When Your Accounting Software Evolves With Your Needs, Your Business Improves

When you’re first starting out in business, QuickBooks® is a viable option for your accounting needs. It came highly recommended by your CPA, and at an affordable price, it seemed like a smart move. With simple accounting needs, QuickBooks was straightforward and easy to implement.

But QuickBooks is only your first step. Think about it this way: You can’t improve your business by doing the same thing over and over, hoping for different results. In order to move forward, you have to change, adapt, and try new tactics. As your business grows (or starts to grow), you might notice your needs change and become more complex.

In that case, it won’t be long before your bookkeeping needs outgrow QuickBooks and weigh down your operations to the point you’ll have to build reports manually and complicate your month-end close. If that doesn’t sound particularly appealing, you might want to consider replacing QuickBooks for one more reason: What worked in your first year in business won’t work in your next. You need accounting software that will grow with your business.

In the beginning, QuickBooks had a lot going for it, so it’s easy to understand why making the switch might make you nervous. And while there’s no benchmark date, no way to know for sure when your business needs better bookkeeping solutions, there are major symptoms to look out for.

3 Ways You Know You’ve Outgrown QuickBooks

1. You Use Too Many Spreadsheets – If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it 100 times: Spreadsheets are error prone and can leave your business in the throes of inaccurate data. Too many spreadsheets spells trouble for any business hoping to maintain growth. Because spreadsheets fill in reporting gaps in your current system, their overuse is a huge indicator that your current accounting software isn’t working. Talk about a time waster! Someone in your business is wasting valuable time manually building spreadsheets, just to re-enter data into the convoluted system.
2. You Don’t Make Use of an Audit Trail – At its core, QuickBooks typically employs single-entry bookkeeping, which is most useful for its simplicity. It’s based on your income statement alone. But even the IRS is convinced that simple is not always better. In their 2015 report, “Starting a Business and Keeping Records,” the IRS says, “The single-entry system of bookkeeping is the simplest to maintain but it may not be suitable for everyone.” As your business grows, so will your need for detailed audit controls that keep track of every transaction entered into your system. For this, you need a double-entry bookkeeping solution, or one that employs the use of journals and ledgers that show your income, expenses, liabilities, and more. Especially if you have to comply with government regulations or other industry standards, you need reliable audit trails.
3. You Have Increased Work Flow, Processes, and Transactions – Remember that employee we mentioned earlier who went from productive worker to spreadsheet wrangler? Ever since your business outgrew QuickBooks, that former MVP likely hasn’t been able to keep up with the needs of the business.

QuickBooks was fine in your early days, when you likely didn’t have a high number of transactions. But now, you’re not just handling the high transaction numbers. You need software that can handle payables, receivables, payroll, and revenue tracking too — and not disrupt work flow or further complicate business processes.

You Need a Comprehensive Accounting Solution

When you hold QuickBooks to higher standards, you learn quickly that it just doesn’t compare. Accounting software that can’t keep up with your needs will keep your business in the past. Move forward and stay ahead of the curve with software that is secure, user-friendly, and brings your business up to standard. You know you’ve matured past QuickBooks, now upgrade your accounting system to see what Cougar Mountain Software’s Denali accounting can do for the future of your business.

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