Mistakes to Avoid while Choosing an Accounting Software

• Posted on Jan 9, 2018
• |
• By Dhruv

The growth and success of a business depends on focusing on your core competencies while paying attention to the management of your accounts and overall finances and track of your income and expenses. Choosing the right accounting software could be the difference between easily managing your finances and manually keeping track of all expenses.

Following are some mistakes that businesses make when it comes to choosing an accounting software:

1. Not Determining Needs

Most enterprises invest in accounting software without understanding the exact reason or your unique need for purchasing such a system. Finding the right software requires you to understand the reason for investing in an accounting system. Your prime reason for making such a purchase is to keep track of your finances. Are you simply looking to track the income and profit generated from sales? If you know what exactly you want to do with the software, you can compare the options and shortlist the right product.

2. Not Reviewing Processes

There are many important considerations to make before buying an accounting solution, ignoring which could result in problems later. Sometimes process improvement is required from an organizational perspective, while other times process change will result from utilizing improved functionality. Get the teams together to find how process improvements can be made.

3. Not involving the right people

When it comes to choosing an accounting software, not involving the right people could be a big mistake. Your accounting software generates information for the entire organization. Thus it is important to involve the right people in choosing the best software, rather than delegating the task to a single department. Participation across functional groups, such as system users, system managers, system customers, and representatives from information systems, will help you select the best possible financial software solution.

4. Not Reviewing Challenges

What are the challenges facing your accounting department today? Is your organization suffering from inaccuracies in accounting? Businesses often makes mistakes by choosing an accounting software without assessing the challenges faces by their accounting team. Make an assessment of which manual tasks will benefit from automation. Make sure the accounting software is flexible enough to adjust to your business needs.

5. Not Evaluating Application Performance

Most businesses do not review specific software applications before making the buying decision. Since there are substantial differences in the functioning of different programs, it is crucial to understand the functioning of the software and its benefits to your accounting functions.  Consider different factors, such as ease of use, components, functionality, and multicurrency conversion options, while choosing accounting software.

6. Not Checking the System for Flexibility

It is really important to check whether the accounting software which we are selecting is flexible in the context of sharing of information. Find how easy it is to fax, email, or export any report. You might also want to test how hard or easy it is to use different tools, such as MS Query, in order to extract data out of your accounting software.

7. Not Checking for Scalability

Some businesses do not pay attention to testing the scalability of accounting software before making the purchase decision. They often find themselves struggling later when they experience business growth. The accounting software you choose should be scalable enough to accommodate the increasing needs of your business. Imagine what would happen if your business tripled or doubled in size tomorrow?

8. Not Verifying Online Help/Support System

When you are selecting an accounting software it is really important to look for the system which makes things easier. You do not want a system that becomes more and more complex, with some updates making the system more complicated and hard to use. Before making the purchase decision, try to make sure that your service provider has an efficient online support and help system that answers your queries immediately and facilitates the use of the software.

9. Not Complying With Industry Standard

It is crucial that the software you choose complies with the “industry standard” to ensure long-term protection of your investment. It determines whether a system is flexible and easy or difficult to integrate with your other business processes and application systems. Consult with a team of experienced software engineers to ascertain the degree to which an accounting system complies with the industry standard.

• Posted on Jan 9, 2018
• |
• By Dhruv
• |
• 1 Comments