How to Choose Accounting Software for Your Company?

In the era of the information revolution and digital transformation, and the evolution of the "Internet," it became necessary for companies to keep pace with this tremendous development by relying on accounting software, whose mission is no longer limited to traditional accounting tasks alone, but has become to accurately perform most of the accountant's tasks.

There are many criteria and points that govern the process of choosing the best accounting software for companies. If you want to achieve the desired goals from your company's activities by using integrated accounting software to manage and settle all your work, then the following lines are a comprehensive guide on how to choose the best accounting software for your company.
 

Why You Might Need Accounting Software in Your Company
 

Using accounting software is one of the most important decisions and challenges facing institutions and companies, especially startup or medium-sized companies that want to transform their accounting software from traditional software to an advanced digital software.

The following are the most prominent reasons that drive companies to choose accounting software to manage and operate their business:
 

• Automating traditional accounting processes saves time, effort, and money.
• No errors in recording or entering data or accounts, which may facilitate the auditor and monitor's profession.
• Providing backup copies of old data contributes to saving and retrieving data and information at any time.
• Linking all accounts at the same time - when recording any entry in any account within the program, this entry automatically affects the company's entire chart of accounts, where revenues are converted to profits and purchases and salaries to expenses.
• Managing company inventory by conducting inventory and knowing the types of goods available in warehouses, alerting about unavailable products, and adding new products and pricing them.
• Ease and speed of preparing reports and financial statements.
• Quick identification of balances.
• Linking all points of sale and distribution with each other.
• Freedom in choosing the format of financial and accounting data and information.
• Supporting e-commerce by linking the accounting software with purchasing and e-commerce websites.
• Recording a huge amount of entries and accounting operations in a short time.
• Improving compliance processes with laws and preparing tax reports.
• Ensuring security and confidentiality of accounts and data by providing safety and security steps and rules.
  
   

Things to Ensure Before Purchasing Accounting Software

Choosing the best and most suitable accounting software is the first step to success in simplifying and managing business, as accounting software varies in prices, quality, and the number of tasks it can perform.

The importance of this decision lies in several aspects, including the necessity that the software meets all the company's current needs and future expectations by providing and analyzing financial and accounting information and reports, as this data will be the basis for decisions made.

Therefore, the correctness of this decision depends on the efficiency and accuracy of the accounting software and the data it produces. There are many criteria and things that must be considered before purchasing accounting software for your company.

The following are the most important of these criteria:
 

1- Nature of the Company or Institution

There are many types of accounting software, such as accounting software for large companies and accounting software for small or medium-sized companies.

The nature of the institution's activity is also an influential factor in the process of choosing the right software for you, as the accounting transactions for a commercial or industrial institution may differ from those of companies that provide services.

Similarly, the size of this activity and its growth may also affect the choice of accounting software.
 

2- Program Version Type

This refers to whether the software is free or paid. Here, experts emphasize the necessity of choosing paid software because it is more specialized and advanced, and it provides speed and accuracy in performing tasks and operations.

It's worth noting that most free accounting software is not trustworthy because it is designed by beginners in the field, so it is advised not to use it.
 

3- Determining Work Requirements

You must define your business goals and activities, and the benefit you want to achieve through using accounting software.

You must also identify the elements and accounts that the accounting software is expected to handle, such as payroll, inventory management, cost accounting, and others.

You should also think about the company's future and business growth when planning to choose accounting software to suit future expansions.
 

4- Education Level

You must choose accounting software according to the educational level of employees. If choosing advanced software, you must think about the type of training you need to provide to employees to keep up with modern technologies.

It is essential that the employee be able to understand the software's functions and features to achieve desired results.
 

5- After-Sales Services

Here, you must determine whether the software design company provides after-sales support and services or not. You must also know the company's responsiveness to all customer inquiries and problems.

You must also ensure that the support team has sufficient experience and knowledge to help with technical problems, and it is also necessary that the software design company provides regular updates to the software.
 

6- Reputation of the Software Design or Providing Company

Here, you must search for a lot of information about the software providing company, such as the years this company has worked in the field of accounting software.

Therefore, you must ensure that the company is flexible enough to deal with unexpected situations. The more flexible and stable the company is, the more trustworthy it becomes.
 

7- External Transaction Support

If you have some deals and activities related to abroad or parties from outside the country, you must ensure that your accounting software supports external transactions and accounts.

You must also ensure that it deals with foreign currency exchange rates and external transfers.
 

8- Legal Compliance Support

The accounting software must ensure the feature of financial records compliance with legislative laws in the country. Therefore, companies must adopt accounting software that can simplify and implement compliance processes by automating the creation of electronic road invoices, electronic invoices, and attention to other compliance requirements as well.
 

