Caution on misuse of term "Conforms to BASDA" in software directories

The Accounting Software Buyers Guide in a recent magazine in Ireland contained a table of a survey of software packages with a checkbox under various categories. The table has a column heading "Conform to BASDA Euro Guidelines" but that term is not defined anywhere in the article. Therefore the reader is left to infer that those packages that ticked that box have BASDA certification, which is not true in all cases. We need to correct the possibility of a misleading inference by the reader.

The "BASDA EMU Specification for Application Software" version 4.0 27/5/99 is a reference standard for product certification. It may be used by companies as a guide, which is why it is generally available for a small charge. The EMU Accreditation Standard is freely available from BASDA - the EMU specification is chargeable at GBP50.00.

A claim to "conform to BASDA guidelines" is not the same as having BASDA certification/accreditation. Neither is it the same as BASDA membership and displaying the BASDA membership logo. This dilutes the meaning of the term and degrades the value to those who have gone to the trouble of independent testing and review against the BASDA standards.

Of the table, only nine packages are allowed to display the BASDA "accredited" logo. Twenty packages, whose suppliers ticked "conform", were making self-certification statements without BASDA authority. This is not to say that the packages above would not pass our testing if they underwent it. But the reader should not be encouraged to misread the table and infer an independent validation where none exists.

It is important to point out that almost all the packages that have been tested fell down on the test initially - requiring some changes to be made to meet the tight BASDA Accreditation Standard. Some were functionality changes but every software producer has had to considerably beef up their communications to customers and user documentation. Users need to understand that rounding differences are inevitable and they must understand exactly how their package handles them - there are different solutions possible.

Also be aware that the standard has been updated since the first awards were made: the original conversion & triangulation standard applied to 1998/99, and the current base conversion standard which is what is required now, for 2001. Single-point (level 1) compliance is no longer good enough for the final base/account changeover needs. Eurotown Loughrea participants had to change well before any other SME and found the software vendors not ready, because the vendors were expecting a generally late changeover.

For more information, see http://www.basda.org > "Accreditations" > "EMU Accreditation"

BASDA has now launched the next level of its EMU Accreditation Programme which covers base currency conversion - Level 2. Software auditors from the Dutch member firm of Ernst & Young certified CODA Financials Version 7.0, Scala Version 5.1, SunAccount 4.2.5-4, Systems Union SunAccount 4.2.6, Oracle Financials 11, CASH2000.h

The following packages have now been certified for BASDA EMU Accreditation by Systems Modelling, the second approved tester for certifying application software against the BASDA EMU standards:

SquareSum Dream v2.10
Exchequer Enterprise v4.3x

Are you sure your software applications can support all the requirements for the business changeover to the euro? Get an independent assessment on their "compliance" or "euro-readiness" with our euro software certification service. Visit http://www.sysmod.com/eurocert.htm