# Need advice about developing accountancy software package.



## Bigbird (31 Oct 2010)

I have developed an accountancy software programme which, would be very simple to use and provides practical information for small to medium sized businesses. I now would like to developed it further and make it ready for the market.

At the moment, I have created a complete worked example of the programme but it is based on Microsoft excel software. The user inputs information to the programme which is then processed into a trading, profit & loss account and balance sheet format.

I believe my options are either show it to one of the accountancy software providers who are in the market at the moment or developed it myself

As I work in the accountancy profession for many years and have used many of the current accountancy software packages, I believe that they are overcomplicated to use, requiring expensive training and information they provide is not presented in user friendly and practical manner. On the other hand, my software is user friendly, requires only minimal training, providing timely, accurate and practical information to the end user.

I know exactly were I would like to go with this product but I do not have the technical and software programming skills to develop it myself. 

So how can I:

a) Overcome my problem of bringing my idea to the market with out being hijacked by more astute programmers?  

b) How can one protect a software development idea?  

c) And also as the programme is already developed on Mircosoft Excel what problems will this create for me? 


Regards

BB


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## z107 (31 Oct 2010)

Did you do any market research?



> a) Overcome my problem of bringing my idea to the market with out being hijacked by more astute programmers?


You can't.



> b) How can one protect a software development idea?


You won't be able to.



> c) And also as the programme is already developed on Mircosoft Excel what problems will this create for me?


People will have to have Excel to use your product.
It might not be secure.

Creating the software is probably the easy part. Getting it to market is the hard part. Why don't you see if Sort my books or Sage are interested in it?


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## Guest110 (31 Oct 2010)

You need to put in a request for a patent. 
http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/patents.aspx

I would also suggest that you give your product a name and register a domain name of your product with the same name. You could bring it to market this way. You could advertise through Facebook and Google. 

You also need to consider if it is legal for you to reuse and redistribute other applications within your product - unless they are all Open Source ?

The Irish programme - Dragons Den is looking for people to bring forward innovative idea's. I suggest you see if you can get onto the show and then you have a chance of the team putting money forward to help develop your product and bring it to the market. You could also have someone interested in your product watching the show that might want to help. 


Good Luck,

The problem with software is that is goes out of trend very fast. The competition is intense.


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## Bigbird (31 Oct 2010)

Yes, I know from personal experience that there is a real need for a software package like the one I have developed. But I will have to do some number crunching market research.

I have decided on a name alright and I will follow up getting a domain name. I presume that mircosoft is an open source software but would apprecate more views on this.

Dragons Den is an idea I have considered but I think I would have to devlop my software a little further before I would be ready for this.


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## PaddyBloggit (31 Oct 2010)

Bigbird said:


> ..... mircosoft is an open source software.



When did Microsoft become free?


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## Guest110 (31 Oct 2010)

Microsoft is definitley not free. If you package Microsoft into your product (ie - if microsoft gets unzipped with the installation of your product) then each bundled package needs to have a licence to use that piece of the microsoft software. If your package does not contain microsoft but the customer needs to have microsoft installed - then you dont need to worry about the licence fee's as it is up to the person buying the product to have microsoft pre installed.


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## z107 (31 Oct 2010)

....


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## Complainer (31 Oct 2010)

Isn't this market fairly saturated with low-cost and no-cost solutions like Big Red Book and Tasbooks etc?


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## PaddyBloggit (31 Oct 2010)

alexandra12 said:


> Microsoft is definitley not free. If you package Microsoft into your product (ie - if microsoft gets unzipped with the installation of your product) then each bundled package needs to have a licence to use that piece of the microsoft software. If your package does not contain microsoft but the customer needs to have microsoft installed - then you dont need to worry about the licence fee's as it is up to the person buying the product to have microsoft pre installed.




I knew that ... I was just hoping the OP would answer the question.

Just find it strange that somebody who has the knowledge and capability to develop a software package would '_presume that mircosoft is an open source software_'.


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## JoeB (1 Nov 2010)

The OP probably meant Microsoft programming tools.

If someone makes a program using Microsoft Visual Basic then they own the rights to the program and can distribute the program with no extra rights required. The VB runtime files are also required, but these are free to distribute.

I think it's very tricky for the OP to protect his intelectual rights in this case. The benefits of his software seem to be that's it's clear and easy to use, and the help files are well written. There's nothing new there... nothing that can be protected,.. or at least not until after it's made, and then the 'look and feel' can be copyrighted, but not the accounting practices themselves. But other companies can re-write their help files if the OP's are much better, and they can also change the way data is input and displayed... there's not much that can be done about this.


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## runner (1 Nov 2010)

Software graveyards are full of indispensibly good products. Failure is the norm and success the rarity in most software developments. The product may be great, but its really market niche and marketing iteself that makes the difference, it dosent have to be the best around. Its a very big task to succeed in this crowed market today. Many entry or start up packages may be better trying the 'open source' route to get started. and changing the model in due course when it gets some traction.
Positive advise: yes, for gods sake dont tie your potential customers into having to buy Microsoft Office - put in onto Open Office platform instead.
Good luck!


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## z107 (1 Nov 2010)

> The OP probably meant Microsoft programming tools.
> 
> If someone makes a program using Microsoft Visual Basic then they own the rights to the program and can distribute the program with no extra rights required. The VB runtime files are also required, but these are free to distribute.


I got the impression they were using VBA and macros in an Excel spreadsheet.


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## Bigbird (1 Nov 2010)

Thanks for the positive responses. The criticism is also welcome at this stage.

