7 things to look for when choosing an Accounting Software

Starting a business? Business expansion? Documentation and compliance headache due to lack of systems and documentations?

If you are looking for an accounting systems that will suit your business, here are 7 things you must consider before committing to an accounting system. It often lead to nightmare when thoughts are not in place before committing

Provider and quality of service support
Reliability of the software provider
Online or Offline
Features and Scalability
Costs of Purchase and Costs of Maintenance
Reports and Outputs
Security and Backups

1. Quality of the provider and service support

Buying is always easy. One must consider the brand, number of users, coverage and the ease of migration and or post purchase support. Having support when there are issues in using the system and the timeliness of the support is important so that you are not routed from one representative to representative when looking for support.

Source for a reputable provider with wide base of clients that provide excellent customer service and support. Look at their reviews and see their customer testimonials. Also be in touch with existing users of the software for their feedback.

Consider also the time zone, support hours, waiting time, communication type and location barriers. Plan forward to see if the provider offers various package of support depending on what you need as your business scale up and/or down.

2. Reliability of the software provider

When looking for a stable company, review

How long have the company been in business?
How many clients do they cover?
How many staffs to they have?
How often they update their software and features when requirements based on regions and/or countries changes?
How safe are your information with them?

3. Online versus Offline

Look at your business and team needs and see which would serve your business better. Weigh out the benefits and the costs and also the pros and cons. With cloud, access could be 24/7 and some cloud based is also app based.

Some only have part of their modules accessible online. With cloud, one must consider security and back up balanced with accessibilities and costs. If you have mobile teams and remote teams and multi location, cloud may be better for integration and work flow but you must ensure that your team have good internet access.

With offline software, one can access the software on your selected server and/or devices that you install it on. Unlike cloud-based accounting software, you have to look at updates, security and backups on your own effort.

4. Features and scalability

Do the software fits your needs such as:

Debtors modules from setting up Customers to Quotations to Invoicing to Collecting payments including Ageing, Statements and/or Reminders
Creditors modules from Purchase Order to Taking Up Invoices to Payments including Ageing
Income and expenses modules by Category or By Profit Centers
Payment modules
Reconciliation for banks
Recurring functions
Multiple access and multi access controls
Backup and Audit Trails
Asset Module
Stock/Inventory Module
Point of Sales Module

As you grow, your needs will change, so you must also review the scalability of the software that can cater to your grow

5. Cost of Purchase and Cost of Maintenance

All the above will generally funnel into costs. The more features, the more costly it will be. The more users, the more costly it will be. Look into limitation of features as some have capping.

Look out for miscellaneous costs, such as fees or optional or additional costs for add-ons. And, find out the cost for month-to-month or annual pricing and some have a high upfront with an annual maintenance cost with users add on separately.

Also see if migration in and out is easy for the software and always ask for a demo and/or test period before you commit

6. Reports and Outputs

Always see what kind of reporting the software can produce. Some software allows you to create customised report too. Review how quick and easy you can access or produce the reports. Can the report be shared easily without cumbersome exporting, attaching and etc.

Here are a the generic reports that is usually required

Income Statement
Balance Sheet
General Ledger
Debtor Ageing
Creditor Ageing

7. Security and Backups

Keeping accounting information secure should be one of the biggest priorities. Review their security policies and how much information you can store inside. With technology many software provide e documents where supporting is being uploaded and saved within the server or cloud thus eliminating paper storage significantly. Look at their level of backups and security and/or authentication protocols to ensure your data is safe and secure.

How InTune Outsourcing Can Support SME Business Owners?

InTune Outsourcing is one of the Malaysia’s Most Advanced and Top Outsourced Accounting, Finance, HR and Payroll services providers.

We have served more than 400 clients todate and InTune offer full-range services from start up to small to medium-sized companies.

InTune takes away the stress and pains from managing Accounting, Finance, Payroll and HR, including Bookkeeping, Payment Services, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll and more, by providing an expert team of CPAs and other accounting professionals who understand the special accounting needs of growing businesses.

We can also help in preparing Budgets too as part of our Consultancy Package.