What’s on the CPA wish list for accounting and ERP software?
TAKE THE SURVEY: Get the free report, “Accounting Software Decisions.”
by Rick Telberg
At Large
Give a CPA a magic wand and some software, and guess what you’re going to get… Better software.
So we did just that, sort of. Rather than pass out our limited supply of magic wands, we just asked CPAs to imagine they had such wands to wave over their software applications and ERP packages. What would they change?They’d change a lot of things because a lot of them are less than blissful with what they’ve got. One out of five is not very happy or not at all happy with what they’re working with. Only slightly more than half describe themselves as mostly or completely happy.
So we got a lot of wand-waving and a lot of good suggestions for the magicians who design accounting software. The results are contained in our study, “Accounting Software Decisions,” available for free to participants. (Join the study, get the results free.)
“Make it easier to communicate with my clients, that is, to send them updated financial information,” said Peter Cullen, a senior executive with Core Performance Consulting, in Newport Beach, Calif.
“Faster access to files to eliminate waiting time,” said Michael J. Morley, II, a principal in a hurry, at The Morley Group in Morton, Penn.
Michael Wade, of Michael C. Wade, PS, in Vancouver, Wash., dreamt of a rather reasonable abracadabra moment: “Be compatible with all years and not have to purchase new software each year to read client records.”
“Better inter-fund transaction processing,” said Minch Lewis, a “mostly happy” financial officer at On-Info-Serv, Inc. in Syracuse, N.Y. “Very important for new HUD requirements.”
“It should be user friendly,” suggested Melinda Nota, a “not-very-happy” senior staffer banging her head against a wall at Intex Telecom Systems, Inc. in Makati City, Philippines.
Is she asking too much?
No. We heard a lot of that same, simple request.
One mid-level staffer at a certain company would wave the wand to get software “easy-to-learn with a friendlier reporting tool.”
“I would make the formatting of the financial statements simpler and more flexible,” said an anonymous CFO, a request well within the realm of modern magic.
Len “Not-Very-Happy” Carmichael, financial wizard at Sunnyside Corp. in Wheeling, Ill., would whip out his wand to get “extensive reporting to avoid using spreadsheets.”
On the other hand, Michael S. Upton, a CPA in Greenville, S.C., would like to “add ability to export reports to Excel.”
Hey, to each his own. That’s what magic wands are for.
Think of that wand as a conductor’s baton, and what do you get?
“Consistent systems throughout the organization,” said a senior staffer in… you guessed it… government.
“Compatibility across all platforms,” said a mostly-happy CFO.
“I would make the integration actually work,” said a not-so-happy senior staffer in public accounting.
Me, I’d wave my wand at the prestidigitators of the software world and tell them to note the above-mentioned suggestions and get to work.
Our survey showed a sizeable number of CPAs looking for more in their software, and nearly a quarter of our respondents said they were highly or very likely to buy new software in the next 18 months.
That’s a big market, a lot of software and there’s no shortage of improvements to be made. So abracadabra, have at it.
TAKE THE SURVEY: Get the free report, “Accounting Software Decisions.”
[First published by the AICPA]