Accounting software is a great way to streamline your accounting operations, automate manual tasks, and generate insightful reports and data. It is also able to help you reduce errors, save time on repetitive data entry, amongst other numerous benefits.
But when should you start using it? And how do you know which accounting software is right for your business?
This article will answer those questions for you.
When should you start using accounting software?
In the early days of setting up your firm, using spreadsheets to handle your accounts might do the trick.
However, as your business expands, you may find yourself spending an excessive amount of time attempting to manage your finances and accounts.
Accounting software is the solution for this. Here are a few pointers that show it is time to start using accounting software:
1. You are growing
When your business starts to grow, so do your accounting needs. It doesn’t take a lot for a small business to become more complicated especially as it grows.
You want to be able to keep up with all the increasing accounting demands as well as have a strong grasp of your financial information.
Accounting software allows you to do just that, providing the necessary capabilities and functionality for your business once it reaches a certain size.
Another case is if your financial functions can become more complex.
Of course, not every business starts out with a simple accounting system. But as your business grows and acquires new customers, you will most likely have more accounts that need to be tracked.
When managing these accounts becomes too time-consuming and complex, accounting software is the solution.
Accounting software provides the ability to manage all of your various accounts and transactions from a centralized platform, reducing risk and simplifying your financial situation.
2. You are struggling to manage work manually
Your business is ready for accounting software when it becomes difficult to manage your accounts manually.
For instance, if you’re constantly relying on spreadsheets and other manual methods to try and keep up with all of your financial transactions, then you are already familiar with the difficulty of trying to do everything by hand.
Accounting software provides a convenient way to manage your tasks and accounts, allowing you to spend less time working and more time developing your business.
The automation capabilities of accounting software provide a way to eliminate the need for manual data entry and tedious tasks.
The auto-import feature is a great example of this. For example, you can automatically import transactions from your bank account as well as other source documents without having to do anything manually.
3. You need to access financial information more quickly
At the beginning stage of your business, you may not have a need to quickly and frequently access your financial information. You might just be crunching the numbers and looking to the future.
But once your business grows and you have more people joining, you will likely need to access your financial information on a regular basis.
Accounting software provides a way to access your information more quickly. In fact, you can have it customised so that you can view the information that is most relevant to your business.
Modern accounting system such as Infor SunSystems lets you access your information on the go, no matter where you are.
When complete and important information is at your fingertips, decision-making becomes easier and your ability to run your business more effectively improves.
4. Errors are becoming a problem
It is reported that nearly 9 out of 10 spreadsheets (88%) contain errors and that a majority of these were from human errors that could have been avoided.
What does this mean for your business? If you’re using spreadsheets to help manage your accounts, then there is a high possibility that there are errors in your data.
Not only does this affect the accuracy of the information you have on hand right now but it could also make things complicated when combining and comparing financial information from different sources in the future.
Accounting software provides accurate and reliable information, decreasing error rates and ensuring what’s on paper matches what’s in reality. This improves efficiency and saves time (and money) by eliminating wasted effort and potentially costly mistakes due to human error.
5. You are looking to increase efficiency
Accounting software is the perfect tool for improving your business efficiency.
For example, with account automation capabilities, you can rely on the accounting software to automate repetitive tasks so you have more time to focus on other areas of the business.
This frees up your team’s time from meaningless tasks and gives you more time to dedicate to areas that will yield the biggest profits for your business.
6. More and more people are running your financial operations
If your finance team now have more staff who need to collaborate on tasks, a modern finance system will provide you with a way to better manage your team.
Modern finance systems allow you to assign tasks and delegate responsibilities, streamlining the work that is done by staff members across different departments.
This sort of system runs a centralised system that everyone can access and update, so you know your team is using the latest information available.
7. You want to integrate your finance with other parts of the business
Finance is never a one-man show, which means that if you want to get the job done right you need to be able to use data from other departments of the business.
A system like SunSystems can connect to other business systems so they operate seamlessly together to execute business processes.
Conclusion
Finance is the language of business and so financial management is an important part of a business and must be implemented on time.
If you’ve noticed any of the signs above, you should start exploring your options to find accounting software that can help you manage your finances better.
The right option could help you improve your business management and give you peace of mind that nothing is slipping through the cracks.
Get in touch with us today to find out how SunSystems can help your business operate more efficiently.