Number, numbers, and numbers! While running business numbers are everything. Some figures indicate profits while some report a loss, but the fate of a business lies in how good a story their numbers tell.
Therefore, for turning a loss into profits, you need good accounting practices, and there comes the need for good accounting software. Whether your business is small or big, accounting is one of the parts which drives a business to success.
Features of accounting software
Accounting
The accounting software offers to automate things like scheduling bank payments and printing checks. Aside from this, you can also keep track of your vendor credit memos. This helps to keep costs under control.
Basic accounting software includes features like managing ledgers, fixing ledgers, accounts payable, and receivable. As the company size grows, there is a lot of features that accounting software can offer.
Billing
Most accounting systems present today have an integrated module, which is exclusively devoted to handling billing and invoice. Thus the customer can independently add their new payment methods, organize collections, and prepare accurate in-time invoices for the clients.
Managing Assets
Keeping track of your day to day essential expenses is tough, and most people choose to avoid it. But when you are running a business, you should focus on managing the asset expenses properly. Accounting software comes equipped with a module that keeps track of day to day cost records, audit history, payment receipts, resource allocations, and many more.
Payroll management
Your employee’s salaries can keep varying like some may be paid hourly rates, others weekly or biweekly or as needed. So, the accounting system that you choose should be capable of handling all these. Apart from that, a sound accounting system should also be able to manage employee compensation along with the other benefits offered by the company.
Report generation
Besides a wide array of all features, the accounting system can also generate a quality report that includes income statements, cash flow statements, payroll summary, accounts payable, and accounts receivable.
Most systems offer basic functionality, like keeping track of incoming money and outgoing money. But more advanced platforms can do more like generating a report in the form of pie charts for presentations, offers an analysis of past expenses, estimating budget for next quarter, and provide the cost of existing operations.
Inventory management
Accounting software that gives you control over your inventory can really fast track your business towards growth. Following the life cycle of the product from purchase to stocking it for shipping is a great way to keep track of inventory levels.
Using the accounting system, you will be able to know the exact amount of stock available and also the amount of inventory needed for meeting future consumer demands. This way, you can avoid overstocking or understocking issues that are faced by many business owners.
Benefits of accounting software
Simplification
Accounting software gives you the control in your hands. Even if you don’t have an accounting background, you can definitely give meaning to the numbers and perform automated calculations. It is simple so that business owners with little training can complete all financial operations while complying with the legal standards as well.
The accounting system streamlines your whole finance operation, giving you a complete overview of what is going on in your accounting department.
Financial Transparency
Inaccuracy in calculating the expenses or failing to generate on-time reports can result in business crises. The accounting system can highlight significant costs and human errors; this way, you can quickly avert any crises and curb your expenses.
Productivity
The accounting software takes care of the biggest worry that business owners often face, that is, handling the accounting operations of the company. With the features mentioned above, the accounting system collects, organizes, and analyzes the most complex data that a company generates. So, the most productive results are obtained without the obstacles of any human errors.
Improved client relationship
With automatic invoice generation, the accounting system offers businesses with on-time billing services, which terminates any delay or miscommunication with clients. The system can also be personalized to generate bills automatically on a schedule and thus creates a credible and trustworthy image of the company from the client’s perspective.
Security
Accounting systems contain the most sensitive information of any business, and if that information gets exposed in some way, the company can face some severe loss. So it is vital that the system is secure. Accounting systems today offer such an internal structure that the admin of the system can decide and provide secure access to users, thus preventing any unauthorized entry in the system.
Types of accounting software
Billing& Invoicing
This type of accounting software focuses on billing and invoicing operations of the company. They are one of the most important aspects of any company. The software preserves accounting figures, which makes the service of the company more professional and credible from the client’s end.
Examples: FreshBooks, Zoho Books
Enterprise planning systems
Enterprise systems hold a lot of other tasks like inventory management, control and distribution, accounting, marketing, finance, and HR. The system provides all-around resource management to the business owners.
Examples: Odoo, Brightpearl
Payroll management system
The payroll management systems take care of employee-related activities like salary deductions, deposition of salary in accounts, calculating the overtime compensations, and many more such tasks.
Examples: Xero, Zenefits
Time & Expense management system
These systems are designed to expedite the day to day expense approvals and other related billing operations. The system can then also generate a detailed expense report to review how the company resources and time are being used.
Example: FreshBooks, Zoho Expense
Verdict
Having reached this section by now, you must have a good idea about what accounting software is, features and benefits of the system, and how it can improve your business using it. Before taking off the final challenge of buying the system, I would suggest you go out and try any one accounting software on a trial basis.
This way, you might get to know your requirements better and pick the right system in the end.
Author Bio: I am Greg Wilson, a Content Writer working with GoodFirms, a research and review platform for service and software companies. I am passionate about blogging, creative writing, social media, and content marketing. I write blog posts for GoodFirms about SEO services, Cloud computing, project management software, and many more such categories.
