Is your business ready to take the leap into accounting software? In today’s competitive, fast-paced world, nearly all businesses can benefit from accounting software. But how do you know if it’s right for you, and if so, which one should you choose?
This guide will help you answer all of those questions and more. We’ll walk through exactly what accounting software does, why businesses use it, how much it costs and more.
What is accounting software and why do you need it?
Accounting software is a system that automates the daily financial activities of a company. It collects, processes, stores, and reports all financial data. The software gives enterprises, small businesses, and even individuals more time for their core business and less time doing manual tasks.
The Benefits Of Accounting Software
Accounting software is generally easier and more efficient to use than traditional accounting methods. Developing softwares for financial services offers a large array of benefits. Some of them are given below:
Ease of use – Many programs are designed with the average person in mind and are easy to navigate.
Speed – Accounting software can complete many tasks much faster than manual systems, including account balances, income, expenditures and profit/loss reports.
Packages for all budgets – Accounting software packages come in a wide range of costs depending on your needs, from basic accounting to full-featured, enterprise-level versions with advanced features that save time and money for businesses.
Time saving – Accounting software saves you time by streamlining many tasks into one step as well as taking care of repetitive tasks such as invoicing and cash flow management.
Reduced errors – Accounting software can reduce human error, which costs businesses time and money every year.
Types of Accounting Software
The three different types of the accounting software are single entry, double entry, and triple entry. These are different methods of keeping track of your financial accounts and transactions.
Single entry accounting is typically used by freelancers and consultants that don’t need to keep detailed financial records. Double-entry accounting is the most common type of accounting software and is used for the vast majority of businesses.
Triple-entry accounting is used for complex financial scenarios, such as businesses with sophisticated capital assets or highly specialized business models.
If you’re running a small business, double-entry accounting software will probably be all you need to manage your finances.
How To Make Accounting Software Step By Step
Research
The first step in choosing the right accounting software is to research the various options available on the market. With so many options, it’s important to narrow down your search to software that will work best for your business needs. Consider the features you will need, how much you can spend, and the complexity of the software, as well as how easy it will be to use.
There are two options from which you can consider as per your needs:
On-premise solution
If you are a large company, you can enjoy the in-house software developed by our team. We will ensure a high level of security and data protection as well as convenient data management.
You can enjoy having your accounting software customized so that it meets all your specific requirements. Our experts will be able to create an application with the desired functionality and interface which will be hosted at your office.
Cloud solution
When you opt for accounting software development, you can choose between on-premise and cloud solutions. We can provide the latter by designing software that is hosted using third-party cloud services (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud).
In this case, you don’t need to pay additional fees associated with hosting. You just have to pay for the service itself and enjoy having access to it from any location around the world provided that there is an internet connection.
Estimation and Design
It’s important to have a good estimate of how long it will take you to create your software. Keep in mind that this is only an estimate, but it will give you an idea of how much time to allocate to the project. Remember that you need to factor in testing, quality assurance, and any other tasks that will be needed before the software is ready for release.
You will also want to know what kind of resources you need for the project. When you look at your estimates, make sure they include all the resources you will need. You should also be clear about who is going to do what part of the work.
For example, if your team consists of two people, they should each have a specific role in the development process. This will help ensure that everyone knows their responsibilities and can contribute effectively.
If there are any steps that are not included in the estimation or design phase, add them now so you can see if there are any gaps that need to be filled.
Accounting software development
The accounting software development phase consists of several steps and a lot of work. At the same time, it’s the most exciting and challenging stage of your project.
UX/UI Design
First, you need to create a user interface and develop the application’s architecture. We’ll work with you to create UI mockups and UX wireframes for all of the screens: from log-in pages to the dashboard. Your application may also have a mobile version, so we’ll design responsive layouts to ensure that your app works well on any device.
Application Development
Once you approve the designs, our team will start coding your application. We’ll use Java as our main programming language because it allows us to create cross-platform applications for different operating systems.
The app will be based on a model-view-controller architecture that we’ve used before in similar projects. We believe this pattern is perfect for accounting software — it helps us keep it modular and easy to scale in the future. During the development process, we’ll create an admin panel for you to manage all users, track activity, send notifications, and perform other administrative tasks.
Testing and Deployment
With the development of your software application completed, it’s time for the final stage in the process: testing and deployment. During this stage, end-to-end testing is done to ensure that all of your accounting software’s components are working as expected.
Engineers evaluate whether the design, development, and integration of your software are meeting your requirements and expectations. They also test the performance of your accounting software, ensuring that features work well with each other and that it is fast and responsive.
The final step in the process is to deploy your accounting software application — launching it for all users to access. This could involve releasing a mobile app on the Google Play or Apple App Store or launching a web app or SaaS platform so users can access it online.
You can publish your application and make sure it is available to users as expected.