I will have to re-work my software into Microsoft VB, look at branding and website domain names etc.  My product should be ready to go at that stage.

The beauty of my software package or unique selling point is that I created it from the point of view of a user and not the point of view of the programmer. I believe that Programmers who develop accountancy packages focus on the abilties of the software they produce.  In my opinion, they tend to lose focus on the information that is required for the business in question.

Yes, the market is full of products that all do similar tasks however, in my opinion and after using all of them personally they all have horrendusly obvious, these flaws have been highlighted in other posts on this website.  On the other hand, my product's greatest strength is simplicity and accuracy.  As a farmer once said to me "keep it country boy".


Regards,

BB


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## Tentman (2 Nov 2010)

Would you not try trialling it with some of the users on this forum. You could then use the feedback to make any changes.


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## AlbacoreA (2 Nov 2010)

I think you should really look at the business plan before going any further. Lots of questions along the lines of?

Does your target market have excel?
What price will they pay?
How will you distribute the software?
How will you get payment?
How will you support the product?
How many customers will need support?
What are the competitors?
Whats their target market?
Whats the price of the competition product?
How will you market it?
How will you protect it from being copied? Hacked?
Whats all the above going to cost?
Do you have the funds? and for how long?
How will you know when your in profit?

Thats before you even get into the costs, of making the product run without excel on a computer. Then protecting, building a website, running a website and supporting it. 

Theres plenty of commercial packages built on excel. That can be done if it suitable. But it limits your market certainly. While offices will have excel, how many small business'es have it?

I'm not saying don't do it. but you need to have a better business plan done.


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## Ceist Beag (2 Nov 2010)

Bigbird said:


> The beauty of my software package or unique selling point is that I created it from the point of view of a user and not the point of view of the programmer.


Ehhh are you sure this is really a unique selling point in this market (btw this is a rhetorical question!)? Have you trialled your software with users for feedback before you go any further with it? Just that I think you might be deluding yourself a little bit in how successful or unique your product might be. I don't mean that as criticism, more just that it sounds like you haven't really got something worth going to the market with and it might be best to get some feedback before you spend more time on it.


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## jhegarty (2 Nov 2010)

alexandra12 said:


> You need to put in a request for a patent.
> http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/patents.aspx




There are no software pattens in Europe.


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## AlbacoreA (2 Nov 2010)

Ceist Beag said:


> Ehhh are you sure this is really a unique selling point in this market (btw this is a rhetorical question!)? Have you trialled your software with users for feedback before you go any further with it? Just that I think you might be deluding yourself a little bit in how successful or unique your product might be. I don't mean that as criticism, more just that it sounds like you haven't really got something worth going to the market with and it might be best to get some feedback before you spend more time on it.



I don't think you can tell how well something will sell, unless you try it. 

But you can work out the costs before hand and see what it will cost to break even.


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## z107 (2 Nov 2010)

...


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## AlbacoreA (2 Nov 2010)

I'm a software developer and I think theres a lot of software thats is shockingly poor with regard to ease of use. Even companies like Microsoft, make some truly appalling obtuse software, despite UAT. In my experience its not unusual for a software company to do hardly any testing or even none. Its very common for software developers to think they know better than their end users, which is why you see so many unfriendly interfaces. 

As you say a lot of applications claim to have ease of use, but a lot of them really aren't. The problem is how to make people aware that your product really is different. Assuming that its different, and the OP will only truely know if its true if he gets some feedback on it. So even if it is amazing, the hard work will be getting people to notice it, and then to buy it. Remember Betamax. 

Regardless, as you say, a good business plan with proper market research is crucial.


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## Lobby (2 Nov 2010)

And without being insulting to the general public, do not overestimate the levels of competence out there. If the software is to be sold as a "simple to use" piece of software, then the end users will, nearly by definition, have little or no experience of PC usage, other than general word/excel/email usage.

Expect a lot of support calls along the lines of "my PC crashed" or "my excel doesn't work" and it'll require a lot of time and effort to either solve their problems or convince them that it's not your fault/responsibility.

I do agree that there is a need for a small but simple accountancy package, but remember that the likes of Sage (with their First Books) is quite well established, easy (ish) to use and they have a lot of resources behind them. 

For example, after the budget will you need to issue updates that the user needs to install to take account of new VAT rates, new PAYE rates and changes to the health and pension levies.


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## Complainer (2 Nov 2010)

AlbacoreA said:


> I'm a software developer and I think theres a lot of software thats is shockingly poor with regard to ease of use. Even companies like Microsoft, make some truly appalling obtuse software, despite UAT. In my experience its not unusual for a software company to do hardly any testing or even none. Its very common for software developers to think they know better than their end users, which is why you see so many unfriendly interfaces.
> 
> As you say a lot of applications claim to have ease of use, but a lot of them really aren't.


Very true. 

The only way to make software usable is to involve a range of users in the design, prototyping and testing of the software.

No one person is going to come up with highly usable software.


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## AlbacoreA (2 Nov 2010)

I do find that some have a knack for it, and some definitely don't. 

But like you said you have to back it up with a systematic process.


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## picene (5 Nov 2010)

> I will have to re-work my  software into Microsoft VB, look at branding and website domain names  etc.  My product should be ready to go at that stage.



a bad idea. VB is basically a legacy language at this point and will not be supported in the future.

Better of at looking at C# ( from Microsoft) or even VB.Net (a lot difference from VB though).

Instead of selling an application you install on a pc why not think of an application you can host on the internet and users pay a subscription to use? Gives you a revenue a stream and makes it easier to support and upgrade.

you could secure it using https


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