement new
hardware to accommodate newer Windows-based screens. In 2003, SouthWare
made the decision to finally begin upgrading it’s look and feel and as a
result, SouthWare Excellence Series has received a fresh new look and
feel.
Most impressive is
the fact that SouthWare is a 32-bit application that will run on
virtually any database and any operating system platform in the world.
Virtually no other accounting software company can make this claim. As
examples, SouthWare has many customers running it’s products on the
following databases: MS-SQL, Oracle, Informix, ISAM, Microsoft SQL
Server, Oracle and Sybase (for history files), Btrieve, C-ISAM, or any
generic ODBC database. SouthWare Excellence Series also runs on
virtually any operating system or platform such as UNIX, Linux, Windows,
DOS, and even OS/400. This is a strong capability that should not be
ignored when evaluating a product’s technology. All things being equal,
I think that most people would prefer a product that provided such
options. There is more to a product’s technology than just looks. Up
until this year, SouthWare could be compared to a solid, dependable
Cadillac that runs great and simply needs a new paint job – a good,
dependable product underneath its’ rustic exterior. Now that SouthWare
has updated the product’s look and feel, the product essentially leap
frogs up to a top ten product by any account. The products’ respectable
track record, stability, proven value, 6,000 customers, wide breath of
modules, deep features, good customization, profitable company, and good
future outlook make SouthWare a viable option for almost any company.
SouthWare’s Legacy Hardware Benefits
Because SouthWare
will run on legacy hardware systems, including dumb terminals and
monochrome monitors, this makes SouthWare is less expensive to implement
and maintain. This is because users do not necessarily need to purchase
new hardware when implementing SouthWare. Often, on going maintenance is
less expensive as well. Additionally, because SouthWare can operate in
virtually any environment and atop virtually any database, companies are
able to pick and deploy the platforms and database solutions that best
match their budget, needs, and personnel skills. This also means that
users may be better able to utilize legacy operating systems and
database applications. These factors allow companies to better stretch
the useful lives of their prior technology investments. It should be
pointed out that in many cases, newer, faster computers can offer
improved time savings significant enough to pay for themselves – the
reader should also take this into consideration.
Solid Product Code
SouthWare enjoys a
reputation for producing good solid code with fewer bugs. SouthWare’s
product maturity, larger customer base, and positive feedback from
customers, resellers, and the CPA community support the premise that
SouthWare deserves recognition as a top product. To keep a product
stable and relatively bug free requires a consistent effort on the part
of the publisher. Great Plains is legendary for compiling and testing
its product nightly using 700 computers and 3,200 macros to produce
174,000+ reports that are electronically checked each day. There is no
doubt that Great Plains sets the standard in this area. However many
publishers seem to do very little to root out bugs and problems within
the software – but not SouthWare. In SouthWare’s case, formal
procedures are in place address this important issue. Specifically, the
SouthWare code is compiled each week and programmers gather together
each Monday to review the product testing results and bug reports
received from dealers and end users. All bugs are documented and efforts
are made to recreate the bug issue in house. Once identified the
software bugs, if any, are prioritized and efforts are begun to solve
these problems. As bug issues are resolved, SouthWare posts the bug
fixes to their dealer web site and notifies all dealers accordingly. I
am told by SouthWare’s management that some weeks there are no bugs
identified and that in other weeks all bugs that are identified are
typically resolved within 8 hours. It should be noted that software bugs
are common place for every company – even Microsoft admitted years ago
that there were more than 60,000 known bugs in Windows NT. With extreme
stories like these it is easy to understand the importance of a
consistent approach to identifying and handling these pesky problems.
SouthWare Excellence Series Pricing
Comparing the
prices of accounting software can be confusing, especially for SouthWare
because the company does not release retail product pricing. We do know
that SouthWare’s pricing is graduated based on the size of the company
and number of concurrent users. The table below includes typical pricing
for SouthWare, although the actual pricing you find may be higher than
the amounts reported below. For pricing purposes, we compiled pricing
for some of the top accounting software products for eight core modules
(general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll,
inventory, order entry, job costing, and system manager) for 1 user, 5
users, 10 users, 25 users, and 100 users. In almost every column,
SouthWare Excellence Series is the lowest priced product, despite having
more features than many of the other products included in this listing.
|
Product Name |
1 User |
5 Users |
10 Users |
25 Users |
100 Users |
|
AccountMate
LAN5.0
AccountMate SQL Server or AS 400 |
$10,955
$13,950 |
$10,995
$13,950 |
$13,445
$18,925 |
N/A
$35,925 |
N/A
$110,850 |
|
ACCPAC
Advantage Series Corp (Pervasive)
ACCPAC Advantage Corp (SQL Server) |
$16,500
$24,000 |
$21,500
$34,000 |
$26,500
$44,000 |
$41,500
$74,000 |
$116,000
$224,000 |
|
ACCPAC Pro
Series |
$9,600 |
$12,600 |
$15,600 |
$24,600 |
$69,600 |
|
Axapta |
$40,041 |
$48,441 |
$58,941 |
$90,441 |
$234,441 |
|
Epicor |
N?A |
$85,000 |
$94,500 |
$120,000 |
$225,000 |
|
Great Plains |
$20,000 |
$28,000 |
$38,000 |
$65,500 |
$198,000 |
|
Macola
Progression |
$12,550 |
$13,250 |
$15,950 |
$28,050 |
$80,874 |
|
MAS 90
|
$10,775 |
$14,375 |
$16,375 |
$22,375 |
N/A |
|
MAS 200 |
N/A |
$18,500 |
$23,500 |
$37,500 |
$88,500 |
|
Navision (MDE
Database)
Navision |
$9,100
$13,000 |
$13,300
$19,000 |
$22,400
$32,000 |
N/A
$53,000 |
N/A
$160,000 |
|
Platinum for
Windows |
$14,960 |
$17,455 |
$19,950 |
$32,425 |
$94,800 |
|
Solomon |
$9,300 |
$13,500 |
$17,400 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
SouthWare
(mid-range databases)
SouthWare (high-end databases) |
$7,360
$11,780 |
$11,200
$17,920 |
$13,840
$22,144 |
$21,120
$33,800 |
$49,980
$79,970 |
|
SYSPRO
|
$14,880 |
$22,290 |
$27,860 |
$50,010 |
$124,600 |
|
Traverse
(Access database)
Traverse (SQL Server) |
$12,000
$20,000 |
$13,600
$23,300 |
$15,600
$27,200 |
$21,600
$29,200 |
$51,600
$99,200 |
Navigation
It is always
revealing to explore a product’s navigation. Most accounting software
packages have 6,000 to 10,000 user screens and SouthWare is believed to
fall within this range. With so many screens, getting around efficiently
becomes an important issue. In SouthWare’s case, there are numerous ways
to navigate the system. The most obvious method is to use the main menu
which cascades down into more detailed menus – this option works quite
well.
SouthWare’s Main
Menu Screen
One complaint that
I have with SouthWare is that the escape key does not continually return
to the previous menu or screen. Instead, SouthWare require
