Double Entry, Accrual Accounting - Back to the basics. Support for double-entry, accrual-based accounting is an absolute must for GAAP compliance.
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Balance Sheet - Any accounting software supports balance sheets to report on a business’s financial condition. Some offer more control over presentation and detail.
How’d you do during X period?
Profit and Loss - How’d you do during X period? The profit and loss statement knows. Like the balance sheet, P&L vary in different programs by ease of compilation and visual display.
Accounts Recievalbe and Billing
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Chart of Accounts - Generally, you can choose between pre-defined account codes or importing/defining your own when establishing a chart of accounts. Sorting options and navigation tools differ between programs.
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Flexible Accounting Periods - 4/4/5, 52/53. If those numbers carry meaning for you, support for flexible accounting periods is likely a baseline qualifier for which software will work for you.
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Departmental Tracking - It slices, it dices, it juliennes! Okay, well maybe not juliennes. But dividing revenues and expenses to departments, locations, and cost center does offer more granular performance visibility.
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Inter-Company Transfers - Transactions between commonly-owned businesses quickly multiply the number of required journal entries. Avoid mistakes with automatic posting.
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Automatic Reversing Entries - Adjusting and reversing entries are easy opportunities for mistakes. Automation helps move accruals forward without opening the opportunity for human error.
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Fund Accounting - When being accountable is more important than being profitable, there’s fund accounting. Many non-profit and government organizations find it indispensable when working with grants and allocations.
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Flexible Account Codes - Length, starting point, format. Make sure your software allows the account coding structure you require.
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Financial Statement Consolidations - Merge financials to get a clearer view of the road your business is on.
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Statistical Accounts - The fancy term for it is business intelligence. But many accounting programs have long allowed for the tracking of non-financial data like headcounts and units sold.
