By Stephanie Elsen

Red Wing Software provides accounting software for businesses, so the user can be in complete control of their own finances. CenterPoint Accounting Software is Red Wing Software’s accounting application that can fit for many types of businesses, ranging from distribution companies to service-based businesses, manufacturers, and many more

Because of their wide-appeal, basic, mass-marketed accounting systems get a lot of press and have a massive number of users. These products are top-of-mind for many people in search of accounting software. Many people ask us to compare CenterPoint against those products. Well, without doing a feature-by-feature comparison of the two products, here are some of the main differences between CenterPoint and basic accounting programs. To summarize the reason: many CenterPoint users come from basic programs and are seeking features that can help them manage their business better.

Improve Financial Management.

Businesses outgrowing basic accounting systems typically need better financial tools. After all what good is a system you plug information into if you are unable to pull it out in a meaningful way for your business. Here are some of the ways CenterPoint is an improvement on a basic system’s financial management.

• Audit Trail

  A good audit trail can help prevent and detect fraud. It also enables you to provide necessary documentation for third party organizations that require it. Also, a good audit trail can help reconstruct events, once an issue is detected. CenterPoint has an excellent audit trail and makes it easy to determine who entered a transaction, created date and time, how many times edited, who voided, and much more. How’s your audit trail?

• Information Tracking

  Get a better picture of your financials by setting up and tracking income and expenses by project, department, or custom parameters that you set up. You are then only a report away from knowing how much a project costs, the income for a specific department, or much more.

• Reporting

  A standard report is a great starting point, but what happens if you or someone else would like fields of information changed, added, or removed from a financial report? CenterPoint allows complete custom editing of reports, and you can save reports as you like for ongoing use. Don’t get stuck with templates that were made for the masses! Get the information you need, in a way that is useful to you and your business.

Expand Limited to Unlimited.

Some programs limit the amount of data you can have in your system. When you reach these limits, which you were likely unaware of at the start, you will need to move on to something new. Here are some of the ways CenterPoint compares to typical basic systems when it comes to limits:

Beef Up Security.

One person might start out running the whole accounting system, but eventually tasks will be divided up. At that point, you will likely want to limit what employees can do and see in the accounting system, based on their job. CenterPoint has menu level security, so users can see only the screens they are given access to within the system.

Not all programs are created equal. Any accounting system has its positive and negative points. Just because something is used and known by the masses does not mean it’s the best product available. Basic programs do a great job for many businesses, for many years. But when your business starts to outgrow its accounting software feature set, it might just be time to contact Red Wing Software. 800-732-9464, info@redwingsoftware.com.