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ONLINE SOFTWARE REVIEW: Twinfield. By Nigel Harris

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4th Jun 2006
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Last month we looked at Electronic cashbooks for the 21st century and David Carter suggested that 'the 21st century cashbook is the electronic bank statement'. If that's the case, I have just seen the future, and it's called Twinfield.

Well, that's a little unfair to other accounting software suppliers. Let's just say that Twinfield's online accounting service proves that David Carter's vision is not only spot on, it's not even the future - for the rest of the EU it's already here.

Background

Twinfield's founders left Coda in October 2000 to launch an ASP accounting solution in Holland based on Coda Financial Accounts. They very soon discovered that an effective online solution needed to be designed for the Internet from the outset and set about designing a totally new product, specifically a best of breed back office accounting system. The system also offers project accounting and time and expenses management.

Twinfield currently has some 18,000 users, 97% of whom are in Holland where six out of the top ten bookkeeping firms use Twinfield and BDO is moving not only its clients accounts but also its own internal systems onto Twinfield. The largest customer has 1,000 users in two countries and moved to Twinfield from Oracle Financials. However, the system is equally useable by sole traders. Twinfield's UK office opened last October.

In action

From the first screen Twinfield gives the impression of a professional product where every detail has been thought through. Access uses Verisign 128 bit security. The three part login credentials can be supplemented by a further SMS stage ' the system can be configured to send a text message to your mobile phone containing a unique code that must be entered to access the system. The login page also displays the system uptime in the last 30 days ' Twinfield's contract guarantees 99.6% uptime, a level which it achieves comfortably.

Data is backed up automatically with backup copies being held securely in locations on both East and West coast USA as well as at the Easynet data centre outside Schipol in Holland where Twinfield is hosted.

Initial setup is straightforward. Cash and invoice accounting templates for sole traders and limited companies are supplied to save you time, or you can create a new business from scratch. The system is designed as multi-user, which in the case of a sole trader may just mean the client and their accountant. The accountant can configure the system to meet the client's needs and abilities. Menu options, and whole sections, can be removed from the client's view, for example allowing them to do simple data entry and view basic reports while the accountant deals with the final postings, journals and detailed reporting. Twinfield uses the interesting concept of 'provisional transactions', which are available for account enquiries and reports but have to be finalised (or edited) by someone else, e.g a supervisor or the client's accountant. These mean that a business owner or junior staff with limited bookkeeping knowledge can carry out initial data entry but cannot wreck the accounts!

Twinfield's aim is to reduce data input and it's here that they have achieved David Carter's vision, at least elsewhere in Europe. In the Netherlands, for example, cheques are dead, electronic banking is the norm. In addition, all banks generate a standard electronic bank statement, using the MT940 standard bank format, an old mainframe standard that is used internally by UK banks. The system can be configured to import and post this data automatically. Assuming the user does electronic banking themselves, all they need to do is add their customers' and suppliers' bank details to their account details: as the electronic bank data is imported, account numbers included with each deposit and payment enable the system to match them to sales and purchase ledger accounts. Transactions can even be allocated against invoices as the bank posting journal is reviewed!

I can imagine an admin person downloading the bank data weekly or monthly and inputting it to Twinfield as a provisional entry. The accountant ' either in-house or external ' can then review and finalise the posting in minutes. Electronic invoicing would work in a similar way.

Data entry the old fashioned way looks as easy and as quick as any good PC-based software. Java applets display a pick list of account names as you start to type a customer/supplier/account name. New accounts can be added on the fly from any posting screen. Importantly, you can move around the posting screen with the Enter key, an obvious feature missing from most online systems.

Reporting

There are some 60 standard fixed format reports on the system. The screen display is clean and clear and they can be output to printer or as PDF, TXT or HTML files. If the built-in reports are not enough, raw data can be exported in PDF, CSV, XML or XLS formats for infinite further analysis and reporting. An Excel macro plug-in, 'Twinfield Analysis', enables you to work on live Twinfield data from within Excel. A selection of 'TwinCubes', pre-defined data sets, is provided to make this even easier, but pivot table experts would find this a doddle.

Final thoughts

From what I have seen so far, this is the Rolls Royce of online accounting services. Like most others, it is being actively marketed through accounting firms rather than direct to end users, because this is when software as a service (SaaS) comes into it own. The ability to view and report on live client data ' or indeed to work with a client on their regular bookkeeping ' from the comfort of your own office enables the accountant to deliver proactive and added value services that would otherwise be impractical, due to time and/or fee constraints. Whatever you need from an online accounting service, Twinfield delivers it, and does it with style.

At prices from £9 per month for a basic timesheet user up to £52 per month for a full function administrator user (you need at least one of these) you need to work out the costings for yourself. But don't forget to factor in zero installation, built-in backups, automatic upgrades, system maintenance, total scaleability and the advantage of remote access from anywhere. I'll be giving an overview of the whole UK SaaS accounts market later this month to show you where Twinfield fits into the market at the moment.

However, businesses using Twinfield in partnership with their accountants should reap the greatest benefits. If your accountant offers this, I suggest you consider it very seriously.

Is this the future of bookkeeping as we know it? It certainly demonstrates what CAN be done right now. As David Carter suggested, all it needs is for the UK accounting profession and banks to get together and make electronic banking work for businesses.

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Replies (13)

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By tomtrainer
06th Aug 2006 22:21

Sorry
David - Interesting to hear that your response was actually intended to be offensive. Sorry for my "who in their right mind" comment; sometimes one forgets that posts are read by people with a (commendably) personal attachment to their product. In this light, I accept that it was rude, and offer my apologies.

