As businesses grow, accounting and financial management become far more time-consuming and complex tasks. In instances like this, the worry for small business owners is that potentially extremely costly errors may be made that could have far-reaching consequences.

When seeking to adapt accounting processes to match their growth, many business owners turn accounting software, which offer scalable, personalised solutions that enable business accounting to be more automated and organised.

However, adopting an accounting software solution can represent a serious investment, especially for a smaller business, not to mention the step of trusting major accounting processes to a software programme. For that reason, it will be vital to choose the right accounting software for your business, to ensure you end up with a solution that works and that truly optimises your accounting.

Find the right solution for you
In order to settle on a suitable accounting software solution, asking a few simple questions can help to clarify exactly what it is you’re looking for and help you make the right choice. A good starting point would be to sit down and make a list defining your accounting needs and what features you’d require from your accounting software.

You may find a number of solutions that offer the services your company requires, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of them would be right for your business. For example, you may need to consider how a solution can both fit with the current size of your business, but also how it can scale along with your growth plans.

Thinking realistically about your budget will also be key, in order to determine how much you have available to spend, as well as how much you are willing to spend.

Finally, accounting solutions come in many different varieties, from services geared towards beginners that offer features such as support and guides, to more advanced accounting software. Consider how much accounting experience you have and choose a solution that fits with that.

Some of the key benefits of accounting software
Arguably the core benefit of adopting an accounting software solution is automating laborious, time-consuming processes (that are nonetheless vital to your business), namely invoicing and billing. As well as cutting the time taken on such things, a software solution can also help to eliminate any damaging errors and make the processes, overall, far more efficient and well-organised.

Accounting software also makes things easier by allowing expenses, invoicing and bookkeeping to be managed on one platform. As a result, it becomes quicker and easier to track invoices and other records without the need to constantly shift between different platforms. This can make tasks such as, for instance, filling out a tax return, far simpler.

Another key advantage of moving to dedicated accounting software is ditching lugubrious, makeshift solutions, such as spreadsheets, which can become muddled and ultimately make the process more difficult than it needs to be. With accounting software, you can ditch these kinds of approaches and harness a solution that automates and organises processes and makes accounting, on the whole, easier to understand and learn.

Aside from massively helping with the basics of accounting, engaging a software solution can deliver regulatory and legal benefits which are, in many ways, just as desirable as the key services. Firstly, you can choose software that is designed around your business’ tax regime, meaning that it can make calculations for you and ensure your tax returns are correct and compliant.

Secondly, accounting software can help your business to comply with GDPR guidelines, with features such as backups and data encryption helping to keep data secure. Managing your accounting using files on your own computers can be risky, particularly in the modern world of sophisticated cyberattacks, but accounting software can guard against these threats.


For businesses that have previously relied on managing their own accounting, moving to a software-led approach is a significant decision. However, when used correctly, accounting software can vastly improve the efficiency of a company, as well as delivering benefits in terms of security and regulatory compliance. The key thing, in order to unlock such benefits, is to carefully select the right software solution for your business’ accounting needs.