Moving Beyond Excel and Quickbooks
As your company grows, so does the amount of data it has to manage. However, it’s not just the data you need to worry about—you also need to be concerned about the number of employees accessing the data, the number of customers you support, and your ever-expanding supply chain.
Do you think you can manage your entire business with just a couple of spreadsheets and formulas? Think again.
As it grows, managing your small or medium-sized business’s data and information can get cumbersome, expensive, time-consuming, and prone to mismanagement—that’s where ERP software comes in.
What Is ERP Software?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is business management software that provides your organization with a system of integrated applications to help manage your operations and automate back-office accounting tasks. Using ERP software, you can manage all your critical business activities like accounting, technology, services, manufacturing, human resources, and marketing in one place.
ERP software allows you to take control of your data and your business by serving as a centralized database for all your company’s vital information. With all your essential data in one easily accessible location, you can streamline and automate processes, improve data consistency, reduce errors, and increase efficiency.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what ERP can do. Click here to learn more about ERP software and its benefits.
Why ERP?
ERP software is incredibly powerful, and it can help manage the next stage of growth for many small and medium-sized businesses. If it’s such an impressive miracle worker, why doesn’t every organization use ERP software?
Here are a few common misconceptions:
- Price. Many businesses put ERP software in the “nice to have” category rather than the “need to have” category when it comes to their budgets. Considering the total cost of ownership, return on investment, and benefits of ERP, it’s more affordable than you might think. Click here to learn more about the true cost of ERP.
- Processes. Unfortunately, businesses can be reluctant to change. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, right? Not necessarily—many companies just don’t realize how dire of a data situation they’re in.
Unknown. ERP software just isn’t as well known as software tools like Excel and QuickBooks. Traditionally, ERP software was used by larger enterprises in the manufacturing industry. Now, with cloud-based solutions like Acumatica, ERP software is more accessible, affordable, and customizable for businesses in just about any industry, including lawn and landscape, rent-to-own, retail and hospitality, health care and medical, and construction.
8 Signs Your Business Might Be Ready for ERP Software
1. Your Accounting Processes Take Too Long.
Typically, this is one of the first signs that your current accounting solution isn’t going to cut it for your business. If your team is spending endless hours on paper-based invoices and orders, it’s time to consider an ERP software system.
An ERP system is built to help automate and streamline accounting processes, saving your team valuable time and effort. With a centralized platform, all financial information can be consolidated and reconciled seamlessly, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual data entry and reconciliation across multiple systems and spreadsheets. Learn more about how ERP software compares to QuickBooks.
2. You’re Lacking Consistency Between Applications and Departments
Constantly switching between applications can be a huge time waster. Likewise, if the data is inconsistent between applications or different departments are working from different data sets, it’s time to consider ERP software.
In taking control of your applications and data, you also take control of your business’s future. Inaccurate, inconsistent data can be a catastrophic problem for your business as it continues to grow—for example, without accurate data from sales, your inventory management may suffer. Similarly, not having the latest accurate information from accounting can trigger a ripple effect on everything from marketing budgets to payroll.
3. Your Integrations Budget Keeps Growing
As businesses grow, they usually employ more applications. With more applications, you often need more integrations to ensure information can flow between different applications. The price tag on integrations can add up quickly between license fees, staffing, training, operations, and the labor to get them to work well together—if they even work well together at all.
Investing in an ERP software solution can help you limit integration costs in the long run by consolidating your critical business software applications into one.
4. You’re Having Difficult Managing Supply Chain Logistics
Inventory issues are a telltale sign that you need ERP software. If you’re mismanaging a complex supply chain with multiple suppliers, warehouses, and distribution channels, it can lead to stockouts, excess inventory, and delayed shipments that impact your customers and bottom line.
ERP software can help automate your supply chain tasks related to demand planning, procurement, inventory management, and logistics.
5. You’re Experiencing Scalability Challenges
Is your business projecting a stage of rapid growth? Do you have plans to expand operations substantially in the future? An Excel spreadsheet and/or QuickBooks might not be able to handle your new demands.
ERP solutions, like Acumatica, allow you to add new modules or functionality as your business grows without having to adopt entirely new systems or applications. This flexibility can help you automate and streamline processes, freeing up your staff to focus on more strategic tasks such as planning for future growth.
Additionally, Acumatica provides real-time visibility into key business metrics, allowing your organization to make more informed decisions based on up-to-date data and information.
6. Your Data Is Duplicated
Is your business facing data duplication and inconsistencies? Are you having difficulty accessing accurate and relevant metrics and statistics? If you’re using multiple applications to run your business, there’s a good chance that your data is duplicated and inconsistent.
An ERP system can solve this problem by providing a centralized source for all your business’s data. This centralized database can help ensure that your decisions are based on the same conclusions, resulting in a more unified and efficient organization. With all departments accessing the same data, you can be confident that everyone is working with accurate and up-to-date information.
7. Your Business Relies on Inefficient Manual Processes
Manual processes can be a massive bottleneck for businesses—for example, relying on manual data entry for order processing and inventory management can lead to inaccuracies, delays, and potential loss of sales. These types of manual processes are also prone to human error, which can have painful financial and operational consequences.
ERP software offers a solution to these challenges. By helping you automate your processes, ERP software can reduce the risk of errors, improve efficiency, and free up valuable time for employees to focus on more important tasks.
8. Your IT Processes Are too Complicated
Supporting multiple software systems and applications can be challenging for businesses that require significant resources—staying up-to-date with maintenance, software upgrades, patches, and integrations for everything can be difficult and expensive. To make things worse, many businesses operate with limited IT resources, making it even more challenging to manage all systems effectively.
Fortunately, an ERP software system can consolidate your applications, making it easier to manage your IT resources. This consolidation allows your IT support staff to work more efficiently, focusing on critical tasks and projects instead of constantly putting out fires.
Choosing a cloud-based ERP software solution like Acumatica can make your life even easier. Much of the support and maintenance falls on the vendor and your implementation partner, leaving you free to focus on your core business operations. With Acumatica’s cloud-based solution, you can be confident that your system is always up-to-date, secure, and performing at its best.
We Meet Your Needs.
Are you tired of managing your business with multiple spreadsheets and outdated software tools? It’s time to take control of your data and streamline your business processes with an ERP software solution.
If you’re experiencing any of the signs mentioned in our blog, it’s time to consider an ERP solution like Acumatica. With cloud-based solutions, ERP software is now accessible, affordable, and customizable for businesses in just about any industry. Don’t let misconceptions about cost and processes hold you back—ERP software is more affordable than you might think and can be customized to fit your specific needs.
Request a demo today to learn more about how Acumatica can transform your business.