Telltale Signs You’ve Outgrown QuickBooks – Growing Pain No. 3

When you notice numbers in the books mysteriously have changed, the likely cause is not a glitch but a rewritten manual entry. Basic accounting software, including QuickBooks, allows users to log in and edit data as needed, without any restrictions or an audit trail. Unless you keep a close eye on your data, these seemingly little changes can create a larger problem—inaccurate numbers and skewed data. Making decisions based on inaccurate data can lead you in the wrong direction and introduce a whole new level of risk.

Growing Pain No. 3:  Lack of Financial Controls & Audit Trails Is Putting You at Risk

When changes are made in QuickBooks, do you know who made them or when and why? If the answer is “no,” you may be putting your business at risk. What about the times when you can’t be there? Not knowing who’s making decisions on your behalf or has the ability to authorize the appropriate decision makers in your organization makes it difficult to protect your business. In addition, lack of insight into certain decisions makes it almost impossible to verify the reasons for the changes or integrity of the resulting data. You know you’ve outgrown QuickBooks if you can’t trust your data or piece together a complete financial audit trail.

With Microsoft business solutions, protecting your data and putting the right controls in place is possible—and easy. You can restrict access to confidential or sensitive data, such as proprietary or customer credit card information, to directors and managers. You also can provide your users with access to the software features that only pertain to their immediate job functions and restrict access to the remaining data and capabilities. Electronic audit features within Microsoft business solutions allow you to track and control data changes. Our solutions can help you protect data integrity, remain compliant and reduce the chance of human error by requiring approvals for certain types of data changes or sending alerts to managers and directors with each occurrence.

Connie Silverman, controller at Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, recommends Microsoft solutions for their efficiency, ease of use and built-in access control feature:

By using Microsoft Dynamics GP, we have all the insight and reporting tools that we need to work effectively with outside organizations and give them insight into our financial status. We’ve also streamlined the effort of producing monthly, quarterly and annual reports. What’s more, the security features of our hosted Microsoft technologies are fantastic. We can easily set the proper controls so that only authorized persons can change certain records and so that confidential patron or donor information, such as credit card numbers, is safe from unwarranted viewing.

Take control of your data and protect it with Microsoft business solutions. View this short video to see how Microsoft can transform the way you work. And be sure to join us next week as we explore Growing Pain No. 4:  You Can’t Move Forward When You Keep Looking Back. 

This blog series addresses some of the common signs your business has outgrown QuickBooks and how a Microsoft business solution can help you keep growing. If you missed the previous posts in the series, be sure to read about Growing Pain No. 1 and Growing Pain No. 2.