With so many fantastic options available for small business owners to keep track of their financial transactions we're often asked which is the best way to go. The key is to work through the options and find the most suitable solution for both the business activity and the person or people responsible for keeping things up to date. Often the best answer is to go for one which is easy to understand with the user feeling confident and happy about the system. For example some people don't like computer systems for various reasons and prefer to keep it manual while others enjoy using the latest technology. Some things to consider when choosing are...

• What you actually need to use it for e.g. prepare GST returns or simply collect information.
• Cost, ongoing, upfront, future upgrades etc.
• How many transactions are being kept track of.
• Ease of use, easy to learn, understanding what's happening and what to do.
• Who will use it and what skills are required.
• How often it will be used and time commitment required to update information.
• Where it will be used, how portable it needs to be.
• Ability to backup the data regularly (and restore if required).
• Security and sharing of information, who can access it?

At Kiwitax we're happy to work with any and all transaction information however it's passed to us. Clients use anything from shoe boxes, cashbooks, filing systems to spreadsheets, desktop accounting systems like MYOB and BankLink through to online "cloud" software services such as Xero, anything is fine. As we don't sell software or receive commissions the focus is on helping find the best fit solution. If you would like some help choosing a record keeping system please ask.

Posted 15/09/2010

Like to make your accounting and tax super easy and affordable? We'd love to work for you! Get a Quote!