The rising cost of software licenses for ERP systems has become substantial, especially for smaller retailers.

To address this problem, Arch Financial Integration (AFI), a division of Spinnaker Software, has developed an integration from Arch Retail (AR) into a feature-rich financial and accounting system called Arch Accounting (AA).

Spinnaker Software is the supplier of Arch Retail Systems, a leading retail management software solution used in more than 1 400 stores in southern Africa. Its client base includes major national retail groups such as OK Foods, Cambridge Food, Jumbo Cash & Carry, Ultra Liquors, Sefalana and President Hyper.

AA was specifically developed for unique requirements of retailers, and it integrates seamlessly with AR at store level. Financial data from AR is published to it daily. Because it is a cloud-based system, this information can be accessed securely from any internet connection.

With AA, the retailer no longer needs to incur large upfront costs to purchase licenses or a fileserver. The only cost is a monthly fee based on the store's turnover.

In terms of features, AA:
• Accommodates multiple sites, from where data is integrated to head office or a legal entity, as elected
• Posts transactions as daily summaries only to prevent general ledger clogging
• Posts VAT to two accounts (output and input) for normal trade transactions and to two accounts for transactions of a capital nature
• Imports debtors and creditors transactions individually with AR document numbers as reference
• Posts all stock adjustments, cost variations, mark-up-mark-down entries and stock variances
• Uses specific dates with no period processing
• Includes:
o A budget module
o A built-in fixed asset module
o Simple Excel exports
o Automated inter-company loan accounts
o Detailed financial accounting reports
o A monthly financial report
o Trend graphs
o Electronic bank reconciliations

AFI will continue to offer integration services to Sage Evolution and other ERP systems such as Syspro and SAP, especially for larger and more complex environments.

A selection of short videos covering the major modules of AA is available here