Accounting Software Spotlight Workers

Question: Describe about the Accounting Software for Spotlight Workers. Answer: 1. a. Overview of the accounting software Cloud based Xero Xero is a New Zealand based software company that develops the accounting related software in order to maintain the accounting details properly in case of the medium and small sized business process (Al Dallal, 2013). The products of this company is based on the Software as Service (SaaS) model concerned with the cloud deployment models. The software provided by Xero accounting software helps to monitor all the accounting details as well records all the accounting details important for any business transaction or dealings (Brink and Lee, 2015). The SaaS model used by Xero is sold according to the subscriptions and it is entirely based on the type and number of the organizations are being managed by the subscribers. Xero has acquired numerous companies after it has been launched. In the year of 2011, July the company acquired the Australian Online Payroll provider Paycycle (Dallal, 2013). It is done as the payroll have the mixture of shares and cash, that was near about $1.9 billion. This acquisition allowed the Xero to make the integration possible between the Australian product offering and payrolls (Fanning, 2014). In contrast with this their next acquisition was in 2012 and the organization was Spotlight Workpapers. In addition to these acquisitions, the organization done more in that year, these were invoice management, job, time and other departmental acquisitions that were motivating their cash and share mixing protocols and in the year of 2011 Xero has covered the Australian market (Ghiorzy Varela Parente, 2012). b. Identification of functionality of Xero Following are the functionalities of the Xero in order to smoothen the accounting measures needed in small and mid-sized businesses: Maintenance of Cash flow: Easy online accounting can be experienced with the help of Xero. Xero provides automatic bank reconciliation, file storage, inventory management, multi-currency accounting and multi-application facilities (Humphrey and Beard, 2014). Invoicing: Xero provides online invoicing facility to their customers and users in order to make payments online with more ease of operation than previously (Krishnan and Wang, 2014). In addition to this, there are invoice reminders available in order to make the customers reminded about their payments in advance (Lin and Beck, 2012). Except these quotes can also be saved in order to maintain the work flows accurately. Payments: Purchase orders, billings and other claiming experiences can also be found in the Xero platform (Liu, 2012). This will assure the effectiveness of the accounting details management. Reports: Financial reporting, fixed assets and business performance can be measured with the help of the reporting details management facility provided by the Xero platform (Marek, 2013). Contacts: Complete scenario of the contacts of the individual users can be found in the Xero platform in order to view the customers and their activities (Mller, 2014). Security: Multi-layer security and two step authentication is provided by the Xero software in order to combat the data theft and other malfunctioning of data within the cloud base (Simon et al. 2015). Support: Free support to the user of Xero is provided to their users in order to provide the structured description of the software packages. Mobile: This software can be operated remotely as this is based on the cloud set up. This provides remote access (Sriwidharmanely and Syafrudin, 2012). c. Advantages and disadvantages of Xero Accounting software Xero Advantages Disadvantages Spontaneous and easier use: This software provides the easier and continuous use in case of managing accounting details for small, large and mid-sized business (Tanand Ferreira, 2012). The business owner feels comfortable with the providing of the Xero software. Expensive: The software is too much expensive in comparison with the manual accounting details management (Trianico Puspaningrum, 2014). Automated data entry: This software provides the capability of entering the data automatically (Yilmaz, 2015). The downloads and import facilities can be done easily in order to maintain the transactions and other actions needed for managing accounting details. True or false: The software cannot judge any situation if it is right or wrong (Yilmaz, 2015). Real time business management: This software make the monthly close- outs easy for the business owners, as they want their accounting software to run before closing (Ã… ½rov, 2013). Speed: It is a speedy application so some time it becomes difficult to understand the entries (Al Dallal, 2013). Real time advice: This software platform can provide the real time advice to their customers in order to maintain the accounting standards perfectly (Brink and Lee, 2015). Less control of data: This software provides less amount of control over the data entered (Dallal, 2013). 2. a. Identification of the role of accountant in acquisition process in Henson Henson Accounting Practice Role of an accountant is very important in case of acquisition process. These roles and responsibilities are elaborated bellow: Coordination: This aspect involves internal and external coordination perspectives within the business process (Fanning, 2014). Acquisitions going on within the organization needs to be managed by the organizational head or financial manager or accounting head. Internal coordination means merits of the transaction that is being processed by the organization or accounting software (Ghiorzy Varela Parente, 2012). Depending on the internal resources the accountant decides whether the coordination have t be focused on the internal resources or on external resources. These aspects are measured with respect to the targeted company or organizational demands (Humphrey and Beard, 2014). The external experts decides whether the financial details are measures with respect to the logical point of view. Financial analysis: Accountant has great responsibility in maintain the financial analysis in a correct way (Krishnan and Wang, 2014). This aspect involves the following aspects financial criteria or metrics and valuation. The financial metric helps to measure the critical input and other important aspects that are being introduced into the system. In addition to this, the valuation of accounting details should be judged in order to maintain the sustainable development in accounting details (Linand Beck, 2012). Financial analysis is one of the most effective aspects of any organization that must be maintained in a well manner by the accountants. Determination and deal structure: The accountant is responsible in maintaining the structured and optimal details about the accounting software and other accounting information (Liu, 2012). In addition to this, assets versus stock and earn outs should be maintained within the concerned scenario of accounting software and management of accounting details (Marek, 2013). Most of the invariable buyers are responsible in managing the specific details of tax, sales and other important aspects. This helps in finding the great role of accountant in solving many problems related to the accounting details. Due