IAS’s mission is to “Provide scalable business solutions that make it possible to grow your business from the home office to the corporate enterprise.”

Internet Accounting Software, Inc. (IAS) is a manufacturer of accounting software and development tools. IAS was founded in 1991 by a computer consultant and a Certified Public Accountant who were resellers of microcomputer accounting software. After providing accounting systems for over 10 years it became apparent that the need to modify software to meet the end-users unique requirements was becoming increasingly important. IAS Visual ADVANCE! was designed to provide developers with a solid accounting foundation by meeting the following requirements:

• The package must provide basic accounting functionality.
• A high level accounting data integrity must be maintained.
• The software must be easy to modify.
• The software must be easy to use.
• The software must be reasonably priced.

To this day, we believe no other accounting vendor provides a solution that fits the five criteria as well as IAS Visual ADVANCE!.

• Basic Accounting Functionality
  Most popular midrange accounting systems do a great job providing basic accounting features. In fact, in order to service a broad user range, most provide an over abundance of features that most users will never need. These extra features tend to make the software more difficult to learn and use. The fact is, if the accounting software provides a solid foundation for making modifications in a straight forward way, it would be a simple task to add most unique features that a user might require. IAS Visual ADVANCE! provides a solid base of accounting functionality and an object-oriented framework for making modifications or building entire vertical applications.
   
• A high level of accounting data integrity must be maintained.
  The number one most time consuming support problems for midrange Windows accounting packages occur as a result of data corruption. A true Client-Server design where workstations access data from a dedicated SQL data server (MS SQL SERVER, ORACLE, etc.) provides the best level of protection for data. Today, these systems are complex and extremely expensive. Software costs of over one hundred thousand dollars are not uncommon. Unfortunately, this type of configuration is beyond the reach of most small to mid-sized businesses. However, less complex and expensive technology, such as data buffering and transaction processing, can dramatically reduce the chance of data corruption. Most midrange Windows accounting packages today fail to provide even a minimum degree of protection.
  
  IAS Visual ADVANCE! utilizes the fastest relational database available. All data is buffered and transaction rollbacks are performed in the event of an interruption of processing.
   
• Easy to modify
  In order to provide accounting systems to a broad base of users, the ability to modify or add accounting features is essential. Important reasons include:
   
• Eliminates reliance on third parties
  Certain problems can be diagnosed best by reviewing source code
  Modifications could be an excellent source of revenue.
  
  Although modifying an accounting package's source code appears to be a great idea, there are many hidden costs associated with providing modifications for the Windows accounting packages available today. These costs include:
   
  • Cost of source code
    The actual cost outlay to become an authorized developer of the midrange accounting packages is extremely high compared to the usability of the product that is delivered. These products are limited primarily because they do not provide full source.
    
    The companies that do not provide source code fall into two categories:
    
    - Those that flat out do not give all the source code
    - Those that provide customization tools and "hooks" into the accounting code
    
    If full source code is not available, it may be impossible to properly perform or debug certain modifications. This is a frustrating issue since you usually do not realize the significance of owning full source code until you have already sunk tens of thousands of dollars into the product and you need to make a change to code that you cannot acquire.
    
    The use of customization tools and "hooks" into the accounting system is great for certain types of modifications. Customization tools typically are great for adding, removing or changing field properties. However they cannot be used for making more complex modifications, which change processing or update logic.
    
    IAS Visual ADVANCE! comes with full source code. Changes are made in Microsoft Visual FoxPro, one of the best development and debugging environments available today.
     
  • Cost of training and hiring programmers
    Many of the popular accounting packages are written in a proprietary language, a language where there is a short supply of programmers, or a language where a highly skilled programmer is necessary to make even the simplest of changes. Furthermore, many popular packages require expensive and time consuming certification programs no matter how skilled a programmer may be.
    
    IAS Visual ADVANCE! was written using Microsoft Visual FoxPro. Visual FoxPro has a large installed developer base.
     
  • Failure to accurately budget modifications
    The cost of a modification is directly proportionate to the amount of code that a programmer must decipher and then write. To put it another way: the more code, the more time. In non-object-oriented design, it is sometimes difficult to pinpoint how many programs may be impacted by a particular modification. Object-oriented dictates a design that stresses localized changes. It provides a mechanism called "inheritance" which propagates changes throughout an application.
    
    IAS Visual ADVANCE! was developed using an object-oriented framework. Since there is a high degree of code reuse changes are localized in one area. Complex modifications are relatively straightforward and easier to estimate.
     
• Easy to use
  Software with a poor user interface is common among Windows applications. If the accounting software you choose has a confusing array of features and a non-intuitive interface, support will become a nightmare and users will be dissatisfied. Since IAS Visual ADVANCE! was built using an object-oriented framework, the user interface is straight forward and consistent throughout all modules.
   
• Reasonably priced
  Many of the popular Windows packages are priced so that they exclude a large portion of smaller growing businesses, and the smaller business market is the highest growth area.