Successfully driving a small business demands you to undergo constant upgradation in terms of technology, marketing process and workflow. Emerging technologies have pulled in monumental changes in almost every industry today. Accounting is not an exception. Automation is today’s drive and is remarkably helping businesses to succeed at a faster pace. It is already high time to realize how to leverage automated accounting software to grow your business.

Why Should You Embrace Accounting Automation?

Manual processes devour up most of a bookkeeper’s workday. Automation can eliminate manual processes to the maximum and yield accurate records automatically and often instantly. The concept of automation is not new to accounting. Until recently, accounting softwares are unable to work without manual intervention. But we have grown to an age where everything is automated. 

The Manual accounting process clamps down the pace of your accounting as it is highly prone to errors. Moreover, manual processes consume tremendous time, labour and cost to have it done. Best Accounting automation software can wipe off these hassles in bookkeeping by automatically performing such redundant and time-consuming tasks. Modern automation tools work seamlessly with your data and generate precise reports. This paves way for accountants to work on analysis and deriving accounting strategies or other business operations.

Things to Consider While Choosing Automated Accounting Software

Once you have made up your mind to get along with the process of accounting automation, consider the following things to pick up the right tool for your accounting automation. If you are already using some automation tools, you can see if it satiates all these measures. 

Identify Your Needs

Before you start looking out for automation tools for your accounting, you will have to analyze your business process and find out where it lags or eats up most time and resources. And that is the area that needs automation. There are chances to get distracted with the bells and whistles of popular products that solve 16 needs that you don’t have. So, prioritize your needs in order from most to least important, and cast your search accordingly. 

Stick to your Budget

Before you delve deep into the automation products, have a clear number on how much you can afford to invest in accounting and bookkeeping. Try not to embark on applications that are way too far from the realm of your budgets. Budgets can have wiggle room, but more than 25% above the estimate is not a smart choice.

Ask an Accountant

If you are a small or mid-sized business owner, you can seek your accountant for suggestions. Your accountant is the best go-to person for all your accounting and bookkeeping related queries and concerns. Your accountant may prefer you to use applications that are compatible with the ones he/she uses. This will pave the way for a faster and more efficient accounting process. You may also check with your accountant in case if you need some help with the installation and working of the software. 

Research on Features and Add-Ons

It might seem a bit confusing in the beginning, but have a proper understanding of what the application can do before the purchase. You may get distracted by the enticing advertisements and glib descriptions on the features. Choosing an application that has many exciting add-ons, but is poor in the features you need is not a smart choice. So, don’t get carried away, examine how well it fits your business needs and helps to increase your productivity. It is suggestive to choose applications that are sustainable with the changing trends of your business and workflow. 

Cloud Access and Data Security

Automated accounting has erased the need to build complex ledgers and the stretchy keying of countless rows and columns. Accounting software integrated with cloud storage automatically saves the details and operations immediately on the cloud. This also facilitates easy access to the files and reports anytime and from anywhere. The software will also execute automatic backups at regular time windows. Moreover, cloud access preserves the confidentiality of your reports with its fortified storage and limited access to ensure data security.

How to Select the Best Accounting Automation Software?

Here is a curated list of questions you have to ask before you take the call of automation for your accounting. 

1. Does it meet your specific business requirements?

As explained earlier, before taking the call, make sure that the automation software is built to meet the requirements for your business. You can surf on online forums and authentic review sites to dig deep into the detailed specifications and functionalities of the application. 

2. Is the application extensible?

Small businesses have greater scope for expansion with time. So choosing an automation system that can grow as your business does is a smart choice. With scalable software, you can enhance your automation with new tools as add-ons over time. 

3. Is the software integration-friendly?

Make sure that the software is compliant with the other applications you or your accountant uses. It is better if your software has effective integrations with the other applications that you use, for seamless accounting. 

4. Is the software cloud-based?

As discussed earlier the detailed benefits of the cloud, it provides you remote access. You have the freedom to work from anywhere. You also have the advantage of lower support costs, automatic backup facility and mess-free integration for payment and other applications. 

5. What about the technical support?

You may get stuck at times while using an application. Not all of us would have technical professionals beside us all the time. In case of any queries, there should be a responsive customer support crew to cater to your queries. Most applications come with demos and support articles, yet customer support can effectively resolve issues. Make sure that they do not charge more for different platforms of customer support.

6. Do you have a free trial?

Instead of diving straight into the purchase, you shall explore the application with their free trial. With the trial plan, you can analyse the features and functionalities of the application and see how far you can leverage the software for your business. You can also resolve your queries beforehand and deploy it for your business. 

Best Accounting Automation Tools

Once you are prepared to embrace automation, there will be hordes of accounting automation tools hurling on you over the internet. But only a handful of them are truly effective. Here are a couple of applications that can genuinely help you with your automation process.

PayTraQer – It is a powerful tool for syncing online payments to your QuickBooks account without any manual intervention. With PayTraQer, all the interactions are held within the software and so you get fresh and clean books all the time. This application is authorized by QuickBooks and is the #1 user rated application. 

SaasAnt Transactions – This application is a great relief for those who are still clinging to manual keying for their bookkeeping. With SaasAnt Transactions, you can bulk import transactions into QuickBooks from Excel. Not just imports, you can also do bulk export and mass deletes using SaasAnt Transactions with just a click of a button. It is available in both on-premise and online versions.

Final Thoughts

Automation helps you to keep your fingertips on the pulse of your business, helping you to meet the ever-changing demands in the accounting landscape. It is already high time to understand and take up automation for your accounting. Evaluate your needs and buy products that really help you. If you are starting your journey into automation, PayTraQer and SaasAnt Transactions are your must-haves. You can try using our applications with our 30-day free trial for each application. You don’t even have to provide your credit card details. Drop us a line at [email protected] to grab more information.