Excel, QuickBooks and Accounts module of ERP

Streamlining Finance: A Comparison of Excel, QuickBooks, and ERP Accounts

In today’s blog, we are going to tell you about the different options that are available to every business to manage financial and accounting operations. This blog will also give you an understanding of the latest trends that are being used in the market regarding financial and accounting operations and how they can be productive for your business. Talking about the importance of Finance and Accounts operations management, it is crucial to know that without a proper accounts management system, a business cannot survive. The reason is financial statements like balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, and others are very vital to make a good business decision about an investment, forecasting, and using the resources productively. Currently, in the market, three software are being used mostly by different businesses to manage their accounts side and they are Excel, QuickBooks, and Accounts module of ERP software. To further explore the features and drawbacks of these software packages, let us move forward then you decide on your own what is best for your business rather than asking people to tell you about the software for your business. .

Excel

Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft and can be used on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. The core features include calculations, graphing, tools, tables, and a visual basic for applications. In past most people used Excel for managing their accounts functions, the reason was technology was not that advanced and options were also limited. There is no doubt in this still, Excel is a very handy software for small level business which requires less technology where one or two people are handling the business on a small level. But the problem arises when the business start growing then operations become complex and because of no integrations, business collapses. The only factor of this collapse is a businessman ignores the importance of technology and in today’s world, it’s an unforgivable sin in the business world to ignore technology. So, it is better to make your foundation strong enough that in the future you will be able to build a heavy building on it. Here are some drawbacks of Excel that need to be considered when you are making an informed business decision.

.Lacks the capacity to integrate department that leads to less transparency of functions and time consuming to give information to employees manually.

.More Vulnerable to fraud, corruption, human errors, and security risks.

.Because of the hard consolidation feature, reporting is very difficult.

.360-degree view of business is missing, so if Top-level managers want to examine the performance, they need a lot of time for this.

.Excel is extremely manual and if the Excel expert of functions is not around it will mess up the things. No automation here

.Microsoft Excel does not offer a good variety of graph capabilities; the customization of the standard formats and the combination of different data sets and different types of the graph is awkward and not intuitive.

.Features like KPIs, analysis, generate sales orders, create the bill of materials, and warehouse management are missing.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is an accounting software developed by Intuit. The main audience of QuickBooks is the small and medium-sized businesses, and this software did well also. It is available on desktop as well as a cloud-based version. The core competencies are business payments, management and bills, and payroll functions. When QuickBooks was launched, most people were using Excel, and then due to its features and easy access people shifted towards it and slowly they grabbed a big portion of the market. Still, many people are using it and over time improvements are being done in it but some loopholes need to be filled to make it a better choice nowadays where a lot of options are available. Some of the drawbacks are mentioned below: –

.Lack of industry and business-specific features such as barcode scanning will lead to misuse of resources.

.Instability and system crashes will lead to delays.

.Lack of direct professional support.

.Limitations on the number of users.

.Data is not always backed-up, so there is a possibility of losing information.

.Design tools for an invoice are not there.

.Easy to find fix errors which makes it easy for someone to manipulate your books.

.A standalone application that lacks integration and automation between other systems.

.Maintaining and adding features is expensive.

.Syncing problems. There have been instances that QBO users experience syncing issues with credit card transactions. It can take a day or two later to sync successfully.

.Bank and credit card account transactions go back 90 days. It can be offline for days or weeks at a time with no explanation, which will force you to either enter all transactions manually or download a CSV from your bank and upload it into QuickBooks Online.

.QuickBooks does provide an audit trail for most information, there are some situations where financial information can be changed without leaving any sort of documentation.

Accounts module of ERP software

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource planning and it includes different modules like Accounts module, HRMS, Inventory management module, Manufacturing management module, Trading management module, and many others. We are here only focusing on the Accounts module and will tell you that how it is better than the above-mentioned software. As we discussed above people shifted from Excel to QuickBooks and now it’s time to shift towards ERP system as a whole or at least shift to your required modules for enhancing the growth of your business through smoothly running operations. Let us discuss how the Accounts management module of ERP software addresses the drawbacks of Excel and QuickBooks: –

.Fully integrated with other departments that will give a feel of transparency as well no delay in work, just a single click, and the respective person will be able to view the document.

.Customizations of every tool according to the need of customers.

.Compliance with the legal standards will minimize the possibility of fraud and corruption to zero levels.

.Proper financial statements templates with edit, delete, and add functions.

.Irrespective of many departments and branches of the company, sound consolidated reporting is available.

.Authority levels are also there that will also limit sensitive information to authorized persons.

.360- degree view, KPIs, analysis of reports is also available for wise business decisions.

.Data is always backed up so no risk of losing the data with proper synchronizations.

.Attractive and useful dashboards are available for measuring the overall performance with a single click.

.The audit is very important internal as well as external because government asks for audit reports so the Accounts module holds the proper record of every transaction that will make you free from any kind of illegal penalty.

.A payroll management system is very effective to track the records of every employee and provide payroll management effectively.

.Generating sales orders, creating a bill of materials, warehouse management is also perfectly organized to track each transaction.

.Available at the desktop as well as a cloud with proper mobile applications

You have to shift from other software to ERP system when your business will grow because it is impossible to carry the dis-integrated departments with dis-integrated operations. So, why anyone should waste time and money on other software. Start investing on ERP system at required modules and train your employees to use it for longer period. Because the future is in ERP systems.

Tips for choosing ERP system

There is no doubt that the ERP system is providing you all the features in the accounts management module that are mentioned above. But it is also to choose the ERP system wisely because a lot of vendors are providing it. Here are some tips: –

.Always do your market research and try their demos.

.Trustworthiness is very important, so do check their clients and their working past. For this purpose, go to their Case Studies portions

.Do not go for the whole ERP system at once, only choose the required modules for your business.

.Maintenance and support are very important from service providers because the software requires proper updates for effective working according to the innovations.

.Pricing is also important but never give preference to price over features and performance of ERP software.

.It is preferable to go with the local vendor because they will be available to you any time physically as well as online using any desk, TeamViewer, Skype, and call, etc.