Accounting has Changed

How has accounting changed over the last 25 years? When I started studying accounting in 1980 there was no accounting software available. I remember using columned green paper doing accounting problems and doing multiple transactions to cover it all. I would use T-accounts when figuring accounting issues. When spreadsheet software first came out (I think it was called Lotus 1-2-3) I remember asking a teacher if he thought it would change accounting. His answer was he didn’t think it would change anything. When Lotus 1-2-3- came out it was fantastic. It allowed the creation of financial statements so easily instead of using typing up on an 8x11 piece of paper, with correction fluid nearby. I would have to use charts created by the printing department for meetings instead of creating my own in PowerPoint presentation and I can import from other sources in doing it.

I remember when I went to work for a company that used an in-house accounting package. It allowed me to enter a transaction for both sales and accounts receivable in the same. Today the accounting packages available are so amazing. I use Microsoft Dynamics GP at work. GP is an Enterprise Resource Planning software package that allows me to track accounting, projects, human resources, etc. I can do payables, receivables, and general ledger. I can track fixed assets like never before. I don’t need to track these items within a spreadsheet anymore. I enter a payables transactions and it hits the general ledger, payables, vendor account all at one time. I can create projects that allow the tracking of costs and revenue from a particular customer. Today, because of software I can do more than twice what I once was able to do.