accounting software Archives - Page 4 of 4

Still Accounting In Spreadsheets? Here’s Why Your Competition Isn’t

Posted on October 23, 2020July 1, 2022 by Matt Bernot

Oh, the monotony. Unless you truly enjoy the thrill of filling out spreadsheets in triplicate, there’s a better way to handle your business’s accounting needs. The old ways have probably worked good enough for you thus far. But as your business grows, you’ll outgrow what spreadsheets can do for you. They are simple, familiar, and often free of charge. All of that is very appealing—until you need more.

As with many “free” services, the cost of dealing with issues can be much higher. What happens if you experience a security breach? What if there’s a technical malfunction that leaves your finances frozen?

Though it may seem like an insurmountable task to redirect your entire financial flow, it’s not impossible—in fact, it’s easier than ever. And the benefits are wide-ranging. You’ll be able to save time, money, and valuable resources. Let’s take a look at the ways your business can utilize modern financial planning software:

From Spreadsheets to Savings

Though there are many benefits of cloud accounting software, we’ll start with the most important one—how much money you’ll save. Granted, most spreadsheet-making software is probably of little or no cost to you. So where do the savings come from?

Ultimately, the cutting down of excess labor and wasted time will allow you to spend more time generating revenue. Say goodbye to manually inputted complex formulas, misplaced decimal points, and costly accounting firm rates. Cutting down on financial data miscalculations and the cost of extraneous outsourcing will improve your bottom line. According to Forbes, your cost of labor can be reduced by up to 50% with the help of cloud accounting.

Beyond that, you won’t have to worry about making a large dent in your bank account on day one. Subscription based models are common just about everywhere these days, and SaaS accounting is no exception.

Financial Tracking for Growing Businesses

One spreadsheet can typically only handle one income stream. This simply won’t cut it. As your business evolves, you need a software that will be able to adapt to the complex revenue streams you’ll build—not one that forces your business into a corner with its simplicity..

One of the biggest benefits of taking your accounting to the cloud is that the hardware required to run your operations doesn’t need to be stored onsite. No need to worry about expanding the server space within your facility as your business flourishes. Sometimes, certain software systems simply aren’t built to handle data at large capacities. Make sure the system you choose is built to be there for you no matter how your business demands grow and change.

Cloud Accounting Is Safe and Secure

Security is always one of the largest concerns that business owners have when they are considering a change in accounting software.

The good news is that SaaS accounting software is much safer and much more reliable than traditional, in-house accounting methods. While it certainly takes a group effort to combat cyber threats these days, software can lend a huge helping hand. As your data moves to the cloud, it goes through layers upon layers of encryptions and redundancies. Put in layman’s terms, it is protected by millions of complex passwords at once while automatically being backed up in numerous places.

See what can happen to businesses that are not up to par:

Microsoft reports that 91% of small and medium sized business owners said the security of their organization was positively impacted after switching to the cloud. Entrusting your financial records to a new party is never something to take lightly. But with the right cloud accounting software, it is almost assuredly safer than the current methods you are using.

Eliminating Divisional Silos

More likely than not, your business has divisions that have varying degrees of autonomy. And even more likely, communication between the various silos of your organization doesn’t always materialize as you hope it will.

While maintaining an open and communicative culture doesn’t fall under the general responsibilities of the accounting department, accountants can play a crucial role in that process. The best cloud accounting software will allow you to seamlessly integrate data from all of your businesses branches and divisions.

A business that seeks to foster a collaborative and growth-filled environment needs to first ensure that its accounting division is able to communicate with all other divisions while maintaining a big-picture vantage point. At the end of the day, if your money isn’t in sync, nothing else will be.

Software Support Needs To Shine

Just as your employees grease the wheels of your business, the people behind the accounting software you choose need to be as impressive as the software itself. No system is ever perfect, and glitches always rear their ugly head—having a software support team ready and waiting for you is more important than ever.

Besides responding to issues, you have the benefit of using a software that is constantly being upgraded and debugged. New releases don’t come in the form of a single download once or twice a year—a talented support team works on improvements every day. The best software support will even tailor features based around your specific needs.

Your money isn’t something to mess around with. By taking the necessary steps to upgrade your accounting systems, you’ll be able to ensure that a team of software experts has your back so that you never miss a beat. The best financial planning software and its support team needs to account for everything that could possibly cross your path—and then some.

Finances Made Easy

You’ve worked too long and too hard to have your money flowing in any way that is less than optimal. Sure, you’re probably doing fine. In 2020, “doing fine” is surely not something to take for granted. But the problems of this year won’t just dissipate on January 1st—there will always be new challenges to face as the years march on. Make sure that your business is ready to handle anything that the future brings your way.

6 Reasons to Integrate Your Accounting and CRM Software

Posted on May 30, 2019April 25, 2023 by Scott Hammer

Sales numbers and financial data: two great things that don’t always go great together. Both sets of information are essential to the success of any organization. That’s why most businesses purchase both accounting software and CRM software as separate solutions; they rarely integrate accounting and CRM software.

The problem? Those systems don’t always connect in the ways they should. And when they don’t, you risk a complete misunderstanding of your profit, efficiency, cost management, and much more.

