Searching for accounting and payroll software for your business is not always a fun or easy experience. There are simply so many products out there; it can be hard to know where to even begin. The nice thing is though, we are in the digital age, and some really smart people have come up with Web sites to help you find the right product. Here are some of the Web sites I find most useful for narrowing down your software search, so you take a huge step in the right direction and save considerable hours of frustration!

Capterra.com

This is an excellent Web site for finding all varieties of business software! First, you select the type of software you are seeking, and then you narrow down your search by checking criteria specific to that software. You can also narrow your search by location, revenue, number of employees and your budget. Capterra has put great care into making their site user-friendly and practical for any business software search, including accounting and payroll software.

SoftwareConnect.com

Here’s another great Web site for your accounting and payroll software search. You can go in and browse software by application (general ledger, accounts receivable, etc.) or by industry. You can also fill in a quick, three-step questionnaire and/or call to speak with a software specialist to have vendors receive your information and contact you. This service is free to software searchers. They do a fabulous job of asking the right questions and finding you appropriate products that fit your budget and requirements.

G2 Crowd

This web site is very useful if you are trying to find reviews about a software company you are researching. User reviews are verified, and you can get some additional information about the products you are interested in as well You can search for products by feature(s).

Of course, this is the Red Wing Software blog, so we want you to know that WE have excellent accounting and payroll software for growing businesses. We do like to talk to each potential customer to be sure we have a fit for their organization, before selling them our software. To talk with a Red Wing Software product expert, call 800-732-9464.

Internal Controls have been a big buzz phrase in the accounting industry for the last several years. Part of having good internal software controls is to have a good audit trail. Without an audit trail, it is difficult to hold your employees accountable when they make errors, or worse, when fraudulent transactions have been entered.

For companies that have multiple employees entering and editing transactions in accounting and business software, it is important to know who added a transaction and when it was posted. If you don’t have that information, how can you hold employees accountable?

A good audit trail system should include the following features:

• Keeps a user record for each transaction entered into the system.
• Keeps the date and time of each transaction entry.
• When a transaction is edited the system maintains a record of the original transaction.
• The new edited transaction record must contain the user that edited it along with the date and time it was edited.
• Ability to track the history of edited records, when multiple edits have been processed.
• If the system allows checks and invoices to be reprinted the system must keep a record of who reprinted the documents, the date, time and the number of times the documents have been reprinted and any original information that was changed.
• The ability to prevent duplicate numbers for checks and customer invoices.

These days, there are more and more programs available to help you run your business, ranging from CRM software to help you manage your prospect relationships to the photo editing program used to create your brochures, and everything in between. One crucial application most businesses know they must have is accounting software, which helps manage their sales and purchases, customer information, financial details, and of course, their profitability. Choosing the right accounting software for your business is an important decision. When you choose the right program, your processes flow smoothly and you can see at a moment’s notice how profitable every area of your business is, or not. And if your business has sales representatives, there are specific features you can use to make your business more profitable, and keep the sales staff happy at the same time. Here are the tools you should have, and how each tool can benefit your operation.

Sales Commission Tracking: Since most sales reps are paid on commission, it’s important to have a tool that can track the commission as sales are entered, instead of using a calculator and pencil at the end of each pay period. Why? Tracking sales commissions by hand is far too time consuming and leaves room for error, and can also leave the sales staff skeptical of whether their commission calculation is accurate. Set up the commission calculations within your accounting software, so that each time a sales rep enters their order, their commission is automatically calculated. Also be sure to allow yourself various tracking calculation methods. Since your company pays for different product lines in different ways, it’s important to also be able to pay sales staff in different ways, such as by a percentage of the profit, selling price or cost, or by a percentage plus a fixed amount, and more. When pay day comes, you can provide sales staff with a report showing exactly how their commission was calculated.

Sales Analysis Reporting: Information is power, and this is especially true when you are selling several product lines (or sales categories) and trying to determine which items produce the most profits, and also which sales people are performing at their best. Be sure your accounting software has the capability of separating your sales product lines, so you’ll be able to report on those product lines or even individual items separately. Even better, if the system allows you to view profitability by product line AND by customer, so you can see which customer is the most profitable. The same capability by salesperson is also crucial.

Customer Activity Report: This report shows you all of a customer’s activity for a given period of time, and can help you determine trends and identify those customers who may have left, so you can follow up with them and win them back.

Order Entry: Do your sales reps write their orders on a sheet of paper and deliver it by hand to the order fulfillment staff? This not only wastes time, but also causes unnecessary double entry, as it will no doubt have to be entered into the accounting software as an invoice to bill the customer at some point. This double entry causes additional work and can allow for errors. By using order entry within your accounting software, you can eliminate double entry, and make the filling of orders and creation of invoices flow seamlessly. Order entry also allows for partial shipments and backorders, so they are not forgotten and the customer is assured of receiving what they originally ordered.

