In today’s cut throat business environment, the
focus has shifted from traditional and laid back methods of yester years to ones
where the emphasis is on optimizing operational efficiencies. This is mostly
achieved through concentrating on core competencies in-house and spinning off
back office functioning to lower priced options. One of this is accounts and
bookkeeping functions. Doing so is especially helpful for small business accounting, start-ups
and mid sized companies that have to look constantly for ways and means to
reduce expenditure to increase profitability.
While outsourcing of accounting tasks is now the
much preferred choice of businesses, the process has been facilitated by the
introduction of cutting edge software that has made accounting processes very simple.
On top of the pile are QuickBooks, Sage 50 (erstwhile Peachtree) and Intacct.
A brief evaluation of their main features will be in
order –
QuickBooks
– It
all started with it being a way out to simplify personal financial management
and later progressed to becoming a tool offering maximized accounting
solutions. The main benefit of QuickBooks is its ability to assist every facet
of the accounting system. QuickBooks
accounting services provides paths
to constantly monitor income and expenditure and helps in quick and speedy
finalization of bank reconciliation every month. Tedious and repetitive tasks like
payroll management and tax computation and finalization is made easy with
QuickBooks.
QuickBooks bookkeeping services are amenable to almost the whole gamut
of industries and business. Those that stand to gain heavily include wholesale
and retail services, any small and midsized business and wherever top class
accounting solutions are needed to increase performance levels.
Sage
50
- Formerly known as Peachtree Accounting, Sage 50 in its new avatar is
accounting software that complements small to large businesses and individual
entrepreneurs who want to streamline their bookkeeping functions. The main
advantage of Sage 50 is that it is very versatile and flexible software and
offers its users a wide range of options. These include choices to businesses to
fully integrate it in their total existing systems or opt for standalone
functions such as payroll management or inventory management or invoice management. It can even be structured for exclusive client servicing.
What then are the key metrics of Sage 50? For one,
it aids in devising comprehensive accounting solutions. Accounts payable, bank
and credit card reconciliation, inventory tracking and monitoring, purchase
planning and checking of income and expenditure are some of the key heads of
accounts. It also helps in forecasting cash flow and working capital
requirements.
Intacct
– Unlike
the other two, Intacct is a cloud based solution offering the whole range of
accounting functions. It can be customized to match specific requirements of
different business sectors such as retail and wholesale, hospitality and
tourism and healthcare. However, these are just illustrative examples only.
Intacct provides a high degree of customization. It
is possible to have reports generated with specific fields of choice, have client
wise tailor made financial solutions for vendor monitoring and inventory
management and go for total employee tracking including payroll processing, tax computation and finalization of tax returns.
While this software can be used across all sectors,
unlike Sage 50 and QuickBooks accounting
software this is rather more complex software as it is cloud based. Hence
it is not considered to be suitable for small businesses and startup where the
level of professional expertise amongst employees is not expected to be as high
as those in midsized and large corporations.
A brief summary of the features of QuickBooks,
Sage50 and Intacct will bring things to a clearer perspective –
QuickBooks
– Pros - Offers great support to Outsource QuickBooks accounting, precise
financial management, user friendly navigation, seamless integration with third
party applications. Cons – Limited inventory management options.
Sage50
– Pros – Accurate financial management, robust web based accounting, reliable
inventory management features, easily monitored work-flow, multiple accounting
options. Cons – restricted inventory management.
Intacct
– Pros – Complements a wide range of business sectors, integrates with specific
client needs, tailor made dashboards. Cons – Top of the line features that may
be too complex for small businesses and startups.
Recommended Post : Quickbooks Software : What Does It Do With Your Business Accounting?
Finally, whichever accounting solution that you
might go with, be assured that it will optimize your business
efficiencies.
