How to choose the right accounting software for your business

Is there anything small businesses tend to overlook when choosing accounting software for the first time?

The biggest issue is that you don’t know what you don’t know. When choosing accounting software for the first time, it’s easy to be influenced by what your friends use, what other businesses use, what someone recommends to you - or even an advert on the TV. 

Until you've used accounting software yourself, it's hard to know what you're going to need or what the various benefits or features of varying products mean to you and your business. 

There are a lot of options to choose from these days. What is the most commonly used accounting software in your experience?

We always recommend Xero. It's easy to use, easy to get started with, has great support and seems to do all the things you need as a growing business.

As with most mainstream online accounting products, the limitations are that when you get to a certain level, say above 80 staff, you may need more complex reporting, more granular user permissions, and the functionality to handle thousands and thousands of monthly transactions.

Are there different types of accounting software you would recommend for different types of small businesses? For instance, a sole trader vs a startup with 10 employees.

Xero does most things for most people. With the ecosystem of apps that sits around Xero, you can integrate other platforms into Xero to suit a variety of different business types – and different industry niches. 

What problems does choosing the right accounting software solve?

Using any accounting software is better than no software at all. 

Choosing the right accounting software enables you to digitise a large chunk of the operational side of your business, giving you increased visibility of your financial performance. You can have meaningful information at the click of a button, enabling you to make critical business decisions in good time. 

Once you’ve chosen your accounting tools, how do you train your employees? How long would this process usually take?

It usually takes a few days to get a new employee up and running. Within a few months, they’ll be fully Xero-proficient.

The Wow company does great work. How is the tool deployed through your client base? 

It’s the platform on which we build our client experience. Almost all of our clients use Xero. This enables us to deliver an experience where we can support business owners the moment they need our help.

We can empower business owners to make decisions,  and we can proactively advise clients on the outlook for them and their business.

Thanks, Paul – we loved hearing from you. 

So that’s all from The Wow Company’s Co-founder, but before you go, we should let you know one more thing:

Xero is great at what it does, but with Libeo, it’s even better. 

One of the best features of Xero is its ability to easily link it with other business apps like Libeo, thanks to Xero integrations. The combination of the two apps can digitalise all of your invoicing operations. So you can take a job that would’ve taken hours, or even days, and get it done in an instant.

To learn more about how to level up your business, see our cash flow tips or explore how to create a financial approval workflow – even if you know nothing about finance.