Up until the previous century, the usual method of recording and maintaining the financial records of a company was manually.Computers have become an integral part of todays organisations and have made the life of accountants easier by automating a lot of time taking and cumbersome procedures. Computers have also reduced the susceptibility of accounts to errors. For instance accounting softwares make sure that for each debit/credit entry a corresponding entry has been made by the user before saving the transaction. Another example is the automated transfer of balances from books of prime entry through to financial statements, minimising any chances of error arising from manual transfer. Accountants therefore need to be familiar with the usage of computers. Althoug many different "off the shelf" accounting packages are being used around the world such as Sage Peachtree, Quickbooks, and Tally, specialized businesses such as banks, asset managment companies and most of the service oriented businesses prefer to buy accounting softwares that have been tailored to their need. Services of software houses are utilised for such solutions. A software designed to the needs of the user is called a bespoke software. When accounts are maintained on a computerized system (using an accounting software), the style of the ledger account is at times different. The computerized accounts appear as three columns of figures, one column for debit entries, another column for credit entries, and the last column for the balance. You will notice the same format being used on your bank statement if you have a current account at a bank. The accounts that we used in the previous lesson called Balancing off Accounts will now be redrafted to show the computerized ledger accounts drawn up
When manual methods are being used it is not possible to calculate a new balance after each entry since doing so will involve a lot of work. However, the computerized software can automatically calculate the new balance as soon as an entry is made. Remember that the final balances will be the same using either method.