9- Ease of Use

It is essential to choose accounting software that is easy to use and not complicated. Therefore, the software must provide a simple user interface that is more suitable for daily operations by focusing only on priorities.

The software must also contain separate menus, such as customer list, inventory list, and invoice list, to facilitate and simplify work.
 

10- Price

The software price must be appropriate for the tasks it performs, and also appropriate for the quality of services it provides.

You must also ensure whether the software provider imposes any additional costs or any monthly or annual fees.
 

11- Program Performance in Tasks

You must ensure the program's success in performing the required tasks. This can be verified by requesting a trial version of the program for a month, for example, to evaluate the efficiency of the program's performance. The following are the most prominent of these tasks:

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• Securing data and preparing invoices.
• Expense tracking.
• Inventory management.
• Bank reconciliations.
• Tracking purchase orders and recording inventory purchases.
• Tax file management.
• Daily journal entry recording.
• Displaying creditor and debtor accounts.
• Preparing reports including balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and trial balance.
• Review and audit.

The program should also provide some additional features and characteristics, according to the type and size of company operations.
 

12- Data Security

The feature of maintaining data security and confidentiality is one of the most important criteria for choosing the appropriate accounting software, as the company must ensure the confidentiality and accuracy of all accounts and financial and commercial transactions.

Therefore, you must ensure the program's ability to save information and data securely and confidentially through private servers, create backup copies, and implement all safety and security rules.
 

13- Automatic Integration

Accounting software is one of the technical tools that help in performing tasks and operations. Therefore, it must work with many other tools and technologies to ensure result accuracy. So it is essential that the program provides automatic integration features with the most prominent applications being used.
 

14- Flexibility

Your accounting software must be characterized by flexibility, meaning it keeps pace with all developments and changes that occur in the company's business and activities.

The program must also be supported by the internet, so that all employees can access the database and software, and manage financial operations at any time.

 

Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Choosing Accounting Software?

If you are about to start establishing your company and want to choose accounting software to manage all financial operations, you should ask yourself some questions that will help you in the selection process.

The following are the most prominent of these questions:
 

Is there a difference between cloud accounting software and accounting software that is installed on the desktop?

Some traditional accounting software requires first being installed on a computer or laptop, and storage and access to all information or data is done through these devices by a specific device. As for cloud accounting software, it does not need to be installed on any device, as it performs all functions via the internet, and information and data are stored in additional backup copies via the cloud.
 

Will this software meet work requirements in the long term when business and activities grow and expand?

You should also think about the company's future and business growth when choosing accounting software. This software should accommodate future expansions, as future expansion is the goal of all companies. It is not logical to purchase new software with every new expansion of company activities, so you should choose software that is compatible with the company's expected expansions for at least 5 years.
 

Do you need to train employees to work on this software?

The software may include many modern technologies to accomplish some complex accounting tasks, so the accounting team must be trained to understand and keep up with these technologies to achieve the required results.
 

Is customer support free or for a fee?

Some companies provide support and maintenance services for free for a year or more, and then the services are for modest fees.
 

Does the software work on all operating softwares, such as Windows, Mac, or Linux?

Traditional accounting software installed on the desktop should work with all operating systems.
 

Does the software provide the feature of sharing information with those who need it?

Some people sometimes find it difficult to share information and data, so it is transferred manually, but there are some accounting software programs that allow data and information exchange between employees, and also allow multiple users, but with conditions and levels of confidentiality for each user.
 

What is the maximum amount that can be spent to purchase accounting software? Is the software price appropriate for the features and services it provides?

Initially, a special budget is set for purchasing accounting software, according to work requirements and functions required from this software, but the software price should be compatible with the quality and efficiency of tasks and functions performed by the software.
 

Are there any complaints about the software's security and safety procedures and rules?

Accounting information and data may be exposed to any dangers, such as theft or damage due to natural accidents, so the software design company must provide rules and mechanisms for data safety and security. Therefore, it is necessary to provide storage spaces subject to monitoring with the latest technologies, where they are able to detect hacking attempts. You must ensure the company's ability and reputation to achieve this by searching for previous customers' comments about their experiences with the software.

Conclusion It has become impossible currently for companies and institutions to continue in the financial market, regardless of their business size, without digitalizing their operations and transactions.

Given that the accounting department is one of the most demanding departments that consumes time, effort, and money as well, the emergence and development of accounting software was in favor of the accounting and auditing sectors. However, the diversity and multiplicity of types of these programs in the market have made it difficult for companies and institutions to choose the best accounting software for them.

Therefore, it was necessary to have a useful guide that enables accountants to know what accounting software is and its importance, alongside knowing the most important criteria and points that contribute to making the right decision. We recommend at the end of the article choosing the accounting software from Daftra, as it provides many features and services.