So many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) suffer significantly reduced productivity because they spend too much time dealing with inefficient, outdated accounting systems.
Rather than focusing on the core competency of the business, SMBs rely on manual entry, inadequate system capabilities and error-laden processes. A great way to maintain clarity is to embrace cloud ERP technology to drastically improve accounting functions. Moving line-of-business systems into a well-managed hosted environment keeps your overall IT budget at a minimum.
Here are six ways cloud ERP accounting helps SMBs to improve productivity.
- Connect to the system remotely: Want to work from home? With remote access to the system, your employees have the flexibility to work from wherever they want. This feature also facilitates companies that rely on telecommuters. To be able to pull up a web browser and conduct business from anywhere and at any time is so important for SMBs. If someone has to take a day off, you don’t have to delay the whole billing processes.
- Integrate your software programs: How many hours have your accountants wasted attempting to reconcile spreadsheets or financial systems that don’t communicate with each other? The answer is probably “too many.” Programs that lack real-time integration cause many headaches. When one spreadsheet has an error, the other spreadsheets need to be fixed. When one system is off by one number, they’re all off by one number. Hunting down problems, fixing them and putting the company back on track all because your system requires manual data entry sends time and money down the drain.
- Improve your security: Cloud ERP tools are updated constantly. This means security features are more up-to-date, they have better hardware infrastructure than your basement servers and they include better backup features. If something goes wrong with your-on premises system (such as a computer crash), productivity goes down the toilet. Without a valid backup system at a Tier 1 or Tier 2 data center, which is built with many protections such as redundancies, SMBs could lose everything in a moment.
- Understand your company with reporting: Spreadsheets aren’t as robust as cloud ERP systems, no matter how much time you sink into them. Dashboards, real-time data access and high quality reports are simply impossible without powerful systems. To get key performance indicators with QuickBooks, spreadsheets or on-premises solutions, SMBs must invest in third-party software, which is usually cost-prohibitive. At the end of the day, SMBs need to trust their data if they are to reconcile incoming and outgoing figures, make productive decisions, and plan for the future.
- Speed up your invoicing: With cloud ERP systems, financial data is updated in real time and in one location. This means accountants don’t have to wrestle with maintaining the integrity of their bookkeeping. They don’t have to waste time questioning or repairing the validity of their data. They know how much money is coming in. Faster invoicing means faster payments and that means cash flow is improved. Research shows that the faster your invoice cycle is, the more likely you are to get paid in full. Don’t let your company endure the confusion and headaches with lengthy invoicing cycles.
- Improved accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP): It’s common for SMBs to finance their business on credit cards. But when receivables don’t come in, the company fails. A lack of efficient AR kills your business quickly. But with cloud ERP, online bill pay becomes a reality with web-based systems. And thanks to the system integration, cloud ERP also allows you to pull customer data and store this information in your CRM system. Dashboards allow SMBs to gain insight into pending payments and invoicing history.
SMB owners need to optimize every corner of their companies. To thrive, such businesses must have complete control of their finances, which is only possible with powerful software. Without quality reporting, invoicing security and remote access, SMBs won’t be in a good position to balance the books and move forward with confidence.
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