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PC Magazine
Award for Technical Excellence
The Computer Paper
Managing Your Business By The Numbers
Accounting Technology (formerly Computers in Accounting)
NewViews 1.41: Visual Accounting
Pioneer
The CPA Software News
New Approach to Accounting
From NewViews
Award for Technical Excellence, PC Magazine
By intelligently and creatively applying the metaphor of the spreadsheet to the profession in which the paper spreadsheet has been the primary tool for close to five centuries, Q.W.Page has created a truly universal, professional accounting tool for personal computers. Its authors took the best from the fertile field of personal computing and adopted features from word processors, spreadsheets, and database programs to create a thoroughly modern approach to the traditional problems of accounting.
NewViews is a flexible real-time accounting program that integrates general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, budgeting and sales analysis. It uses a highly innovative spreadsheet approach that allows you to follow each transaction from its entry point to the report. It requires 640 K or RAM and 5 MB of hard disk space.
There is no limit to the number of companies, branches, departments, divisions, etc. that can be managed in a set of books. There is no posting involved - each entry updates the complete accounting program to provide real time reports on demand. There is also no need to purge data - it can be kept on-line for as long as you want.
Getting started is straightforward. NewViews provides a set of starter books which provide the structured base for each new set of books. By using the starter books you minimize the amount of time required to get up and running.
NewViews uses a very different approach to accounting with its "window" on your accounting data approach. In NewViews, everything you see on your screen looks like a real accounting document. You can move this window around to browse through your data, edit it on the spot, and when you want a paper copy, you just send all, or part of the document to the printer or disk file.
All NewViews commands are available through a command bar that appears when you press the "/" key. The same command can be used on any document. This consistent approach reduces the number of commands necessary to perform a wide range of accounting operations. NewViews consists of a set of documents and every document has the same basic format. At the top is a header which contains basic information such as the name, description, date, opening and closing balances and so on. This is followed by items that contain your accounting data. Each item can be added, edited and deleted easily and quickly . Once you get used to the process, NewViews is an intuitive program to use.
The inventory process maintains a perpetual inventory that reflects the value of goods on hand. Purchases and sales are recorded by adding to the appropriate accounts. The inventory flow analysis provides complete reporting on stock-on-hand, reorder points, purchases and sales.
Repetitive tasks are handled in NewViews through procedures. You can use these procedures to store notes for AR, AP, inventory, expense, and sales accounts. There is a procedure for reconciling payments, calculating taxes and printing invoices, statements and checks.
Reporting is extensive with a complete set of financial statements, including the rarely available statement of change in financial position. There are comparative, variance, aging and percentage report analyses. The built-in programming language supports extensive customization, particularly for vertical market applications.
The major downside to NewViews is the lack of a network version. This limits the program to a single machine which is a major impediment to businesses that need the ability to do data entry on more than one machine at the same time. The Windows version of NewViews, currently under development, will solve this problem.
Initial support is free for 60 days; after installation you can purchase a support contract for $249. My test call to the support line was answered promptly and the support person was knowledgeable.
NewViews is an innovative program that takes some getting used to. Once you understand how it works it is a powerful accounting tool that provides real value. Its lack of networking capabilities is a drawback, but it is a great choice for single users who have specific customization needs.
NewViews debuted as the first visual accounting program seven years ago, and its revolutionary approach earned it major awards. Version 1.41 adds refinements that should attract more enthusiastic converts.
Installation is quick and easy. You can choose a starter set of books or develop your own. An excellent tutorial for the the accounting and payroll program teaches you the basics. The documentation is thorough and easy to follow. My one complaint is the length of the README file, which documents numerous corrections and additions since the manual was printed.*
*Since this review was published, the manuals have been updated to incorporate the information found in the README file.
The program runs on any 286 or higher with 640K RAM and 5MB of free disk space. However, you really need a 386DX to use it at a reasonable speed.
NewViews integrates all accounting functions, without separate modules. It supports both cash and accrual basis. The highly visual, real-time program lets you drill down from the top view of your data to four levels of details. You can open a second window to view more than one area simultaneously.
NewViews turns your computer screen into a "window" on your books. You can move this window around, and any time you are browsing, edit your documents. When you want a paper copy, you send the document to the printer. The printed document looks exactly like the document on-screen.
When you press [/], a command bar pops up, giving you access to all commands. You can use the same commands on any document. This consistent approach reduces the commands needed to perform many accounting operations. For example, to add an account,transaction, or report, you always use the /Edit Add command. No keyboard cards or reference cards are necessary.
