Online accounts data checking service seeks test users
A London-based start-up is testing a new online accounting data validation service called Validis and is looking for Sage Line 50 users to act as guinea pigs. John Stokdyk reports.
"We are deliberately focusing on Sage 50 because by volume it's the largest market for a specific accounting platform," said Stewart Holness, the CEO of Future Route, the company behind Validis.
To kick start Validis, the company is running a two-week introductory programme to collect technical and usability feedback from users in the field.
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Security is paramount
JC, Thank you for the comment.
As authors and architects of the Validis service we had the opportunity, first to investigate worldwide best practice, and then to make some unconstrained structural decisions on how best to best implement the service.
As the public website currently stands you are correct in observing that there is mainly low security content available. In this same infrastructure however we will be shortly implementing payment and logon functionality and the highly secure data upload facilities for the Validis service.
In this context, there are now some well publicised examples of businesses choosing to blanket their web presence with https, for example Wells Fargo.
Our market testing suggests that in our chosen target market, the businesses we intend to serve believe that the now (in light of widespread broadband availability) relatively minor overhead of running https / SSL encryption is well worth it for the significant security gain.
We are in pre-launch mode currently, so will review the situation actively and will, to your point, consider whether we can exposure low security areas of the website without using https as long as we can be confident we will not compromise the security of the remaining site in any way.
Please do contact me directly at Validis should you feel I’ve failed to address your concerns, or if I may explain our thinking any further.
Will Lovatt, Commercial Director, Validis.
Validis Service - Update
Further to the great input we had from trial users from AccountingWEB, the Validis Service has now launched and at the same time extended to cover Sage (Line 50 and Instant), MYOB (Accounting and Accounting Plus), and QuickBooks (Pro and Accountant). The rollout programme will continue over the coming months to cover each of the most popular packages currently available.
The spectrum of users now adopting the service includes auditors and accountants from single partner practices to top 10 firms, company owners and directors, and bookkeepers both in house and service providers.
As discussed previously, we have maintained the high level of security across the service, as our users continue to demand the highest levels of security we offer.
We look forward to extending the service and actively invite feedback and constructive comment from the AccountingWEB community as the rollout continues.
Will Lovatt
Commercial Director, Validis
Site running under https .... why?
Whilst security is a laudable goal - what on earth is the point of having Contact details & About boxes etc under https ??
a. first it is overkill
b. second https incurs a performance hit
Interesting bearing in mind the whole point of the site - vetting data content!