How To Get The Most Out of Your Accounting Software Investment

There are so many assets at your disposal in business yet you never fully materialize all of them to their optimum capacity. However, you have to pay in full for the upkeep and maintenance or running of these assets. Modern day business organizations want to get maximum efficiency out of all their assets.

One of the reasons for this lapse may be not having the ERP solution fully utilized to your business advantage to timely recognize and materialize these cost saving or revenue earning opportunities. If you have made a lot of investment into any of the good accounting software installed, you need to make sure that you tap into its capabilities and get the maximum for your business.

There are several ways in which you can get more value out of your accounting software. Let us have a look at the ways in which you can make the most out of it

Move To Shared Services

Business organizations are moving towards shared services for different tasks like human resources, payroll, payables and receivables. Shared services take care of these repetitive tasks very easily. By allowing shared services you can easily reduce your company’s overheads while conveniently streamlining all relevant business processes. This move to shared services significantly reduces costs. Some of the functions that you can start with include management of payables, receivables and purchases.

Modern ERP solutions serve as the backbone of companies and you can easily move your shared services. All the repetitive tasks will be automated and significantly reduce your operational costs.

Look at cloud applications

With cloud computing becoming a more prominent influence in modern business, it is important not to dismiss the many online accounting applications available.

Cloud applications come with a variety of benefits. They can be accessed from any location with a strong Internet connection, and you don’t need to purchase software licenses or servers to run them. The installation of upgrades and patches is done on the server end, so you and your IT staff don’t need to worry about keeping the software up to date.

Pay attention to add-on features

Add-ons bring extra functionality to a business accounting application. For example, they may allow you to access the software remotely, accept payments online, and integrate the accounting software with your ecommerce software. There are also add-ons that make accounting software compatible with tax software.

Use of Planning Applications

ERP provides planning component but unfortunately most business organizations have overlooked this feature. However, developers nowadays are incorporating enterprise planning tools in their products. The ERP team in your organization in consultation with the IT department must educate senior management and various department heads about the things that ERP could do for them. By this kind of collaboration, you will be able to get the planning impact of your accounting software across the organization regardless of the function. Make sure that you pursue the process of evolving the ERP planning with the change in your organizational requirements to remain ahead of the learning curve. This would help you timely identify and overcome any inefficiencies which could potentially cost your company a lot more than required.

Customization of Software

ERP vendors are continuously striving to improve their solutions. Many businesses do not require customization of the software. However, the ERP solution developers are providing more customization options to businesses without involving any risks. The software customization tools rely upon standard application program interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the ERP program’s code. This allows companies to easily integrate their customizations in a step-by-step manner without impacting the functionality of the ERP solution. Before you thinking of getting your ERP solution customized, give your employees time to adjust to it. Once they have adjusted fully and understand it well enough, you can proceed to the ERP customization process. Customization is particularly very useful if the standard ERP solution does not support any particular business process automation. When you are aiming to customize your ERP solution, make sure to maintain proper documentation. This documentation would help you identify the changes made and in case you want to revert back to original, you should easily be able to do that.

Make the decision with the help of your accountant

Your accountant may prefer that you choose an application that is compatible with the ones she uses. Every business is different; your accountant is in the best position to offer an educated opinion about which one is best choice for your particular enterprise. Your accountant may even be able to help you set up the software you choose.