Keywords: accounting computer; Report; standardization
ArticleNo.:1003-6636 (2001) 02-0072-04 China Library ClassificationNo.: F23 1 Document ID: A.
With the rapid development of computer software and hardware technology, China's commercial accounting software has made great progress in just over ten years, from the initial simple accounting system based on DOS environment to the networked accounting information management system with certain management functions based on WINDOWS environment, especially the function and software level of report subsystem have been rapidly improved. However, in its development process, there are also many noteworthy problems, especially the problem of non-uniform reporting standards. This paper intends to do some discussion on this.
First, the status quo of accounting statement subsystem
Due to the limitation of computer hardware and the lack of supporting software technology, the report subsystem in early accounting computerization software in China was generally developed by developers themselves. Generally speaking, only a small number of accounting statements can be compiled, and the report format is relatively simple, and the source range of data in the report is also narrow. Usually only from the accounting database. If you want to use other data, you need to enter it manually from the keyboard. Among them, UFIDA financial software (DOS version) and universal financial software are typical.
In the mid-1990s, with the development of software technology, especially the wide application of WINDOWS graphic environment and object embedded link technology, various accounting computerization software manufacturers invested a lot of manpower and material resources to upgrade the original system and even redevelop their own accounting software, which made the overall level of accounting computerization software in China step up to a new level. At present, the report subsystem generally adopts the way of embedding general electronic watch software, which greatly improves the function of accounting report subsystem. This new accounting report subsystem enables users to generate various accounting reports needed in accounting work without the help of software designers. There are not too many restrictions on the size of the report, and the data sources in the report are more diverse-they can come from accounting databases or other databases, such as taking data from other reports and planning databases. There are many forms of report data output, which can be directly output to paper, to disk in the form of files, and to other computers through the network.
The realization method of this new accounting report subsystem is generally embedded in the professional general electronic report system (such as EXCEL, LOTUSl-2-3, etc.). ) to their own computerized accounting system (such as UFIDA, Kingdee, etc. ) after appropriate conversion, and then provide a certain number of data interfaces, retrieval formulas and calculation formulas in their own accounting software. Users can use these data interfaces, retrieval formulas and calculation formulas to generate various accounting statements. Because these report subsystems are embedded with professional general electronic report subsystems, they can not only generate various accounting reports, but also perform various accounting and statistical analysis on the generated accounting reports, which greatly expands the functions of the accounting report subsystems.
At present, the accounting report subsystem of popular computerized accounting software (such as UFIDA, Anyi, Kingdee, Golden Abacus, etc. ) can be summarized as the following flow chart:
As can be seen from the above flow chart, the whole report processing subsystem is to generate and process report format files and report data files, and report files are the floorboard of these two files.
The report format file mainly contains two types of information: overall report information and format information. Such as form name, company number, company name, report date, form and its width, height and line format; Another kind of information is used to explain the source and calculation method of each data in the table. This kind of information is usually explained by the formation of formulas.
It can be said that the content of the report format file determines the content and format of the report data file, so to get the correct accounting report, we must correctly determine and edit the content of the report format file. At present, all computerized accounting systems provide two methods to edit the contents of report format files: manual input and wizard input. If users want to get specific accounting statements, they must first input various format information, retrieval formulas and calculation formulas of the statements through the editing means provided by the system. Generate a report format file, and then report processing software automatically generates a report data file according to the contents of the format file, and performs report output or report analysis as needed.
As long as the format and data relationship of the report have not changed, the content of its format file does not need to be changed. Just enter different dates and other parameters, you can get reports in different periods and different accounting periods.
Second, the existing problems
Judging from the current software development level, the function and level of the report processing subsystem of the popular accounting computerization software are relatively perfect. This paper does not intend to discuss the technical problems of single software, but wants to do some research on the problems in the popularization and use of accounting computerization. Through the application, it can be found that there are serious standard confusion problems in China's computerized accounting report processing system, which are mainly manifested in:
1. The terms and meanings used in various computerized accounting software are not uniform.
For the use of report processing subsystem, the first problem is to define the main elements of the report. According to the current popular method of dividing elements, a report consists of four elements: title, header, table body and footer, but some systems are divided into three parts: header, table body and footer, while others are divided into header, table body, notes and footer. Although some elements have the same names, their actual meanings are different. For example, some systems use column headings as part of the table body, while others use column headings as part of the title, and so on.
