CODA beefs up accounting app for Salesforce.com

An emerging battle among accounting software vendors for a piece of Salesforce.com's 50,000-plus-strong customer base intensified Tuesday, as CODA announced the second version of its CODA 2go application.

CODA 2go, which has been built "natively" on Salesforce.com's Force.com platform, represents a major step up from the initial edition unveiled last year, said CODA CEO Jeremy Roche.

That release focused on accounts receivable, he said. "Now we're adding the rest of the ledger. It's a full-fledged accounting product."

The new software has multicompany and multicurrency capabilities as well - features that could make it appealing to larger or highly distributed businesses.

While the vendor only has 10 live customers for CODA 2go so far, "plenty of people are implementing it at the moment," he said.

Many prospective customers have been waiting for the full accounting capabilities to be released, Roche added.

The new application will be available for download in a "test and trial" format Tuesday, with the general release coming in the next few weeks.

Pricing starts at US$125 per user per month. Subsequent release cycles will closely follow Salesforce.com's own schedule, and over time CODA plans to offer customers the ability to buy individual modules as well, Roche said.

CODA will be competing for Salesforce.com customers with the likes of Intacct and NetSuite.

But CODA 2go's close technological alignment with Salesforce.com could give it an edge.

In addition, Salesforce.com's large user base makes the playing field quite large, Roche said. "There are a lot of people who want back office [capabilities] with Salesforce.com," he said.

CODA, which was acquired by Unit 4 Agresso last year, has been around a long time and enjoys "a good rep in the on-premise world," said 451 Group analyst China Martens.

Therefore, CODA 2go may have an additional appeal for traditional accounting software customers who are contemplating SaaS, she said.

While CODA could certainly end up cannibalizing its own on-premise customer base with the on-demand offering, that scenario would be preferable to losing those customers altogether, she added.

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