Brief Discussion about
Customization Capabilities
In the 1980s, the most successful
accounting software developers allowed users to modify their
products' source codes—the underlying programming that could be
altered only with the vendor's permission—and even then only a
programmer with knowledge of the product could modify the source
codes to add fields, calculations and capabilities to the product.
Many users accepted vendors'
invitations to modify the software. But they soon discovered
modification was a very expensive and complicated job, involving
months of programming. Worse, while such efforts were successful for
many customers, others were left in chaos when the modifications
didn't work properly, leaving their financial recording and
reporting tools inoperative or badly compromised.
Source code modification had an
even graver drawback. Once a code was changed—even slightly—the
product no longer could be upgraded without losing those
modifications. So the product's users faced a no-win choice: If they
wanted to upgrade, they had to forgo all the modifications that had
made the product fit their specific needs. The vendors also were
unhappy: They couldn't generate new revenue because, after spending
a fortune modifying a product, users generally opted to stick with
the old version rather than risking—and financing—a second source
code modification.
A further complication was the
fierce competition among vendors to add as many features to their
software as possible on the theory that, if they didn't, their
products wouldn't rate well against the competition in the
comparison reviews featured in many professional magazines and trade
journals. And as more features were added, the software became more
difficult to use.
Today, most of the leading
accounting software products offer a good alternative to source code
modification. Instead of changing the underlying codes, the
developers now develop their products with built-in customizing
tools that are easy to use. For example, many of today's products
provide user-definable fields — those that aren't earmarked for any
particular function but that allow customers to attach their own
custom functions and labels to them. Thus, users can create special
fields to accommodate additional information for customers, vendors,
employees, inventory items and jobs. User-definable fields now are
found in accounting software packages of all price ranges including
the economy-priced Peachtree Complete Accounting for Windows, the
mid-priced TRAVERSE and the higher-priced Great Plains eEnterprise.
There are many levels of
customization as follows:
Financial reports.
The most commonplace customization capability is the ability to
create new financial statements or edit existing formats. Some
products also allow users to change fonts, add lines and even insert
a company logo. However, although such customization is widely
available in today's top packages, some products still can't produce
custom-tailored financial statement.
Forms. With this
feature, a user can tailor a program's forms formats, adding or
rearranging information on payroll checks, invoices and packing
slips. For example, a user might want to continue using old
preprinted checks or invoices even though the company has just
upgraded to a different accounting system. This customization
feature allows the user to adjust the printing to fit the old
design.
Input screens.
This lets the user customize input screens—a feature that many
leading vendors have added in the last few years—so fields can be
added to track additional data about a customer, an inventory item
or a job. Users typically can rename, rearrange and even hide
existing fields. More sophisticated customization tools allow the
user to validate data entered into the system, force (override) data
and even calculate data based on other information entered elsewhere
in the system. Other sophisticated features include the ability to
set the tab order of user fields, insert drop-down boxes (menus) and
embed third-party software applications that will appear on the
input screen.
Source code. In
many cases, it's possible to purchase the rights to modify the
product's source code. While this isn't as necessary today as it
once was, some companies have unique needs that require it.
Some accounting products allow
users to implement customizations for just one user, a specific
group, or all users. Others provide the customization tools as part
of the standard product or they sell special software tools for that
purpose. Still others discourage users from customizing their
software, leaving that to their value-added resellers (VARs). For
example, Microsoft's Solomon IV provides extensive customization
tools for users while ACCPAC Professional Series provides its VARs
with a customization tool kit designed to help them implement custom
changes for their customers.
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