As a smartphone user, has it ever crossed your mind to change your phone? Yes! Your camera might be outdated, you want a bigger phone, or the latest Android operating system or IOS is not supported on your phone. Just as changing your phones occasionally comes to us as a priority, business owners must regularly check whether their accounting software is performing their business tasks as it ought to. You might ask, how do I know if I need to change my accounting software? We have provided four signs to help you make your decision. Level of manual operations As a business owner, it is important to always check the tasks you spend most of your time. Are you spending much time daily on your accounting tasks? For example, if as a business owner you issue your invoices manually, then you need an accounting software pronto. Reconciliations can be a big headache for small businesses. If you constantly perform manual operations, you would be spending time trying to reconcile your figures to your accounting system. For example, Cakequeen, a small baking business sells products on their website, Instagram, WhatsApp, and in-store. The business usually records their sales orders on Excel. This causes problems in reconciling their sales orders, leading to stockouts. This can occur when Cakequeen’s different sales channels are not integrated with their accounting software. Do you have to constantly reconcile your accounting figures manually? Then you might need a software upgrade. Growing size of business operations When your business operations begin to expand, your current accounting software might be unable to accommodate some of your new business processes. This makes you spend more time trying to capture these processes manually. For example, you run a biscuit manufacturing company. As a startup, you might have outsourced your production. Alternatively, you were running your production schedules using a manual stock card. This could have allowed for your business to use a small online software to capture your invoices and pay your expenses. However, as your business grows, you are unable to capture your raw materials and finished inventory on your accounting system. This makes you to start losing track of your inventory, leading to multiple theft cases from your staff. You are also unable to get accurate reports making it difficult for your business to take important decisions. Integration of external applications Business usually require multiple applications to function effectively. These can include customer relations management (CRM) software, inventory management software, payroll software, manufacturing software, expense tracker, and other industry custom software applications. However, when the applications are connected, business processes are performed faster and seamlessly. A typical example is when a customer fills a form to purchase an item on your website, the form automatically inputs the customer’s name into your CRM, while also creating an invoice on your accounting software. This eliminates the process of tracking the customer’s order manually. Your accounting software should have integrations into your other applications to enable your business process flow seamlessly. Otherwise, you might need a switch. Multiple support issues Software applications help businesses to function effectively. Sometimes, these applications can have errors or bugs while trying to access a feature. Some other applications are too complicated. It takes some time to find where a feature is located. If you have a situation where your software application has too many support issues, then you might need to reconsider the application. Your accounting software should allow for ease and not delay of transactions. In Nigeria, many small businesses opt to substandard developers to make accounting software for them. After a period of using the software, problems begin to occur in accessing the software data. Your accounting software should provide your business with easy access to constantly monitoring your financial progress. This means that the software application should be up and running and possess an easy-to-use framework and process.