What these companies often mean when they say they have an integrated accounting solution is that their software links to a third-party accounting software package and passes basic general ledger totals to that third party software. In the real world, however, this level of integration is rarely acceptable or useful to anyone who understands accounting. Even if a software package passes vendor or customer record information, or even invoice totals for accounts payable from receiving, there is much more to consider when it comes to being fully integrated and functional from an accounting standpoint. The packages are incapable of sharing all information between each other. As a result, the accounting system needs to be manually updated from the retail management system.
Manual updates are time consuming and introduce a far greater possibility of errors.
There are two systems to maintain, two systems to learn and two to service. The accounting controls they were hoping for are not there. The Accounting is fully integrated at the database level and ties to all areas of the system. For example, you only need to enter a customer record one, and that customer's data is available throughout the system. Likewise, the vendor record is shared by purchasing and Accounts Payable, and receiving information is passed directly to Accounts Payable.