Time Sharing Makes a Comeback
It was common 30 years ago for businesses to rely on time-sharing services to handle accounting, payroll, general ledger and other financial tasks. That meant renting time on a big mainframe computer. If you had any type of computing device in your office, it was a “dumb terminal” that simply connected to the host computer, which did all the work.
But then the PC revolution hit, and software companies such as Peachtree and Intuit started offering full-featured small-business accounting systems that you could use in the privacy of your own office.
Well, it’s back to the future. Thanks to the Internet, time sharing is alive and well. Instead of buying your accounting software, you can rent it by the month at NetLedger.com’s site.
Unlike regular personal computer software, you don’t have to be sitting in front of a specific PC to use it. You can access the service from any Web-connected device by going to the company’s Web site at https://www.netledger.com.
I tried using NetLedger’s service and, despite frustrating waits for the Internet to respond to my commands, I found it comprehensive and easy to use.
Recently upgraded to version 5.1, the service has the basic features you’ll find in most shrink-wrapped small-business accounting packages, including general ledger, check writing, bank reconciliation, budgeting, accounts receivable and payable, estimates, sales orders, invoicing, inventory, job/project tracking, expense reporting, purchase orders and time and billing. New on the service is the employee purchase requisition, the ability to manage and consolidate accounting from more than one company and online commerce.
The newest version also has optional online bill paying through a partnership with Paytrust (https://www.paytrust.com), but it doesn’t include bill presentment. With Paytrust’s standard service, you can see your bills online, eliminating the need to deal with paper bills.
The integrated online commerce service allows users to create an online store so customers can shop on the Internet to extend the reach of their businesses. Because it’s integrated into NetLedger’s accounting system, all store transactions feed into the service’s sales order feature.
The service has two major advantages over standard accounting software. First, you can access it any time from any Web-enabled device. It’s perfect if you work from home or travel a lot because you don’t need to keep your accounting software and data with you. You don’t even need to carry a laptop as long as you can get access to the Internet from your home PC, a library, a colleague’s office or an Internet cafe, for example.
The second advantage is that you don’t have to install, configure and update your software. All you have to do is log on and use it. Keeping software installed and up-to-date can be a major headache for a small business. You also don’t have to buy new versions of the software. Updates are included in the monthly service fee.
Another advantage to NetLedger is that you don’t have to worry about backing up your data. The company handles that for you with systems that, in theory at least, are far more secure and reliable than what you can do with a PC and backup tapes or disks.
For me, the big disadvantage of using the service is the speed. My office has a fast “persistent” connection to the Internet, yet there were times when I had to wait nearly a minute to save data and move on to another screen. It can be even slower if you dial in through a standard modem. PC-based accounting programs such as Quickbooks are faster. You can enter data, generate a report and move on to another task within a few seconds.
I have to give NetLedger credit for ease of use, though. I’m not particularly adept when it comes to accounting software, but I was able to set up accounts and establish a dummy payroll by following prompts on the screen. Regardless of whether you use shrink-wrapped software or a Web-based service, it takes research and time to enter your company data.
The user interface involves selecting from seven tabs across the top of the screen: start-up, home, transactions, reporting, lists, support and setup. I began by clicking on the start-up tab to enter basic information about the company and the employees. Then I clicked on the setup tab to import my financial data from Quicken. Once imported, much of my setup was complete because the Quicken file provided the basic information about my personal chart of accounts, my expenses and income.
The transaction tab takes you to the heart of the program where you can write checks, enter purchase orders, pay vendors, create invoices and perform other basic tasks. Again, the process was quite simple, but I sometimes found myself frustrated by the wait for screens to pop up.
NetLedger charges $4.95 per month per user. If only one person is handling your company’s accounting, your total cost is $60 a year--cheaper than the $89 you would pay for the annual upgrade of Quickbooks.
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Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard at 2:10 p.m. weekdays on the KNX-AM (1070) Technology Hour. He can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is https://www.larrysworld.com.
