AccountMate provides a comprehensive modular system that can be configured to almost any business; though users will need to select modules carefully to avoid inflating the price.
Founded in 1984, AccountMate was one of the first PC software vendors to adopt a client/server approach, partnering with IBM to use IBM’s minicomputers as the server. Today, you can purchase AccountMate (which begins at $3,125 per user for an on-site installation) ; however, like most of the other small to midsize enterprise (SME) general ledger applications reviewed here, it’s sold only through its solutions provider channel. This means you’ll be dealing with a partner, not the software company, and that will certainly affect the final price.
The AccountMate system is completely modular, consisting of a mandatory System Manager component followed by a selection of other modules aimed at specific business types or processes, each of which can be configured to a user’s requirements. With the necessary customization and tweaking, this results in a more or less custom solution. Overall, it’s a solid system that will be attractive to many. But some shortfalls in reporting and a design that isn’t as intuitive as others in this category keep it just slightly behind Acumatica and NetSuite OneWorld, our Editors’ Choice winner in this space.
Unlike most of the small to midsize enterprise (SME) -oriented apps I reviewed for this roundup, AccountMate’s launch screen is rather barren. Most of the other vendors’ accounting systems launch with a screen full of widgets or at least a process flowchart for navigation. AccountMate’s opening screen is rather sparse by comparison, providing mostly empty space, two ribbon bars on the top of the screen, and a vertical panel on the edge.
That doesn’t mean AccountMate doesn’t have the same functionality as other accounting products in its class, only that they aren’t as intuitive at first glance. For example, while many other apps put key performance indicators (KPIs) on the launch page in the form of widgets, AccountMate provides an Executive Summary, with these accessible through the System Toolbar which is at the top of the screen underneath the main ribbon bar. This main ribbon provides access to Transactions, Reports, Maintenance, Housekeeping, and Utilities. Clicking one of these choices replaces the main toolbar with one appropriate to the choice. Not intuitive at the get-go, but go through it once or twice and you’ll remember how to use it.
The vertical panel on the left-hand side of the screen contains a list of installed modules, shortcuts for both the individual using the system and those applicable to a group of users (such as Accounts Payable staff) , and other documents, programs, and websites to which you want easy access. Shortcuts bring you to specific tasks, but they have to be constructed by your system administrator or whichever solutions provider deployed the software. There aren’t any templates provided but, once you have a shortcut set up, you can copy it and modify it into another shortcut.
AccountMate doesn’t use task or process flowcharts, but these are actually illustrated in some of the extensive instructional videos that make up the help system. Also included in the Help system is complete documentation for the apps, a Getting Started guide, and context-sensitive Help function.
I didn’t see a lot of graphic options in my testing. Most graphics are in the Maintenance sections of different modules under the Analysis tab. But this is offset by the ability to easily transfer report data into a variety of output formats including Microsoft Excel, which has excellent graphing and charting capabilities or, optionally, to F9 Report Manager, which also provides significant graphing and charting offerings.
One feature that will prove useful to almost every user is AccountMate’s drilldown capabilities. From a financial statement or many reports, it’s possible to drill down from the report all the way to the original transaction. AccountMate allows multiple screens to be open at the same time and these screens can be from different modules. To make multiple screens more readable, you can tile them.
And for companies that are subject to audits, there’s an Audit Trail Report that traces transactions back into the database. You set up which fields you want to track and AccountMate records access and change data. This is a feature your auditor will really appreciate, and is a strong factor for internal control and regulatory compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Many of the SME accounting systems I reviewed offer multi-currency options. AccountMate does as well and, additionally, the Chart of Accounts makes it easy to set up multiple companies. There’s a radio button when you set up an account that asks if the account is for the parent company of a subsidiary (or if you aren’t consolidating companies, a third choice) . Multi-company consolidation requires the optional Consolidated Ledger module.
AccountMate claims to have several hundred reports. That may be true if you are running every single module that’s available, but there are significantly fewer in just the System Manager and General Ledger modules. That being said, the reports that are present are ones you’ll find useful. I also found report setup to be easier than many of the other vendors’ offerings, with simple radio buttons to select features such as comparative reports.
Two things should be noted when discussing AccountMate’s reporting capabilities. The first is, you can choose between Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) . Several of the SME accounting packages I tested offer this as well, and it’s a critical feature if you run a multi-national business since the financial report formats are different in countries other than the US.
One report I missed was a Working Trial Balance, which is very useful during period closings. But AccountMate has extensive export capabilities (and import capabilities as well) , so it’s little trouble to export the available Trial Balance data into Microsoft Excel and add a couple of columns to allow working with adjusting and closing entries. And with the administrator tools, I found it wasn’t hard to create a simple ad hoc report.
The second notable feature is that AccountMate provides the source code to generate all of its reports. Other source code modules may be purchased, but included in the initial purchase are the RPT and PRG files for those modules. AccountMate includes utilities that provide a fair bit of tweaking on the reports without having to dive into the code. But, if you or your solutions provider have the programming expertise, you can build any report you might need or do extensive customization of the bundled reports.
Aside from a strong general ledger (G/L) feature set, AccountMate is also a full-fledged enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. As with some of the other completely modular systems reviewed here, such as Acumatica, AccountMate tends to be skewed somewhat towards a specific type of corporate entity. In this case, the selection of modules makes AccountMate a strong choice for manufacturing companies due to the availability of several modules, which extend inventory as well as strong financial modules for the procurement and distribution process (i.e., Sales and Purchase Order processing) .
Another area in which AccountMate is strong is in analysis and reporting. On a macro scale, the AccountMate Business Alerts, powered by its Info-Alert modules, let you set parameters for data conditions where you want staff to be notified if a designated level is exceeded. These conditions might be something like a customer has exceed their credit limit or perhaps certain purchase orders have not been filled by a promised due date. Some of these functions will be found in this and other vendors’ separate Sales Order modules, but Business Alerts lets you set these conditions on a macro level for the entire company. You can also specify actions that will be automatically taken when a condition is detected, such as sending out a payment reminder when a credit limit situation occurs.
As mentioned, AccountMate provides Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in its Executive Summary section. If you need more detailed analysis and graphic capability, you can purchase the AccountMate Business Analysis Powered by F9 or the Business Intelligence Module. F9 makes it easy to create complex analytical spreadsheets from the data contained in AccountMate’s database, with a Report Wizard that walks you through the process. And the Business Intelligence (BI) module expands the number and types of reports for sales, customers, vendors, and other areas as well, allowing you to create custom dashboards that might be missing from the base modules.
AccountMate’s basic inventory management capabilities can be upgraded via its modular architecture. This lets customers add additional inventory-enhancing modules with more capabilities and features. These additional modules include Customer Inventory Manager, which lets you manage your inventory items by using the customers’ item and part numbers. Then there’s Inventory Specification, which lets you categorize your inventory according to characteristics such as color, size, texture, and weight as it tracks costs and quantity by that specification. Finally, there’s a kitting module that expands the Bill of Materials (BoM) capabilities so they let you group items and create a higher-order group that’s used as an item in the BoM. Other optional and inventory-related modules include a Manufacturing module that provides an enhanced manufacturing BoM, and a Materials Resource Planning (MRP) module that’s functional but not quite as comprehensive some of the MRP modules of other vendors, especially Acumatica and Syspro. The test system provided for me for review had all of the above modules.
Unfortunately, the way that AccountMate has organized its features in these various inventory modules probably won’t save you any money. If you’re running anything other than a very basic Inventory, then you’re going to need to purchase pretty much all of the above additional inventory-related modules to upgrade to a more fully functional system.
