Is Your Accounting Software Putting Your Business at Risk?

Have you outgrown your accounting software? Watch out for these warning signs.

Is Your Outdated Accounting Software Putting Your Company at Risk?

Many businesses start with a simple accounting system like QuickBooks to manage their financial data. They supplement their basic system with third-party tools like Microsoft Excel to track inventory and Outlook to manage contacts and appointments. It’s a good way to get your operations up and running quickly and on the cheap, as you're just starting out. But is your accounting system still up to the job?

As your business grows in complexity and transaction volumes, and your customers expect better and faster service, the tools that once supported you may now be standing in your way. How do you know if your accounting-only software is risking your business and keeping you from growth?

In this article, we highlight the common challenges that indicate your small or mid-sized business has outgrown its accounting software and would benefit from moving to a cloud-based ERP solution.

We'll discuss:

• Signs That You Have Outgrown Your Accounting Software

• When Your Accounting System is Holding You Back

• How a Cloud ERP Solution Can Help

Signs That You Have Outgrown Your Accounting Software

❌ You’re Wasting Time Dealing With Multiple Systems That Can’t Talk to Each Other.

If you are using multiple separate software systems to manage different aspects of your business, you understand firsthand how frustrating it can be when the systems don’t link up. If your accounting software could ‘talk’ to your database, your business processes would likely be much more efficient. Instead, your team is stuck with manually re-entering and reconciling data across various systems. That’s a lot of time and effort wasted on manual data entry. Then there is also the risk that all that manual work could lead to errors, which can add up in costs if you must find and fix it. At the end of the day, if you don’t have a central source of real-time data, chances are high that you have duplicate or conflicting data.

❌ You Rely on Spreadsheets for Inventory Tracking.

If you find yourself using spreadsheets to track and update inventory records, it may be time to upgrade your accounting software. Managing stock with spreadsheets can be risky because of human error. Not only are mistakes, like incorrect items being shipped out, costly but they could also affect your customer relationships and brand image. If you want to improve your inventory management, adopting an ERP solution is key. It allows you to monitor everything from one platform, track the movement of each item through its lifecycle, and even help predict demand, allocate resources, and optimize your stock.

❌ Creating Reports Is Complicated and Doesn’t Give You the Information You Need.

Your accounting software can generate reports on your financials. Suppose you want to know which product is selling the best, which region is performing well, or how that stock shortage affected sales. That kind of visibility will be difficult to achieve. You may try to work around this by exporting your financial data to Excel and cross-referencing those with data from other business areas – but this takes up a lot of time. It’s also not the most accurate way to go about it. What’s needed here is detailed and accurate business intelligence. BI dashboards can give you real-time reporting and analytics across the business and are often included as part of an ERP software solution, such as Dynamics 365 Business Central.

❌ There Is No Forecasting or Budgeting, and You Rely a Lot on Guesswork.

Business instincts are all well and good, but at a certain stage, you need hard cold facts to help you make better business decisions. If you have data sitting in different systems or documents, it’s difficult to get accurate information to do the proper analysis. Accounting software only goes so far. To get access to features like intelligent sales and inventory forecasting, you’ll need an ERP solution.

More Signs to Watch Out For:

❌ Incomplete or incorrect data results in customer dissatisfaction and lost sales.

❌ You are losing productivity by spending time switching back and forth between multiple applications and disconnected systems.

❌ Manual processes are causing errors and you are unable to keep up with increasing customer demand.

❌ Custom workarounds are a regular and time-consuming occurrence.

❌Closing the month takes too much time and more effort

❌Your team is drowning in paperwork and it is hard to keep track of invoices.

When Your Accounting System is Holding You Back

It’s easy to focus on the day-to-day frustrations of an accounting software you've outgrown from the slow reporting to the endless manual work. But what’s harder to see (and arguably more damaging) is the missed opportunities for your company.

When your accounting system fails to deliver timely, accurate data, decision-making slows down. You might delay launching a new product because you're unsure about cash flow. Or you miss a growth opportunity because forecasting was too unreliable to justify the risk. You may also start to feel that you’re constantly reacting instead of planning for scenarios.  

Then there’s your team. Skilled finance and operations professionals are likely to feel uninspired when they spend hours consolidating spreadsheets or patching together data from different systems. When they’re stuck doing repetitive tasks instead of analyzing insights or driving strategy, your business misses out on the full value of their talent.

Outdated tools or systems you've outgrown don’t just slow you down - they hold you back. And in today’s fast-moving business world, that could be the biggest cost of all.

How a Cloud ERP Solution Can Help

If your business is growing but your accounting system is unable to keep up – you’re constantly adding workarounds, hiring people to handle manual tasks, or dealing with the fallouts of inaccurate data across departments, it might be time to make the switch to a cloud ERP solution. Switching from your accounting software to a modern cloud-based ERP solution is more than just a software upgrade, it’s a business investment that can boost your growth, improve decision-making, and help your business become agile.

So, what exactly is cloud ERP software? A cloud enterprise planning system is an all-in-one business management system that brings together key business functions such as accounting, inventory, sales, purchasing, HR, and more into a single, accessible platform that is hosted in the cloud. That means no more time wasted in juggling disconnected tools or chasing down data buried in spreadsheets. Another powerful benefit of a cloud ERP lies in its ability to give you real-time visibility into your business and eliminate data silos. Need an up-to-the-minute cash flow report or inventory snapshot? It’s just a few clicks away.

Plus, cloud ERP solutions are built to scale with you. Whether you’re expanding into new markets or launching new product lines, your system can grow with minimal disruption. By selecting a cloud ERP solution, you can get your business up and running in no time – without requiring a significant upfront investment. Learn more about the 6 main benefits of cloud ERP here.

Ready to Replace Your Accounting System? Kwixand Solutions Can Help

Whether you’ve got questions or are ready to take the next step in your cloud ERP journey, the team at Kwixand Solutions is here to help. Kwixand Solutions is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner based in Vancouver, Canada, and we help companies across Canada and the United States digitally transform, achieve their business goals, and scale with ease. Book a free consultation with us today to get started.