Do I really need to use an accounting software?
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This will depend on the kind of business you have however accounting software will make you like easier and keep your financials organised. No one wants to deal with a giant shoebox filled with receipts and invoices at the end of the financial year.
Accounting software helps you to complete everything from the basic recording of income and expenses through to producing financial statements. These systems can save you (or your accountant) a lot of time which in turn saves you money and can improve the decision making within your business.
There are other factors to consider like whether you have a stable internet connection, if you don’t a cloud based accounting software may not be the best option for you. Cloud based accounting is very popular now as you can access the software from anywhere at anytime.
If you have a rental, a spreadsheet may do the job for you. You could consider a free software like Wave, zipbooks or Akaunting. These provide options from very basic reports to more comprehensive dashboards and all have free options.
4 Questions to help you find the right software
- What does your business need?
List the accounting tasks that you need the software to complete. If you are a freelancer or sole trader the tasks you need it to do will be far less than a large more complex business.
- Will the Software grow with my business?
Think about how your business will look in the future. Can you upgrade the software to more features that you require later? A one-man band may look to subcontract later and hire a larger team which may require the ability to run more comprehensive reports to track financials.
- Is the software easy to use?
This is very important especially if you aren’t overly tech savvy. Software with a lot of features can be overly complex to use. You don’t want a software that requires an accounting or IT degree to use and takes ages to send an invoice as there is so many things to complete before being able to send it.
- Is the customer support any good?
It is always good to check online reviews to ensure you will be supported if something goes wrong. They don’t have to have a phone number however an email address or chat function that is actually monitored is helpful especially if they send detailed instructions to fix issues like Xero does.
Choosing the right accounting package is important as you don’t want to have to change software in a year’s time. This can end up costing you more as you may need an accountant to setup new software and import all relevant data from your old system to setup the next one.
We have exciting news that a new accounting software firm has entered the NZ market in the last couple of weeks. Check out our next article to see the packages that they are offering to the NZ market. This may tick all the boxes that you need in a software or it could be perfect for someone you know who is starting a new business. While we are big advocates for Xero as it is so easy to use, we are happy to let the small business community know about other software that may suit their needs better.