When searching for accounting software, be sure you consider the above sales tools to make your business flow seamlessly and keep your sales staff happy.

If you have used or researched accounting software for inventory management, surely you’ve come across a wide range of buzzwords that detail the areas of the software that can help your business manage inventory better. Sometimes those who use such buzzwords forget that not everybody is knee-deep in inventory management on a daily basis, and they might need a better explanation. Here are some key inventory management terms, and a brief explanation of how they help you and your business. While some of the terms may be familiar, their definition in relation to inventory management software is more specific to that application.

ABC Analysis

This analysis shows which of your inventory items are responsible for the majority of your Cost of Goods Sold (“COGS”) based on the 80/20 rule: 80% of inventory sales come from 20% of your items. This analysis can help control your inventory, increasing the items you need in stock, and reducing the items you don’t need. This in turn, can increase your capital, since less money is tied up in inventory.

Assemblies

Assemblies are a set of component parts that make up an inventory item. By setting up items as assemblies in a software system, removing the components from inventory becomes easier, and costing of an item can also be automated within the assembly. You eliminate the need to remove (and replace if needed) every single component individually in your software during the production process.

Bill of Materials

The bill of materials shows all the information about a production plan, including its assemblies and required components. This helps you plan for which items need to be produced, and what components to pull from inventory for that production plan. It also helps you realize more quickly which components are in stock or need to be ordered for that production plan, saving significant time compared to managing the process by hand.

Multiple Warehouse Management

Many companies that manage an inventory grow such that their products are stored in more than one location, whether it’s another warehouse or even on a truck or trailer. The ability to see which items are located by warehouse is extremely helpful. Some systems allow you to manage inventory in multiple locations, and even let you make transfers within the software when necessary. The ability to view inventory by location keeps you more organized and allows you to get the inventory you need more quickly.

Physical Inventory

This is the process of counting the actual number of items in inventory, entering it into your software system and getting the two sets of numbers to agree. This process helps keep your inventory numbers accurate. Software can help with this process by printing a working file and providing a place to enter a physical count from the printed count sheets.

Serial / Lot Number Tracking

Many businesses have items for which they must track serial or lot numbers. In times of item recall, it is crucial that the number tracking system is up to date and quickly accessible. Software programs can keep track of inventory serial and lot numbers upon receipt into inventory. When an item is sold, the number can be selected and will be tied to the customer. If there is a recall or issue, you can then run reports to see which customers got items from a certain range of numbers, making this process much faster than looking back at sheets of paper.

Turnover

Turnover is defined as the number of times the average inventory on hand is sold and replaced during a period of time. A higher turnover rate indicates your inventory is not just sitting on the shelf getting “stale”. Inventory management software can help clarify what your company’s turnover is by product, which can help identify which items you are purchasing too seldom, too often, too many, etc. which can have a drastic impact on your cash flow.

Unit of Measure “UOM”

Inventory items must be measured somehow, and that is why we have units of measure. We can measure items by the pallet, the box, the bag, the gram, the pound, and much more. Where it becomes difficult is when you need to purchase items in one unit of measure, and then sell in another. Software can help out with this by allowing you to set up your own units within the system. You can also use the software to set up the pricing per unit, so that when you sell an item, the correct amount is taken out of stock, and the correct price is charged for that unit.

These inventory management tools can help keep your inventory running smoothly, and increase the profitability of your business.

If you are in the market for new accounting software, you have surely considered at some point that there will be a learning commitment involved for all of the employees who will use the system or generate reports from it. Moving to any new system can be challenging, so be sure to minimize frustrations by having a training plan in place before purchasing the software. Here are the most popular training options offered by software vendors.

Classroom Training

Many software vendors will schedule and plan for classroom style training, whether at their own site or at a remote location. The benefit of live training is that you can interact with the instructor along the way, posing specific examples or requesting clarification on certain topics. Classroom training can be a very effective means of learning a new software program; however it can be hard to get away from work, and there may not be any classes near your location. For this reason, more and more software companies are offering alternative training options.

Training at Your Site

Holding training at your own facility can be extremely helpful, since all applicable employees can be in attendance, and the training is tailored to your own needs. Some software companies will send staff to your site, or they may suggest a partner who is in your area. While on-site training is an excellent option, it typically costs more than any other training option.

Online Training

With the growth of the internet came the useful addition of online software training. This type of training is excellent for those who don’t want employees away, and also for those who want employees to learn the software a little at a time instead of spending a whole day. Of course the cost of such training is also considerably less than other options.

In Program Help

In program help is available in most software programs. Just click on ‘Help’ or else simply press the F1 key (in most programs). Help topics will typically come up based on where you are within the program. This may not be the best way to learn how to use the whole program, but it certainly comes in useful when you have a question about a certain function, or want to learn how to use something new.