How to go about choosing Small Business Accounting Software
65There are Mountains of Accounting Programs on the market
With so many types of accounting programs in the market place it can be difficult to find one that suits your needs.
Almost every day we are seeing advertisements on the television advising us to purchase a particular program. We get overpowered with sales talk advising us that we need stock management or bank reconciliation or some other unnecessary item. The problem with all these added facilities is that in the end they just bog us down under mountains of reports.
How do you end up Selecting the right Accounting Program
The only person who can really tell you which accounting program is useful for you and your small business is you. There is no way that anyone can tell you what you need, not your accountant, not your friend, not your neighbor, and defiantly not a television advertisement.
The most important question to consider before you go any further is whether or not you need stock control. This is very specific as it will determine the type of program you need to purchase, this is because only about 50% of programs enable stock control.
But lets face facts many small businesses are never going to need any form of stock control. In fact over 80% of small businesses are mums and dads who do their books in the privacy of their own homes, so almost all of them have no need for stock control.
If you select a program that includes Stock Control and you don't require that facility then it could potentially cost you hours and hours of your time carrying out steps that have nothing to do with you. This might sound small but what if for example it takes you an extra 2 Minutes to enter every transaction because of unnecessary steps, and over a month you enter 100 of these transactions. This means you end up wasting almost 4 hours per month, which in the end doesn't sound like much. But what if you enter the same amount each and every week, this means you would end up wasting over 4 hours every week which you are not being paid for.
So if you really don't need any form of stock control then it may be best to steer clear.
Who's at Work
Do you really need Payroll
Another issue that comes up often is the question of payroll, and its a question that worries a lot of small business owners.
Payroll seems to be an area of added confusion, but it doesn't need to be.. I find that many small businesses do a lot better when they perform their payroll on an excel spreadsheet instead of using a full blown payroll program.
The key point here is to consider if it is really necessary to purchase this as part of the accounting program. The problem is that in the end it ends up being another part of an existing program that mum's and dad's have to master. As a general observation if you are only employing 2 or 3 individuals or you have a couple of contractors on your books then it may be just as easy to perform this on an excel spreadsheet. .
I went down the road of purchasing a payroll program years ago and after about 6 months of use I realized that I could do the same thing in less time on a spreadsheet.
But in the end it is up to your needs, obviously if you are a small business that employes many individuals then a full blown payroll system could potentially be what you require. Like the accounting software the key to remember is to try the payroll software on a free trial first, if it starts out as being cumbersome to use then odds are it will always be a problem for you.
Always Test Drive Before You Buy
Before settling on any purchase of an accounting or bookkeeping program it is suggested that you test several programs over a period of time.
Yes it may seem like a waste of time having to test several programs but in the long run it can potentially save you hundreds of hours. Sometimes the wrong program can mean that you end up spending hours entering information that could be done in half that time.
The best thing to know is that no all programs are the same.
If you are thinking of purchasing an accounting program for your small business then download and test drive several programs before you settle on one. Remember that sometimes it is not going to be about the program as it can also be about you and the way you process information.
For example I could be in the same industry with the same business structure as you but I may run a completely different program, and this may simply be because I find it easier to use the program I use as that's how I process things.
30 Day Trial Periods
Above all else remember that nothing I have mentioned here matters, as in the end the only thing that really matters is if the program is the right program for you and your business.
Whatever you do next is up to you, but for your sake don't make the same mistakes as I and many like me did, test drive before you buy..
.
It is vitally important to test drive SEVERAL PROGRAMS before you purchase any one particular bookkeeping or accounting program, your time and your sanity may depend on it.
There are mountains of programs available in the market place, just a quick search in Google will bring up pages and pages of software programs. I have included a few links here just to get you started:
