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10 Reasons to Upgrade Your Small Business Accounting Software.
Your small business used to have the issue of choosing the best accounting software. Now, after being in operation for a while, you may realize your software is lacking in certain areas.
While some feel a software upgrade can be an expensive and time-consuming project, it’s important to know that it can help a business grow and take that next step to take on more customers and being more profitable.
Every industry is different, and thus will require different functionalities within their software. Some industries will have specific types of accounting that will need to be performed.
Construction companies need job costing and estimating, retail businesses will track daily sales, and manufacturers will generate many purchase orders. While these tasks can be handled with an out-of-box generic solution, why try to fit a square peg through a round hole?
Small business accounting software prides itself on being inexpensive, usually at the expense of user count. And when a small business software allows for more than one user, where are the admin settings? The fact remains that sometimes, employees need access to parts of your software (but not all). You may need an employee to have their own user login to enter into daily sales, but you don’t want them taking a peek into payroll records.
Upgrading your software will allow for more variation in not only the number of users but what level of access they have.
Every business experiences growing pains. One of those pains can be using software that isn’t growing with your business. A smart business will plan ahead for future growth. A smart software allows you to do so. Finding yourself in a continuous loop of having to look for and purchase/implement a new invoice payment software once a year becomes old very quick.
Many scalable software options will let you have a base package of core accounting, and allow you to add on modules as you need them.
Mistakes in bookkeeping happen. And luckily almost no accounting software is going to prevent you from correcting a mistake or changing an entry. Surprisingly, however, not every accounting software is going to keep track of these changes (better known as an audit trail).
This becomes a big security risk if you’re trying to backtrack, or if you’re trying to keep track of who is making changes in the books. The biggest goal of this type of feature will be to track mistakes and who’s making them, so you can prevent them from happening again.
Support is as necessary with a software purchase as the software itself. If an error comes up, you’ll need a support cushion to fall back on (no pun intended). Some people believe that if they will need support enough to warrant a monthly or yearly payment, then the solution is too complicated to begin with.
Other outdated solutions may no longer be sold or supported. It’s always best to prepare for the unexpected, especially if you aren’t paying someone on your staff to handle this type of issue if it comes up.
The software comes in all shapes and sizes, and it’s common for companies to have multiple software solutions to meet specific needs. One software may handle the accounting, one may handle specifically invoicing, and another specific payroll. However, invoicing and payroll data will need to be recorded in your general ledger. This can always be done manually, but recording information into one program before recording it into another seems redundant.
Many software options will offer integration with other options. You can also choose to find a software that combines all the functionalities of these solutions, and thus eliminates the need to have multiple solutions.
How would it feel to have software do most of your work for you? That’s what people upgrading to software with a level of automation feel. Small businesses may try to get by running their accounting on an Excel spreadsheet. The problem with that is how time-consuming it becomes to enter in all of your financial data.
And if you are not a wiz at creating spreadsheet tables and formulas, you’ll spend even more time ensuring your spreadsheets reflect your financials accurately. Software solutions have the ability to send you reminders, process payments, generate reports, and more automatically.
Small Business Accounting Software.
Old solutions can only operate for so long without some boost of energy. Many off-the-shelf solutions have a top limit as to the number of records allowed inside of them. This means you can only have a certain number of vendors, inventory SKUs, and more. When solutions receive updates, many developers and 3rd-party support providers won’t offer support unless you have the most recent version.
And last but not least, a program you operate on may just be difficult to use, such as one that still runs on MS-DOS rather than a more user-friendly layout on a Windows 10 operating system. Many people will try to migrate their old software onto a new operating system, only to be disappointed that it won’t install or run any longer.
Upgrading a software solution is an expense. So how can it reduce your overall business costs? You may have an employee spending far too much time entering data into Excel or whatever software you currently have. Some companies will even hire a staff member solely to manage their accounting within the software. If that software allows for more automation, you will no longer need to pay someone’s salary strictly for the purpose, and they can now focus on more meaningful and profitable tasks for the company.
So while an upgrade to your software may cost a bit more, you’ll need to think outside the box to realize savings it will bring in other areas of your business.
Just as the need for support exists when a problem occurs, a need for security exists to help keep your data secure. It’s one of those features that you don’t realize you need until it’s too late. And when it comes to your company’s financial records, security should be a top priority. Proper accounting software will have checks and balances to make sure only the correct individuals have access to the software.
This may be from 2FA (Two-factor authentication), passwords with additional security questions, or a system that has a proven track record for beating hackers. When it comes to security in your financials, you’ll want to cover all your bases.
Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade Your Small Business Accounting Software
