How Small Business Accounting Software Can Improve Business Performance
It is no surprise that mega-corporations dominate the American business landscape. However small businesses are still relevant and can greatly benefit from business software usage. Small businesses often face a variety of problems because of their size, including undercapitalization leading to bankruptcy. It is extremely important for small businesses to carefully monitor their finances and establish a clear cut plan on what to do with their money. The impact of decisions made in small businesses is more severe than the impact of decisions made in larger companies. That being said, small businesses should focus on optimizing their business processes at the lowest possible cost. Small business accounting software can help alleviate some of your small business woes.
Step one in small business success is liquidity. Small businesses must have sufficient cash to trade and continue operations the next day; financial control is essential to small business management. One way small businesses can secure control over their finances is by using accounting software that specifically caters to your companies needs.
Small business accounting software is available to suit any and every type of business, therefore selecting the right option isn’t a difficult task. Implementing an accounting software solution will help business owners set and track sales goals, monitor gross margins, control expenses, and ensure all cash is accounted for. Accounting software is crucial for large businesses, but the benefits of using accounting software have been overlooked by many small businesses.
Another benefit of using small business accounting software is achieving sustained sales growth. Small businesses that record their sales can monitor performance and make decisions based on what works and what doesn’t and replicate actions that yielded higher sales. Without financial control, business owners would be making decisions based on hunches instead of financial facts.
Small business accounting software can help business owners decide what areas are underperforming and where action needs to be taken. By correcting underperformance early, small businesses will be able to maximize financial performance. It is critical for small businesses to figure out what is working and what isn’t because small businesses don’t have resources to waste. Using accounting software is crucial for small businesses to reach the highest levels of success.
For more information on selecting the best accounting software for your business, visit: www.Business-Software.com/Accounting
Popularity: 20% [?]
No commentsWith Accounting and Financial Advice for All: HelloWallet Democratizes Access to Financial Information
In wake of their $3.6 million acquisition in Series A funding, we thought we’d highlight HelloWallet’s personal finance software. Grotech Ventures and AOL co-founder Steve Case and his wife Jean, have come together to back the accounting software that is currently in beta mode. The product has only been available to public for a little over 2 months, but has a reach of over 3.5 million people. HelloWallet’s goal is to bring professional financial advisors to the masses.
HelloWallet covers all of the personal accounting bases like tracking and managing personal finances, and then some. What sets HelloWallet apart from other personal accounting software is that it aims to be a full-service financial advisor for its users. The product also proactively uncovers savings opportunities and potential threats for its members.
Additionally, HelloWallet is unaffiliated with banks and doesn’t allow them to advertise or promote their products through the software. The company claims to be untouched by business interests, thereby providing users unbiased recommendations and insight. HelloWallet plans to use the funding money to further product development and build up a stellar business development team.
The HelloWallet team helps users achieve their specific short and long-term financial goals. Financial stability is within reach with HelloWallet; the personal accounting resource will assist with life milestones like buying a home, saving for retirement, reducing debt safely, and saving for college. HelloWallet does saving for college one better by storing tuition information for nearly every university and modeling the tuition out to a users expected enrollment date. Then the service can make recommendations on how to approach educational savings on a per-case basis.
The startup company already has famous fans like President Clinton who claimed “HelloWallet gives financial advice to [all] Americans”. Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, has enlisted HelloWallet to provide the city with financial guidance to all of its residents. The company is revolutionizing the personal finance sector and helping to democratize access to financial information. HelloWallet has a rich repertoire of partners as well, including Ernst & Young, to help them provide their users and clients with the best financial advice in the industry. The service costs $5 a month, and the company has offered a free subscription to one needy family for every 5 paying members. Philanthropy and Financial stability, what more can we ask for?
HelloWallet is causing quite a stir in the personal accounting industry. The company has broken down the barrier between the haves and the have-nots by opening up access to formerly costly financial advice. For more information visit: www.hellowallet.com.
Popularity: 10% [?]
No commentsMint.com for the Android
Personal accounting site Mint.com has launched its Android application today. Mint.com users can now access their personal finances on-the-go with their Android phone. Mint.com was acquired by Intuit for $170 million last fall, roughly the same time that the company announced its development of the Android application.
The app has similar features as the Mint.com app for the iPhone, including the ability to view real-time account balances, monitor transactions, compare spending activity against a monthly budget, and edit transaction details. Unlike the iPhone, you can add a Mint widget that shows total cash and debt on the home screen of the Android. The widget also lets users jump to the full application with just a tap.
The app is extremely useful to check balances before making large purchases. You can also keep track of every penny spent and watch the performance of your 401 (k), brokerage and IRA accounts. Here is a screen shot of the app for Android:
In order to use the application, users must create a free account on Mint.com. The application is designed to let users take full control over their personal finances. The Mint.com app for Android is easy-to-use and an extremely valuable money management client application. The only qualm consumers have about the app is the potential danger of including all their financial information in one app, if the phone is lost or stolen. To quiet those fears, Mint.com has added password-protection and the option of disabling access to the app from the Mint.com website immediately.
