Is it worth modifying the program to suit the characteristics of the organization? Software modernization - why it is needed and how to order1 min read Software modernization tasks
Any computer program becomes outdated quite quickly. As a result, the company has to spend money on its completion and improvement. The procedure for accounting for these costs depends on whether an independent object of copyright arises as a result or not. According to GOST 28806-90 "Quality software. Terms and definitions" modification of the program can be carried out:
To eliminate defects;
To improve the software;
To adapt it to the changes that have occurred and current requirements.
According to civil law, derivative works are classified as objects of copyright. This is a creative reworking of another, previously created work. In addition, composite works are also included in such objects, provided that they are the result of creative work in the selection or arrangement of materials.
Processing and modification of computer programs is considered to be any change in them, with the exception of adaptation (making changes for the program to work on specific technical means or under the control of specific additional programs).
As a rule, the processing of a program is carried out not by the copyright holder, but on his behalf by another person within the framework of a copyright agreement. Therefore, the results of such processing are subject to copyright. The author's order agreement may provide for one of the following options:
Alienation to the customer of the exclusive right to a work that should have been created by the author;
Granting the customer the right to use this work within the limits established by the contract.
Suppose that as a result of refinement, an independent object of copyright arises, to which the company receives exclusive rights. The transfer of such rights to the modified program satisfies the conditions under which it is considered an intangible asset. In this case, the inventory object of intangible assets is considered to be a set of rights arising from one patent, certificate, or alienation agreement. Consequently, such expenses will be taken into account as an independent and separate intangible asset.
At the same time, the former intangible asset ( old version program) either continues to be registered (if the company uses it), or is written off (if the company uses only the new version). In the second case, the residual cost of the program is included in other expenses.
Example
The company received exclusive rights to computer program. Its initial cost was 560,000 rubles. Subsequently, the program was finalized and modernized. The company received exclusive rights to the results of this work. Rework costs amounted to RUB 236,000. (including VAT - 36,000 rubles). After modernization, the old version of the program was no longer used. At this moment, an amount of 75 0 00 rubles was accrued on it.
These operations are reflected in the following records:
200,000 rub. (236,000 - 36,000) - expenses for modernizing the program are taken into account;
36,000 rub. - VAT on expenses for finalizing the program is accepted for deduction;
200,000 rub. - modernization costs are accounted for as a separate intangible asset;
75,000 rub. - depreciation written off previous version programs;
485,000 rub. (560,000 - 75,000) - the previous version of the program has been written off.
If, as a result of processing or finalization of the program, an independent object of copyright does not arise (for example, a modification of a computer program is carried out to eliminate defects), then these costs are included in expenses for ordinary activities. They are not reflected as expenses for the acquisition of intangible assets. At the same time, they can be written off from expense accounts either at a time or gradually over the expected period of use of the modified intangible asset. The procedure for writing off such costs (one time or gradually) must be determined by the company's accounting policy.
Example
Let's go back to the previous example. Let us assume that as a result of the revision, a new object of exclusive rights was not created. It is assumed that a new version the program will be used for 16 months.
In this situation, such costs are reflected in the entries:
36,000 rub. - VAT is reflected on the costs of modernizing the program;
Any computer program becomes outdated quite quickly. As a result, the company has to spend money on its completion and improvement. The procedure for accounting for these costs depends on whether an independent object of copyright arises as a result or not. According to GOST 28806-90 "Quality of software. Terms and definitions" modification of the program can be carried out:
To eliminate defects;
To improve the software;
To adapt it to the changes that have occurred and current requirements.
According to civil law, derivative works are classified as objects of copyright. This is a creative reworking of another, previously created work. In addition, composite works are also included in such objects, provided that they are the result of creative work in the selection or arrangement of materials.
Processing and modification of computer programs are considered to be any changes, with the exception of adaptation (making changes to allow the program to work on specific technical means or under the control of specific additional programs).
As a rule, the processing of a program is carried out not by the copyright holder, but on his behalf by another person within the framework of a copyright agreement. Therefore, the results of such processing are subject to copyright. The author's order agreement may provide for one of the following options:
Alienation to the customer of the exclusive right to a work that should have been created by the author;
Granting the customer the right to use this work within the limits established by the contract.
Suppose that as a result of refinement, an independent object of copyright arises, to which the company receives exclusive rights. The transfer of such rights to the modified program satisfies the conditions under which it is considered an intangible asset. In this case, the inventory object of intangible assets is considered to be a set of rights arising from one patent, certificate, or alienation agreement. Consequently, such expenses will be taken into account as an independent and separate intangible asset.
In this case, the previous intangible asset (old version of the program) either continues to be registered (if the company uses it) or is written off (if the company uses only the new version). In the second case, the residual cost of the program is included in other expenses.
