Best Practices to Evaluate, Purchase & Implement Business Accounting Software

Businesses today have plenty of obstacles to overcome and plenty of tools to help them do so. Technology, in particular, has greatly changed the way companies operate, and currently over ninety per cent of all companies use technology of some form to help with basic functions. Automation of businesses processes plays a huge role in keeping a company running successfully for a prolonged time period. However, this implementation of using a software to take of your business activities could be tricky if not analysed appropriately. Not only will it affect the performance of your business as it grows, but also result in overhead operating costs, which is totally unnecessary.

What is accounting software?

An accounting software solution is one that cultivates under the same roof all systems and applications dedicated to managing and processing financial data. Professional accountants and bookkeeping teams use these programs to govern accounts and automate systematic operations, while certain systems are also enabled to record accounting data, measure indicators, and report on the company’s financial activity.

Objective of accounting

Accounting is the steppingstone for business decisions. Accounting business transactions provides invaluable information to the people who have a direct or indirect interest in the business. The following are some of the reasons why accounting is required.

Recording business activities in a systematic manner
Evaluate the performance of the business in terms of profit
Know the financial position of the business
Business control and decision making
The primary source of information to various stakeholders of the business.

Key things to keep in mind while choosing an accounting software

Whether your company is a brand new startup or an established business, choosing accounting software can be difficult. Here are a few key things to keep in mind while opting for an accounting software for your business’ growth:

Automation of Accounts

Automation is the pillar stone for building a reliable accounting solution. Every accounting software solution applies some sort of automation to simplify processes, from simple accounting transactions to complex financial activities. Most companies today utilize accounting software solutions to fully automate invoicing process, management of receivables and payables, time sheets and payroll, to track employee expenses, to prepare corporate budgets, to ascertain purchase requisitions, online tax filing, scheduling of payments, and many other financial operations.

Inventory Management

For performing this function, the accountant may look for a standalone software or integrate the same in an existing accounting solution depending upon the necessity. Accounting software solutions in this block, helps manage the movement of products to avoid overstocking/understocking which can affect your company’s profits. The additional tool added to the accounting software solution enables you to track orders, sales, deliveries, maintain optimum inventory levels, and even calculate stock depreciation if the products dealt by the business has a low shelf life product line. The tool can give you a paperless inventory records (say in form of spreadsheets), for organizing the inventory data which one can upload and store in the cloud data.

How easy and accurate will my business and MIS reports be?

To run a business successfully, you must have seamless process in place. With a powerful technology behind a software which has the capability to adapt to unthinkable business scenarios and generate accurate reports will be your best bet. One of the primary reasons why a business owner chooses to opt for a software to manage his operations seamlessly, by automating manual tasks. Generation of accurate business and MIS reports will not only give an overview of the business’ performance but also shed light on its creditworthiness to respective stakeholders and vendors.

Will I get enough support from the software team?

Let’s say it’s zero hour with a major client. You’re frantically working through some numbers to ensure that you keep this client happy – and keep the account. You load up your accounting software platform, and… Nothing. What happens if your account becomes inaccessible, your software malfunctions, or something else goes haywire? These are the points where support becomes an essential aspect of whichever accounting software you choose. You’ll want to keep an eye out for the following support options:

Included support: You need to make sure that the software includes worthwhile, ongoing support
24/7 availability: Inopportune moments can arise at any given point irrespective of the time or day. To stay on top of your game even in such unprecedented times, opt for companies that provide the support you need any time you encounter these types of issues
Comprehensive knowledge base: A well-organised and intuitive knowledge base can allow you to quickly search for a problem you may be encountering and find a solution. In many cases, you can find and resolve any issue much more quickly than working with a live customer service representative.

How will the software help in scalability & incremental implementation?

This is one of the key questions you need to ask yourself while choosing a business software. Change is inevitable and so the software you wish to opt for must be there in your business’ long-term plan. For several companies, new software implementation could include 50–60 resources. This is big at the beginning, but corporations tend to hire more people every year, so in a few months’ time, the company might need to get 70 or even 100 resources. How well can your chosen solution adapt to such changes? To continuously adjust the solution to business needs, it is good to use flexible software that allows the adding of new features step by step. As you grow your business, your software should have the capacity to meet your needs and incremental adoption of new features must take the front seat.

Take a trial before buying the software

Often a business management software would project itself as the go-to solution for your business needs. While it may seem quite appealing at first, but several business owners have faced the wrath of being unsatisfied with their software after buying it. This leads to extra cost that affects the company’s profits at the given time. Such an instance can be curbed by simply taking a trial before buying that software for your business. A trial run will give you a glimpse of the software’s benefits, features, support and of course the workings. It will also give you an assessment of how long would your employees take to learn the product and implement it in your processes.

How will TallyPrime be beneficial for your business?

Any business management software that comes with these capabilities would help transform your business a great deal. Not just that, but the accounting software should be able to be adaptable and flexible to your current as well as future needs. A software that grows with your business would give you the opportunity to explore untouched territories, which will help you expand and diversify your process further. TallyPrime aims at simplifying your business processes to the T so that you don’t have to change the way you work. Yes, TallyPrime is so adaptable that it moulds itself as per your working style. Product features that will add more benefits to your business are: