INTRODUCTION

You can find plenty of management and accounting software available today. However, one needs to take time and compare each accounting software options. This helps determine the right one to use based on your business, scale, and needs. If you are a business owner, CFO, CTO or someone in charge of finding that perfect accounting software to help your business run efficiently, you have come to the right place.

WHAT IS ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE?

You can streamline your company's ability to access information quickly and on the go with accounting software. Whether a startup or small growing enterprise, accounting software will help you track and manage your business using smart tools. A Web-Based software can provide easy integration and synchronization of data. Now that you understand the basics of accounting software, start your search with a KISS.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

I have spoken with many accountants and business consultants and worked as a bookkeeper and business consultant. However, these experiences have taught me that people are afraid of doing it wrong. They over complicate it. In a blog about smart accounting, Joris Van Der Gucht quotes and explains a very important accounting principle know as KISS. According to Joris, US Navy aircraft engineer Kelly Johnson coined the acronym KISS "Keep it simple, stupid" in 1960. In accounting, it refers to trying to capture too much information in software, designed to be the big picture. For more information on the KISS principle applied to businesses theory you can click here.

If you are trying to figure out the right accounting software to use for your business, I would recommend the following. First, begin by searching for the right software to run your business. Second, look at the accounting systems integrated into the software. The results should narrow down your options as to which fits best for your business.

Personally, when looking for a software to run my businesses, I avoid one that also does the auditing. I personally find it risky to input such data. I would want my books protected and separate from any software. Plus, if the software does the audit and runs your business then it is probably mediocre at best. Still, you can try looking for one that does both and meet your needs perfectly.

API Integration

I personally like and would highly recommend a good old fashion cloud-based API integration. That way I know accounting software developers remain focused on running my business rather than trying to manage my accounting.

When picking an accounting software integration, I care most about reliability, ease of use, and supply in the market. This includes readily available labor. In the United States, it is easy to find someone to help with Intuit products because it dominates the market. When it comes to web-based accounting, they have over 29 million businesses that represent 80% of that market segment. Going with a commonly used and popular one will make labor cheaper and accessible for you. Nothing would be worse than getting free accounting software, and then finding that it is hard to use and isn't reliable and no one available to do your books.

Why We Chose QuickBooks Online

At Plexus, we believe the software running your company needs to do the heavy lifting and not your accounting software. Estimates, quoting, job costing, time tracking, work orders, workflow, inventory, and invoices are best for the business software to handle. We wanted to give our customers the information they need to operate their business, so we integrated payments, purchase orders, and sales tax. With this information, we can focus on the business, operations and your accountant will get what he or she needs.

The outcome is a robust business software and a slimmed down, simple to use accounting software. It is a web-based software that is easy to use, affordable, reliable, produces all necessary statements. It can also easily share information with your accountant and other business users.

A widely used accounting software known as QuickBooks Online (QBO) comes with a robust and secure API. To see a break down by country then check out Lauren Maffeo blog on Quora. For those in the US or Canada, QBO tops both lists sharing dominance in Canada with FreshBooks.

In summary, when choosing an accounting software, consider what you need to keep your books simple. Also, the software needs a good integration with your business software.

We at Plexus chose to integrate with QBO for the following reasons:

• Affordable
• Versatile
• Reliable
• Easy to use
• User-friendly
• Semi-robust
• Easy integration with other software
• Secure API and documentation for our developers

QBO's beginnings were rather rough for rushing to market with a too slimmed down version. However, it is improving and will likely be the future, overtaking the desktop version quickly. QBO is also preferred by many accountants with a healthy number of users creating a good community that helps each other. Many software companies will integrate with QBO since it dominates the market. So if you switch to another business software, you probably won't have a hard time moving your books too.

Hope this helps and best of luck on your search for the right accounting software for your business!
Jared Stafos

UP NEXT

Five Things to Remember in Creating Fireplace Construction Quotes

By YOHANES TEWODROS