The company received exclusive rights to the computer program. Its initial cost was 560,000 rubles. Subsequently, the program was finalized and modernized. The company received exclusive rights to the results of this work. Rework costs amounted to RUB 236,000. (including VAT - 36,000 rubles). After modernization, the old version of the program was no longer used. At this moment, depreciation was accrued on it in the amount of 75 0 00 rubles.
These operations are reflected in the following records:
Debit 19 Credit 60 (76)
Debit 08-5 Credit 60 (76)
Debit 68 Credit 19
36,000 rub. - VAT on expenses for finalizing the program is accepted for deduction;
Debit 04 Credit 08-5
200,000 rub. - modernization costs are accounted for as a separate intangible asset;
Debit 05 Credit 04
75,000 rub. - depreciation was written off according to the previous version of the program;
Debit 91-2 Credit 04
485,000 rub. (560,000 - 75,000) - the residual value of the previous version of the program has been written off.
If, as a result of processing or finalization of the program, an independent object of copyright does not arise (for example, a modification of a computer program is carried out to eliminate defects), then these costs are included in expenses for ordinary activities. They are not reflected as expenses for the acquisition of intangible assets. At the same time, they can be written off from expense accounts either at a time or gradually over the expected period of use of the modified intangible asset. The procedure for writing off such costs (one time or gradually) must be determined by the company's accounting policy.
Example
Let's go back to the previous example. Let us assume that as a result of the revision, a new object of exclusive rights was not created. It is assumed that the new version of the program will be used for 16 months.
In this situation, such costs are reflected in the entries:
Debit 19 Credit 60 (76)
36,000 rub. - VAT is reflected on the costs of modernizing the program;
Debit 20 (44) Credit 60 (76)
200,000 rub. (236,000 - 36,000) - expenses for modernizing the program are taken into account;
Debit 68 Credit 19
36,000 rub. - VAT on expenses for finalizing the program is accepted for deduction.
Situation 1
According to the company's accounting policy, such costs are written off at a time. In this case, the company records the following:
Debit 90-2 Credit 20 (26, 44)
200,000 rub. - expenses for modernizing the program were written off.
Situation 2
According to the company's accounting policy, such costs are written off gradually over the period to which they relate. In this situation, they are written off monthly by posting:
Debit 90-2 Credit 20 (44)
12,500 rub. (RUB 200,000: 16 months) - part of the costs for finalizing the program was written off.
Based on materials from the reference book "
- How rework affects configuration updates.
- What is semi-automatic update mode?
- Refinement can be done in different ways. How is “soft” modification done?
- Modify or use standard solution? Advantages and disadvantages.
Finalization of the configuration affects the subsequent update. Because of this, many are hesitant to modify the program “for themselves.” If you open the configurator, then on standard program There will be a lock on all objects. This means that there are no configuration changes. In this case, the platform allows you to update in automatic mode.
At the moment when the support method changes in the configuration, the platform creates a certain standard - the supplier configuration. Automatic updates will no longer be possible. Now, after making changes and improvements, the programmer must make a comparison with this standard and find out what changes were made in order to transfer these changes when updating the configuration. Depending on how the modification was done, an update in semi-automatic mode is possible. And at the same time, the time spent by the programmer on the update practically does not change. This is achieved by making “soft” changes. All changes are made by adding new objects and writing new processing. During an upgrade, any new objects are not marked for changes because they do not have a child in the provider configuration. This is possible due to the programmed behavior of the platform. Thus, you can improve any 1C program to suit your requirements, while updating it almost like a standard one.
Improvement of the 1C program through the development of extensions.
One of the advantages of 1C programs is the ability to change standard functionality: add new documents and reports or change the operating mode of existing ones. For many organizations, such changes mean a significant simplification of routine operations, a reduction in working time for generating various reports, and simply an increase in the convenience of work. But every coin has two sides, and finalizing the program may entail certain inconveniences. In this article I would like to talk about the pros and cons of such actions.
Let's start, perhaps, with the positives. Of course, it's great when a program can do some work for you. For example, a manager asks for a weekly accounts receivable report that includes the name of the services that were provided to the client, the date of issue and invoice number, and the date the work was completed. In order to generate such a report, the contractor will need enough a large number of time, while the program could do it in a few seconds. And if the standard configuration does not contain the required report, then it can appear there through the efforts of programmers and significantly simplify the responsibilities of some employees.
In addition to simple improvements in the form of reports, you can make significant changes to the functionality of the program: you can change the cost distribution algorithm when closing a month or add new sections (analytics) to it, or you can add a waybill accounting block to regular 1C: Accounting and much, much more other. If you find experienced and smart programmers, then most of your desires to change the program and improve the usability of work will be fulfilled.
Now a few words about what modifications there are.
