With your point of sale software, there are two schools of thought about direct integration.
The first school is entirely against it. The problem that they see is that anyone in the shop can use the point of sale software, as such their accounting system can be mucked up by anyone in the shop. What they prefer is that they take the results from the accounting system, manually review it and then and only then enter in the information into the system. If you are like me and have an accounting background, it is a powerful point. For example, a payment on electricity might be over two months and if its a month late being paid its actually three months ago. Every entry into your ledger does involve some thought. The other issue is an error is made for example a sales was put in incorrectly, then it goes directly into the books, and they really do not like that. If the business changes, then it is easier to change if it is done manually.
The second love direct integration. Generally, they see the time saved as far more important, It would be lovely to have a proper set of books going but they feel they lack both the expertise and time to do it beside the accountant can do the details, for what they want and need this is not so important. They want their BAS, their cash flow, a general idea of how they are going, and they want to give the accountant consolidated figures as they do not have to pay for the accountant's bookkeepers charges too.
For these people, direct integration with our point of sale software to an accounting program like MYOB (by far the most popular with our clients), Quickbooks and Xero can dramatically increase their business overall efficiency.
This would be the arguments
) Entering information manually is time-consuming and after all, in business, time is money. Even an hour a week is a substantial saving.
) They can save a lot of mucking around as once their program is set to direct integrate, it is automatic. They do not need an expert to get the information into the accounting program. The less contact with the accounting program the better.
) Yes errors are coming but the manual way also has errors, human error. For example, 191 can be accidentally entered as 119 and then it is very hard to find.
) Results are available instantly. This permits quick analyzation. It nice to be able to look at your books daily and get a real feel where your business is heading.
Overall I tend to think in most SMBs something is better than nothing so unless you have someone that really knows their accounting, I would say that a direct integration is better.
Make your own mind up as with our system you can choose manual, integrated or both as we can limit the information being sent into your accounting program. Then if you want integration let us know.
