A Strategy for Finding the Right Accounting Software; By-Product of the Search: A Better Understanding of Your Business Operation

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * SHOPPING FOR ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE is difficult. The software must be just the right size, it shouldn't contain more or fewer features than you need and you should feel secure that its publisher will be able to provide upgrades and fix bugs as needed. * IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO EXAMINE the package's specifications and understand its myriad features; you must have both a comprehensive and intimate understanding of your organization's business operations and the various processes that it uses. * IF YOU DO THE JOB CORRECTLY and diligently, you'll discover you're developing a far more comprehensive and detailed picture of your organization than you imagined possible, and that will give you the opportunity to create a business that runs better. * STEPS TO TAKE: * Establish a technology advisory committee (TAC) to handle the entire operation, recruiting managers from each major company division. * Have each manager prepare a needs analysis and a flowchart of how each task is performed. From this, prepare a requirements definition--a document that defines what your business needs from accounting software. * WHILE THE PRICE IS NOT UNIMPORTANT, you should understand price comparisons between products are difficult because some packages include modules or functions as a standard while others charge separately for them. * PREPARE A FORMAL REQUEST for proposal or a less formal request for quote and invite the leading candidates to demonstrate their products for you. One of the most challenging tasks you could face in your professional career is selecting an accounting software package that matches the needs of your client or company. The product must be just right: It shouldn't contain more features than you need (which adds to its cost and makes it more complicated and difficult to use), it should incorporate features that streamline the operation of your business and it should be easy enough to customize to your unique business needs so you don't have to take on more manual accounting operations to compensate for the software's limitations. Finally, you should feel confident during the many years the software serves you that its publisher will be able to provide upgrades and bug fixes as needed. Follow the steps outlined in this article and you'll be able to locate a package that meets your specific business needs within your budget. After yon begin the search, you'll discover it's not enough to examine a package's specifications and understand its myriad features; in fact, that's just a small part of the investigation. To be able to recognize the right product, you first must have both a comprehensive and intimate understanding of your organization's business operations, the various processes it uses and how they translate into business solutions--the industry term for how the software handles tasks such as payroll, banking, inventory, invoicing and accounts receivable. And for some businesses, that includes tracking and managing employees' work hours, product-production cycles, sales commissions, Internet use as a marketing tool and the company's various metrics as a way to evaluate its performance, to name just a few. A PANORAMIC PICTURE As you can appreciate, the search is not an afternoon assignment. It often takes months of arduous research and evaluation. there is a bright side to this effort: If you do the job diligently, you'll discover you're developing a panoramic picture of your organization that is far more comprehensive and detailed than you imagined. In the process you will see how your various business processes interlace, or don't interlace, with one another. Those insights will provide you with the opportunity to redesign processes that, in the long run, will make your business run smoother and more profitably. You're probably thinking, But I thought today's accounting software was so smart that it could adapt to run any kind of business. …