It’s More Than Just “Accounting Software.” It’s About the “Platform.”

It’s more than just “Accounting Software.” It’s about the “Platform.”

On how accounting software can help optimize your business - It’s important to have a strong out-of-the box general ERP accounting functionality. At a minimum, you should be able to process orders, manage inventory, pay bills and invoice customers. Those are the basic things any ERP accounting software should do for your business. In addition, your system should quickly and effectively generate reports, provide key performance indicators and graphs and give them to you the way you want them.

The driver behind getting what you want and how you want it is your platform. How flexible is yours? How easily can your ERP be tweaked, modified and configured to match your current and future business requirements?

A typical ERP will do the basic things you want it to do and meet about 80% of your needs. But every company has unique things they’d like to track. That’s where that other 20% comes into play. For example, a company may want to track certain aspects of an item on a sales order – color size, style, weight, etc. They may have unique processes where they have approval steps or different itemizations where tasks are created or emails sent out. You need a platform that allows you to configure your system to your needs.

Configure Exactly What You Need

Imagine being able to add unlimited fields to any screen and then lay out the screen in a way that allows easy entry into the system. Or perhaps you want to create your own table structure to collect information and associate that information with normal ERP configuration records.

In the past, when you wanted to configure something tailored to your business and its systems, you had to hire someone to do it. You explained what you wanted. Then you waited for someone to write the code and build a database. Next, they’d try to integrate it to your system while you hoped it worked. That process was extra time and expense coming out of your bottom line.

That scenario is a thing of the past. Now, with a robust ERP system, any power user you designate can add a field, move fields around on a form, write a work flow to send an email, check a box…the list goes on and on. None of these functions requires a developer. It’s just you and your system, creating what you want and need. The sky is the limit. When was the last time a developer told you that without handing you a huge bill after the fact? Add fields and tables, modify screens and workflows – all within the software itself. A robust ERP system is about clicking to get what you want – not coding. It’s about simplicity, flexibility and being able to configure exactly what works for your business.

No More Legacy Lock

Need more evidence that a flexible platform is the perfect solution? Consider this: when you hire a developer to code what you need, you’re then locked into that solution. They “customize” your out-of-the-box purchase, but every 18 months or so, the manufacturer tells you to update your software. But it won’t work with the “solution” your developer created for you. So you don’t upgrade because you can’t afford to break the custom coding. You are now locked into continuing to use the old version you paid for and can’t upgrade. This happens all the time and suddenly companies are running software versions that are 5, 10 or even 15 years old with no path to get current. They just patch and limp along, supplementing with spreadsheets and manual effort – the very things you’re trying to avoid.

The good news is you don’t have to be stuck in version lock. A robust ERP system allows you to do all of the configuration you want. Then, through modern cloud technology, you will automatically receive twice a year upgrades that work seamlessly with all custom configurations. Imagine always running the most up-to-date version of your ERP, and it working with everything you and your team have configured.

Your Cloud Integrated Solution

Sound too good to be true? It’s not. A modern cloud-based ERP solution can provide your business with these options. Contact goVirtualOffice to learn more about how you and your company can benefit from a robust, integrated software system.