Getting the Most from Your Accounting Software

Maximising the ROI from your accounting software

Accounting software is a big investment for your business. Naturally, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting the most value for money, but how can you achieve this? We’ve picked up a lot of knowledge through 10 years of providing and supporting Sage software. We’re keen to share this advice to help more businesses like yours.

Regardless of which accounting software you have, this article provides general advice to help you unlock the full potential of your system.

Optimising Your Processes

Conducting a review of your processes can shed some light on weaknesses which you may not realise are there. Optimising these processes is a quick win for helping your business to flow better. Implementing new accounting software is a key opportunity to conduct a review, making sure that your system and processes work in unison.

Equally, if you haven’t analysed your processes in a while, it’s worth conducting a review to identify areas for improvement. For example, swapping out inefficient processes, such as printing off purchase orders, getting them signed and scanning them. This leads us onto our next point…

Making Full Use of Features

Modern accounting solutions go way beyond the core functionalities you’d expect. There may be features within the system which you’re not taking full advantage of. Particularly if you’ve recently upgraded to a newer version, it’s likely that there are new features which could help you save time and improve efficiency.

It’s worth having a refresher and looking into what features you’re not currently using, understanding if they could work for your business. For example, if you have customisable reports and dashboards, make full use of these by tracking the metrics which matter most to you.

Upgrades & Add-Ons

If you’re really struggling with your current system, you may need to consider the pros and cons of upgrading to a solution which fits your needs better. We often find that businesses gradually outgrow their system over time and may not realise it.

The variety of businesses out there is so diverse that accounting software can’t do everything for everybody out of the box. That’s where add-ons can come in handy. There’s a huge variety of add-ons available which can extend the functionalities of your system to meet your individual needs.

User Training Sessions

If you want to get the most benefit from your accounting software, it’s important that all users understand how to use the system. If you have new team members, training sessions can really help them to become confident using the system.

Longer-standing members of the team can also benefit from training sessions, as it’s an opportunity to pick up better ways of using the system and keep up to date with new features.

Choosing a Support Partner

Having a good support partner is integral to getting the most from your accounting software. Not only can they help you on the occasions that things go wrong, but a good support partner should keep you up to date with new features and help you understand how your system works. As a result, you should gain more value from your software.

We run webinars, share step-by-step tips and post tutorials which are free for anyone to access, plus additional webinars and training courses for our existing customers. If you would like more personalised advice, get in touch with us. We’ll look at your current system and make suggestions to help you get the most out of your investment.

If you’d like advice on your accounting system, get in touch with us via the enquiry form.