You run a small accounting firm. You started as a four-person shop, but over time you’ve grown to a staff of 15. The problem is that your accounting operations haven’t kept pace with your growth. Instead of finding ways to be more efficient, you’re still relying on a mountain of Excel spreadsheets and paper trails to balance your books every month.
Think of what you could accomplish if all your tasks were automated with a single database! If you want to be more efficient and profitable, you have to simplify the way you work. And that’s precisely what Dynamics 365 Business Central allows you to do. This enterprise resource planning software (ERP) is designed to connect data from several sources in your company and store it in a single database.
Want to know more about how Business Central can help you streamline your company’s functions? Contact our Business Central consultants for a free demo.
With Business Central, your accounting managers will have access to all the data they need—from payroll services to auditing, tax preparation, and bookkeeping. And they’ll be able to make informed decisions that help you control costs. As a business owner, you’ll get a 360-degree view of your financial data and will know exactly what’s happening with every single client file. To find out more about buying an ERP system, read our blog.
Think your business is too small for this kind of solution? It’s not—the truth is that no business is too small for a solution that will make it more efficient.
Did you know? A recent study by Xero found that accounting firms that use cloud-based software add five times the number of clients than traditional firms. Cloud-based firms have also recorded a 15% year-over-year growth in revenue compared to the 4% recorded by firms not in the cloud. Source: Xero Blog, 2016
Whether you run a 10-person shop or a larger company with up to 50 employees, you really can’t ignore this solution. Here are some of the ways Business Central will make your accounting firm more efficient.
1. Meet Compliance Standards
Picture this. Your accounting company is struggling to get financial reports ready for the auditors. Do you have all the information you need? If not, will you be able to compile it in time and create reports that will comply with regulatory standards?
Business Central helps you generate financial reports to ensure you have a clear audit trail. It also traces documents and information backward and forward throughout your system, showing you when employees made changes to your databases, who the employees are, and what exactly they did. This Change Log is designed to meet the auditing, compliance, and security policies that govern many regulated companies; it will make your audit trail more transparent and allow auditors to drill down, filter, and navigate your financial information.
Worried about the security of your data? Don’t be. Business Central is hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform, which has the most sophisticated data security features in the world—you’ll be in very good hands.
2. Automate Tasks
Does this sound familiar? Tax season is just around the corner and your part-time staff is working around the clock to get all the necessary data entered for your tax specialists. Did you know that 9 out of 10 financial spreadsheet reports contain serious mistakes that are the result of human error? If you can’t get a true picture of what’s going on with your numbers, you could lose a lot of money.
Give your data entry people a break! Business Central automatically connects data from all your client accounts and reporting systems to give you a 360-degree view of your business. And the best part of all? You find everything you need in one place. No more searching for important information in old files or spreadsheets. You’ll simplify your day-to-day operations, and your company will be more productive.
3. Stay Up to Date with Your Mobile Devices
Let’s face it: You often come up with the best solutions to business problems when you’re far away from your desk. Because Business Central is based in the cloud, you can work from anywhere at any time using your mobile, tablet, or laptop. This means you can analyze tax obligations while you’re riding in a cab to a client’s office, prepare professional audit reports while you’re having lunch at your favorite restaurant, or even manage client payrolls while you’re sitting on the subway—all with just a few clicks.
Did you know? A recent report by the Gist Blog shows that 32% of employees around the world rely on more than one mobile device during their typical workday. Source: Gist Blog
4. Keep Everything Together
One of the best features of Business Central is that it’s completely integrated with Office 365 and Exchange. This means that any emails you send to your clients will be automatically linked to their client records in Dynamics 365 along with the tasks, calendar entries, and phone calls already stored there.
Financial planners can also take advantage of Business Central’s centralized database to display household and individual plans for their clients. This is particularly useful if you handle investments for an entire family. You can track each member of the household separately to view their financial plans, goals, and investments. Or, you can view all this information together in a group display. Both records will be kept up to date in the centralized database at the same time.
5. It’s Better than QuickBooks
If you’re an experienced accountant, you’ve probably worked with QuickBooks to manage payroll and credit card information or bill your clients. In fact, QuickBooks has been the software of choice for many small accounting firms since it first hit the market in the 1980s.
While QuickBooks is still popular with many start-ups and small companies, Business Central is starting to gain ground. For example, it has more than 600 features you won’t find with QuickBooks, such as advanced data analysis tools and detailed reporting. QuickBooks also has weak user permissions, which means it’s too easy for any user to have access to sensitive data. But as we mentioned earlier, Business Central is hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform, so its security is unmatched.
If you’re planning to expand your company, you might find that QuickBooks falls short. We’ve been told that if there are too many users accessing the system at the same time, the software will slow down.
We’ve only scratched the surface of all the ways Business Central can streamline your accounting firm’s operations and help you be more efficient. Want to learn more? Contact our Business Central experts for a free consultation.
