business accounting software

to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that perform some tasks on an operating system.

Updated Terminology

The term is now being used to include those that are non PC based like smartphones, palm OS, etc due to the proliferation of the mobile industry based on Symbian and Windows platforms.

"Software" is sometimes used in a broader context to mean anything which is not hardware but which is used with hardware, such as film, tapes and records.