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Elegant design, range of modules puts Dynamics C/S+ SQL ahead of the pack
AT MANY COMPANIES, aging accounting systems are disintegrating as the year 2000 approaches. I evaluated three midrange accounting solutions and found unique features for each. Visual AccountMate/SQL (VAM/ SQL) 3.1, SBT Accounting Systems' SBT Executive Series, and Great Plains Software's Dynamics C/S+ SQL each offer well-integrated modules, inherent scalability, and customization options., and each is year-2000 compliant. But Dynamics was the best allaround solution.
Setting up a midrange accounting package is no picnic, and migrating legacy data into a new package is always a daunting task. Unfortunately, I discovered during my testing that none of these three products eases this task very much.
Client/server architecture
The main factor that sets midrange accounting apart from lower-end packages such as Intuit's QuickBooks or Peachtree Accounting, is that they are multiuser systems based on multitier client/server architecture.
SBT offered the most extensive back-end support. In addition to SQL Server, the product also supports Oracle and Sybase via ODBC. VAM/SQL already provides an AS/400 version that installs a system database and additional databases for each company in the form of SQL packages accessed via ODBC.
Creative accounting
Accounting packages consist of a minimum of six primary components: General Ledger, Sales Order, Accounts Receivable, Purchase Order,Accounts Payable, and Inventory Control modules. SBT additionally includes, Project Accounting and Fixed Assets modules.
Project Accounting allows you to track individual costs and revenue associated with specific projects. Of...