Extremely flexible and simple-to-use

"This is an extremely flexible and simple-to-use package with good analytical power". - PC WORLD in its April Accounting review of Wings Accounting.
Reproduced here is the full text of the Review.

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Scope of Package

In its latest avatar, Wings waves adieu to the simple accounting package business. If you need software that handles accounting, receivables and payables, as well as invoice printing, just download it - it's free! Wings Infonet Ltd. has just raised the survival bar in the accounting business game.

To survive, they charge you for the three alternatives that they serve - Wings 2000 Plus which adds budgeting, and invoice design to the basic software; Wings Accounting Pro, which adds, inventory management, sales and purchase order management, budgeting and an excellent report writer; and Wings Accounting Net, which is a multi-user version. One disappointing thing I found here was that none of the Wings Accounting versions provides any significant features for production accounting. Here, I will discuss the features of the Wings Accounting Pro version.

Ease of Use

Though this is a typical Windows software program with multiple windows, scrolling lists etc., it can be used without using the mouse at all, making it much easier and faster to enter data.

The package is designed to be modular, so you can switch on or off a number of features to adapt them to your needs.

Ledger accounts, products, branches and locations can be grouped to unlimited levels and viewed in Windows Explorer-like tree format. Items can be cut and pasted from one group into another, making regrouping and reporting an easy job. The report-designing feature is both powerful and quite simple to use. The report writer has an on-line print preview facility.

Wings can record with every voucher a link to any other voucher. This can be useful in creating a chain wherever you need to identify a transaction's origin. Wings Accounting pop-up lists are partially definable! For example, in an invoice, besides selecting the name of the customer, you can set up the list to show the credit limit and the current balance - very useful when the accountant is making the entries himself.

Reporting and Analysis

Besides the usual input fields, there are 16 customisable but non-validated fields, two validated fields and two validated and groupable master fields. And, if that was not enough, there are five (non-validated) comment fields per transaction line. Note that the above fields are the maximum and you can switch off as many as you like, so that your screen does not look cluttered. These fields can be used for analysis.

The powerful, in built report writer allows you to modify existing reports and save them with separate names. You can also protect each report with a password. These features, along with unlimited grouping of accounts and inventory items, provide for pretty strong analytical power. However, there is no facility for preparing business graphs out of the reports.

External Links

The use of proprietary database makes it difficult for linking accounting data with any other software. However, all reports can be exported in standard ASCII formats, with delimiters, making it possible to import the data into other software for further use.

Suitability

This package is a very good choice for all kinds of organisations that do not need to record manufacturing related transactions.

Pros & Cons

This is an extremely flexible and simple-to-use package with good analytical power. However, it cannot handle manufacturing transactions and external links.

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