Maintenance
Accounting software is the backbone of a business. It’s a piece of software that needs to be robust and scalable and should always be up-to-date.
Maintenance: As with any software, accounting software will require maintenance to ensure everything works as it should.
Updates: similarly, updates are an important part of maintaining your accounting software as they help fix bugs and improve the overall experience.
Support: Having access to a support team is essential when you’re looking at how to create accounting software that’s easy to use. If a user doesn’t understand something in the software, they can’t use it right.
MVP features of accounting software
Accounting software can drastically improve the efficiency of your business operations. Here are some of the features that best accounting software for small businesses should have:
1. General Ledger
The general ledger is often considered to be the core section of any accounting software. It records all transactions in a way that allows you to easily access this information when needed.
The general ledger allows you to create new accounts and assign them to different categories (for example, expenses, income and assets). You can easily monitor all transactions for each account.
2. Accounts Receivable
The accounts receivable section gives you an overview of your customers’ accounts and allows you to manage them from one place. This feature also lets you send invoices and receive payments online.
3. Accounts Payable
This section allows you to manage all of the invoices coming into your business. This includes the ability to enter a new invoice, search for existing invoices, and create reports that detail vendor payment history.
4. Payments processing
This feature allows users to process payments from multiple sources in one place. Payment processors can be integrated with common banking systems such as PayPal and Stripe in order to accept payments from various credit cards and bank accounts.
5. VAT calculations
This is the most important part of accounting software because it is the thing that makes your life easier. The software should be able to record sales, purchases and expenses for you, then calculate the VAT on them.
It does this by storing each transaction, including its net value and the rate of VAT charged. The software then calculates how much VAT you owe HMRC based on these transactions.
6. Payroll processing
Payroll processing involves collecting, analyzing and paying employee salaries and wages. This function includes taxes and deductions for benefits in addition to workers’ wages.
Payroll is an important function for accounting software because it handles financial transactions that impact the company’s bottom line. Payroll also manages employee compensation, which can be a sensitive topic.
Payroll processing is done through a payroll module, which often links with a human resources (HR) system to access important employee data.
7. Reports
You need to create effective accounting software for businesses that create reports.
The reports are the most important part of your accounting software. The reports are essential to every business. They give you a clear picture of where you’re going.
There are 3 types of reports you need to include in your accounting software:
- Management reports: These reports provide management with information about the financial position of the company. You can use them to measure performance, make decisions and manage the business.
- Statutory reports: These are required by law or regulations. Government agencies often require companies to submit these types of reports, such as annual tax returns or monthly sales tax returns.
- Custom reports: These are used to generate custom reports based on user-defined criteria. For example, you can create a report that shows how much sales tax you paid in a particular month or year, or how much sales tax is owed on a particular product line.
8. Processing of invoices
Some accounting software includes tools for the processing of invoices, for example, the online payment service PayPal. Any invoice you receive can be downloaded into your accounting software and paid from within its interface.
This simplifies the process and ensures that all of your data is available in one place.
9. Electronic Payment
With electronic payment, you can pay your bills using a check or credit card, with the money automatically coming out of your bank account. You can also set up recurring payments for regular monthly payments, such as your utility bills.
If you choose to pay via a debit card or credit card, there could be a small fee associated with this payment method.
10. Credit monitoring
Credit monitoring is the process of tracking your credit reports and scores to detect suspicious activity or identity theft. The most common form of credit monitoring involves a subscription service that alerts you to changes on your credit report, such as new accounts opened in your name or a sudden drop in your credit score.
11. Multiple access level
As a feature of accounting software, multiple access levels are used to manage the data and business process. It controls who can see what and whether they are allowed to do something. With this feature, you can ensure your sensitive company data is in safe hands and only authorized personnel can access it.
12. Integration with other systems
Integration is a very important feature to consider when choosing an accounting software. If you are running a business, you will definitely have other systems that need integration with your accounting software, such as payroll systems and point of sale systems.
The software should allow for the seamless integration with these systems so that data synchronization can be achieved easily.
13. Expenses Tracking
Most accounting software will allow you to track your expenses by vendor or supplier. You can also categorize expenses for tax purposes.
You can also easily track expenses for each project, which is great for businesses that charge clients based on time. If you need to know how much you’re spending on a particular project, it should be easy to access that information from your accounting software.
14. Linking bank accounts
Linking bank accounts to your accounting software is a great way to save yourself time when doing your accounts. Instead of having to go into each individual bank account, you can see all the information on your accounting software.
You can see all the money that’s coming in and out of an account as well as seeing who it has been paid to or by. It also makes it much easier to stay on top of payments and make sure nothing gets missed.
15. Graphics
A good accounting software will come with a graphic dashboard, which provides an option to see the performance of your business. You can see all the reports in the form of graphs, which will give you a clear idea of your business performance.
