My Recent Story

I remember going through this same process and having similar questions. Recently I was the co-Founder and CTO for a startup regional telecommunications services company. We had aspirations to be gigantic in five years and cash out as millionaires-you know the story. But of course we had to have funds and we had to report on the financial progress-we had to show our steady run toward profitability.

The COO came from a banking software background, the CEO from a telecom background, the CFO from a software background and myself from software, telecom and management consulting. The CEO decided to leave the decision to the rest of the team - he just had to have timely financial information. The COO was adamant about using a major accounting software package that would give us credibility with funding companies, and that he knew well from previous companies. The CFO decided to defer to the COO, and I was busy with the network and its support systems so provided suggestions to keep the software small and manageable, but left the decision to the COO and CFO.

Did we really look at the company's requirements? Did we think though what our budget for accounting software should be relative to the overall company budget? Did we have a good understanding of the operational costs and effort to make this system work once it was installed and what the total installation cost would be? NO. We were all busy with other matters for setting up the company so we didn't spend the time on this decision that it warranted; after all, we already knew what we wanted, right?

You can probably guess what I'm going to say. The software installed without much difficulty and the up-front technical cost was low-everything looked great! Then came the months, developing into years, to properly configure the system for our company, to train our accounting team on its use, and to wait for regular reports. After two years we even installed a smaller, less capable accounting system to assist with specific parts of the accounting process. And after three years we were starting to get the monthly reports from the combined systems that management desired, but still not in the format we needed. And of course the cost was about 10 to 20 times higher than anticipated.

Yet we had chosen a well-known and widely respected accounting software product and used an external implementer that had plenty of experience to assist us. The reality was that the software was far more than we needed at that stage of our business cycle and we didn't have the people or the funds to set it up properly for our needs.

After I left that company I formed a small company to offer a service using web-based accounting software, so I became involved in many companies' efforts to acquire accounting software. So I found that the experience at the startup was far from unique. Every day companies grapple with deciding about accounting software, and many follow similar wrong paths to that we took.

Your Situation

What about you? Do you need to choose accounting software and find yourself wondering how to succeed? Do you have similar concerns? Do you wonder what questions you should be asking, and what process could give you a higher chance of success?

Have you scoured the web to find that ideas are spread in so many places, and that the white papers are from vendors leading you to their offer? Have you found that the ten tips to choosing your software are too general to be of any help? Would you like some assistance from someone who's been through the process before-at a price that doesn't break your budget before you even begin?

Guide Describing a Process You Can Follow to Choose an Accounting Software System

The Owner's and Businessperson's Guide to Choosing and Using Accounting Software for Small and Medium Companies ("Guide to Choosing Accounting Software") provides an overall process you can use to review your requirements, choose some relevant vendors and decide on the solution that is right for you. It provides a process overview, and describes tasks within each of the main processes. It also includes examples for many of the topics, including examples of the initial scope definition and a statement of requirements in the format of a Request for Proposal (RFP) executive summary.

We provide some unique templates in the Guide. One is a "Big Picture" template that helps you determine what kind of company you have. This same template can then be used to determine which vendors are worth consideration. We explain the template and give examples for its use. In the bonus materials we provide you with the template in different electronic formats.

The Evaluation Matrix template provides a simple means for ranking the options during evaluation. There are many factors that can go into each of the elements, but this template provides a way to get an overall number ranking for the options.

Discounted, Affordable Guide with Bonus Materials

If you have been looking for information about accounting software then you know that consulting fees will cost you thousands of dollars and software programs to help you with specific accounting attributes start at about $300. But you can purchase this description of the evaluation process with tools and examples for less than $100.

Maybe you're thinking, "if I just search the Internet the information is available for free, so why should I pay anything?" Well some of this information can be found if you have time to look in very many places, and what you'll find is in small, unconnected bits. But we know from experience that what is needed to come to a decision is the overall process and the description of techniques and the examples that this Guide provides.

The Owner's and Businessperson's Guide to Choosing and Using Accounting Software for Small and Medium Companies is available right now at a specially discounted price. We have recently launched this Guide and we want people to read it and provide us feedback so we can improve it. To encourage you to help us we are offering this special price. (Of course, you don't have to give us suggestions for the next version, but we would sure appreciate your comments.)

For the next 30 days you can purchase the Owner's and Businessperson's Guide to Choosing and Using Accounting Software for Small and Medium Companies at a 66% discount from its usual price of US$85. So for only $28 you can read and use this Guide to help you through your evaluation process.

In addition we give you 2 Bonus materials for free if you purchase during our special offer period.

BONUS #1 -- TEMPLATES AND EXAMPLES

We provide templates for the "The Big Picture Chart" and the "Evaluation Matrix" in both spreadsheet and presentation format. You can use these charts to categorize your company and the software vendors and to compare the ratings for the various options. We also provide you with versions that include the examples from the text, for both the companies and the software vendors. Plus there is a list of key accounting software modules and an example of an RFP Table of Contents. This is an $18 value.

BONUS #2 -- WEBSITES FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We have spent considerable time researching this topic and provide you with sites where you can find information pertinent to various tasks within the process. Right now the list includes 5 categories: Accounting Information, Accounting Software Evaluation, Accounting Software Products & Vendors, RFP Tools and Templates, and CRM, ERP, MRP. (As we identify reliable partners we will include sites where you can find consultants to assist you in various countries, should you need someone to help you through the process [by the way, these people may not use the same process we explain and in the same manner].) This is a $23 value.

All you need to do to purchase your copy of this guide is click on the button below. You will be asked to enter your credit card or Paypal details, including name, address and email. Then you will be directed to a page where you can download the Guide. We'll then send the website url for the bonus materials to your email address. So click below to start the process.

(Your bill will be to the account of Asia Web Services.)

Don't delay, start using this Guide for an easy to follow process to choose accounting software for your company, and save yourself time, money and aggravation.

Best regards,

Michael Kelly