Central and local government organizations have traditionally been served by a small group of specialized system providers. Additional demands to deliver advanced financial management information to a variety of users has caused many organizations to rethink their previous strategies and look toward specialized client/server financial systems.

Government organizations need systems that can deliver accrual accounting, commitment controls and advanced security, as well as manage the new pressures of performance measurements that judge efficiency. Requirements for project controls to facilitate charging for services and better budgetary systems to approve accountability are also high on the list.

SunSystems entered the public sector market place in the early 1980's, and since that time we have supplied a large number of systems into central government departments, agencies, non-departmental public bodies and not-for-profit organizations.

Through this experience in the public sector, we have developed a strong understanding of the issues facing government departments and bodies and this is reflected in the functionality incorporated into SunSystems.

For example, functionality developed for the public sector includes:

• The ability to perform simultaneous vote and accrual accounting without the need for dual ledgers or complex reconciliation procedures
  
• The ability to extend accrual accounting processes to monitor aims and objectives thereby providing full resource accounting
  
• The provision of extensive analysis of both transactions and account codes to reflect the reporting requirements of government
  
• The capability to reflect the hierarchical nature of most departments without resorting to restrictive and high maintenance chart of account structures
  
• The option to define security controls which will safeguard confidential or sensitive government information
  
• The ability to handle a variety of VAT rates (UK), including the situation of partial exemption
  
• The ability to handle GST (Australia) requirements, including accounting for exempt items and separating the GST component
  
• The ability to value assets under current cost or modified historic cost accounting principles
  
• Enquiry access to accounting and budget information for very large user counts via the Vision Executive module