It’s a big step for any company looking to move from a basic accounting software to an ERP. But there comes a time where endless spreadsheets don’t cut it anymore.

As your company grows, your business requirements grow. Quite often businesses will purchase additional standalone software in tandem with their basic accounting software as a band-aid solution to accommodate lacking features and functionality in their current system. This is a common situation which works, until it doesn’t.

We often see businesses slowed down by clunky manual, inefficient processes that don’t integrate and ultimately lead to the following outcomes:

• Double (sometimes triple) entry into separate applications
• Reliance on error prone spreadsheets
• Guesstimates instead of forecasts
• Inability to make quick business decisions
• Inefficient processes
• Unreliable data
• Unhappy staff

A business can survive running on a basic “out of the box” accounting solution but it is not an efficient way to run your business for the long term, and certainly not the answer if your business not only wants to survive but thrive!

While most small and medium-sized enterprises want to increase their revenues, the reality is, fast growth can put a company under tremendous stress. This is particularly the case if the company keeps doing things the same way, maintaining systems and processes that are no longer fit for purpose. Managing information across multiple platforms becomes costly, time-consuming and prone to mismanagement. Your resources become strained, employees become dissatisfied, communication silos form and it becomes virtually impossible to gain an accurate real-time insight into business performance.

When questioning if it’s the right time to move to an ERP ask yourself:

• Is my current solution scalable to meet future demand?
• Is there a lack of integration between systems in my business?
• Are non-centralizes process and communication silos causing difficulties finding reliable information?
• Are we drowning in spreadsheets?
• Are we too reliant on manual operations that are time consuming and complex?
• Do we have limited access to data resulting in inadequate insights?

If you can answer yes to a majority of the above questions, it certainly might be time to invest in an ERP solution before your systems and processes reach breaking point. To scale a business effectively, you need software that will support your growth.

ERPs are an entire business management solution designed for businesses who have outgrown their unscalable accounting solution. If your business is looking to scale or you’re undergoing rapid growth, the move to an ERP may be essential to your ongoing profitability. In essence, it’s the right time for an ERP when you decide you want to be a bigger, more profitable business, and are ready to invest in taking your business to the next level.