It is a common misconception that all accounting software aimed at small business is the same. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There are different products in the market to meet different business needs that all come at varying prices all with their own pros and cons. It is the purpose if this article to explain the different types of accounting software and to allow you to make an informed decision about what type of accounting software best suits your business.We will start by focussing on the term SME as we believe this best explains the three types of small business that exist – small, medium and enterprise. Whilst it is right to bracket all of these types of business together they all have very different characteristics and needs. As a result depending on which one of these brackets your business sits in will have different repercussions on your requirements from your accounting software.1) Small Business – are characterised as an SME business that has just starting out, freelancers or companies that have relatively small revenue lines into the business. Owners of these businesses are very focused on all capital expenditure and ensure that all spends are tangibly linked to driving growth within the business. Objectives at this stage are to achieve sustainable income lines into the business in order to stimulate growth within the business.2) Medium business – Slightly larger SME business that now have sustainable revenues and have achieved solid growth. It is likely that medium businesses have recruited some employees to facilitate the new level of work that has to be completed. Medium businesses are looking for increased structure from their financial management as well as a way of monitoring costs and expenses as employees in the business grow.3) Enterprise Business – This is the largest type of SME business. Businesses of this scale have tended to grow in size, stature and operational complexity. Department structures will have now taken place, business administration increased with human resource management becoming more prominent in the business. By having additional scale and complexity in the business there are increased requirements for support with driving process efficiency in both financial and operational management. The larger more complex accounting products cater for these demands at an additional premium.It is clear when looking at the above 3 types of business how it would be virtually impossible for a software company to make a generic small business accounting software system to cater for all budgets and needs. A small business would require a significantly less complex product than an enterprise small business. This may appear quite an obvious statement to make; however, there are many SME owners that still believe that if they purchase a generic product specialising in small business they will have a great product designed for their business. For this reason I wanted to be clear toward the two main types of accounting software that exists.1) Bookkeeping Software – Bookkeeping software packages perfect for a business that simply wants to manage their incomings and outgoings in an effective compliant manner. They enable an owner to input key information sources such as sales income, purchase expenses, cash and bank transactions. The accounting software takes these pieces of information and automates the double entry bookkeeping principles by producing simple accounts payable, accounts receivable and general ledger accounts. These basic accounting software features are more than enough for an SME owner to understand their financial position and complete end year reports.2) Sophisticated accounting software solutions – The enterprise small businesses are likely to want their accounting software to do more than simply work out their balance sheets. Because of the additional business complexity accounting software features such as fixed assets registers, inventory/stock control, job costing and payroll become appealing. All of these features allow an enterprise small business to manage their business more effectively by managing their assets, providing support on how to manage stock control and managing human resources effectively. These additional features enable an enterprise business to not only to manage their financial accounts but also to drive efficiency within the business.The medium small business sits in between these two types of accounting software. Choosing the right accounting software for a medium business completely depends on the businesses particular requirements of the business at the time of purchase. There are many accounting software products in the market that are aimed at the medium business market and all have pros and cons in terms of features. Some have a greater emphasis on HR related features some have greater financial forecasting and modeling capabilities. The only way to ensure that the right product is purchased is to go through a thorough exercise of mapping products to business requirements.Whatever the size of your business it is critical that you base any decision to buy accounting software on the particular requirements of your business. Don’t be swayed by brand or recommendations do a thorough requirements tracking exercise and use these requirements to guide whatever you decide to buy.

What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.

As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.

That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.

Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.

Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.

Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.

Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.

That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.

Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.

Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.

My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.

Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.

And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.

All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:

• Farm eggs

• Fresh vegetables

• Cow’s milk

• Freshly baked bread

• Coal for our open fires

Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.

Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.

Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.

Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.

My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.

The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.

Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.

Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.

People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.

In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.

Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.

• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.

• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.

• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.

On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.

Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.

We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.

Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.

My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.