Every business needs financial foresight to make one of its pillars stronger and to make risk-free decisions in the future. This is where finance and accounting software comes into the picture. It is a challenging task for a company to develop a customized accounting software platform. Hence, companies often outsource this need to a SaaS provider to develop and deliver a resourceful platform that can be efficiently used by the accounting personnel in their teams.
Developing such SaaS accounting software can be an intimidating task as businesses vary in this domain in some way or the other. Despite this fact, the developers gather resources, understand the specific requirements of an industry, input their ideas, and keep the developed platform flexible for necessary changes. In this article, we will discuss how SaaS accounting software is designed and developed.
Accounting Challenges Solved by SaaS
As mentioned earlier, SaaS accounting software development analyzes and determines the challenges faced by a company on this ground. A team of SaaS accounting software developers starts looking for the perfect solutions for such problems.
If we consider a small business and its accounting requirements, we can easily determine that the prime criterion of accounting software is centralizing the information related to accounts related to expenses, income, payroll, etc. When it comes to a larger organization, the ground broadens including several other important branches of finance. This is where the challenges appear. Only well-designed and innovative SaaS accounting software can give the best outcomes.
Here is a list of challenges that a tailored accounting software platform can handle and deliver the ideal platform for finance management.
Consolidation of Information
A bigger organization will be operating in more than one location. It will also have a bigger volume of assets and liabilities to manage. Each workstation or physical presence of an organization will have its own sales, budget, and expenses to handle. This makes the accounting part quite critical for the finance department.
This is where SaaS accounting software consolidates the finance data generated in different branches and locations of an organization. Even though the individual offices are handling their records, it will get confluence all the input on a single platform for generating a unified data-backed report for the top management.
Centralized Information
As mentioned earlier, a bigger organization has many branches to handle. Different accounting software for those branches or transporting data from one location to the other will not be a healthy decision. This is where an accounting solution is required for managing finance and generating centralized information.
Cloud-based accounting solutions are what a company needs to check on the accounts of all the working branches and generate information in a centralized way. This step enables the finance management team to make proper decisions based on the information generated in every cycle.
Types of SaaS Accounting Software
When this requirement is outsourced, the size of a company often determines the type of SaaS software needed for simplifying account management. There are three types of software solutions that companies need these days.
1. Spreadsheets
Small enterprises can manage their accounting requirements using spreadsheets. The unique features of this software deliver ample resources and information to the enterprises to make fruitful financial decisions. You can prepare charts and generate regular reports to understand the figures.
2. Commercial Software
This solution comes in a package with features that a spreadsheet cannot deliver. This software is specifically designed for medium and big organizations but does not offer customization. It means that this solution shows rigidity to incorporate specific features that an enterprise need. Despite this fact, it can handle basic requirements such as taxes, payroll, invoices, etc.
3. Customized SaaS Software
Commercial accounting needs a customized solution where one can easily introduce the features a company needs. This software type enables an enterprise to include mandatory features resulting in a simplified solution. In fact, this solution can also be customized further in due course of time with the assistance of the service provider.
It is quite hard to choose the right model as the business models and trends change over time. New business models emerge and replace the old ones. Trends also surface giving better solutions and ease of managing a lot of accounts. To incorporate such trends and business models conveniently, businesses are leaning more towards SaaS-based accounting solutions to make this challenging business accounting topography easier to handle.
Steps to develop customized SaaS Accounting software
1. Listening to the Needs
We all know that every business has its own needs of accounting. Prepackaged software solutions will not be able to meet them perfectly. Moreover, the changing scenarios of accounting and business models often lead to a challenging phase where businesses will have to scout for better options.
This is where SaaS accounting software developers first listen to the business owners and find out their specific needs. If we consolidate the basic elements an accounting platform must have, we will get the following list.
- Payments
- Payroll
- Income
- Expenses
- Taxation
- Report generation
- Invoice generation and mitigation
- Electronic payments
- Easy integration with ERP and other platforms
- Data security essentials
These elements will become more complicated when the companies operate in more than one location and have a huge workforce to handle. This is where a cloud-based accounting platform can be very handy as it can be accessed from any location and connected with anywhere.
2. Designing Phase
The team of accounting software developers starts working on the design once the functions of the platform are determined for a client. The features are then designed to deliver these functions that a business model needs.
In this phase, the development of the user interface and incorporation of all the necessary elements are done. This part of the development takes the highest number of resources and time to accomplish. The developers keep on interacting with the clients and keep them on the same page of development to make necessary decisions. They also enhance the UI by adding special features for improvement.
3. Testing
The development process is also accompanied by testing measures where the developers keep on checking the output of the SaaS accounting software from different perspectives. They check whether the newly developed platform can perform on a real-time basis and try to find the gaps and loopholes.
All the elements are developed, tested, and then incorporated into the software architecture. SaaS accounting software comes as a web application or an APK version that can be installed in browsers. Hence, the compatibility of the software platform is also checked for different operating systems.
4. Launch and Support
Once the software is ready to launch, the developing team implements it and installs it in the client’s ERP platform or network. After the launch, the team will provide continuous support to check whether the software is performing well or facing downtime. Once the users start utilizing the functions of this SaaS accounting software, unforeseen issues will emerge and will be solved accordingly.
Any changes needed in the future due to the transformation of the business models and trends will be done on the existing platform by the same team of developers.
Benefits of SaaS Accounting Software
Cost-efficient Accounting Solution
No need to rely on packaged software solutions that are rigid. You can make necessary changes on the SaaS platform done by the developer team. It has been found that SaaS accounting solutions can save more than 30% of the investment over ten years.
Moreover, cloud-based solutions can easily be accessed from any location across the world. It is ideal for multinational companies as they will not have to set up new infrastructure in different locations. Simple computer networks and laptops will do the trick. In fact, employees can work on this platform on the go.
Flexible Solutions
As mentioned earlier, SaaS offers immense flexibility where you can include or exclude features considering contemporary requirements. The development process follows a remarkable architectural plan that makes this step easier to comprehend. Hence, you can also consider SaaS accounting software future proof for different requirements of finance management.
Continuous Upgrades and Security Patches
Cloud-based software that handles finances will need a constant watch on the security section. It will contain sensitive information of accounts of the employees, customers, stakeholders, etc. SaaS solutions come with exceptional security features and patches to eradicate loopholes and to make this platform fortified to resist cyber-attacks.
Controlled Access
Another brilliant feature of this accounting solution is that it can offer immense control on the access of accounts and other financial elements. It also enables the finance department to centralize information and to determine who can access it.
Final Words
These are the 4 ways that SaaS accounting software is developed according to the customer’s need. The foresight and future trends enable developers to design and implement a cloud-based accounting platform for clients. Consider outsourcing this requirement to an experienced developer to get a robust accounting platform for your company.
Jafar is a passionate digital marketer possessing in-depth knowledge in the fields like SaaS tools, CX, churn statistics, and others. He loves to read books during leisure time and is a great admirer of Agatha Christie’s works.