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By tomtrainer
23rd Jul 2006 09:11

No bank recs; input directly from bank statement
Isn't this putting your trust in your bank to get your cash book right? Have I misunderstood? Who in their right mind would input their transactions directly from their bank statement without checking them, and how can you check them without a bank rec?

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By AnonymousUser
14th Jul 2006 17:32

Reconciliation
Ian, as you may have seen from one of Nigel's earlier reviews, Liberty Accounts offers an excellent online bookkeeping service that includes bank account reconciliation and should definitely be a consideration for you.

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By david_terrar
19th Jul 2006 14:12

Bank handling / reconciliation
Hi Ian,
Part of the idea behind Twinfield is to move towards zero manual data entry, and so get as much of the data as possible electronically, as Nigel's review explains. That, plus the fact that the banking system works rather differently over the channel means that Twinfield's approach is different to some more traditional systems.

Basically we have turned the entire bank reconciliation on its head, and in our opinion have simplified the process considerably.  As you know we process both payments and receipts in the one entry screen in Twinfield, and follow the paper bank (or electronic import) statement line by line, matching against the appropriate invoice either in the bank entry screen itself, or with our separate matching process (you chose which to use).  This means that the bank position in Twinfield always matches the actual bank balance, and a bank reconciliation function, in the traditional sense, isn't required. Where cheques are issued or received and there is time lag to when they hit the bank account, they can be recorded in our cashbook facility, and then matched subsequently.

It's probably best if I show you, so you can see how straightforward it is, so I'll call you and try and arrange that. However, I'd also like to add that if you think we should change the way we do it, we'd love to discuss that too and try and get what you want in to the product plan.
David Terrar
Mailto:[email protected]
web: http://www.d2c.org.uk and http://www.twinfield.com
blog: http://biztwozero.com

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By tomtrainer
24th Jul 2006 16:16

Patronising
David - Thank you so much for taking the time to explain what a bank reconciliation is. Other than this, however, your answer tells us nothing; you appear be saying the reconciliation is easy because, doing it your way (i.e. posting from the bank statement), the statement will always agree to the ledger. It seems you have learnt the definition of a bank reconciliation without ever having understood the point.

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By david_terrar
04th Aug 2006 14:28

Bank handling / reconciliation / Nominal extracts
Tom,
I guess your "who in their right mind" comments started me off... we do the cross checking, just in a different way - maybe I should show you. I notice you haven't responded at Nigel's wrap up article where you've suggested that none of the major SaaS applications do full nominal download. Twinfield does, I believe Winweb does, and I would guess a few of the others do too. I'd be interested to know what solutions you've tried or got experience of. Please make contact.
David Terrar
Mailto:[email protected]
web: http://www.d2c.org.uk and http://www.twinfield.com
blog: http://biztwozero.com

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By david_terrar
07th Aug 2006 11:38

Thanks Tom
Apology accepted and much appreciated - I'm sorry I responded in kind. Yep, if you're passionate about your product it's a little too easy to take it personally - and in this medium the words may not come across in quite the way or tone they were intended. But the fact that we can have the debate is excellent!
David Terrar
Mailto:[email protected]
web: http://www.d2c.org.uk and http://www.twinfield.com
blog: http://biztwozero.com

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By david_terrar
09th Aug 2006 23:13

SaaS GL download
Hi Tom,
Actually I guessed wrong about Winweb - I'm told they don't have an adequate Excel download facility yet. Twinfield on the other hand has got a comprehensive browse and download to Excel function for files and transactions (including the fields you are looking for) as well as an Excel plug in called Twinfield Analysis which provides you with a number of pre-built data cubes for you to analyse, covering things like the full GL, year to date ATB, time & expense data, etc.
David Terrar
Mailto:[email protected]
web: http://www.d2c.org.uk and http://www.twinfield.com
blog: http://biztwozero.com

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By woodgate1
05th Jun 2006 12:30

True collaboration
Twinfield is a very exciting product. We're a firm of accountants (Goodman Jones) and have been using Twinfield for over 6 months to power our GJ Online offering. It allows us to truly collaborate with our clients something that is just not possible with traditional desktop systems. You just can't beat everyone sharing the same source data regardless of their location. Twinfield have designed the system to let Accountant and client work together with ease.

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By tomtrainer
08th Aug 2006 07:13

David
Glad to hear we can have the debate David. If you remember, my original question was about why someone would want to populate their ledger directly from the bank statement, with all the risks inherent in doing so.

Incidentally, with regard to my comments about downloads, I should have said they do not provide "adequate" downloads, i.e. a list of transactions showing all relevant fields (account name, transaction number etc.).

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By iknell
13th Jul 2006 11:23

Twinfields
I spoke to a Twinfield representative a few months ago (Mr Terrar). It sounds a very good product except for one major drawback - there is no bank reconciliation option. It only accounts for bank transactions when they hit the bank account. A lot of businesses still deal with cheques with a minority (albeit a sizeable one), writing cheques and holding on to them for a week or two.

We were looking for an online solution for our bookkeeping but as Twinfield can't deal with this its not the product for us.

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By david_terrar
23rd Jul 2006 21:48

A different way of working
Hi Tom,
A bank reconciliation is the process of systematically comparing the cash balance as reported by the bank with the cash balance on the company's books and explaining any differences. We do the process of checking, but just not in the traditional way. And we do have 20,000+ happy users, some of whom have been with us for over 5 years.
David Terrar
Mailto:[email protected]
web: http://www.d2c.org.uk and http://www.twinfield.com
blog: http://biztwozero.com

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By chatman
17th Aug 2011 20:29

Are these comments out of chronological order?

or is it just me?

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