Myth busters: 6 things you may hear about accounting integrations which are not true!

Laura Tien September 26, 2023

Accounting Article

Due to many misconceptions, it might seem otherwise at first. But, even though software integrations might seem confusing, they don’t have to be terrifying. Especially if you trust experienced professionals to help you set up those integrations or even do it entirely for you.

We’re fully aware of that, which is why we decided to debunk a few common myths revolving around accounting integrations and convince you that they’re nothing to be afraid of. Take a look – and worry about software integration no more!

What are the accounting integrations in the first place?

First of all, to give you an idea of how underestimated accounting integrations can be: According to a TB Bank survey, 46% of small business owners name bookkeeping as the least favourite part of their jobs. At the same time, accounting and bookkeeping form the backbone of their companies – and poor financial management can do those businesses a lot of harm.

Does it sound familiar? If so, the good news is that doing the books properly (and saving time and effort once you’re at it) doesn’t have to be daunting. It’s not only a matter of handing the whole process over to the accounting professionals, though. If you’re involved in the hospitality or retail business, using and integrating proper tools, such as Point of Sale system and accounting software, can also make a huge difference for your business.

Basically, thanks to accounting integrations, accountants don’t have to log into your POS system, browse all your reports, and enter the data that interests them manually to the accounting software. Instead, they have all the information synchronised and handy at all times. This actually allows for daily updates of transactions and reduces the possibility of human error while managing accounts.

This could be one of the reasons why the global market for accounting software is predicted to have a value of $11.8 billion within the next few years. The question is: Why are some business owners still reluctant to setting up bookkeeping services and integrating their software, even though there are so many dedicated tools available?

It might as well be because there are still many myths surrounding accounting integrations. It’s high time to dispel them, once and for all.

6 common misconceptions about the accounting integrations

1.“I already have an accountant/bookkeeper, I don’t need any software integrations.”

Software integration makes it easier to do accounts for everyone involved in the process. Keep in mind that your POS system is responsible for all your transactions – which you probably process quite a lot of if you work in the hospitality or retail industry. This means that entering all your data manually in the accounting software can be incredibly time-consuming, not to mention that it’s really easy to make mistakes this way.

Once you integrate your POS entries with the accounting system, though, all the records will be updated automatically. Just like that – no manual labour, no errors, and much more time for the accountants to advise you on more important financial aspects of your business.

2. “I don’t have time to set up the integration and knowledge to deal with the technicalities.”

You might be surprised, but you don’t need to be tech-savvy in order to set up an accounting integration. You also don’t need much time to do it properly. As a hospitality or retail business owner or accountant working for one, you’re busy enough already – which is why each integration can be set up by our support team. If you still prefer doing it yourself, you can use the intuitive dashboard (with selected integrations) to start syncing your data within less than 5 minutes.

3. “Software integration? No way. My data is too sensitive to end up unprotected in the cloud.”

We’re fully aware that data privacy & security is extremely important for any business nowadays. Sure, there have been some rumours that moving to the cloud is not safe, as it gives you less control of your data. But, when it comes to accounting integrations – they couldn’t be further from the truth.

How so? In some cases, we don’t even store any of your data. It’s all saved in cache while transferring the data between the systems, and then deleted immediately once the transfer is completed. Even if we do save your data for longer, though, it still remains safe and sound.

Here are a few reasons for that:

• We leverage OAuth 2.0. standard for user authentication, which conveys authorisation decisions between the systems, giving you the right to revoke access and limit permissions,
• We take advantage of VPC (which secures the remote access of the organisation to its resources in the cloud thanks to proper authentication and encryption) or SSL transactions (a standard security protocol which ensures that all data passed between the server and browsers are kept private and integral),
• We use IAM to control who has access and permissions to use certain resources, which makes your data well-protected at all times.

If that still hasn’t been convincing enough: think about the fact that companies that use only cloud-based accounting saw a 15% year-over-year revenue growth. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

4. “I bet it’s really expensive. I don’t have the budget for that.”

Actually, it’s not. Most of the integrations are provided in cooperation with POS companies, which means that they are completely free of charge for their users. And even if there’s a fee applicable – the actual cost of the integration amounts to less than $1/day per establishment. Imagine, that’s only a fraction of your daily coffee!

5. “Nobody is going to help me when there are some issues with my data.”

That’s simply not true! You can find answers to most of your question in our help section – and if not, you can always give our support team a call and give our integration specialists a chance to resolve all your doubts.

6. “I’m scared that integrations will mess up my books.”

Actually, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Using the right software and having all your data synchronised makes keeping an eye on your finances much easier. All your financial data ends up being well-organised and updated, giving you the opportunity to spot any irregularities and act fast if there are any discrepancies between your POS data and your accounting software. You’ll see the difference in your bookkeeping from the very first day – and it’s definitely not going to be messy in any way.

See it for yourself

As you can see, software integration is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. Every hospitality or retail business needs a quality POS system to handle all types of payments and transactions. Instead of entering all those transactions manually to the accounting software, you can simply integrate both systems to make the whole process much easier and less time-consuming. In turn, you’ll be able to focus on more important aspects of your business – especially since software integration can also provide you with a lot of insights into different processes you have in place.