2. The formats of various formulas are not uniform, the names of functions are not uniform, and the formats of parameters are diverse, so the report formulas of various softwares are very different.
For example, in UFIDA financial software, the basic format of its accounting function is:
Function name ("account code", accounting period unit, "direction", SOBNo. )
The basic format of accounting function of Kingdee financial software is:
& lt account code > number of accounting periods of data nature
In UFIDA financial software, function names are used to distinguish opening, closing and amount, for example, QC stands for opening data and QM stands for closing data. In Kingdee, different types of data are distinguished by data attributes, such as using the letter C to indicate the initial data. In the same software, there is also the phenomenon that function names are not uniform. For example, UFIDA financial software, most of the retrieval functions are pinyin abbreviations, and most of the calculation functions are in English.
In addition, the format of the parameters involved in the function is not uniform. For example, in UFIDA financial software, the value of cell H33 in report AA comes from the data of cell D9 in BB report, and the data formula is
"AA" → H33 = "bb" → D9 Month related to "BB" → Month.
In Kingdee financial software, it is
“AA”！ H33="BB "！ D9
3. The definition method of report format is inconsistent.
Various softwares have different methods when defining some formats, such as decimal places of report output data, which will be involved in all reports. In UFIDA financial software, the decimal places of output data are defined by the method of overall format description, while in Kingdee financial software, the decimal places of output data of each unit are defined by the method of defining each unit one by one.
4. The output format of paperless report is not uniform.
The paper output of each system can generally meet the requirements of the Ministry of Finance for the report format, but with the advent of the computer network era and the all-round and in-depth application of data, the report data is developing towards paperless output.
In view of the importance of paperless output of reports, various software developers have added the function of paperless output of reports in their own software systems, and some systems can also output in multiple formats. For example, UFIDA financial software can be output in the form of ASCII files and XBASE database files; Paperless output of ezsafe financial software includes ACCESS file type and ORACLE file type. In Kingdee financial software, only numerical data can be output paperless (see Kingdee financial software version 6.3); Some financial software can also output the data of accounting statements in EXCEL file format.
Although these softwares can output the report data in the form of files without paper, the output formats of various softwares are different. When the same report (such as balance sheet) is output without paper, which data should be output and which data should not be output, the order and width of data are not uniform.
Thirdly, the influence of existing problems on the popularization and application of accounting computerization.
The above-mentioned non-uniform standards of current financial software are very unfavorable to the improvement of the level of accounting computerization software in China, the further popularization of accounting computerization and the extensive and in-depth application of accounting materials.
1. The accounting software market is easy to form a monopoly.
Because of the great difference in the use of report subsystem of accounting computerization software, it is not easy for accountants to learn and master the use of one software, and it is even more difficult and unnecessary to master the use of many kinds of software. Therefore, once users use a certain financial software, it is difficult to switch to other financial software. However, after the existing financial software has occupied and carved up most of the market share, it will be very difficult for other software vendors to set foot in the market again, and it will be difficult for software vendors who have carved up the market to redistribute the market, which will slow down the speed of software upgrade. When upgrading the software, users must use the products of the original software manufacturer, so that the accounting data of the existing system can continue to be used in the future and the consistency of the updated data can be guaranteed. In this way, software vendors can raise the price of software at will, so that users can bear more software costs.
2. It is not conducive to the audit and supervision of accounting statements by the state and investors.
From the previous knowledge, in the computerized accounting system, the correctness of accounting statements is not only related to the correctness of accounting data, but more importantly, the correctness of fetching data and setting calculation formulas in accounting statement files, because the correctness of accounting data can be checked by calling up the corresponding account book data. Because the data in the report is the synthesis of account book data, different industries and different users have different synthesis methods for the data in the report. The national audit department, tax department, bank or investor shall evaluate the correctness of the external accounting statements of accounting entities. In the era of computerized accounting, the important basis of evaluation is the retrieval and calculation formula of statements. As mentioned above, the data retrieval and calculation formulas of various softwares are quite different, and the standards are chaotic. It is impossible for auditors, tax supervisors and investors to master the data retrieval and calculation formulas of various software, let alone the correctness of audit and supervision statements.
