Verify, validate accounting software, accounting services

Find accounting software and services that will serve your long-term needs by thoroughly evaluating both the product and accounting solutions implementation partner. Comprehensive upfront analysis that matches your gut feeling almost always leads to a better balance sheet than impulsive decision-making without verification.

Verify success through empirical and anecdotal avenues. After researching and refining accounting solutions, do some focused empirical and anecdotal checking to validate specific references of those who have gone where you’re looking to go.

J. Carlton Collins offers a summary of reference questions to address both the choice of accounting software and implementation on asaresearch.com—emphasizing that it’s important to ensure the validity of the reference (e.g., not just a biased family member) and that the reference can speak freely (e.g., isn’t afraid of a lawsuit for negative comments). The website advises, “Be on the look out for suspiciously short responses or people who are not able to describe specific details of the engagement. If you reach 3 consecutive good references that you are comfortable with—then in our opinion, that product and installer have passed the final test. Also, if you receive negative feedback, it may be helpful to try to distinguish between a ‘Good product/Bad reseller’ versus a ‘Bad product/Good reseller’ situation.”

Questions listed on the asaresearch.com website are:

Do you use XXXXX Software?
When did you install it?
Who performed the installation (company and name of reseller)?
Did they do a good job and install the system in a timely manner?
Are you satisfied with the product?
What problems have you had with the product?

An alternative and/or supplemental reference approach is to check accounting solutions case studies provided by the vendor under consideration. Be sure that the case study company really exists, and that the person(s) attesting to the accounting software solution/solution provider’s expertise is identified by full name—both of which can be readily verified. (While this doesn’t guarantee authenticity, it’s highly unlikely that anybody will get away for long with posting phony testimonials from real people.) Make sure case studies address:

Empirical (quantitative) information—includes the “facts of the case” (e.g., how many employees, number of locations, expansion projections, number of users, cost, timeline).
Anecdotal (qualitative) information—includes opinions (e.g., effort expended by the provider, attitude displayed, expertise shown, follow-through on each step of the process, employee buy-in, accounting software training methods and success).

By gathering both types of information, you will be able to form an objective assessment of different accounting solutions and providers, as well as get a strong feeling about the intangibles—easy to work with, collaborative, responsive, and the like.

Typically, the best accounting system software outcomes follow from corporate decision-making that encompasses both the head and the gut—creating, in essence, a system of checks and balances. History proves that making technology decisions using one without the other is a surefire way to court disaster.

How many times have you heard about accounting software decisions made solely on the basis of likeability of a sales rep or excitement over the latest, greatest new approach? Conversely, how many times have you heard about a firm hired because of their documentable results, only to later learn that there was no personality, flexibility or collaborative spirit in the process—elements that could have made it easier for employees and/or reduced both costs and time to go-live?

Don’t leave your choice of accounting system software and implementation partner to chance. Buy software and services that will work effectively in your environment,

Download PDF of Article