Accounting Software Features That You Can Probably Do Without

There are basic accounting software features that every company must know and use, and yet many newer businesses just don’t have the experience to handle all of them. These are not simply accounting software features that might improve your company and make you more efficient, but they are ones that you can still live without. The truly important accounting software features are the compliance processes that keep you in business when the government comes calling either looking for tax compliance or for some other regulatory compliance. The less important features draw you in with promises of “streamlining business processes” or “increasing efficiency,” but what they’re really doing is increasing how much you pay for your financial accounting software.

Accounting Software Features: Beyond Compliance

Once you have the compliance issues covered, the next level of vital accounting software features are things you could probably do with a standard spreadsheet computer program. However, the software does such a wonderful job at making it easy, it does not make any sense to work harder than necessary. These are items like invoicing and recording payments received, or recording accounts payable and when those payments were sent, or banking. Most of these items you really cannot live without in this day and age. Historically pen, paper, and a handshake would suffice. Now, it is so much easier to use the accounting software features to do these things almost automatically. With one simple click or inputting of information, everything else is done within the software. While you will not get arrested or shut down for not invoicing everyone you work for, these accounting software features are still pretty important.

Accounting Software Features: Some Things May Not be Necessary

When it comes to what is necessary or not, that changes with each company. For many, handling the compliance issues with accounting payroll software, taxes, accounts payable and receivable, and banking functions is enough. If you are the type of company that only needs the basics, do not spend money on extra accounting software features you do not need.

For example, if you are a service business, you do not do much shipping; so accounting software features that estimate shipping costs or automatically track shipments aren’t something that will be helpful to you. If, however, you are a manufacturer or a distributor, these shipment functions are vital. By the same token, if you are that same manufacturer or distributor, you will not need job costing accounting software features. This is mainly because there are not jobs in that sense. In this case, a service provider would find extreme benefit from job costing software.

Many small companies choose not to use credit cards. If that is the company decision, paying extra for credit card acceptance in accounting software features does not make sense. Finally, there are extra accounting software features that might not be worth the cost. Smaller companies will not likely need direct deposit and probably don’t need to print shipping postage from the software; and still others have no need for remote access to the accounting software. All of these accounting software features are nice to anyone specifically needing them, but simply an extra expense for those that do not. Getting caught in a game of getting the biggest and best software can be expensive and unnecessary.