1) User Interface &
Complexity
Most of the business
owners do not have any accounting background. Event if you have a dedicated
accountant who would be using the application, as an owner you should be able
to login and browse the things. Also, it should be easy enough for your
employees to learn the software. Investment in training is a cost and should be
avoided.
If the accounting software
is stuffed with every possible feature you can imagine, it will become
difficult to use for your team. So, go for a software which has a simple user
interface and is not bloated with unnecessary features. Clean interface makes
it easy to focus on the important tasks and can reduce the learning curve.
2) Scalability
Lot of businesses make
a mistake by buying an application which suits to their needs at the time of
purchase. Later, when their business starts to grow, the accounting software
fail to cope up with the progress and eventually business owners have to
migrate to another software. Migrating data from an existing system to a
completely new software can be painful.
So, select an accounting software
which can scale with your business needs. Some softwares offer only one version
of the product and some have progressive versions depending the business type
or size. Go for the software that offers an entry level version as well as a
feature rich version which you might not need now but will definitely need in
future.
3) Exit options
Imagine if the company
you are buying from shuts down its operations or you discover lot of bugs few
months after the purchase. To save yourself from such situations, ensure that
the accounting
software provides data export facility.
You should be able to
export ledger or other transactions at least in the form of excel as most other
software will accept excel file for the import.
If fact, as a good
practice, you should always backup your data at regular intervals.
4) Hidden Costs
Some accounting software
providers might charge for the support or upgrades. Sometimes, a basic software
is provided at a lower cost and then you are forced to buy ‘add-ons’ or pay for
‘maintenance fee’. So, check if there are any hidden costs associated with the
software you are planning to buy.
Best way to know this,
is to check pricing page of the software provider’s website. If they are
selling additionals services, those will be mentioned there.
5) Post-sale Support
This is the most
important but most ignored thing while selecting an accounting software.
No matter how good or easy the software is, you will need support at some
point. And if you have nobody to talk to when you are stuck, your entire
investment will go in vain.
Lack of support is also
one of the reasons why some accounting softwares are cheap. Obviously, support
cost is not included in the offering. You should avoid such products at any
cost.
Here is a simple tip to
check the support – just post a message or call support number and see how they
respond. Based on the response time and quality of response, you will come to
know about their support infrastructure.
6)Online
or Offline
How
does it matter? Well, most businesses nowadays are adopting cloud based
softwares as they offer lot of advantages over traditional offline softwares.
However, some businesses like retail stores require speed and not always
connected to the internet. For them, offline POS (Point Of Sale) systems are
the best bet.
7)
Data Security
Skip
this point if you have opted to go for an offline accounting package. If you
are thinking forward and considering an online accounting application, then
data security is the most important aspect to check.
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