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Is it a daunting task to reconcile accounts at the end of each month? Is your business still stuck with old-school bookkeeping practices? Is your financial data scattered across multiple accounting systems?
If your answer is ‘yes’ for any of the aforementioned questions, it’s high time for you to move your accounting operations to cloud and declutter your finances.
Remember, inaccurate accounting data can stir a rippling effect on everything right from payroll to sales and marketing to inventory/purchase.
5 neon signs your business needs a Cloud ERP – Accounting Software
1. Finance reporting is a nightmare
Ever been in a meet-up with a potential partner or client and were asked about data pertaining to your organisation’s financial health and you failed to get it on the go? No one would want to be caught in such an awkward situation.
Only if you had a system in place that would allow you to pull out critical financial data on the go as and when you need along with the option of fetching real-time finance and tax reports from your mobile device. Isn’t that a cool thing to have?
A cloud-based business accounting software can make it a reality. This is because a cloud based ERP software would serve as a centralized hub for all your accounting operations thus, offering a unifying platform that is accessible 24 x 7 and on the run.
2. Bookkeeping is tedious and painful
One of the most noticeable and obvious signs that your business needs a cloud based accounting software is extensive use of paper based invoices for sales and purchases followed by keying in the same data into multiple systems. This certainly is a cumbersome task eating up a whole lot of time and efforts leaving your accounting department inefficient and sluggish.
If it is taking ages to merge financial data scattered across multiple systems forcing your accountant to navigate through heaps of spreadsheets and file folders, you certainly need to think of a cloud ERP accounting software. With all your financial tits-bits on a unified database, your accountant no more will have to run helter-skelter to get the required information. Also, no more financial redundancies, data deduplication or data entry errors.
3. Backup is always a hurdle
One of the biggest benefit of having a cloud ERP software for business is the automatic backup of data feature. No need to panic about losing your quintessential financial data if you drop your phone or your computer breaks down. Backing up your accounts data manually is a passé.
4. Laborious admin and paper -work are a regular thing
Time and efforts spent on paperwork and backend admin chores can mean a lot for your business. Yes, you might be missing out on strategic and business development activities.
Cloud based accounting software can save the time spend in handling paperwork and administration chores thus, helping you focus on what matters the most i.e., getting more business.
5. Tumbling accounting competencies
One of the biggest plights for a growing company is handling the inflating financial data, which often comes in the form of growing payroll, purchase/sales orders, inventory and all things, finances. Failing to handle the growing finance related needs can cause chaos across the company.
A cloud accounting software makes sure that everyone stays on the same page thus, leaving no room for data entry errors.
Also Read: Here’s how to find the right accounting software for your business?
Inter-Company Accounting
When a company grows to encompass a variety of product lines and brand extensions, it sets up different divisions and subsidiaries for accounting purposes and tracking profits. When a company has a vertical integration done, there is a lot of transactions which take place between two companies, records of which need to be maintained. This results in inter-company transactions and while it has many benefits to have an inter-company accounting, there is also a pressure on the accounts team to maintain and synchronize the inter-company transaction data.
The problem with Inter-company transaction is that, they are not maintained on a single platform and hence, there is a lot of effort and time spent to maintain data accuracy from data coming in from different systems. It is the process in which inter-company transactions are reconciled to avoid counting transactions twice, first on the parent company’s books and again on the books of the subsidiary.
For an example, if a manufacturing company has done a vertical and a horizontal integration and managing all the processes from raw material, manufacturing and distribution from three different subsidiaries. In such scenario, there are 3 different log books which need to be maintained and when the accounting happens, all the subsidiaries need to be on the same page for handling inter-company transaction.
So inter-company accounting means reconciling the inter-company receivables and payables, and inter-company sales and purchases between the parent company and its subsidiaries. Inter-company accounts are typically electronic and equivalent so records between companies are easily accessed and balanced.
An ERP system eliminates the complexity while making multiple entries in Inter-company accounting scenario and provides a number of benefits.
Benefits of Sage ERP Solutions for Inter-company Accounting
1. Accounts Accuracy
Implementing gross and accurate electronic inter-company accounting and reconciliation system is highly recommended for commonly controlled businesses. The centralized system will promote inter-company synergies and help smooth the closing process at the end of an accounting cycle. When a company needs to create a report or file a tax return, the information will be accurate and easily at hand.
