Does Your Accounting System Need an Upgrade?

Is it time to upgrade your accounting system?

While there are many reasons to consider upgrading your accounting system to a true ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), you may be avoiding the perceived pain of change.

Why change? Why incur the extra investment? Why retrain, retool, and rethink your paradigm? All of these are good questions, and the honest answers can empower you to take your business to the next level of growth and profitability.

You are probably surviving in your current software environment, but there are many areas of possible improvement. The most compelling reason to make the change is the lack of:

Usable, Easy, Efficient, and Cost-Effective Access to Information

Usability:

Accounting systems (like QuickBooks) designed for small business owners usually have a very rigid report structure. They are designed for standard businesses, and do not adapt easily to the specific requirements of your business processes. While many reports come close to giving you what you need to know, they often lack the ability to answer your specific questions without burdening your staff with lengthy analysis after exporting data to Excel. Does your current system give you the data you need in a format you can ACTUALLY use? Can you change the format and content of your reports at will?

Ease of Access:

QuickBooks may seem to have a cheap initial cost of ownership, but growth exposes many holes in the paradigm. Does your growing database slow down dramatically over time? Do version changes and updates cause nightmares in a multi-user environment? It is difficult to access your data remotely? Do you have to incur IT costs to maintain workstations? Do you find yourself making frustrating technical support calls to overcome frequent upgrade problems? Do licensing limits prevent you from logging in when you need to?

Efficiency:

Do you find yourself wishing you could run reports from home, on your mobile device, or at a customer’s location? Can you take orders, record customer information, or capture payment information on the run? Can you use your web browser on any device to manage your cash flow, sales force, or profitability? Do you compete for licenses between users? Do you have speed issues?

Cost-Effectiveness:

Can you get the information you really need, when you need it, and where you need it? Are your reports fully customizable? Can you customize your data entry screens to capture exactly what you need and build effective rules to eliminate errors? Can you transact between your multiple entities easily? Can you run consolidated reports? Can you eliminate your expensive server and workstation hardware? Do you have unlimited user licensing?

 

If you find yourself dissatisfied with the answers to some of these questions, let’s talk.  We can help you overcome these struggles. There are many options available; both Cloud and On-Premise can help. We will likely also be able to help you integrate, streamline, or make changes to your current system to overcome some of your pain points.

You might be surprised at just how much easier (and more profitable) it can be to make the switch to a browser-based solution like Acumatica or Sage EM (X3). Give us a call and let’s discuss a solution that will fit your exact requirements with a budget-friendly approach.