THE SME GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE RIGHT ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE 1
Why Read this Guide? This guide is aimed at SMEs who are just about to acquire their first accounting software solution, as well as businesses considering changing their existing accounting software solution. Acquiring and implementing new accounting software can be costly and time consuming and it is therefore important to be aware of what to look for and how to plan for this process beforehand so you get it right the first time. After reading this guide, you should be well equipped to make an informed decision, to help ensure that your new accounting software meets the needs of your business and ultimately contributes towards your goals. Damian Connolly Founder & Managing Director, FCCA Damian has a wealth of experience working at a senior level in both privately owned and private equity backed international businesses within the SME sector. He founded Sakura to help leading London SMEs & entrepreneurs turn their visions into successful and sustainable business growth, by providing a solid financial platform. 2
CONTENTS 1. Why Accounting Software can be the key to SME s financial success. The first part of this guide will provide you with an overview of the immediate benefits to SMEs through better use of accounting software. 2. 5 Key Things to Look for When Choosing Accounting Software for Your Business In the second part we provide you with some planning tips and ideas prior to selecting new accounting software. 3. Selecting Your Software: QuickBooks Online, Xero or Sage Accounts 50? We review some advantages and disadvantages of the more popular software solutions in the marketplace and also identify how these can provide some longer term benefits, with the proper planning at the point of selection. 4. The No. 1 Mistake Businesses Make When Choosing Accounting Software We reveal the single most common mistake businesses make when choosing their accounting software, to help you avoid it, saving you time and money 3
1 Why Accounting Software can be the key to SME s financial success Most small and medium sized businesses will at some point arrive at the stage where they need to leave the Excel sheet behind and move on to accounting software. Not only can the right accounting software save you time by automatically drawing up invoices or calculating VAT, but more importantly, on a larger scale it can work as the key to your business future financial success! 4
Accounting Software Reduces Admin, Saves Time and Reduces the Risk of Errors and Inaccuracies. Reducing admin time and effort with invoicing. Manual effort involved in creating and sending invoices from an Excel or Word template can be significantly reduced through use of a standard template in the accounts software. Inaccuracies in invoice numbers and other basic errors on standard service items are also minimised. Efficient and streamlined bookkeeping. We cannot overstate the value of timely and accurate bookkeeping for SMEs, and in practice the use of software will allow this to be carried out more efficiently and in a more streamlined way. This also means daytoday bookkeeping can be carried out more quickly and efficiently with fewer errors and inaccuracies It Provides a Solid Financial Basis to Manage Your Business on a DaytoDay Basis Financial information and reporting supports sound management. Any mainstream accountancy software will come with a standard suite of financial reports which allow you to routinely follow up outstanding invoices from your Customers, manage your payment runs to Suppliers and understand your sales activity, business costs and cash position simply and easily. Other benefits. Particularly with online or cloud software there will be other benefits that can be utilised in your business over time such as adding mobile apps so that allow you to check information while out of the office, integrating other software such as timesheet management or staff expenses to reduce duplication of manual effort. Accounting Software is the key to delivering your business future success. Information is power and supports business success. With the information readily up to date and available at any time to check business financial position, you are well equipped to plan for the future. You can more easily plan future investments and manage cash resources. Being able to prepare and monitor budgets and forecasts in advance will help you to consider risks and evaluate opportunities and then take the appropriate action. 5
2 The 5 Key Things to Look for When Choosing Accounting Software for Your Business The Advantages to Having the Right Accounting Software Choosing the right accounting software for your business can be daunting with the overwhelming number of options available. Reducing admin time and minimising errors while providing a solid financial platform to manage your business on a day-to-day basis are just some of the benefits of having the right accounting software. The key to getting it right is ensuring you plan properly based upon your business needs, and configure or set it up to use the functionality to deliver the expected goals. 6
Navigating Through the Software Jungle To help you navigate through the software jungle, we have put together a list of the five key things you should look for when choosing your accounting software. The 5 Key Things to Look for When Choosing Your Software: 1. Price: What is your available budget? Have you also included the likely cost and time of setup and data migration from your old system? 2. Number of Users: How many users do you want? Will you also want your accountant to have easy access to your data? 3. Online or Offline Software: Are you comfortable with having your business data on someone else s servers? ii.e. in the cloud, which allows flexibility and is easily accessible. Or do you prefer having software on your servers and accessible only by your staff? 4. Functionality to Suit Your Business Activity: What does your business activity involve? Is there multicurrency, stock, project or quote or sales order functionality required? Do you generate small numbers of transactions each month or several thousand each week? 5. User Friendliness and Customer Support: Look for software that is easy for you and your team to use on a day-to-day basis. If it also comes with a great customer support system, where you can easily get onsite or offsite help and advice on how to use it, then this is even better. 7
Also consider whether the particular software you are considering is well known and widely used in your sector, and will be easy for new employees to use. A good tip is to ask for a free demo version to try out before you make your decision. 3 8
3 Selecting Your Software: QuickBooks Online, Xero or Sage Accounts 50? The accountancy software market has been changing dynamically in recent years particularly in the SME marketplace, as online software - cloud accounting becomes increasingly popular. To help you navigate safely through the accounting software jungle we have compared three of the most popular solutions, with respective pros and cons listed below. What Accounting Software is Available to SMEs? There really is no straightforward right software for a particular business. However, it is possible to choose software tailored for your business needs and requirements, while focusing on your budget, individual user experience and specific requirements (such as the ability to access via a mobile app). 9