First option - you are not satisfied with the printed form of the document, you want to change or add it new uniform. This option is the simplest and most harmless. As a rule, it will not entail any negative consequences and such modifications can be safely ordered, of course, unless you decide to print some particularly complex table from the document, which will require a very large amount of data to fill out. But most often, information from one specific document gets into the printed form, so problems here are unlikely.
The second option is that you need a report that would summarize the information and display it in a form convenient for you. If the data currently stored in the database is sufficient to generate this report, then such modification is also absolutely harmless. If, in the form of the required report, there is some information that is not currently stored in the 1C database - for example, the names of the drivers and the license plate numbers of the cars in which the goods were delivered to customers or the number of days that the employee spent working on a certain project; then you will need not only adding one report, but also changing existing documents, adding fields to them in which you can enter this information, so that you can then display it in the report. This is a more complex, third option.
So, the third option is changing existing or adding new documents, changing the algorithms for filling out or conducting them, as well as creating new directories or registers to store additional information. If in the first two options you can not make changes to the configuration structure itself, but simply add external printed forms or reports to it, then in this case the configuration structure ceases to be typical. What does this mean? Each time the database is updated, you will need to pay attention to all modifications, transfer or adjust them. This work is usually performed by programmers and it takes much more time than a simple update (the amount of time spent depends on the complexity of the improvements). And accordingly, the cost of maintaining such a configuration increases.
In addition, you can quickly update the standard configuration on your own at the moment when the need for an update arises. With changed configurations, everything will not be so fast and depends not only on you.
And one more nuance - when working with completed configurations, the qualifications of the specialist who works with it are very important. In my practice, there were examples when the database of one of the organizations was updated by “boy Petya”, who came to install an antivirus for them, and many of the improvements made by me had to be made again, because he simply did not pay attention to them. For typical configurations Qualification requirements are somewhat lower.
With my article, I did not want to dissuade you from changing the configuration or, on the contrary, convince you that it is worth doing. If you have a desire to modify something to suit the specifics of your organization, then you just need to think carefully about all the pros and cons of such a decision, understand how significant they are for your situation and only then draw conclusions.
My task is just to tell you about the benefits and possible difficulties, because “forewarned is forearmed” (c).
Any software product designed to work under a particular platform has its own service life, depending on the desire and capabilities of the developer company to support its solution during its operation by customers. Once a developer refuses to support a released product, the companies or consumers using it begin to need to upgrade software so that it meets increased demands or changing application conditions. We will try to tell you why this is necessary and how you can order a modification of a program or mobile application within the framework of the current material.
Causes
The first thing to start with is the reasons for the need for software modernization, and speaking in simple language— its modifications to suit the user's needs. They can arise based on many factors, the main ones of which are listed below:
- software obsolescence;
- lack of support from the development company;
- the presence of a number of architectural shortcomings that reduce the flexibility of the software;
- the need to improve the program to meet current requirements or a new software shell;
- loss of control over the data contained in the program.
The process of software obsolescence provokes a significant decrease in the effectiveness of the software, the modernization of which is usually carried out by the company that developed the product. But often the latter have to abandon support for an outdated product in favor of developing more advanced software. The cost of a more modern program may turn out to be significantly higher than the amount already paid by the buyer at the time of purchasing the used software, which often becomes an extremely unprofitable undertaking.
However, most often the need to modernize a program or an entire complex arises due to the expansion of the range of tasks that the software should cover. Including due to an increase in the number of employees interacting with it, or the banal need to improve and expand the user interface.
Software modernization tasks
The software modernization procedure pursues several goals that completely cover the needs of organizations interested in ordering this type of service. Let's list them:
- expansion of functionality;
- adaptation to new hardware platforms and technologies;
- transfer and adaptation of user data;
- performance optimization;
- system integration.
The company performing software modification receives from the customer full list tasks that need to be completed as part of the upcoming modernization. Only a competently drawn up technical specification for the upcoming work will ensure full compliance of the upgraded software with the client’s requirements, which is something that managers who are thinking about improving the programs used at the enterprise should worry about in advance. It is also necessary to conclude a special agreement with the developer who is ready to modernize the software, describing the conditions and terms of further technical support improving the functionality of the solution.
Where to order?
The choice of a developer who modifies “foreign” programs or mobile applications, is based on the specific application of the software that needs to be changed. The best thing to do would be to send requests to development companies with a detailed list of requirements for the updated functionality of the product in use, so that they can evaluate their capabilities and prepare their own list of clarifying questions for the customer or send a counter-offer to carry out work on modifying the software. The issue of the cost of software modernization directly depends on the timing of the implementation of the plan, as well as the qualifications of the development team that will carry out the work. All points of upcoming interaction should be discussed by the parties to the agreement in advance, including the stages and form of testing intermediate versions of the program modified to meet the needs of the customer. This will insure both parties from the emergence of controversial issues, especially in terms of financial support for the work.