Popularity: 24% [?]
No commentsSage Brings Accounting Software to the Mac
Mac has already seen strong growth in business adoption in the past few years and now with new business solutions software that are Mac compatible, accelerated growth seems inevitableExciting news for enterprises that use Macs as their IT platform-Sage 50 is now Mac compatible. Sage is a business management software solutions vendor with a suite of platforms in several sectors, including accounting.
Exciting news for enterprises that use Macs as their IT platform-Sage 50 is now Mac compatible. Sage is a business management software solutions vendor with a suite of platforms in several sectors, including accounting.
Apple Mac users can now enjoy the benefits of Instant Accounts and Sage Micropay Professional payroll software. “Demand has never been greater for complete and easy-to-use business software solutions on the Mac,” said Liam Mullaney, managing director at Sage Ireland. It was only a matter of time until Sage brought their user-friendly product to Mac’s user-friendly interface. “Sage Ireland is giving Mac users the functionality they are looking for while delivering the kind of user-friendly experience that drew them to the Mac in the first place,” said Mullaney.
Mac seems to be the IT platform of choice for several companies, however in the past accounting and payroll software had to be run on standalone windows-based PCs. Now that Sage’s accounting software is Mac compatible, businesses can integrate their business software on a single easy-to-use Mac platform.
Beryl Furlong, GM of Apple reseller Typetec explains that “Our Mac-based customers have for many years been looking for a sound, financial application that is supported on the Mac OS and I think this clearly offers a very attractive solution to them.”
Mac has already seen strong growth in business adoption in the past few years and now with new business solutions software that are Mac compatible, accelerated growth seems inevitable.
Popularity: 9% [?]
No commentsFinancialForce.com: Online Accounting Made Easy
FinancialForce.com announced that it plans on extending its functionality by adding electronic bank payment processing to its accounting SaaS. FinancialForce is a cloud accounting solution built on the salesforce.com platform.
FinancialForce will enable users to have a single system for managing customer accounts and monitoring accounts payable and receivable. Customers will enjoy the fully automated, cloud end-to-end payment system that will increase productivity and efficiency.
“These integrations are designed to make life even easier for our users and are part of a strategy that will see us extending the payment options available to our customers,” said President and CEO Jeremy Roche. “We are delivering a full, on-demand, end-to-end solution all the way to the bank to try to take this headache away from our customers. Through a fully integrated system like this, our customers can manage payments in a secure service environment without any risk.”
FinancialForce also encourages customers to pay their invoices on time because they will have easy access to their cash flow and budget control. The cloud accounting solutions vendor has found a way to simplify and optimize accounting processes. To further alleviate the stress of online banking, FinancialForce has added PayPal integration. With PayPal, users can choose to email invoices to customers, while their customers will have the option to pay securely online through PayPal.
For more information on FinancialForce.com visit: http://developer.financialforce.com
Popularity: 4% [?]
No commentsPersonal Accounting Software for your iPad or iPhone
“There’s an app for just about anything.”
Apple’s slogan is fast becoming true. iPhone and iPad users can now find easy-to-use personal accounting software in the Apple App Store. CashPilot was released December ‘09 on the App Store in the Finance category, but the company has already iterated a new Version 1.2.4 with improved language support. CashPilot was designed to facilitate the management of income and expenses; CashPilot is personal accounting made easy.
CashPilot users can easily export or email weekly, monthly or yearly expense reports. Accounting automation through CashPilot optimizes efficiency and with iPhone and iPad integration, personal accounting can be done anytime, anywhere.
Ralf Boesswetter, the founder of CashPilot, created the application as a solution to accommodate his personal accounting needs. CashPilot was quick to spread because the app allows users to monitor and manage their finances, thereby making them feel in control of their money.
CashPilot’s interface is easy to use and navigate; no bookkeeping experience necessary. Here’s a screenshot of the CashPilot interface on the iPhone:
CashPilot provides users with real time access to their financial data. With a few taps, users can access reports, graphs, and their purchase history. Users can also easily edit, configure, delete and manage their spending categories.
Financial management is a legitimate concern for many people, in our current economy. CashPilot facilitates asset management and gives users control over their financial destiny for a nominal fee of $2.99. See CashPilot in action here: http://www.cashpilot.net/en/video/
Popularity: 100% [?]
No commentsTax Calculation Made Easy?
IT solutions provider, SunGard, has released a new online tax calculation service that caters most specifically to benefit administrators requiring federal and state tax withholding support.
SunGard’s Omni Tax Calculator offers a simple way to calculate withholding taxes on pension distributions with improved efficiency. SunGard’s software as a service (SaaS) is available on a “pay as you go” basis and helps facilitate the entire tax calculation process.
The SaaS ultimately reduces the headache associated with tax calculation, which is quite a remarkable feat. Users will avoid dealing with costly hardware, technical expertise needed to deal with hardware, and daunting manual processes.
