Start-ups are often characterized by their ingenuity, youth, dedicated employees, and long hours. Staffing, target client, how much to put into marketing vs. product, and even the name of the business can all have a significant impact on the eventual success of the business. Nevertheless, because start-ups are often focused on product or brand awareness rather than money, accounting software is often overlooked. With no clients, no product, and no money, start-ups understandably place little focus on accounts payable, receivable, and invoicing. Even when a company begins to produce money, the accounting procedures are simple and do not require much skill. Simple software solutions make it simple to keep track of sales and expenses. Waiting Until it’s Too Late Can be Costly…or Kill Vital Momentum This can make a significant difference when the company reaches an inflection moment. Companies that are successful, whether it be a mobile app, software solution, consumer product, or financial product, rapidly recognize the limitations of entry-level accounting software such as QuickBooks or Sage. When scattered over Excel spreadsheets, tasks like payroll, monthly close, or simply visibility into corporate operations can become a nightmare. When start-ups should be reinvesting funds back into the product or marketing to capitalize on their newfound success, their accounting software is unable to keep up. The finance team is frantically trying to combine financials, manually entering data into spreadsheets and squabbling about whose figures are correct. Given the fast speed of modern business, the ability to capitalize on success is critical, especially for young companies that may lack the finance or a devoted client base to fall back on if the business stalls or needs to pivot. Point Solutions Lead to Comprehensive Problems Moreover, as start-ups struggle to deal with their rapid expansion, many bring in various, point solutions focused on certain departments, which supply a temporary boost but only push problems further down the road. When HR (Human Resources), sales, finance, inventory, and management are all accessing crucial data from distinct silos, gaining a real-time view of critical business issues becomes practically difficult. As a result, there is a slew of apps that need costly and time-consuming integrations, many of which fail when the program is upgraded. This technique can also be pricey for start-up businesses that would rather invest their money in engineering, sales, marketing, or other critical areas of need. IPO Preparation Can Reveal Accounting Software Shortcomings Many start-ups' accounting software faults become clear as they approach one of the most significant stages in the growth of any fledgling business—the initial public offering. Investors and banks need rigorous audits of cash flow, operations, access to financial papers, and other factors in the run-up to an IPO. While some organizations have gone public with essential documentation in the form of spreadsheets, this is far from the most practical or exact method. Furthermore, many investors take tremendous comfort in knowing that a start-up has a full-fledged ERP system in place before even beginning IPO preparations. Indeed, auditors and investors who are familiar with some of the existing cloud ERP solutions can sometimes speed up the IPO preparation process. Start-ups Turning to Cloud ERP Businesses that use cloud ERP systems like NetSuite have had some of the most successful IPOs in recent years. Investing early in a cloud-based, multi-tenant, complete ERP system reduces many of the headaches and issues associated with entry-level accounting software or spreadsheets. There are no large upfront costs for gear, servers, data centers, or IT workers. Everything is handled by the cloud vendor. Furthermore, software such as NetSuite, which is used to handle everything from small start-up operations to massive worldwide organizations, can scale as the business grows. The company can simply add licenses as it hires more people, and because all that is necessary is an internet connection and a browser, it is simple to build new offices, and subsidiaries, or allow employees to work remotely. Furthermore, a full suite of applications, such as NetSuite's, implies that start-ups may turn to a single provider for inventory management, order management, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), professional services automation, and human resource management, adding modules as needed and avoiding the hairball. see the full article here: https://social.ora.cl/601635uTy
