Is your organization still using QuickBooks or another entry-level accounting software?
Has your organization grown from where it first started? If it has, congratulations. However, is it now starting to reach a tipping point where the very tools that supported the initial growth have begun to hinder the ability to act with agility and insight? Is your entry-level accounting software holding your people and your business back? If this sounds like your situation or your not quite sure; you are not alone. The following article will help to determine if it is time to consider a change.
Out growing entry level software is a “good” problem to have. Most small companies start off using QuickBooks as their main accounting system. Let’s face it – QuickBooks is inexpensive and relatively easy to implement and learn. It is designed for very small companies that have unsophisticated operational processes and reporting requirements. However, and to the credit of your company’s hard work, at some point as a small business starts to grow and the level of complexity of its projects and daily management increases, QuickBooks can become a burden to the business operations by slowing down processes, necessary reporting, and month-end close. Every growing organization reaches a tipping point where the very tools that supported their initial growth begin to hinder their ability to act with agility and insight.
Think of it like this; trying to cram a family of five in a Smart Car. When you got the car and it was just you it was a smart investment that saved on gas. Now that you have been fortunate enough to grow your family, it’s unsafe to have everyone in the car at once or you have to make multiple trips back and forth to transport everyone costing you more on gas than if you just made one trip in a larger car more suited to your family size.
If you are not quite sure if you have gotten to the point where it may be time for a new system here are some telltale signs.
· Are you using a lot of spreadsheets? Heavily relying on Excel to manage part of your business operations is costly and very often, inaccurate.
· Are the people in your office wasting valuable time doing double data entry? The most valuable “asset” your company has is your employee’s time and any process or operational deficiency that causes duplicate data entry is costly.
· Are employees trying to configure QuickBooks to do things it wasn’t designed to do? You can apply workarounds in the short-term, but the longer you wait, the more traction you lose. QuickBooks can’t manage all of the operational requirements of the business. There are third party software vendors that have developed add-on products that “integrate” with QuickBooks to fill the gaps. Very often these add-on packages have inferior user interfaces, and the integration is at risk of being broken by updates. Using these products is a band-aid approach, and will only take you so far in your efforts to streamline your production processes.
· Are you using QuickBooks to manage your finances and a whole different set of tools to administrate contracts, track customer interactions, or manage delivery systems? If you don’t have the right systems in place to track customer interactions and forecast demand, and those systems don’t talk to each other, you may find yourself unable to meet customer expectations. To compete in an increasingly competitive global economy, you need a well-tuned supply chain and the ability to manage customer and vendor requirements.
If any of these issues are apparent at your company, you may have already outgrown QuickBooks or whatever accounting solution you are currently using and feeling the pain both financially and operationally. Careful analysis of your processes, including looking where employees are engaging in duplicative and inefficient processes can help you determine if it’s time to look at an integrated solution which can position your firm for growth, and alleviate the stress caused by using software meant for smaller and simpler organizations.
If/ when evaluating a new business management solution you may also want to evaluate the IT model needed to support it. If you’re running an online version of an entry-level accounting solution, do you plan to invest in infrastructure to maintain a new solution in-house? Or do you want to maintain a cloud-based solution? If you are using an outdated legacy system do you want to move to an outsourced or cloud-based deployment?
KTL offer the option of a cloud-based or partner-hosted deployment, in addition to the standard on-premises options. There are advantages to each option. Cloud-based solutions, for example, can eliminate the large upfront hardware investments and reduce staffing needs, while you have more immediate control over an onsite deployment.
KTL offers choice and flexibility to support the model that’s right for you and the expertise to help determine the deployment and software that would be the best fit for your situation.
Have you outgrown Quickbooks? Let’s discuss the options KTL can offer you. Contact Mark at sales@ktlsolutions.com or call 1.866.960.0001.
MARK LAWRENCE | Sales Executive
Mark has over 10 years of experience in providing technology solutions. Starting with Monster World Wide in Tempe, AZ. After a few years working with National Accounts, Mark was promoted and relocated to the DC area as the Enterprise Sales Representative for the Mid-Atlantic. Here, he was the main Monster contact for Fortune 1000 companies such as Philip Morris, Dollar Tree, Volkswagen of America and Smithfield Foods, just to name a few. Mark was also a consultant to these companies by providing services such as recruiting and HR solutions from the hiring process to out placement service and applicant tracking systems. Mark joined KTL in 2014. With his background and experience in understanding and providing technology to specific needs and challenges for non-profit and other organizations, he has become an asset to KTL’s accounts department.
