How to Pick Financial Software – Things to consider in deciding ‘What's Best for Your Business’

By Chris Alexander

 “What’s best for my business” – Things to consider when picking a financial software solution

Financial software plays a vital role in the operations of any organization, but especially for the small and medium sized enterprises. For those organizations, even small oversights can have devastating effects, as every dollar counts. As such, it becomes a vital necessity to keep record of all financial activities occurring within your organizations.

Not only would a well-maintained financial software prevent those errors, but it would further secure your business’s financial position in the eyes of its stakeholders and clients.  The financial software ultimately assists you in managing, controlling and monitoring your business in an effective and efficient manner, giving you the insight to make better decisions that will affect your business. The questions that arise now are: How do you select the software that is right for your small business, and what features and functionality do you need?

What does your business ‘basically’ need?

There are numerous small business financial software packages in the market that have multiple features included to help you. They run from basic accounting packages to full blown ERP solutions that cover everything from the core financials right through sales processes, human resources and payroll.   Having an in depth understanding of the financial process flows and requirements when it comes to reporting are basic necessities. Beyond these, your imagination is the limit – some of today’s packages can include 50 + modules to make the day to day operation of your business as simple or complex as you need it them to be.

One must be careful when deciding which package is sized correctly for their business, choosing too complex a solution or too simple can have lasting ramifications including slow acceptance amongst users or further capital expenditures and time lost having to upgrade from a “too simple” package to an appropriately sized one.  In short, there are pitfalls and it makes sense to engage a professional to assist you in determining which package is right for your business.

Is there a standard solution provided by each financial software vendor?

The answer to this one is… yes…and no.  There are as many vendors in the market as there are specific solutions that satisfy a particular or specialized need.  There are a few packages, including Microsoft’s Dynamics line that provide users with a comprehensive package of models that are aimed at the majority of business needs and are upgradeable to cover the special needs that your business may have.   The advantage to choosing an ERP consultant/solution specialist is that they are more likely to be better able to guide you through the myriad of choices and wrap their specialized services around the chosen solution, giving you the best package for your business.

Breaking the Bank & Other Myths…

By Chris Alexander

The communications/IT revolution has changed the way we live, work, study and how we interact with people around us and with the world at large. The advent of the internet was the first step and with the passage of time, the world has become a more open place. The advent of social media was another major change in this ever changing and fast paced world which has brought us in to what has become a Global village.

This change has affected the core of our social fabric, the voices of the masses cannot be supressed anymore and that has resulted in fall of decades long dynasties in different parts of the world. When it comes to dynasties, it was not only the political dynasties which fell apart but also various seemingly untouchable businesses as well.  Conglomerates were unable to carry their own weight and fell into pieces; the case of Nortel still reverberates today.

On one side, the change has shaken some long standing, iconic businesses. Conversely the change has empowered individuals and small businesses to stand up and compete with business hundreds of times bigger than themselves. A web store, for example, allows both a small and a large size company to compete in the same market place with sometimes smaller companies having more advantage of adjusting themselves to the customer needs faster than the large, bureaucratic organization.

In much the same way, this new technology has empowered the SMB business organization to have access to robust and efficient business solution systems that are absolutely essential for their existence if they want to survive in competition with the other large players in their market. The fact that these larger organizations, having the ability to afford and use powerful business solutions to help them increase efficiency, reduce waste, respond to customer needs in time and manage their resources including  their inventory…  have given these organization an edge over the competition.

Gone are the days when you have to “break the bank” or have to incur huge upfront costs to be able to afford powerful and robust business solutions. With the advent of cloud computing, businesses can access subscription based access to financial software instead of incurring huge upfront licensing and implementation costs to buy the software, as well as paying for the infrastructure to house it.  This allows them to conserve already scarce cash resources, and allow them to be invested back into the business.

Though the cloud computing has enabled companies to save the upfront software cost, the fact remains that and equal part of the software implementation cost which has to be incurred upfront. Though by and large it holds true but some companies, like AccSoft, taking cognizance of the reality of today’s world have started offering a bundled solution with both the software and setting up cost spread over a period of time to make it affordable for all size of companies to reap the benefits and pleasure of success by staying on top of competition.