You hear it all the time: "Our financial processes are unique". "Nobody can do it as well as we can, because we know the subtleties and intricacies of our business". "What we have isn’t elegant but it works, so why change it?" While these adages may be common, they are usually wrong, experts say, and can lead to bad decisions.
In truth, most financial processes are fairly standard, and what
isn’t standard can be dealt with fairly easily with today’s feature-rich and
easy-to-use financial systems.
Simply put, by modernizing the way you manage your financial
process, your company will run more smoothly, your employees will have more
time to focus on the organization’s core mission, and less mistakes will be
made.
“Companies have to get over the mentality that what they have is
fine. They have to understand that these are just transactions—simple processes
that could be done better by a more automated system or by another entity,”
said Mindy Blodgett, a research analyst with Yankee Group of Boston, Mass.
“They need to realize that they have bigger fish to fry and it would be better
to centralize it, outsource it, rationalize it, automate it—whatever they need
to do to make it easier.”
That’s a big change for most small and mid-sized companies, which
often are still conducting financial activities on a wing and a prayer—or more
likely, on some combination of spreadsheets, Quickbooks, and other basic
systems. But by doing so, companies are forgoing the advanced capabilities of
today’s sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, systems, said Lea Strickland, president
of F.O.C.U.S. Resources, a Raleigh, NC-based consulting firm—capabilities that
include standardization, better accuracy, and more self-service.
Today’s options are better than ever. In the past several years,
vendors have realized that the market for simple, elegant financial solutions
is huge, and have developed both standalone software and software-as-a-service
(SaaS) solutions specifically designed for mid-sized companies.
On the software front, what you choose will depend on the size of
your business, whether your industry is subject to any regulatory compliance
issues, your business model and whether you do business internationally.
If you are looking only to automate your processes, consider
something easy and inexpensive like Intuit’s QuickBooks, which offers a suite
of tools for everything from simple accounting to payroll and merchant
management. For more functionality, try a product like NetBooks, which offers
invoice processing, merchant management, bookkeeping and financial reports.
Another option is Microsoft
Up another rung on the ladder are solutions like Microsoft
Dynamics’ financial management software, which focuses on integration,
compliance, reporting and analytics, and Sage Group’s accounting/financials and
budgeting/planning software, which allows users to add additional modules like
e-commerce, fixed asset management, business intelligence, contact management,
distribution and CRM as needed.
Today, most of these systems are available both as standalone
software and as web-based systems. Some, however, like upstart Jaya123, are
only available online. Jaya123 is a web-based application that offers
invoicing, order entry, inventory, billing, financials and customer management
via the web.
Outsourcing financials,
although fairly common among large companies, hasn’t quite hit its stride in
the midmarket, mainly because vendors haven’t quite figured out how to make it
work, Blodgett said. But this growing field, which Blodgett believes will
expand significantly over time, is still an option worth considering,
especially in areas like payroll and procurement.