My favorite features of the SaaS-based Tax calculator are the automatic changes to federal and state tax withholding tables every time the government updates them and the automatic software updates. Genius!
The Omni Tax Calculator provides a simple solution for benefit administrators with its highly intuitive infrastructure. SunGard has made tax calculation easier for its users, now if only they could make it fun as well.
Popularity: 2% [?]
No commentsAccounting Software Up & Comer: Brightbook
There are a host of accounting solutions available to small-business owners. A number of sites offer basic accounting and payroll solutions for free, and then there are the low-priced products offered by Sage, Intuit Software, and their competitors. This month in the United Kingdom, two London-based designers are adding their own accounting solution to that list of those catering to SMBs: Brightbook.
Borne of the two designer’s disinclination to keep books, Brightbook is intended to change the way people feel about accounting. The founders are James Henderson and Warwick Leicester, who both run small businesses and were unsatisfied with Sage’s Peachtree application—Henderson notes that Peachtree wasn’t especially lacking in features, it just wasn’t the simplest, most straightforward offering for him.
Brightbook therefore aims to make the bookkeeping process painfully simple, and during their first stage of business (and marketing), the product is free. The founders’ goal is to build a user base offering the bare bones, gratis platform, and then eventually monetize by developing paid features. They also hope to begin working with accountants on the platform—Henderson claims he has already proselytized his own clerk.
There are a number of risks in offering a free product, but Brightbook already has about 1,200 users singed up (many of them leveraged through the accounting product’s Facebook page), which adds to the idea that the Britons might really be on to something. It will be interesting to see how Henderson and Leicester are able to grow this very simple product into something more—and whether they become serious competition for the larger SMB accounting software providers.
Popularity: 2% [?]
No commentsDeciding if Your Accounting Needs Exceed QuickBooks
As we mentioned last month, we wanted to give our readers some insight into the accounting solutions available to small businesses, and when they should switch from SMB-geared platforms, so here’s our estimation on the latter subject:
QuickBooks has been around for almost three decades, and owns about 85% of the small business accounting market. A large number of small businesses will only ever need this Intuit software for their accounting requirements, but a portion of these companies will certainly outgrow QuickBooks—and it’s important to know whether your own company’s needs exceed what QuickBooks can deliver.
For most of its existence, QuickBooks allowed five users maximum, and any company with more concurrent users switched to another accounting software after crossing that threshold. Now, QuickBooks allows up to 30 simultaneous users, so the decision to switch isn’t entirely a size-based one. Another factor potentially stopping users from switching to a mid-range accounting system? Price—the QuickBooks Enterprise Solution (the platform supporting up to 30 users) costs about $3,000, while at best, midrange accounting software ranges from $25,000 to $30,000. Because of mid-range systems’ costs, some companies whose needs exceed QuickBooks will stick the program because there are a large number of supplementary add-ons available.
Still, even if you balk at a hefty price tag, there are several reasons to take the plunge and invest outside of QuickBooks. Obvious causes include an increase in sales or number of employees, or a need for industry-specific accounting functionalities. A slightly less apparent reason is accounting controls—while QuickBooks has an audit trail, but some of the more complex accounting systems offer better support.
There are many who recommend using QuickBooks for as long as it’s fitting, but Intuit executives have stated plainly that their products are not intended to ride the wave of expansion from SMB status to larger enterprise. The most important thing, of course, is to assess accounting needs accurately, and then decide what type of accounting and financial software to choose—just don’t be shy if you need something more than QuickBooks!
Popularity: 2% [?]
No commentsJust in Time for Taxes: Halfpricesoft.com Releases ezPaycheck 2010
There are myriad accounting solutions out there for businesses of all sizes, but sometimes the simplest business models just need a straightforward payroll solution—enter Halfpricesoft.com.
Founded in 2003, Halfpricesoft provides user-friendly 1099, W2, and payroll packages for accountants at small- and medium-sized organizations, and their ezPaycheck payroll solution offers a hassle-free program for small business accounting. ezPaycheck caters to small business owners—people with an entrepreneurial spirit who are completely capable but can still use an extra hand when it comes to accounting.
In addition, fledgling businesses sometimes can’t afford to staff an accounts payable department, nor can they support the IT costs sometimes necessary to maintain a multifaceted financial management solution. In cases like these, programs like ezPaycheck are a good choice, as they allow users to print payroll checks, create and maintain payrolls for multiple companies, and automatically calculate withheld taxes. And like the majority of software solutions that are most attractive for small businesses, Halfpricesoft’s products can be easily installed without difficult software configurations.
Halfpricesoft.com recently released the latest version of their main small business accounting solution, ezPaycheck 2010. At the beginning of each year taxes loom, and the current season is surely why ezPaycheck is getting press right now—but rather than just parrot press releases, we at CompareAccounting.com are going to take the opportunity to look at simple accounting and finance solutions for small businesses, and later look at when exactly growing businesses should consider a more complex platform. So be sure to check in next month!
Popularity: 5% [?]
1 comment