Which accounting software is right for you?

• By Ravleen Tuteja
• November 11, 2017

With multiple accounting software options present in the market, one can easily puzzle themselves in choosing what is right for them .one can find various industry specific software together with generic software orbiting around the virtual space. That is why you need to take baby steps, understand your business and its accounting requirements and then analyze the products available in the market.

To help you, here are a few things you need to consider before making your decision:

1. Financial resources:

For every business's expenditure, one needs to calculate its cost-benefit analysis. Software usually works on a monthly subscription rather than giving a onetime software license. It also provides annual packages which would provide discounted rates. That is why considering what would fit in your budget is one of the preliminary aspects to keep in mind.

2. Usability:

There are a few aspects as follows to keep in mind

(A): Do you even need cloud computing? :

It all depends on how mobile you are. If you need multi user access, one needs to shift to cloud computing as it would give the User a trouble free access to the data. But if your working area is static, you might as well not need to invest dozens in it.

(B): Multiple business support:

If you run multiple businesses, one would expect the software to provide multiple business support, because nobody would want to pay separately for each of its entities.

(C) Industry you are in and the components you need:

Firstly, some industries have specific software which are necessary for their working and a business has no choice but opt for it. Secondly, one needs to decide if the software they want Is a do-it-yourself or needs a professional employee to run it, which comes to a point that the software needs to be accountant friendly.

3. Features:

After analyzing the above it all comes down to the following function

(A) : Basic accounting functions

There are some software which would only do invoicing , financial report generations , customer Management and income expenditure tracking , but if a business is more than just a small retailing format , one would want inventory tracking , vendor management or purchase order assistance.

(B) : Time saver

Accounting software can also manage your frequent invoice generations which are recurring in nature , can set re -order notification with set standard lead times , an "at a glance " dashboard for quick assessment and real time data processing.

(C) Data backup and Security

Before choosing the right fit software, always check the terms and condition regarding data backup and its restore during an outage , with that, your data security needs to be the utmost priority .

(D) Customized solutions

Always try the software before taking its premium version. Check if they can provide personalized solutions with your problems. Call the customer service to check their response time.

(E) Taxation

How good is the software with compliance with GAAP, tax laws , and other financial regulations like tax reporting , multiple tax rate fluency , automatic tax collection , and ease of transfers of files from the software.

(F) : Third party integration

For hassle free running , one would want a software which can integrate various other third party software like their ERP or CRM for a one stop data retrieving system . Some other software which could be integrated can be the POS system, payment processing, email marketing etc.

Here is a compact comparison amongst the few accounting software floating in the market . Even if a company provides a certain feature, it is always advisable to take up a trial session and check if the software is full filling your requirements?A new software can always be a little daunting, and thus it is suggested to be diligent because there is a learning curve at every new stage.

Major User	Freelancers	Businesses	Businesses	Businesses	Businesses
Double Entry
All Major A/R and A/P Transaction
Mobile Access
Payroll
Live Support
Document Manager
CRM Integration