Accounting or Financial Management: That is the Question
We all have some sort of system to keep track of our financial transactions. We have to do this so we will have the financial data to submit to the tax office (or our Accountant).
But, if all you have is an “accounting” package, it may not be giving you the information you need to “manage” your business. Accounting packages (notoriously) are ONLY focused on the accounting stuff.
So, is it accounting you want right now, or is it business management?
Actually; They Are Two Different Animals
Bill was totally frustrated. He thumped his fist on the desk and let out a primal grunt that brought his business partner running into his office with a look of concern on his face.
“What’s up Bill?”
“Damn it, Graham! All I want is an up-to-date report on the sales we have made, split up by sales rep, product type, etc. Is that too much to ask?”
Graham looked at him and frowned. Graham was the financial genius in the partnership. “Can’t you get that from the finance package we put in earlier this year?”
“No. It’s weeks out of date and it doesn’t give me the data the way I want it. And we can’t change the way it displays stuff. We bought that package because our Accountant said we needed it. Well, it may make the Accountant’s job easier when he submits our tax returns, but it sure as hell doesn’t help me in analysing my sales figures.”
And Bill was right. Financial packages are put together with a view to making the submission of tax returns easier. They are not usually designed to help you MANAGE your business.
What do we mean by “manage”?
Well, this varies tremendously, depending on the type of business and the recent business performance. You need data to manage your business; data like sales and revenue by product, by date, by sales rep, by region, by all sorts of other things. You need something that enables you to not only have up-to-date information, but information that can be filtered and sorted any way you want.
The good news is that, if you already have an accounting package, it is entirely possible that a custom-made Database Management System will be able to communicate with your existing accounting package. In this way you can access all the customer data you already have there.
If you don’t have an accounting package yet, the good news for you is that you can actually combine both the Accounting and the Management aspects of your business in one custom-made database. It is actually possible to create one system that caters to both.
At Custom-Made Database, we can build a system that will work for you the way YOU want it to work: Accounting, Business Management, or both.