How to choose/select accounting software

In earlier part 1, we learn the importance of choosing the correct business accounting software.

This part 2 deals with the importance of planning ahead when buying the correct business accounting software as this will later save us time and money in the future.

Plan ahead by making sure that your chosen business accounting software are able to be:

Modular/ Scalability:

The company business will inevitably expand hence whichever selected business accounting software should also change accordingly. Example are the increase in products and services offered and the number of employees.

Always try to choose an business accounting package by visualizing the business in 3 or 5 years time and how different it will be. Use this information to guide the purchase decision. Ironically, it might be wise to pay a little more now for the accounting software knowing that it can be easily upgraded when needed with minimum disruption and cost to our business

The Importance of Interfacing with the Accountant

Ensure that the accountant is involved. Sometimes, we might see that a company’s MIS might take a more important role in selecting the t business accounting software. There is the need to ensure what business accounting software are accounts used to working with and what do they prefer? Can data and reports from our business accounting package be easily available without the need for any extra work

Support:

It is important that any software has great support for when something goes wrong (and it always does).

Secondly, we should ensure that the support should be local or as close as possible to us. Imagine that things need done with the software by someone trying to help you over the phone.

Wherever possible, make some enquiries with other businesses about the package they use and who helps them.

Best Value For Money

Once we have selected the right package for your business the most logical step is to shop for the best value for money.

Shop around as the price can vary greatly and the product is exactly the same unless the price differential is with good support or installation assistance.

Major Brands

Wherever possible, we should choose the most popular and major brand to avoid the hussle of dealing with some unknown accounting software house.

Furthermore by choosing a major brand we can get regular updates and also know that the company will be around as long as your business needs them.

Ease Of Use

Always remember to get the person who will be the main user to test the software as well. Next, consider how well the package can interact with other software we are using. Nowadays, the modern accounting software should come with the import and export data function where the import and export of data to spreadsheet or vice versa are easily done. With these capabilities, just in case, there can more detailed analysis be able to be done. ( For example, SunSystem Accounting System using its user friendly “Vision” which can very easily manipulate data exported to Excel Worksheet)

Features Needed

Most accounting software packages come in several different versions.

If we don’t need certain features now and can’t see a need for them in the future then we need not buy them.

The major differences are usually – number of users allowed, number of reports available and others..

Related posts:

1. How To Select The Correct Business Accounting Software Or Package for your business(Part1of2)
2. Using The Internet or Web-Based Accounting Package Systems (Part3)–Features To Consider When Buying The Software
3. Using The Web-Based Accounting Packages (Part 2) -Procedures
4. IFRS 3: Accounting For Business Combination
5. The Changing Role of Finance: Business Partnering- A Small Example ( Part 5)

How to choose/select an accounting software

It is important to understand that there is no such thing as a standard business accounting software which can be applicable to all different industries. Businesses like restaurant/food business, manufacturing business, merchandise business and others need dedicated accounting software to resolve their day-to-day accounting and management information needs. Even in the same industry, they may have similar but different needs. Therefore choosing the right accounting software that suits your business can be a very difficult decision.

So before one can select the correct business accounting software, he or she should:

1. Understand what’s the business’s actual requirement to make sure that the requirements can be met by the accounting software;
2. What’s management reports are requirement by the management whether for planning, financial or analysis purposes
3. Preliminary study evaluation between the user and the software consultant must be performed. It is pretty dangerous to buy the accounting software “from the shelf”
4. The modules in the accounting software should be thoroughly tested by the user
5. Know what type of budget, management has allocated for the accounting software as the prices of accounting software can range from a couple of hundreds to a few millions.

[ see part 2 on how to select the correct business accounting software/package for your business]

Related posts:

1. How To Select The Correct Business Accounting Software(Part 2of2)
2. Using The Internet or Web-Based Accounting Package Systems (Part3)–Features To Consider When Buying The Software
3. Role Of Finance – Skillsets for Business Partnering
4. Role Of A “Business/Financial Controller”
5. Using The Web-Based Accounting Packages (Part 2) -Procedures
6. Role Of Management Accounting, Qualification And Abilities Of A Management Accountant