A great question and the best place to start! Before you make any commitments to investigating the alternatives, you first need to decide if your current software is under-performing or unsuitable for sustained growth of your business. In most cases, going through this exercise clarifies in peoples' minds the reasons why they need to change so that they never question the motives or goals of the decision. Let's face it - it's an important decision, but the success of your business can be significantly impacted if you decide to put your head in the sand and hope everything will be just fine without ever having to change.

Here's a quick checklist that will help galvanise a decision regarding your current software, in order of priority.

Do you currently use an accounting or business management system of any kind?
Let's get down to basics. If you don't currently have a computerised system for handling (at the very least) purchases, sales and financial records, then we would strongly recommend implementing a computer-based solution of some kind. A common option for businesses like this is an off the shelf entry level accounting package, but you should also think about long-term growth and your requirements into the future and whether or not you would be better off starting on the right foot.

Does your current software exhibit any operational or computational errors?
Does your current software system do its job properly and without data errors, loss or corruption? If it is unreliable, loses data, corrupts your database or simply doesn't seem to add up correctly, then it's time for a change.

Does your current software provide all of the functions you need to run your business?
Small business accounting software is often great for what it does, but by far the biggest reason for change is that it simply doesn't do what you need it to. You should be realistic and understand that no software system will do every conceivable thing that you want it to, however your business relies on this software and if it can only perform half of the tasks that you need to run your business then it is not doing the job. A single system that encompasses as many of the functions you need without having to revert to third-party add-ons, band-aids and spreadsheets to fill in the gaps is going to increase productivity and accountability and streamline your business processes.

Is your current software able to accurately reflect your business processes?
It's one thing to have software that "does" all of the things you want, but does it do them in a way that reflects the way you run your business? Your software might support warehousing of inventory, but does it support multiple warehouses if you have several locations? It might allow you to use a bill of materials to define an assembly, but does it support a proper manufacturing workorder process or just an auto-build on invoice? An effective and long-term software solution will allow you to decide how you want to run your business and then be able to adapt to those processes.

Does your current software have solid reporting capabilities?
You must be able to extract data out of your system in the format you want and in a timely fashion. The only reason to have a system that stores and manages data is to be able to access that data easily, efficiently and completely. If you constantly resort to exporting and reformatting data in Excel to get the results you need, then you only have to add up the time it takes to do this day after day, week after week to arrive at a clear conclusion.

Will your current software meet your business requirements 1-5 years from now?
Being proactive in business is essential to success, yet so many companies are only ever reactive when it comes to their business management software. There is a temptation to wait until a problem happens and then try to fix it. By the time you have encountered a serious problem with the limitations of your current system, you will not have the flexibility of time to evaluate the best solution.

Do you get fast and reliable service and support from your current software vendor?
Service and support of such a critical part of your business is essential, and if something goes wrong with your software you must ensure that you are able to receive fast and effective support.

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