diligence: This is another responsibility of the accountant. This established the objectives of due diligence (Mller, 2014). This helps in managing processes and entirely based on the results. The following aspects are involved within this aspect: Establishment of due diligence objectives and management of due diligence process (Simon et al. 2015). These two have to be satisfied and also have to be maintained properly. In addition to this, there is another aspect that is important: reporting on results. These aspects make the critical things solved in accounting details (Sriwidharmanely and Syafrudin, 2012). Due diligence helps in monitoring the detailed information about the accounting details stored by the accounting software and other informative measures. b. Description of the acquisition of accountant Several contributions are being used in case of the accountants while managing the acquisition process. These are explained as follows: They should have the knowledge of financial analysis to ensure design making. Understanding of tax implementation is very important aspect to be known to the accountants. Proper understanding of the regulatory measures should be there within the accountants. Financial options should be known to the accountant in order to combat various critical conditions. Principles of the acquisitions should be known to the accountants The application of the important financial terms and other important aspect should be on first priority to the accountants Panning, coordination and execution must be there within the accounting process and it is the duty of the accountants to monitor these aspects. All of these above mentioned aspects helps in monitoring the roles and responsibility of the accountant in maintaining accounting details and other important things. 3. Ways to minimize the effectiveness of the security awareness training in Henson Henson Accounting Practice Xero is a cloud based accounting software. This introduces so many vulnerabilities within the operations (Tan and Ferreira, 2012). These vulnerabilities must be reduced in order to combat the chances of threats and other situations. These can be done with the help of the security awareness training programs that must be given to the accountants and Xero users. These are as follows: Phishing: Phishing is the term that is used in order to represent the form of social engineering. This form of social engineering acquires all the confidential and personal data that is shared by the user or other important elements of any organizations (Trianico Puspaningrum, 2014). Social engineering is one model that provides the interactive module that explains the method of scanning process and methods that helps to identify the facts and other details about the user data. In contrast with this aspect, the phishing is related to the misuse or theft of these data. Privileged access: The users of accounting software have the access to rights those are consider as the general user and are allowed to visit all the details about the software or its monitoring aspects (Yilmaz, 2015). The users on that level operate the administrative levels of tasks. These data are always the sensitive data in order to consider the value of these data. This includes the cardholder data (CHD). Social engineering: Social engineering is nothing but a form of database management with consideration of the social needs (Yilmaz, 2015). This engineering introduces the employees to the common methods are that are being used for the betterment of the software development. The social engineering can attack and provides threat to the user in case of the management of databases (Ã… ½rov, 2013). However, these aspects are harmful for the developmental perspective of accounting software. Data loss prevention scanning (DLP): A process of Data loss prevention scanning is known as the technique to prevent the leakage of the confidential data from the company environment (Al Dallal, 2013). This is very important in order to maintain the data loss from the company premises. The DLP technique is helping in combatting all the significant aspects that are being managed by the organization and secure the organizational data such as accounting details and other aspects that are being utilized in the confidential background of the organization (Brink and Lee, 2015). Exact data matching is identified with the help of the DLP technique. This ensures a systematic data loss prevention technique and guides the organization in combatting the threats and problems related to data loss. 4. Possible risks offshore outsourcing of various information systems functions Several aspects are being noted as the risk factors involved in outsourcing related to the accounting software. These risks are elaborated as follows: Inadequate infrastructure: Network management is one of the important aspects within the context of organizational development (Dallal, 2013). In case of the outsourcing properties inadequate network architecture will be responsible for the maintaining the infrastructure of the organization. The inadequate infrastructure provides bad influence to the system to be demolished (Fanning, 2014). The service persons should be responsible for the development of the each task and they must develop their responsibility according to the needs of infrastructure. The system should be designed in such a way that they have the optimized structure and manages all the details of the accounting vendors. Antiquated communication infrastructure: In case of the information system function, the communication is very important aspect that must be prioritized in order to maintain the structure of the organizational culture with respect to the outsourcing (Ghiorzy Varela Parente, 2012). There are specific services that have to be provided by the organization, these are traditional voice facility to the long distant users, facilities should be provided to the regional corporate sites in order to combat all the disorders related to the risk assessments. In addition to his, the public data networks must also be maintained in order to combat the threats and other threats affecting these networks (Humphrey and Beard, 2014). The regional cost will be reduced in this case as the issues are resolved. Operational risks: Any kind of technical task involves operational risks within the processes. Support to the organizational data can be diminished for operational risks. This manages the core business operational information that is very crucial for making the organizational data and information confidential (Krishnan and Wang, 2014). Typical task involves more risk factors within the context than the general cases. Database administration and other important aspect are hampered by this risk. Therefore, it is clear that the operational risks damages the entire system environment and other important aspects within the organization. Poorly designed development tools: Poorly designed development tools are harmful in case of the designing of the accounting software set up (Lin and Beck, 2012). These effects the contextual aspect related to the effectiveness of the accounting details of the organization. Each and every platform of business are hampered for this risk. 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