Software developers need to upgrade, expert says

News Article - 10 October 2006
Category:

Accountancy software developers who are in "maintenance mode" will not have the necessary resources to apply forthcoming VAT changes, an expert has said.

The new changes, which are being introduced in a bid to combat carousel fraud, will include a VAT reverse charge, for which upgraded software will be needed, Dennis Keeling, chief executive of the Business and Application Software Developers Association has said.

According to Mr Keeling, upgrades will be necessary for the electronic filing of VAT returns.

"When I first compiled the Dennis Keeling software thesaurus in 1989, there were more than 800 accounting software developers.

"Today, I reckon there are less than 100 authors in development mode and more than 300 systems are still in maintenance mode," he told an audience at the software satisfaction awards last week.

Mr Keeling added that many developers could fall by the wayside if they refused to modernise their systems and come out of maintenance mode.

The accountingWEB software satisfaction awards took place on October 4th in Piccadilly, London, the results of which were gathered through a survey of the more than 1,400 of the website's members and prizes awarded accordingly.

Article keywords:

---

More industry news

• Think tank warns UK may have already slipped back into recession
• Growing demand for HR staff in technology and international sectors
• Boosting business growth a ‘priority’ to avoid Eurozone slowdown
• HMRC launches alternative disputes pilot scheme this week
• December employment statistics disregard gloomy recruitment predictions
• Eurozone manufacturing PMI shows modest improvement
• UK scores highly for economic governance by ratings agency
• Government launches two-year project focusing on manufacturing sector
• Burden of regulation on UK businesses ‘too high’

Back to news home page »