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Quickbooks Accounting Software
As the number one small business accounting software,
QuickBooks is product that meets the strategic, functional
and operational needs of small business while at the
same time allowing people to carry out their job
responsibilities efficiently and effectively in the hopes
of increasing productivity and profitability. In
short,
QuickBooks does what you want it to do, and
is seen as a friend and true business partner to those who
will be asked to operate it
DETERMINE YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS
Before you can determine if QuickBooks
is right for you, you must determine your accounting and
management needs.
The cost of the software product is the
insignificant cost. Time involved in set-up, the
support consultants needed to set-up properly, and the level
of maintenance required to retrieve the management
information all add cost dollars to your software automation
project . While QuickBooks meets the needs of most
small businesses, having an understanding of what you need
from an automated accounting software will ensure that your
selection of a software package is the right one.
Your goal is to look for an accounting software that will
grow as your business grows for the next 5-7 years.
Before you begin make sure you
understand your special accounting needs:
How many users need access at any given time?
Transaction volume - How many transactions per month are
there and how many will there be in 5 years.
How much access do you want each user to have?
Are there third party add-ons that are customized to fit your
needs and make you more efficient?
Financial Reporting:
What information do you need to see on financial statements?
Do you need to see the income broken down by division,
department, or location? Do you need to see the same
breakdown for the balance sheet? (QuickBooks will provide a
profit & loss breakdown by division but does not produce
reporting of balance sheet accounts by division,
department or location).
Are there special equity accounts required?
Unique requirements:
Do you have any special information that must be included on
sales & purchase forms to facilitate receiving or making
payment or receiving or shipping goods?
Government Agencies:
What are the reporting requirements for Income tax, Sales Tax
and Payroll Tax
Banks:
Do you want to do online banking? Does your bank work
with QuickBooks?
Do you have a merchant account service?
Does your business have outstanding loans or notes that need
to be tracked?
By asking yourself the following
questions, you identify your 'wish list' of what
information you would like your accounting software to
track. Accounting software is designed to track
transactions, but with 3rd party add on software (hundreds
available for QuickBooks) QuickBooks can be your core
package to an entire customer relationship management
or production control, inventory management, and employee
management system!
Theoretically
how should my company be running?
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What does the company need to do well
in order to succeed?
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Where are you now and where do you want
to be
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How should each of the factors
contribute to the overall success of the business?
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To what extent does the accounting
system affect each of the factors listed?
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What are the strengths and weaknesses
of each of the success factors listed?
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What non-accounting system related
improvements need to be made?
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What accounting system related
improvements need to be made?
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Do certain aspects of the company need
to be changed because they might have a negative impact
on the accounting system
What
information do I need to :
- Track the success of existing
product/service
- Analyze projected revenues and
costs
- Track in detail the revenues and
costs of products and services
What needs to be done to close on
more sales?
- How well do I track and control the prospecting cycle?
- Do I lose more new business opportunities than
I
should?
- How well do I analyze the cost/benefit relationships
of sales and marketing programs
- What should I be doing differently?
- How can technology or software
help me improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of my sales and marketing
efforts?
- What is the economic effect if I were to utilize these
tools or technology? Can I manage these tools
effectively? Do I know how to use these tools properly?
Customer Service
- How well do I believe I manage your customers?
- How well do your customers believe you manage them?
- What improvements can I make or should
I make in
order to serve your customers better?
- What is the cost of such initiatives?
- How can technology or software help
me serve your
customers better?
- What current features create problems with customer
service, or are not present in the current system that
might prevent me from being able to offer my customers
the best level of customer service possible?
- What is the economic effect if we were to utilize these
tools or technology? Can we manage these tools
effectively? Do we know how to use these tools properly?
Production Management
- How well do we manage the order to delivery process?
- How well do we integrate your customers into this cycle
- Can we shorten the order to delivery cycle?
- What do our customers want?
- How can technology or software help
us manage the
production cycle better?
- What is the economic effect if we were to utilize these
tools or technology? Can we manage these tools
effectively? Do we know how to use these tools properly?
Production Efficiency
- How does the cost of production compare against our own
projections and those of similar companies or industries?
- What can we do to lower the production costs without
jeopardizing customer service, delivery times or quality?
- How can software and technology
help us lower
production costs?
- What is the economic effect if we
were to utilize these tools or technology? Can we manage
these tools effectively? Do we know how to use these
tools properly?
Personnel Efficiency
- How skilled are our employees compared to the demands of
their jobs? What specific training, internal support,
incentives or job restructuring is required to give
employees the tools, skills and motivation to work more
effectively and efficiently?
Financial Management
- Are we tracking the right combination of revenues and
costs?
- Are we confident that the allocations of costs,
particularly overhead costs, are an accurate
representation of the activities necessary to create,
produce, sell and support specific products or product
groups?
- Do we understand all of the factors that contribute to
our financial success?
- Do we produce reports at the right time and in the
right level of detail to support the decision making
process?
- How can software help us manage your financial affairs
more effectively?
- What is the economic effect if we were to utilize these
tools or technology? Can we manage these tools
effectively? Do we know how to use these tools properly?
Would the acquisition of these tools make our basic system
too complex or drive us into products that cost too much
or are too complex? Accounting systems can capture just
about any information you want. Beware of capturing data
that you do not need nor understand, data input cost
money. Success is not dependent upon automation. Your
success as a business will be dependent upon knowing what
the market wants, getting those products and services to
your customers efficiently, and treating your employees as
if each one of them actually mattered.
QuickBooks and its ever growing
number of 3rd party add in software packages will provide
the solutions to these questions, issues and problems in
an environment your small business can comfortably work
with. Need help choosing the right software to fit
your information needs?
Call us 800-216-0763,
we are CPAs and
Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisors, available to answer your
questions about QuickBooks capabilities.
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