Two Important Considerations When Purchasing Accounting Software

By Anthony M. Flores

The days of doing your accounting on paper journal entries and documenting your payroll by hand by following printed tax tables are over. Any money you spend on purchasing accounting software is definitely worth it, because you'll save yourself time and agony. However, you need to meticulously plan your course of action. You need to fully commit to an accounting system before you start using it. Although it's possible to change it, it's easier to first research which ones will satisfy your needs at the moment, and will serve them as your business grows over time.

The following are some ideas to consider when you are choosing a Payroll Accounting software or regular accounting software for your business.

Will it be able to perform the necessary tasks?

What does your business need the accounting software to do today? What kind of business are you running? Are you in a business that sells goods or services? If you are in a business that sells goods, than you need an accounting system that will also track your inventory. If you are in a business that sells services, you need a customer management system (CMS) in order to keep track of any clients.

But with either of these business types, you will need you to be able to invoice clients, perform tax reporting for them and yourself. It will also need to perform the basic features like Profit & Loss statements, and monitor your ongoing sales and expenses. Although you want to be able to scale larger & expand moving forward, you don't want to buy too big of a package. Especially when you are buying features that you may never use. Be aware that your accounting department (sometimes YOU in a small business) doesn't need all the bells and whistles, when in fact it can be an impractical tool by being so difficult to use.

How can it adapt to a growing business?

Business owner's always have plans of growing, and if you find that you are not growing, you may be shrinking in comparison to your competition. You need to consider how, in the long run, you software will be able to handle any growth. You need to know whether the software you are considering is scalable, and to what extent. Many of the software programs that are perfect for a three person construction company will not work for a 100 employee business.

By planning for this growth, it will save you tons of unnecessary headaches and problems, and retain more of your money in the future. Luckily, many accounting software programs have designed their software with expansion in mind. However, be careful as not all software companies do this, and they want you to buy a completely new version when you've outgrown yours. One suggestion is to find one that suits your needs now, but will provide you expansion components or have a discounted upgrade price to a larger system.

These two features of Capability & Expansion are valuable. If you can choose your system with these in mind, you will benefit short-term and long-term. While there are other key factors that are important like "How Compatible is it with your current systems" and "How much does it cost", we will discuss those in a different article. - 29971

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