If you have a small or mid-sized business, then definitely you need the best accounting software to record your all expenses and incomes. Normally, this is the first step to purchase the software when you start your business. However, most business owners get it only when they need to apply for loans or pay taxes.
So, how to choose the right and best software for your business? This can get very confusing as there are lots of products available in the market today. So for every business owner, QuickBooks accounting software is the best. But choosing the QuickBooks software can be a very big challenge for everyone. But each accounting program adds lots of amazing features offering multiple pricing plans that you can easily choose from.
Here are some basic things that you have to always keep in mind while choosing the accounting software for your business:-
Costs:- Always keep your budget in mind. Would you like to prefer basic software, inexpensive software, or accounting software whose cost is more but has extra and great features?
Usability:- Usability arise many questions like how many users are required to easily access the accounting software? Are you always interested to select a cloud-based system that is available anywhere or desktop software? Do you need that it has a mobile application?
Features:- What do you want in your software program? Are you looking for both accounts payable and accounts receivable tools? What type of reports do you want your software to generate? Do you want it to easily and quickly track inventory correctly? Is there any need to add the best ancillary services in this, like project management, payroll, and time tracking?
Best Accounting Software Features For Business: You Have To Know
You can opt for any type of bookkeeping software by looking at a list of amazing accounting features that you need in order to run your small or mid-sized business. Most of the easy software gives many great accounting features such as:-
- Sales tracking
- Inventory management
- Easily manage all customer contacts using your current contact management software
- Give merchant account support in order to accept credit card payments
- Estimates
- Budgeting
- Business tax reporting
- Payroll
- Home accounting
- Cloud accounting
Therefore, with these amazing features, right, and best software also has some wonderful tools such as QuickBooks file doctor and QuickBooks install diagnostic tool for your business.
Important Factors For Choosing Perfect Accounting Software
Online or Offline
The first question to always ask yourself is – whether you want online software or desktop-based offline accounting software? Well, most of the businesses nowadays are using cloud-based software as they give plenty of wonderful advantages over offline software. However, some of the businesses like retail stores require high speed but not always easily connected to the internet. For them, offline POS (Point Of Sale) systems are the best option.
Advantages of cloud (online) accounting software:-
- Nothing to install. Simply signup and then start entering your all transactions.
- And you don’t have to worry about any upgrades as all changes are pushed automatically. As we all know online software is always up to date.
- Cloud software providers always take care of your data backup and maintenance which is cost-saving for you.
- Data over all your offices are continuously synchronized.
- It can easily integrate with other right and best cloud-based applications.
When you should buy an offline or desktop-based accounting software:-
- You have a retail store and also have to always create few hundred invoices over the counter.
- You do not have high-speed internet connectivity at your business location.
So it’s strongly recommended that you always go for online software as you will have your all financial data or information on your tips even when you are not in your office.
Data Security
Firstly, skip this point if you have to go for offline accounting software for your business. So if you are thinking forward and considering an online or cloud accounting application, then data security is the most important feature to check.
Excellent Features
Make a list of essential features that you absolutely need in software for your business. Here is some excellent feature which must be part of the right and the best accounting package.
- Generate invoices and customize the look and feel
- Easily track expenses according to categories
- Manage inward-outward stock movements, wastage, and inventory
- Always perform bank reconciliation by importing all bank transactions
- Generate purchase orders (PO) and also create record inventory purchases
- Always create and manage taxes
- Record-journal voucher all entries
- Manage a list of vendors and customers
- View both account payables and receivables
- Easily view profit & loss statements, balance sheet, and also trial balance reports
- Include additional team members
User Interface & Complexity
Most of the business owners do not have any accounting background or experience. Even if you have a highly qualified and dedicated accountant who would be using the accounting application, as an owner you should be capable to easily log in and browse things. Also, it should be very easy enough for all employees to quickly learn the software.
If the accounting software is packed with every possible feature you can imagine, so it will become very difficult to use for your team. So, simply go for software that has the best and simple user interface and is not bloated with unnecessary features. The perfect and clean interface makes it very easy to focus on every important task and can easily reduce the learning curve.
Scalability
A lot of businesses make a little mistake by buying an application that satisfies their needs at the time of investment. Later, when their business starts to boost, the software fails to cope up with the progress, and eventually, every business owners have to move to another accounting software.
So, always choose software that can scale with your business needs. And some of the software offer only one version of the product and some software have progressive versions depending on the business size or type. So just go for the software that offers an entry-level great version.
Exit Options
Imagine if your company which you are buying from shuts down its operations or you discover plenty of unexpected bugs just a few months after the purchase. So to save yourself from such type of situation, make sure that the accounting software provides a data export facility.
Hidden Costs
Some software providers might heavy charge for upgrades or support. And sometimes, basic software is given at a lower cost and then you are required to buy ‘add-ons’ or pay for ‘maintenance fee’. So, always check if there are any hidden costs associated with the software you are planning to purchase.
Tip:- The Best way to know this is to check the pricing page of the software provider’s site. If they are selling extra services, then those will be mentioned there.
Post-sale Support
This is the most important but also most ignored thing while everyone choosing software. And no matter how good or easy the software is, you will have support at some point.
Loss of support is also one of the reasons why some accounting software is very cheap. Obviously, support cost is not added to the offering. Everyone should avoid such type of products at any cost.
So here is a very simple tip to easily check the support – just call or post a message on the support number and see how they respond. And based on the response time and quality of response, you will surely come to know about their support infrastructure.
Important Note:-
- Choose accounting software that protects your all data or information.
- A list of software programs that easily work within your company.
- The best software evaluation checklist to reinforce your every decision.
- Always consider the factors whenever choosing software for your bookkeeping method.
5 Step Process For Choosing A Perfect Accounting Software
Talk To Your Employees Who Will Be Using The Application
Just find out what exactly they want to get their job done. And once you completely understand all accounting needs, make a list of it and always keep it handy.
Know Your Budget
Simply find out how much you can easily pay at this time. And this will filter out almost half of your options.
Search & Shortlist
Google is your greatest friend and always should be the first point to start any research. So just check out software example sites and testimonials of the existing users. And just shortlist your all software names in a simple spreadsheet.
Schedule a Demo
Simply visit the software provider’s site and request a small demo. And also you can ask any questions related to your niche during the demo. With this also watch application walkthrough videos, if available.
Take a Trial
Always take a trial before buying any accounting application. And also enter dummy transactions related to your business and simply check the accuracy of reports. If everything looks perfect, then you are all set.
Conclusion
Finding the right and best accounting software for your business is not an easy task. Once you invest your money and time into one accounting system, it will be very difficult to move to another software. So, it’s always better and helpful to spend more time before the purchase to save disappointment in a later stage. So Make the best and proper plan for the accounting package with a more informed choice. Prepare a list of features you need, then buy software for your business.