If you are an individual that you've got here by mistake, especially if you don't are in the finances field, don't read more of this article. This is about software apps and about business finances. And, of course, software application dedicated to manage business finances, apps or software suites that are helpful for carrying out business tasks and managing financial records more timely (less time consuming) and more efficiently.
Big companies, like the multinationals, can design and develop their own software suites (in house or as order to dedicated company that provide custom software) and they are not available for the public or others, so the top software applications does not include these custom software apps.
People have the tendency to use local software, developed by companies in their own country because they offer some facilities as their native language, various formats and reports recognized by national and local authorities and, especially, they are updated with the changes that occur in the legislation.
The next applications are available for anyone, no matter the size of the business. I am not sure if they offer the reports exactly as you need or want, but they can are very useful for following the flow of products and data inside your business.
GnuCash
The interface is a little bleak, but it has a lot of features and it very complete: it tracks stocks and mutual funds portofolio, it has customer and vendor management, it can create invoince and budgets, it can track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses (among others).
It's open source and it's available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS x, Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Windows.
Buddi
It has been translated into multiple languages, so this may not be a problem for the users whom are not sure about their knowledge of english or french. The features list include tracking accounts, personal finance reports and budgeting - but you have to enter transaction manually, there is no allowed transaction download. For safety Buddy can encrypt the financial data using passwords. You can download free plugins in order to add more features.
It's available on any operating system running Sun Java Virtual Machine, including most of Linux versions, Mac OS X 10.4 and hider and Windows.
PL Cash
It offers finance reports, support for multiple account types and basic investment tracking. PL Cash does not encrypt data, it stores it in plain text format which allow the user to read the data using software from Open Office suite or Microsoft Office suite. Also, data can be imported from any software can supports QIF data exports (as Quicken and Microsoft Money).
It's availabe on any operating system with Java Runtine installed.
Microsoft Office Accounting Express (version 2009)
It can create quotes and invoces, you can organize lists of customers, vendors and employees, track expenses. There are available modules such general ledger, account payable and receivable, various customizable eports, invoicing and bill payment.
Its distribution was discontinued by Microsoft in November 2009, but the software application is still available for download on third party website.
It's available on Windows.
Microsoft Money Sunset Deluxe
It's the software applocation made available for free after discontinuing Microsoft Money Plus. It replace the earlier versions, but it has no Internet support features (like automatic transaction updates) and Microsoft offers no support for this version.
It's available on Windows.