CYMA Systems Inc. — CYMAIV Accounting For Windows: Financial Management

Article Tools

• Print This Article
• Email This Article to a Friend
• Save This Article
• Order a Reprint

From the September 2006 Review of Mid-Range Accounting Systems

The CYMA Financial Management System is a general-purpose integrated suite of accounting modules that addresses the needs of small to midsize businesses using a solid, modular approach. The product hasn’t seen any major changes in the past few years, but each version still includes numerous feature enhancements that keep it competitive and up to date.

Buddy Trent of Canadian River Municipal (www.crmwa.com), a water authority that delivers water to the Texas Panhandle area, says they selected CYMA’s program because of the personnel and the way they presented the package. Canadian River Municipal has 11 member cities with some smaller cities branched off from there. It delivers about 25,000,000,000 gallons of water on a yearly basis to over 500,000 people and many industrial sites. The company utilizes Kerr Consulting in The Woodlands, Texas, for support and says they have been outstanding. “I have worked with many dealers in my time, but have to admit that CYMA is definitely the leader in this area,” Trent said.
Trent says the program is easy to use and has outstanding reports. They currently run GL, AP and Payroll modules. “CYMA has saved us so much time and money on our accounting requirements that we don’t consider it a cost but rather an asset for the company,” he said. Trent also noted that his employees love working with the system. “It is a pleasure to have them enjoy working with the accounting modules we have installed,” he said. “They are forever finding new ways of working with the data or reports and find it a real challenge and rewarding experience when they discover something new that CYMA can do.”

Ease of Use/Transaction Entry -- 5 Stars
All modules launch from a single application window in the System Manager. The login screen allows you to select the company you want to work with. The main work area is an HTML-based browser interface called eDesk, an integrated browser window that is used for many things, such as program reference materials, version feature lists, financial calculators and utilities, and company contact links. The screen can also be customized using standard HTML, which can provide links and shortcuts to program functions, common tasks, etc. Available modules are available from a drop-down list, with submenus that change to coincide with module selection.

Checklists are provided to assist with company and employee setup. New companies can be created from scratch, set up based on templates or copied from another company’s settings. Data-entry screens are logical with a consistency across all modules. Fields are color-coded to show key fields, required fields as well as lookups. All modules make use of multi-tab screens to keep the data-entry windows from becoming cluttered, and to separate information into various categories. Most of the primary screens, such as Customers, Vendors, Employees and Inventory also have a “Custom” tab. Using the Custom Data Designer, you can add extra fields to master files, which is maintained along with the master file data. This allows an unlimited number of custom fields to be added and tracked.

Modules & Notable Features -- 5 Stars
As noted earlier, CYMA offers FMS on a modular basis centered around the System Manager, which is required for all other modules. Other modules are offered individually, which allows businesses to only purchase what is needed with the option to add other modules at a later date. Available modules include GL, AP, AR, Bank Reconciliation, Inventory Control, Job Costing, Payroll, Purchase Order and Sales Order. CYMA also offers state payroll forms, a MICR check package, Crystal Reports and F9.

FMS supports an unlimited number of companies, employees and divisions. Version 8 introduced a number of enhancements throughout nearly every module. Data-entry screens throughout all modules are now resizable. Search screens now allow multiple indexes for searching, and selected records can be edited directly from the browser windows. The Sales Order and Inventory modules received a significant number of enhancements, including new Bill of Materials functionality, physical inventory count entry (rather than just an adjustment amount), ability to enter negative quantities on sales orders and quotes, streamlined quote entry, as well as many other data-entry and reporting improvements. Several order and customer history lookups have also been added to common entry screens for quick access to historical data.