For many growing businesses, accounting software solutions such as Quickbooks are the status quo. But with limited features when it comes to tracking, reporting, and transactions, many businesses find themselves looking for something more. This is where having the right ERP software can really make a difference.

Of all your organization’s data sets, matching sales with your accounting numbers is especially important because they are naturally prone to differences. If endless meetings and numbers comparisons sound neither thrilling nor possible, there’s a better way to do it.

The Importance of Integrating Accounting and CRM Software (With ERP Software)

Much like the cultural distinctions between sales and accounting departments, CRM and accounting software systems can be vastly different. Both are, at their core, databases. And though it should seem simple to transfer information from one database to another, it rarely is.

Putting aside the annoyance of constantly having to sign into other software applications and the potential for lost data, lacking accounting and CRM integration carries more dire implications.

Here are 6 opportunities, most of which are mission-critical, you might be missing without a properly integrated CRM and accounting software.

1) Recognizing Profit

Companies with unconnected software have a very difficult time seeing their profit. Consider this scenario: your sales team mistakenly interprets an influx of orders to mean profit. On the surface, it’s a logical interpretation. Customers are buying, and that must mean positive numbers for the organization.

But that’s not always the case. How can the sales team really know that the company is profitable?

man holding tablet with erp system interface

In order to assess profitability, the sales team needs to be able to see expenses. It’s entirely possible that a recent influx of sales is the result of higher marketing spend. Without a centralized way of sharing data, there are too many potential blind spots among divisions.

Profitability issues work the other way, too. If the accounting department can’t see CRM data, they can’t know how many invoices should be generated from all of those new product orders the company received.

Your accounting and sales divisions will likely always see some measure of separation. But integrated software allows them to have conversations, when needed, based on shared internal data. That conversation is not just expedient. It’s also based on a singular understanding of what factors comprise profit and loss.

2) Process Efficiency

With separated accounting and CRM systems, many companies complain that their staff has to enter data multiple times just to make sure it’s present on all systems. That means at least doubling (but sometimes tripling) their efforts. It also means the organization increases its risk of input errors. The process of reviewing, finding, and fixing those data errors is time-consuming and chaotic.

By contrast, integrated solutions eliminate double-entry and limit the risk of errors. Of course, those errors may happen sometimes. But when they do, your staff will only have to correct them once. Not twice. Not four times.

This kind of inefficiency happens especially often to growing organizations. As their sales and financial data get more complex, processes become more difficult. It can be a gradual change, happening often without the company even noticing. That’s why integrated solutions allow companies to grow without sacrificing the integrity of their data.

3) Proper Cost Management

We live in the age of subscriptions. From television to food, we pay for more of what we use with recurring subscription charges. Software is no exception.

But with each new software solution your company subscribes to, you don’t just increase your recurring payables. You also increase training, maintenance, and efficiency costs. Those costs, of course, multiply with each new subscription.

It’s one thing to have software that helps you report on costs and expenses, but what about the costs and expenses for all those software solutions? Moving to a single, integrated solution will drastically cut your company’s subscription fees into one bill. Further, you’ll be able to leave behind the maintenance labor you once used on all of those systems to run reports, export data, etc.

4) Accuracy & Visibility

If your sales and accounting teams never interacted, how would orders move to invoices? How would you know when a customer needed a credit, or when to complete an order?

Of course, your teams do communicate. Just not always electronically. With a single business management software, your sales orders can automatically generate invoices— with no manual entry whatsoever.

But the questions go deeper than credits and invoices. Throughout your organization’s lifecycle, you’ll ask plenty of them. Should we renovate the office? Can we hire a new employee? Does it make sense to purchase a new fleet vehicle? Your answers to these questions depend on your assurance that you have the funds and financial stability to act accordingly.

5) Reporting Connectivity

Without fully integrated connections between sales and accounting, it becomes increasingly difficult to report on them without exporting into external spreadsheets. Lacking connectivity also compromises your reporting accuracy.

With a full business management solution, users can generate informative system reports can at any time. Imagine having the ability to view and compare data across divisions, without the struggle of using multiple spreadsheets and emails.

6) Audit Trail Accountability

Imagine having to track down which sales rep gets credit for an invoice because the sales orders are not connected within the same system.

Now picture how much communication time you’d lose outside of the system, trying to figure out which order matches the invoice, and then associating the sales rep to the invoice so that they get credit on the sale.

One last time: now think about being able to click two buttons inside of a single solution to see the same information. How much time would your organization save?

Conclusion: ERP Software Unifies Your Business

So far, I’ve said a lot about integrating accounting and CRM software. There are plenty of options out there, but the better ones won’t be separated. That goes for having two different products, but it also means not trying to connect modular solutions.

Even products that were developed by the same company may have vastly different development histories. One may have been acquired by the parent company, while the other may have been developed in-house.

Truly integrated solutions will be developed and supported by the same vendor, with the same standards and optimal connectivity. So make sure you do your research. If possible, involve your sales and accounting managers in your software search. The more you can collaborate, the better your chances of choosing the right product for you the first time around.

Your goal, no matter how you get there, should be a single version of the truth throughout your organization. That means the most accurate data, the most connectivity, and software that can handle it.

Tag: accounting software