When you open a set of books, the first document is a home document that lists all the reports in that set. You can add an unlimited number of reports to the home document, and rearrange them any time. To see the details for a specific report, position your cursor on the report and expand it.
You can completely customize the chart of accounts and create an unlimited number of subsidiary ledgers. The general ledger can function simultaneously as a trial balance. You can either post entries through journals, directly to account ledgers, or use a combination of the two.
In the accounts receivable and payable areas, you can add any number of customers or suppliers to a set of books, and set up each account on an open-item or balance-forward basis. Payments to suppliers can be managed automatically, and the program accommodates supplier terms and discounts.
NewViews supports extensive printing of standard forms, including customer invoices, customer statements, supplier checks, mailing labels, and form letters. You can view and print aging reports for customers and suppliers quickly and easily.
The integrated payroll module can support an unlimited number of employees. An employee can have any amount of earnings categories (taxable or tax exempt) and deductions. All pay cycles are accommodated. You can process employees individually or in groups, and enter regular and overtime hours during or prior to processing, and confirm checks with complete pay stub information while they are generated.
W2 slips, Form 1099-MISC, and Form 941 are available, and you can print a set of reports to the screen or paper.
Financial analysis and budgeting are especially strong features. The reporting functions let you do comparative analysis for multiple periods, aged receivables and payables, variance analysis, and analysis of flows. The budgeting features let you monitor and react to the results of your business operations on a real-time basis.
You can print any view of any NewViews document, in whole or in part, quickly and easily. Extensive formatting features let you generate presentation quality financial statements. Some of these features include customized report headers and footers, controllable page breaks, centered and underlined text, descriptive remarks, and rounding. You can customize all printed forms, including customer invoices, customer statements, checks, mailing labels, and form letters. The program supports a plethora of standard preprinted forms.
Useful additional features include a pop-up calculator, calendar, selection boxes, three-level passwords, function key assignments, and alphanumeric account designations. The software also offers automatic crash recovery and the ability to export and import between NewViews and other programs. You can maintain non-accounting data like a history of collection calls, details of inventory items, or a description of property assets. And a special macro features lets you automate repetitive chores.
Recent enhancements to NewViews include a new file structure that reduces the number of separate data files from seven to one. That eliminates the possibility of data corruption because of crosslinked files. The new file structure speeds up processing and a new crash recovery program continually checks for any uncontrolled changes to data, and will alert you if there is a problem.
NewViews isn't without faults. There could be more help when entering the opening balances. The lack of a network version is also a weakness. But this is a powerful program with a full feature set. At a suggested retail price of $399, it provides excellent value.. What a deal!
Of all the accounting products on the market, only NewViews differs radically from all others. Rather than accepting the norm of batch-oriented processing, NewViews has approached the accounting process from an entirely different perspective. It has adopted the principle that accounting is nothing more than the logical and controlled organization of data into reports which make sense to the person utilizing those reports.
While this seems to be the objective of all accounting systems, manual and automated, the last objective is the most difficult to achieve - "making sense to the person utilizing the report." NewViews gives users complete control over report output, letting them decide what and how much information to include in any report. The vehicle by which NewViews accomplishes this goal is a layout where the information is presented in report format in a series of four increasingly detailed layers.
The "Home Document" is the first layer you see when entering the system. This is nothing more than a listing of all reports and journals. You can add to or modify these standard documents (Sales Journal, Purchase Journal, General Ledger, Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, etc.) Having selected, say, Accounts Receivable, you can "Expand" this document and view an A/R Listing, summarized by Customer. Expanding this document lets you view each customer's detailed aging report. Finally you can expand this to the fourth and most detailed level, a view of an invoice itself.
The factor which sets NewViews apart is your ability to design how the information is going to be presented in each screen. These screens are no more than reports. You can accept the default screen/report layout or place information where you want it. If this sounds somewhat like a spreadsheet, it is. All commands are accessed by pressing [/]. While the layout looks like a spreadsheet, the Command Bar functions are closer to a Windows environment and accessible from any point in the program.
The same commands are used throughout the program. If you want to add a customer press [/EDIT ADD] from the A/R report. If you want to delete an entire report or transaction, press [/EDIT DELETE] . Since you will tend to memorize commands after a period of time, you can issue commands without having to use the Command Bar by pressing [ALT] and the command letters (i.e. [ALT E A] for [EDIT ADD]).
As an accounting tool, NewViews has the ability to meet the needs of most companies, simply by modifying the reports themselves. As an audit tool, NewViews is unique. The four-tiered layout automatically preserves transaction details. Up to 10 years of data can be displayed on screen in one report. An unlimited number of years can be stored if you so choose. You can drill down to the line-item level in any transaction, thus making the audit process that much more efficient.
The installation and training process is straightforward. A very well written Accounting Primer is provided with the system. In addition, a complete tutorial is provided. Since NewViews is radically different from other accounting systems, this tutorial is a welcome feature. While this difference might seem to present a somewhat daunting learning curve, it is less difficult than one might think. If you think of NewViews as a series of ledgers, each more detailed than its predecessor but linked via a very tight series of rules, training becomes less of a challenge.
Let's consider the recording of a sales invoice in a completely manual system. You have to type a detailed invoice and record it against the customer's ledger card, as well as Accounts Receivable, as well as the sales account. At the same time, record the line items on each inventory card and on the Cost of Sales ledger. NewViews does the exact same thing by linking the invoice to all of the other documents, each of which you will find in the system. Actually, the concept itself is old. Only the procedures have been automated. In some respects that makes NewViews easier to understand than most other systems.
Since NewViews is a real-time accounting system, all transactions are posted immediately. You never have to worry whether information has been posted. At the end of the year, the accountant can take a copy of the entire system back to the office, examine selected transactions, make a list of backup documents which might be required, and have the client pull them in advance. If any transaction is incorrect, it can be edited on screen without having to reverse it or correct it with another transaction. While some accountants might feel that this might have the tendency to weaken the audit trail, others are not concerned.
NewViews takes the concept of notes to a logical conclusion. All reports, accounts, transactions, etc. support unlimited notes. If you use the notes feature to record information for yourself, your accountant, or as an audit tool, NewViews will support you.
Another interesting feature of NewViews is its ability to open two windows simultaneously. If you want to examine your Cash Account as you record payments, open these two windows. Changes in one window will flow through into the other window so that you can see its effects.
Any operation you carry out is called a procedure. Any procedure can be listed in a special Procedures Document and started just be selecting it from the list. Up to 39 procedures can be linked to the function keys (e.g. F2, Shift+F2, CTRL+F2, and ALT+F2).
From the point of view of companies requiring modifications, NewViews might be an interesting alternative. If specialized reports are required, that's simple. Each document in NewViews is the report itself. What you see on screen, or design on screen, is what will be printed. The two are identical. You specify the information required and build the accounting links you require. If more extensive modifications are required, NewViews provides a complete programming language (NewViews Procedural Language) that provides users with the ability to automate functions, create customer data entry screens and much more.
"The
flexibility and power of NewViews make it the professional accountant's
package of choice... if
you're not using NewViews, you're at a competitive disadvantage."
Bob Munro CA, CA Services Ltd, Willowdale, ON
"A
highly powerful tool that responds to the creativity of the real accounting
world. Rather than
forcing each business into arbitrary modules, NewViews allows for innovation
while at the same time adhering to critical accounting disciplines."
Brian Blosser CGA, Blosser & Associates, Toronto, ON
"Every
GL account and report is always current, visible on screen and printable.
Once you are used to this
kind of power, you know that batch-oriented systems will go the way of the
dodo bird."
Tyne Bonebakker CA, Wedgebury Smith Bonebakker CAs, Bolton, ON
"NewViews
offers a complete audit trail without making the set of books complex
and cumbersome."
Rick Payne CA, Williams Payne & Associates, Markham, ON
"When
we completed the conversion of our client bookeeping services to NewViews
from AccPac, we found that data
entry time was reduced by 20-25%. Because the records are complete with the
entry of each transaction, it is easy to start, stop and switch clients."
Brian Ware CA, Intax Software Applications Inc, Calgary, AB
"The
data and file layout make for quick setup, and enable the user to see
the structure of the finanical
statements as they are being set up and used. The real-time updating and
flexible editing features allow the accountant to quickly correct or
reconcile accounts
and statements."
Errol Farr CMA, Farr & Hall CAs, Toronto, ON
"There
are many accounting and working paper programs being offered to accountants,
but to my knowledge,
none with the flexibility of NewViews. I am very pleased with NewViews. At
this time, it is the only accounting package used by my clients."
Robert Hirschel CA, North York, ON