The range of mainstream options for SMEs include some of the following: SAGEOne, FreeAgent, Kashflow, JustAccounts, TASBooks, Clearbooks, Xero, SAGEAccounts 50, Quickbooks or for larger SMEs SAGE Accounts 200 or Microsoft Dynamics GP. However these software options can be reduced very quickly based upon the following business requirements: Budget: o Quickbooks and SAGEOne are below 10 per month, whereas most of the others are around the 20 per month level. Cloud or online access: o SAGEAccounts 50 and TASBooks are desktop only Business size: o SAGEOne, FreeAgent, JustAccounts and TASBooks are aimed squarely at start-ups or micro businesses, whereas Microsoft Dynamics and SAGE Accounts 200 are for SMEs from circa 10m turnover, or Nature of business: o Where your business requires a stock management capability, then only Sage Accounts 50 will offer this functionality. 10
QuickBooks Online, Xero or Sage Accounts 50? QuickBooks Online, Xero and Sage Account 50 are the three most popular accounting software solutions among our clients. Based on our own experience we have prepared a brief overview of the pros and cons for each of these software solutions below. QuickBooks Online: - Description: o Cloud based. o For SMEs up to a substantial size. o Top US software, now configured for smaller SME s in the UK. - PROs: o Inexpensive. o User friendly. o Good management and business reporting capabilities. o Integration with (some) other online software. - CONs: o Poor (but improving) accountancy functionality. o Mixed support in the UK. Xero - Description: o Fastest growing cloud based software for SMEs in the UK o Continuously improved in with customer and accountants feedback. - PROs: o Moderately priced o Intuitive and great user experience. o Extensive integration with other business software solutions. o Free web/classroom training. o Excellent customer service and online support - CONs: o Requires additional planning and configuration prior to use for best effect. o Some elements are complex to use and require additional training. 11
Sage Accounts 50 - Description: o The traditional accounting software. o Desktop based software which suits SMEs who want to retain control over their business data. - PROs: o Stable. o Secure and extensively tested for use in SMEs o Fully familiar to accountants and accounting professionals. o Contains every module that may be required by an SME i.e.: projects, stock, sales orders, purchase orders. - CONs: o Expensive in comparison with other options. o Not cloud based (restricting user access and mobile capability) o Likely to require more finance educated staff for bookkeeping issues. 12
4 The No. 1 Mistake Businesses Make When Choosing Accounting Software Consider the Medium and Long Term Benefits In our experience, there is one big opportunity that businesses often forget to factor in when choosing their accounting software i.e. whether your chosen new accounting software can partially or wholly integrate with your other business software, as this could both potentially save your business time and money and continue to add value later on. Integrating Accounting Software with Other Business Software As part of any planning or review process for choosing new accounting software, key data is already in existing software in the business which typically is duplicated at least once upon setup, or at worst, on an ongoing basis in your accounting software. 13
You may also find yourself thinking it would be great if we could link these programmes together to avoid inputting details twice or; if we could connect our accounting software with our CRM software we could save staff time by avoiding the input of invoices by our sales team and then by our finance team. The nice to have Criteria This is usually referred to as the nice to have criteria of software selection. This is because it doesn t provide immediate benefits and will not resolve the key bookkeeping problems or issues right now, e.g. handling multicurrency, moving bookkeeping online or supporting the introduction of a purchase order system etc. However it could potentially generate significant cost and time savings and be of substantial long term benefit to the business. Ideally every new software project should have this opportunity identified at an early stage, with the potential long term cost savings or benefits also identified at the same time. The 4 key Software Solutions to Integrate with Your Accounting Software In our experience, the big integration opportunities for combining with other business software tend to relate to the following areas: CRM e.g. customer data, sales/credit transactions, cash transactions. Online banking/payment e.g. supplier payment run data, credit card/direct debit transactions. Timesheet e.g. sales/credit transactions. Employee expense software e.g. monthly expense claim transactions. Avoiding or Reducing Manual Data Entry and Duplication of Effort Where in many cases internal business processes have already been improved and then migrated into CRM software, timesheet software or expense software solution, the data is often still being duplicated when the information comes to be entered into the accounting software. 14
Luckily a number of the more popular accounting software providers are increasingly focused on the opportunities for integration of third party software with their software. To name a few examples: Harvest: This time sheet system integrates with Quick Books & Xero. Expensify: This employee expenses system integrates with Quick Books &Xero CRM: Microsoft CRM integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics GP to capture customer data. Invoices, earnings and cash payments can also be imported back into the software. Other: With online banking, other payment solutions, and acquisition software all data can be imported into Sage, Xero & QuickBooks. What s next? Whether you are a first time user of accounting software or considering changing your existing software, then we have the experience to be able to help you to deliver the right software and its benefits for your business. Planning the immediate business requirements and/or longer term outcomes and benefits Managing the process for identifying/selection of the appropriate software system Set up and configuration of the software and migration of data from old system Initial and ongoing training of your staff Setup and/or configuration of integrations with other business software 15
Get in Touch If you are considering changing to new accounting software, and need help with planning, setup and configuration or staff training, then let us know by tweeting us at @sakurabusiness or emailing damian@sakurabusiness.co.uk We are passionate about supporting entrepreneurs & SMEs and contributing to the successful development of their business. We use our extensive commercial experience to provide a solid financial platform for leading entrepreneurs to help turn their vision into successful and sustainable business growth. Accountants are renowned for looking backwards, however our approach means that we encourage you to focus on future business goals and targets as a means of improving upon historical business activity. Our exceptional team is dedicated to go above and beyond to help you and your business with professional, cost-efficient, financial and business advice along with service of the highest quality. Get a quote Request a call back 16