Every year we survey our clients to see what they think of our performance
While we do this, we ask a few questions about what our clients are doing and what they want to do with the software. So we asked them about what accounting systems they use?
The first point to notice is that about 95% of retailers here are running some accounting program, which is effectively everyone. Interestingly although there are many accounting software packages, most retailers in our market space use one of four systems.
In my experience, as Australian standards in accounting software has not changed much in 30 years, all these programs can do the same job. All are good, and the difference tends to be, I think user preference, requirements and ease of use.
Running through them in turn.
MYOB historically and now is by the far the most popular system by retailers. Recently as they introduced their cloud version, you can see its popularity has continued to grow in our chart. I find it too rigid in use for my taste but many would consider this a positive advantage.
Quickbooks and Reckon, a few years ago had a terrific deal going, over half price so we told our clients and many of my clients jumped on this deal, obviously, Quickbooks has lost much market share as the deal died out but as their cloud version comes out they are slowly building up their market share. This one is my personal favourite but I do accept that this flexibility comes at a price that a user does require more training than other software packages.
Cashflow manager is an extremely solid and popular accounting program, I am not surprised there is a growing interest in the product. Its simplicity is I am sure part of its appeal.
Xero is expensive but very good. Now it is clearly facing pressure from other vendors now that can now do cloud as well so my clients are moving away from it.
Finally, interest in what is many other smaller accounting software packages are dropping off. I think that this might be the effect of the growing interest in cloud computing. The other problem is that if you adopt a system with few users, it can be hard to get help if you require help.
