Are You Ready For A New Accounting Software Implementation? How To Tell Whether the Old Stuff Has Outlived Its Usefulness

There are typically four signs that help you know it’s time for a new accounting software implementation. The first thing you need to do is get rid of those old financial accounting spreadsheets. At some point, every business realizes that their financial planning software is not meeting their needs on a day-to-day basis, and recognizing those signs is important if you want to start a new accounting software implementation.

Accounting Software Implementation is Necessary When You Waste Time Looking for Information

As your company expands, your financial information tends to multiply rapidly. As time goes on, it ends up in various locations throughout different departments.  For example, reps from your sales department might keep their forecast in a private spreadsheet, and the human resources department might maintain their payroll applications from their own spreadsheet. Inventory information is then kept in another separate system.

One of the clear cut signs that you need a new accounting software implementation for your current system is the lack of data integration and centralization. This problem can delay the ability to collect and analyze important financial data in a timely manner. As a result, you can’t optimize your business, ultimately causing you to miss out on potential opportunities and putting you at a significant risk of non-compliance with government regulations.

An Increase in Manual Activities Indicates That a New Accounting Software Implementation is Necessary

If your employees and financial professionals have begun to spend more time on manual activities, this is another indicator that it’s time for a new accounting software implementation. When this happens, you need to start considering new accounting software systems ASAP. As transactions in the area of finances and their corresponding tasks and workflows become difficult, your simple accounting software is too limited to handle them properly. At this point, employees find it complicated to avoid data entry and other tasks associated with administrative work done by hand.

You Need a New Accounting Software Implementation if You Depend on Technical Staff To Do Your Accounting

With an old accounting software implementation, the type of manual work described above will not only cost you money and valuable employee time, but it will also impact accuracy and the quality of vital financial data in a negative way. At that point, you probably start to depend too much on your IT staff to correct errors and solve accounting problems, which will bring your business technology initiatives to a stop. If your IT staff is taking a large amount of time on these issues, it’s time to make the move to new accounting software.

Accounting Software Implementation is Necessary As System Performance Problems Increase

Small level accounting systems are primarily designed for just a handful of emloyees in the same office, and they can meet those needs because they’re for limited user capacity. Unfortunately, as more and more new users are added to the application, you may see a noteworthy slow down to the system, as well as some performance issues.

Watch for these signs that your accounting software may be on its last leg and you’ll know it’s time for a new accounting software implementation. Start your research and interview trusted friends and colleagues to help you choose the right accounting software implementation for your company.