Prices are rising for all businesses and costs need to be contained. You monitor these costs using your financial system, but what about the cost and benefits of the system itself? Consider the hidden cost, as your finance team puts in extra man hours to operate an inefficient system. Paying skilled finance staff for the reconfiguration of system data, for management/board/funding packs, rather than spending their time on more meaningful analysis, that would be foolish right?

Financial systems are a long-term commitment for any business. The longer you use them, the more data you store and before you know it you feel a change is impossible. With too much invested, this is when workaround tactics are used. These are often inefficient and potentially leave you at risk of having a system only the current operator understands.

Effectively you are trying to make your business fit the system, rather than the system fit your business.

So before buying accounting software, management accounting or forecasting systems, ask yourself:

Does it fit my business?

Will it evolve with my growth plans?

Will it link with other systems I currently operate?

What functionality am I getting initially and when must I pay more?

Can I easily extract data?

Is output in the right format?

Will I own or lease it?

Once trained can it be easily operated?

Is it secure?

Is there follow up support?

Time and time again, businesses tell us they wish they had asked for a second opinion before installing a financial system, so do seek professional advice. Tied into long-term contracts, we often see businesses using multiple systems to extract the information they really need. Yes, cost is an important factor, but time and money spent implementing workarounds may lead to false economies. Do therefore ask for advice before installation, consider the above questions and whether a more tailored, joined up approach may have longer term benefits for the success of your business.

If you need help with reviewing your financial systems, then please let us know

Our contact details are:

07780 336952 Delphine Paterson FCCA ACIB

07803 724255 Neil Paterson