CPA Practice Advisor - 14

REVIEW: SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS

By Mary
Girsch-Bock

No Time? No Problem!
WHILE THE SOLE proprietor or small business owner may
not realize their impact on the U.S. economy, small businesses account for 55% of all jobs in the U.S. Since 1982, the
number of small businesses has risen 49%, with no signs of
slowing down. While some of these small businesses will
never grow past the sole proprietor stage, if the business

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JULY 2019 ■

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payments, and mobile apps, if any.
■ Management Features - We looked
for dashboard availability, as well as
business analytics and overviews,
along with reporting capabilities.
■ Tech Issues - This area addresses
features such as integration with
third-party application, import and
export capability, and accountant
accessibility. This also includes help
and support options.
■ Help/Support - In this area, help and
support functionality is assessed, as
well as what product support options
are available. We also take a look at
system updates and their availability.
So many factors need to be taken
into consideration when looking at
purchasing software of any kind.
Whether a business has one employee
or one hundred, helping you and your
client determine what is best for their
business is what we do. ■

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POIN

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PAY R
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ACCOUNTANTS WORLD ACCOUNTING POWER
ACCOUNTINGSUITE
ACCLIVITY ACCOUNTEDGE
COUGAR MOUNTAIN DENALI
FRESHBOOKS
QUICKBOOKS ONLINE
REDWING CENTERPOINT
SAGE BUSINESS CLOUD
SAGE INTACCT
XERO

■ An increased number of add-on
modules and applications that are
available to run just about any
business more efficiently
■ Better tracking of both payroll and
sales tax
It's clear that the benefits of using
accounting software far outweigh the
downsides, and software vendors have
stepped up their game as well, with
new features and enhancements
released on a regular basis, leaving
business owners with more choices...
and more confusion than ever before.
The reviews in this issue are truly
aimed at the small business owners - those with between 1 and 100
employees. And while the solutions
may vary tremendously, so do the
businesses themselves.
The products reviewed in this
issue include:
■ AccountEdge Pro
■ AccountantsWorld Accounting
Power CAS

GL,

No longer cumbersome or expensive, modern accounting software is
designed to appeal to entrepreneurs
who have little time to spare on
simply running the business, but
instead want to grow their business.
In fact, many products today bear
little resemblance to the bloated,
complicated accounting applications
from twenty years ago, products that
required IT staff to install, and a
bountiful array of hardware to support it. Today, with so many products
available on the cloud, small business
owners need only have a reasonably
powerful computer and access to the
internet. Even products that have not
made the move to the cloud offer a
much more streamlined structure and
easy product installation and setup.
Here are just a few advantages to
using the right accounting software:
■ Real time access to business and
financial data is available at any time
■ Reduced error incidence versus using
spreadsheets or other 'manual'
accounting methods

AccountingSuite
Cougar Mountain Denali
FreshBooks
QuickBooks Online
Red Wing CenterPoint Accounting
Sage Business Cloud
Sage Intacct
Xero Accounting
For smaller startups, we also
looked at Kashoo, Wave and GoDaddy
Bookkeeping, which offer basic income
and expense management tools.
In the review, we looked at the
following areas:
■ Core Accounting Features - The heart
of the product, we looked at GL, AP,
and AR functionality within all of
the applications.
■ Relationship Management - This
area looked at the ability to track both
customer and vendor information
adequately.
■ Cloud Capabilities - As well as
cloud accessibility, we also looked
at electronic banking, electronic
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needs to be accounting software.

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owner's intention is to grow a business successfully, there

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CPA Practice Advisor

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