We’re well within the 21st century. Before we know it, driverless cars will be plying the streets of Manila, and we may already have colonies on Mars. Yet, we all know at the back of our minds that even by then, many otherwise innovative Philippine businesses will still be sticking with pencil and paper or shoddily-cobbled together Excel files for their accounting systems.
Updating an accounting system in the Philippines is, unfortunately, no joke. Transition periods are often trying, especially for larger businesses that have gone decades with outdated methods. But without adopting newer computerized accounting systems, no Filipino businesses will ever be in a position to be a part of the information revolution that has swept the world in the past decades.
Here are four ways that updating your accounting system will bolster your enterprise’s mobility and facilitate its growth in today’s fast-paced global market.
1.) Instant connectivity between departments and offices
The way it used to be done in Philippine companies (and still is done in many cases) is that important data from one department has to be requested then sent through email, a file-sharing service, or even a physical media device. Depending on how much influence a requester has in an office, this process can take anywhere from about an hour to a week, or perhaps never.
Commentary on Filipino office politics aside, these delays, whether caused by some legitimate reason or otherwise, are highly detrimental to the efficiency and operations of any business. If it takes the marketing department a week to supply the sales department critical data, that may already be more than sufficient to create a negative impact on the company’s bottom line during a peak sales season. The same can be said of virtually any interdepartmental data sharing.
Implementing an accounting system in the Philippines that allows for instantaneous interdepartmental data sharing is not only a step in the right direction, but it can also be a firm statement of how you expect employees to handle data and urgency as well.
2.) Reduced chance of human errors
The typical Philippine office environment involves a lot of copy-pasting of important data onto different tables and sheets. While certainly a vast improvement over manual data entry, either of these commonly used processes are prone to inefficiency. While errors are mostly minor, these can add up significantly over the life of the enterprise in terms of slowed-down business and backtracking.
A correctly set up accounting system can drastically reduce the number of errors by allowing you to link different parts of your business so that data that is important for more than one area is instantly available to all relevant areas. To put it simply, you will have to be copy-pasting and doing manual data entry a lot less. And given many manual data entry projects can stretch out to several months, this is always a good thing.
3.) Lets you do more with a smaller team
Having an updated accounting system can serve to increase the capabilities of different people within your organization, particularly your administrative teams, as well as your accounting and payroll department. In a traditional setting, these departments were often large given the volume of repetitive tasks they needed to accomplish. With an accounting system in place your HR, payroll, and accounting teams can be made much smaller, and they could focus on the less repetitive aspects of their tasks.
4.) Easier compliance with BIR and other legal requirements
It’s no secret that the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue and other government agencies concerned with business have some very convoluted and often difficult-to-comply-with rules. Human error in the attempt to comply with government regulations is rife, and when you’re dealing with the Philippine government, you want to follow everything to the letter as much as possible.
Fortunately, the BIR has recently made strides to make using computerized accounting systems for tax compliance easier. This means there is no reason to delay having a computerized accounting system in the Philippines if you want to run a business efficiently and legally.
There are many more reasons to update, and some we’ve already implied in the reasons above. But what business owners must realize is that updating doesn’t have to be expensive.
Free modular suites from companies like SAP Business One offer startups stripped-down yet powerful free versions of their software that could be updated with different modules to better suit your business process all for a modest fee.
And other free alternative suites may be suited for your business without any modification. The key is to simply stop making excuses for your old ways and get started finding the available accounting system in the Philippines that is right for your business. Check out ANSI to find the best accounting system solution for your business.
