Which Bookkeeping Software Should You Use?

If you’ve just started a small business or thinking of starting one, consider hiring a qualified bookkeeper to handle your accounts, someone who has completed a bookkeeping certification program. However, if you believe it may be too early to bring a bookkeeper on board and for the time being, wish to take care of your bookkeeping needs yourself, you will want to get the best accounting software for your business.

Plenty of accounting solutions, such as QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Wave, Sage50, Xero and more, are available in the market today. Before choosing the software you want to work with, you may look at the features it offers, your needs, budget, user interface, whether it offers customization, and so on.  It can be challenging to zero in on the solution that works for you, but you need to spend some time picking the one, as a good software will make your life so much easier.

Listed below are a few things you should consider or keep in mind before making a purchase. Doing this will help you identify the perfect one for your business. 

What are your needs?

Start by making a list of things you need from your software, say QuickBooks for instance, much like a grocery list. Rank them in terms of priority. Once you have the top five or ten things your software needs to meet, you can commence your shopping. A list will help you pick a product that meets your exact needs, rather than choosing something that offers a dozen new features that you may never use. 

Do you need the software to help you with inventory management, tracking sales, or budget creation? 

Get recommendations

Okay, so you like a platform, it seems to meet all your needs. But just like other purchases we make in our lives, it’s good to get a second, third, fourth opinion. If you don’t have a bookkeeping professional to recommend the best software, you can always seek counsel from the online guru, Google, and make a decision. Use the online reviews and ratings to back your choice.  You can even reach out to other business to check what they are using. 

Consider your wallet

Before even starting the research, evaluate your budget, how much are you willing to spend on the bookkeeping software? It will help you stay within your budget and overshoot. Of course, you could keep some room for negotiation, but set a hard limit. For instance, if it is more than 15-20% than what you budgeted, you will not opt for it.

Hunt for seasonal deals, promotional offers, free trials that may be on offer. QuickBooks, for example, was offering a discount of 60% for three months. Most accounting software will have a free trial period of thirty days or maybe more. Usually, the company will alert you that your free subscription is ending. However, if you’re unsure, you can keep a reminder on your Google calendar, or set an alert; perhaps even a day or two before the trial period expires.    

Is it built for small businesses in Canada?

According to some reports, about 20 percent of all small businesses don’t make it to their second year. There are several reasons for their demise, including ineffective money management and bookkeeping. The right kind of small business accounting software will not only keep you far-far away from those stats, but it will have you racing along to success.   

Pay attention to details

A software may promise a lot, but you need to keep your eyes on the prize. What are the things that are important to you? If security is a concern, focus on that; other aspects you may want to consider include: any extra, hidden costs that you could expect; how about customer support? How long would they take to respond? 

Will it allow you to scale?

Have you ever had to change phones because the updates have stopped? Or wanted to charge your phone and found out that no one else has the same model as you and therefore, can’t help you? Now imagine if you have to keep upgrading or buying new software because you have outgrown it? If you’re a growing business and know that you’re going to be scaling up, you want a product that will allow you to do that.

Invest in the right bookkeeping software, one that fulfills your company’s needs. Consider all the points listed above to make an informed choice. And when your business starts to grow, think of upgrading your software, or hiring a professional bookkeeper (someone who has completed a bookkeeping certification program), or even outsourcing. Happy bookkeeping!