“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This adage serves as a common refrain in criticism of business management practices. Of course, time and again, broken systems in an organization continue to go unaddressed for one reason or another. But in the realm of finance and accounting, it’s just as likely that businesses are operating under a system that seems to work just fine, or one that would be impossible to truly “fix” without incurring massive expenses. In so many companies, the accounting solutions in place are indeed broken, and stakeholders such as the CFO know they need fixing.
What is really happening in these situations? Typically, the company has actually outgrown its accounting solution and can no longer get by on the old way of doing things. The best answer to these problems does not involve fixing as much as replacing the accounting system with one that’s more robust and scalable to meet the firm’s growth targets.
Signs of an inadequate accounting solution
When a company has outgrown its accounting solution, the symptoms usually present themselves according to the system’s functionality, its adherence to compliance requirements or its ability to analyze a large volume of data in complex ways.
Functionality is often the first casualty of an accounting platform that has reached its operational limits. Adding new entities for reporting, like a new store or warehouse, becomes unwieldy or even impossible. As businesses grow, their need to recognize revenue in complex ways – as for variable-rate sales or for commission bonuses – gets harder. Many accounting platforms designed for small organizations even place a strict cap on the number of users or the size of individual files.
When functionality begins to suffer in an accounting or finance system, compliance is usually the next thing to fall behind. Many larger vendors or suppliers – especially in the world of government contracting – require adherence to very specific rules for invoicing and reporting. Or a user limit built into the platform may suddenly make it impossible to log multiple users in simultaneously, something that most mid-size or larger businesses would consider routine.
When these roadblocks present themselves, the firm’s ability to extract data-driven insights from its accounting platform is handicapped, or more likely nonexistent. Successful companies learn from the financial and accounting data they collect every day and use those findings to make better decisions that stimulate growth. Without the ability to conduct accurate cash flow forecasting, for example, or even conduct routine transactional checks at high volume, significant growth becomes essentially impossible.
If CFOs or accounting professionals are already wondering whether they have outgrown their accounting solution, it may be too late to correct course and get by making only minor adjustments. Fortunately, Consero provides an intuitive and scalable accounting platform that can be quickly integrated, even in a business that’s been sidelined by its outdated accounting system for ages.
Get in touch with Consero today to learn more about what a modern, full-featured accounting solution looks like.
