5 reasons why accountants and bookkeepers should help in choosing software for retail & hospitality clients
Amaka Team
November 03, 2023
It’s no secret that operational efficiency and customer satisfaction are top priorities for any retail or hospitality business. In order to achieve them, business owners have to put in a lot of effort for things to run smoothly, especially when it comes to sales and accounting functions.
Luckily, modern technology and automation can facilitate the smooth functioning of a retail store, hotel or restaurant. In fact, accounting software can deliver many benefits to hospitality or retail businesses, and these benefits can be compounded with accounting integrations that automate the flow of data across financial operations. Nonetheless, these tools should be chosen carefully.
No matter if you own a business or work as an accountant in the retail & hospitality industry – here’s why accountants and bookkeepers should help in choosing software.
1. Accountants and bookkeepers can easily analyse any retail & hospitality business and define its needs.
It’s important to realise that every software is designed with specific business types, requirements, and sizes in mind, and the process of choosing the right one can be based on trial and error at first. Still, it’s accountants and bookkeepers that can pick the best solution, both from prior experience and understanding your industry needs.
When you think about it, the purpose of having accountants and bookkeepers is to provide financial information to the business stakeholders. Because of that, accounting specialists are well-aware of what’s needed to streamline operations, and can easily provide advice on choosing relevant POS software and integrations.
Before this happens, though, it should be up to them to analyse business needs and requirements carefully, and determine which solution can meet those needs in the long run. Most likely, they will also pick the POS software that can be integrated with the accounting software that they are familiar with and have already been using successfully.
2. Accountants and bookkeepers can perform thorough market research to choose the best alternative.
As mentioned above, every solution has different features for different business requirements. If you don’t know much about accounting software, it can be a challenge to choose the solution with the features that your team or your business can benefit from. This is where an accountant can contribute – by doing careful market research.
Of course, there are basic functions that can be found almost anywhere like tracking inventory, financial report generation, invoicing, income and expense tracking, or managing vendors and bills. At this stage, however, it’s important to look at the price-quality ratio, as well as data security and offered support, in case it’s needed at any point. Yet again, it’s accountants and bookkeepers that should know exactly what to look for and what has worked for others in the past.
3. Accountants and bookkeepers will take into account available integrations and add-ons.
Some cloud-based POS software can be integrated with accounting tools – and both business owners and accountants can benefit from such integrations. Knowing what type of software is needed, an accountant can easily take a look at different cloud-based apps that offer integration with the accounting software. Take Amaka as an example.
Basically, an integrated accounting system organises all accounting functions in one self-balancing system, removing data entry. This way, there’s no need to copy data from one system to another since the systems are integrated. This, in turn, eliminates any risk of potential human errors and keeps data updated automatically.
Because of that, a business can receive accurate financial information quickly and effectively, and make better business decisions as a result. This also saves a lot of time since accountants don’t have to manually input information into the accounting system, which gives them more time to focus on other important tasks.
4. Accountants and bookkeepers will choose the systems with great reporting capabilities
Accountants know the importance of reporting like no one else. Fortunately, an accounting system with proper reporting capabilities can make the process much easier and ensure that all records are always up-to-date and kept in one place.
It might not seem like it at first, but it’s actually a time-saver that also helps both business owners and accountants to feel less stressed about having all the right information in the system. Not to mention that a system with functional reporting capabilities also guarantees easy access to data anytime instead of going through loads of paperwork. This is often referred to as the single source of truth.
5. Accountants and bookkeepers will choose cloud-based software
Nowadays, most top accounting and POS systems are cloud-based, which is essential for businesses in the hospitality & retail industry. At the end of the day, cloud applications come with a variety of benefits – one of them being the accessibility to the financial accounts anytime and anywhere, from any device with Internet access. Let’s say, for example, that you own a hotel and are currently on vacation. If there are issues with invoices, you don’t need to worry too much about it since you can check all data via your smartphone.
There’s also one more thing that business owners and accountants don’t need to be concerned about: installing software upgrades themselves. This is done on the server end, which once again saves a lot of time and money for both the software provider and end user.
Choosing the right software for the retail & hospitality industry
Modern accountants and bookkeepers are experts when it comes to the finance industry – and since their responsibilities are ever-changing due to the accounting technology revolution, they should also be up-to-date on the newest technologies. This, in turn, makes them the perfect person when it comes to choosing the best software for any retail or hospitality business.
As a matter of fact, implementing and integrating software has plenty of benefits for everyone involved. That’s precisely why it’s worth it to partner up with the accountants & bookkeepers whenever there’s such a decision to be made.
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