2. Cost Saving for Benefit Analysis
Inter-company accounting functionality excludes the need of hiring an outside firm to control inter-company accounting which save an additional cost to the company. Performing a cost-to-benefit analysis can help you decide what your firm needs and what it is budget can accommodate.
3. Transactions Control
Inter-company transactions in ERP signifies policies and procedures to drive the inter-company activities which leverages the common processes across multiple entities into one service center.
4. High Visibility
Inter-company accounting provides the ability to analyse gross profit on a consolidated cost basis which gains high data quality and consistency for product costing.
5. Managing Cost Centers
Cost Centers can be used in inter-company accounting as an indirect assignment of the location (Entity) of the equipment in order to derive invoice and tax charges (e.g., additional charges to different entities). It helps to manage the potential aperture for different entity taxes/ combination of vendor and other billing characteristics to derive correct tax calculation.
Solve 5 Annoying Payment Problems with Cloud Computing
For any business, late payment is undoubtedly the most annoying things to experience. In fact, a research showed that more than 50% of businesses particularly small enterprises (SMEs) endure from the problems of late payments thus, affecting other critical business operations.
If your organization too is enduring from the perils of late payments, then it might be time to consider automating your invoicing process or upgrade your accounting software.
1. Flexibility
Your accountant would certainly not want to be halfway through his/her home only to realize that there was an urgent invoice that had to be paid immediately, and it must done so via the office computer. With a cloud based ERP software or accounting solution, your accounting data travels with you meaning you can securely and effectively access the data on the go. Yes, mobile accounting is here to save a lot of efforts and time.
2. Manual processes
Annoyed by the time it takes to key in transactions manually whilst compromising with the output of the data you would get? Using advanced invoicing solutions can help your business get rid of this annoying problem.
Yes, a cloud accounting software can automatically update invoice payments thus, eliminating admin burden and human errors. This infers that you no more need to track of clients that have paid and the ones that haven’t, since your ERP solution will do it for you.
For instance, Sage X3 with its integrated invoice payments functionality allows creating invoices with ‘ready to pay’ feature thus, making it easy for the customers to pay and that too in time. It also means that you can receive payments directly from the invoices generated from the accounting software.
Also Read: 5 signs your business is ready for a cloud based accounting software
3. Cash flow
Using e-invoicing and automated payments is not only easy, but is also faster. Payments can be processed and received at the click of a button eliminating the problems of late payments. No more awkward chats with clients and no more strained customer relationships.
Further, automation greatly curbs the problems of customer disputes and human errors thus, making your cash flow more visible and transparent ensuring that your numbers are spot-on and updated in real-time.
4. Security
It is obvious for a business to be apprehensive when it comes to customer or payments data. Whilst moving outside of the confines of the office might appear unreasonable, it is a lot safer in reality. Vendors of cloud based enterprise solutions devote a sizable amount of resources when it comes to security. In addition, cloud vendors provide encryption services i.e. encryption of customer and sensitive data. Data encryption in cloud is the meticulous process of encoding and transforming the data before moving it to the cloud.
5. Integrations
Processing payments via third party online payment portals becomes easy and simple to use with a cloud based accounting software. This is a boon, since it eradicates the need of dealing with a complex payment process. Integrating these third party payment portals with a cloud based ERP software will make it easy to receive payments on the invoices directly.
Takeaway
Cloud ERP software supports seamless integration with a number of enterprise technology applications to merge the diverse operations of your business. For instance, Sage X3 is one such ERP accounting software that can be seamlessly integrated with other business process solutions such as CRM software and payroll solution that you may be using providing you with a bird’s-eye view of all your critical business operations, all on a single platform. Cloud ERP solutions support integration with several enterprise management applications such as CRM software to help you get a panoramic view of your finances, customers and payments/invoices, all under a single roof.
To know how Sage X3 can end accounting woes for your business, contact us here. You can SMS SAGE to 56767 or write to us at sales@sagesoftware.co.in for consultation and free demo.
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