10 Indicators That You’ve Outgrown Your Accounting Software

You were a small business with less than 8 employees providing products and services to less than 30 customers. You spent many hours working, including doing the bookkeeping, and then you start to experience business growth. You transformed from working in the business to working on the business. Now, you have over 20 employees and over 100 customers with plans to continue to grow, innovate, and capture market share. Things are looking pretty good in your business world but something still doesn’t seem right and its making you feel uncomfortable. This is not uncommon by any means.

When speaking to entrepreneurs about their growth strategies and how they need to manage the information to make decisions, it becomes immediately apparent that they scramble to articulate the key performance indicators of their business. On their desk (a little disorganized as it may be), you may find several reports, hand written numbers on a sheet of paper, and even on their computer screen with a few spreadsheets open at all times – their objective is to try to keep a pulse on the company activities while managing customer orders, inventory requirements, cash in hand, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and the list goes on and on. Yes, growing pains! But, they are not alone. There are tens of thousands of businesses experiencing the same challenges and realizing their entry-level accounting systems are holding them back in being more competitive during a critical stage in the business development.

Here are the 10 most common indicators that you have outgrown QuickBooks or your entry-level accounting software;

1. Your staff spends hours outside your current system to manipulate spreadsheets to provide meaningful information.
2. Your staff is inefficient because of manual processes which in turn introduces errors.
3. Your staff is unable to provide timely information and rely on workarounds to manage information.
4. Your staff has limited visibility of information details from consolidated and operational sources.
5. Your staff has difficulty managing multi-company transactions and/or management of multi-currency transactions.
6. Your staff is experiencing double entry of data due to the lack of integration to external mission critical applications.
7. You lose confidence in the information reported and rely on outside advisors (usually a CPA) to validate financial data.
8. You strongly feel that the company needs more controls and auditability of the data during your growth.
9. You need timely information of key performance indicators which drives better decision-making.
10. You realize that your systems are holding you back from new business opportunities.

As a business owner, you realize to support anticipated growth you need to provide the software tools to your staff. Entry-level business applications were good solution when you started your business and even during years where growth was flat. To support your vision of growth, you need software tools that will empower your staff, make them efficient, and provide insight on the performance of the business. If you have experienced any of these indicators, it is time to assess your business management software needs. Our team of consultants and business analysts can help.

Plus, Visit our Resources Center for white papers, webinars and other educational resources that can help you decide if you have outgrown your accounting software and how to choose your next accounting /ERP system.