Choosing the right accounting software for a business normally is done on the basis of the appointed auditors' recommendation and this normally works quite well. Yet, the disadvantage may be that the auditors sometimes may not understand your business as well as you would want them too; neither do they know what you are trying to achieve in your day to day operations.
We have to bear in mind here that on average an auditor is concerned with the year-end reporting, so that it complies with the current accounting standards and legislation in terms of providing a true and fair view of an entity financial position.
This however is not what a small business owner is greatly concerned with. Number one priority for a business is to make profits and have a healthy cash flow before having what to report.
On many occasions I saw auditors and accountants recommending SAGE without even trying to understand the specific industry or the owners’ vision. Of course for them is convenient and profitable. Running SAGE is not as straight forward to use/set up and as such may require some additional services – customise the accounts setup, providing a bookkeeper, training etc.
Now, as an owner/manager or a growing business, you need your accounting system to be an asset, not a liability to you and your business. But how that can possible?
The accounting software over the past 10 years have greatly evolved and matured and with a bit of work, they can be adapted/implemented in a set business, so it’s not only used for auditors and year end returns, but for facilitating a smoother day to day operation and providing a clearer view of how the business does from any angle.
How can I help your business in this respect?
- Provide you with a comparison of the most suited applications for your business with cost analysis and advantages/disadvantages and help in making the ultimate decision if required.
- Set up, implement and produce procedures for efficient and smooth day to day operation of the new system.
- Train your staff if required and be available for support/further changes/adjustments to the system.
- Design and compile reports that will be automatically generated from any accounting systems for different needs. I use crystal reports and Excel Microsoft Data Query to extract and model data from virtually any database present on the system.
Why I am better for this task than your auditors?
- I am an IT Enthusiast with ‘light programming’ background and always keep on top of what is new on the market, testing different technologies and software in their Beta or Alpha versions.
- I have directly project-managed the development of a custom ERP/CRM/Invoicing online solution.
- I have been involved in accounting systems implementations as well as migrations.
- I have extensively used in the day to day operations many systems like SAGE, Quickbooks, Microsoft Accounts, VT Transaction, plus many other online and ERP solutions and know which of them work best from the management point of view in different scenarios.
Further on the topic of modern accounting software:
- Some of them have integrated CRM capabilities, some of them do integrate with industry leading CRM providers.
- Some of them do have ERP capabilities some, some others do not.
- Some of them use a native database, some other make use of 3rd party databases.
- Some of them are use friendly, others focus on robustness.
- Some of them are online SaaS (Software as a Service) others are locally installed on a clients PC.
- Some of them are just install and use, some others require custom setup and extensive customisations.
- Some of them can be free, others be inexpensive, others can be more expensive - its all about their features and purpose.
The general idea though here is that selecting the right accounting software can play a key role in determining an organisations' success and my particular interest lies with open source GPL software such as Open ERP, SugarCRM and others that are coming as a free software for basic use, yet they have premium supported versions for more advanced needs.