3. The non-uniform paperless output format is not conducive to the extensive and in-depth application of report data.
Within the enterprise, the computerized accounting system is only a part of the whole enterprise management information system, that is to say, the enterprise management information system is composed of several subsystems, such as personnel management, planning management, financial management, statistical analysis, decision-making assistance and support systems. Each subsystem is a huge software, generally provided by different software vendors, and of course developed by enterprises themselves. There is always some information dependence between subsystems. Financial management, statistical analysis, decision support and support subsystem usually need to use the data in accounting statements. Because the format of paperless output report data is not uniform, these systems often can't directly use the report data generated by the accounting report subsystem, which leads to the need for enterprises to manually re-enter report data from other subsystems, or to design special (non-universal) report data conversion software for their own enterprises in order to use the report subsystems that can be used by other subsystems.
Outside the enterprise, many accounting statements (such as balance sheet and income statement) are used by other systems because they are external. Audit departments, tax departments, banks and investors all need relevant financial data provided by enterprise accounting statements. With the popularization of computers today, almost all information users are using computers and corresponding software systems to do related work. Because the paperless output format of accounting statements is not uniform, users of these information can not directly use the output information of accounting statements subsystem.
Three. Countermeasures and suggestions
1. Establish a unified reporting language.
Judging from the methods of compiling accounting statements in various computerized accounting systems at present, formula method is basically used to explain the source and calculation method of data in the statements. From the previous analysis, we can see that different software systems have their own set of formulas and functions, and there are great differences. The expressions of formulas and functions, the number of formulas and the function strength of functions are different. However, if we carefully analyze and classify these formulas and the functions of various systems, we can see that they have many similarities:
(1) Functions and formulas for extracting data from account books. These formulas mainly explain which account books the data in the report comes from, such as the beginning number, the end number, the amount incurred, the accounting period and the number of accounting periods.
(2) Functions and formulas for fetching data from other reports mainly explain which report file to fetch what data from;
(3) The calculation function and formula in the table indicate that some data in the table can be calculated by other data in the table according to a certain method;
(4) Other functions and formulas, including the definition of tick relation and the explanation of decimal places.
Because the functions and functions of report preparation functions and formulas are essentially the same, and all kinds of software report preparation functions and formulas are similar in the above aspects, the author thinks that a standardized accounting report preparation language can be developed on the basis of synthesizing all kinds of software report preparation functions and formulas and combining the characteristics of report preparation, which is equivalent to a computer programming language with unified and standardized function names and calculation formulas and unified grammar rules. In this way, software developers do not need to design a set of report functions and calculation formulas themselves, but focus on how to realize this accounting report programming language efficiently in their own systems and improve software quality. For users, it is also possible to learn and master only one accounting statement preparation language, and then they can prepare all kinds of accounting statements needed on different computerized accounting systems or understand and verify the correctness of specific report preparation methods. This is obvious for saving all kinds of manpower and material resources and improving efficiency.
2. Design a unified report paperless output format protocol.
Because software developers clearly know the importance of paperless output of statements and have done a lot of work on paperless output of statements, although there are some differences in output format, content and order, everyone is willing to have a regulation or agreement on paperless output of accounting statements. If there are laws and agreements on paperless output of accounting statements, then for accounting software developers, it is only necessary to realize paperless output of accounting statements in accordance with the requirements of laws and agreements, while for other systems that need to use accounting statement data, relevant data can be obtained in accordance with the methods stipulated by laws and agreements. In this way, on the one hand, the system development efficiency is improved and the development cost is reduced, on the other hand, it paves the way for the technical enjoyment and wide application of report data.
At present, China's accounting computerization is in a critical period of vigorous development, and it is also the most critical period of development. In order to avoid the waste of manpower and talents caused by repeated work and meet the needs of the country for accounting information management, it is necessary to attach great importance to the problems mentioned in this paper. Therefore, the author suggests that the relevant state departments should organize their efforts as soon as possible to solve a series of standardization problems existing in accounting computerization software and other related problems not mentioned in this paper, so as to make the cause of accounting computerization in China develop more healthily and rapidly. Posted in China Paper Download Center.
Posted in China Paper Download Center.