Are you still using Excel spreadsheets for bookkeeping? It may be convenient to use it because you have been using it for a long time. However, it has disadvantages for small businesses that want to expand. Moving to a cloud-based system provides you with plenty of benefits without the disadvantages of using a spreadsheet.

 

Here are reasons it’s time to move on from Excel to small business bookkeeping software.

 

Possible Fraud

Using spreadsheets exposes your company to fraud from within and without. Excel lacks the security that cloud-based systems or accounting software provides. Someone can easily changes the financial data and alter the formulas. It will be difficult to detect these changes and rectify them. Your small business might lose hundreds or thousands of dollars because of fraudulent financial data.

 

Human Mistakes

Automation simplifies bookkeeping, but some small business owners still use spreadsheets. An Excel spreadsheet is vulnerable to human errors. A tired or inexperienced person may input the wrong values into the sheet or the right values into the wrong columns. These trivial mistakes result in inaccurate financial statements. This makes making strategic decisions difficult and fraught with challenges.

 

Difficult to Scale Up

Small business owners’ goal is to expand their company and reach more customers. Using spreadsheets as your business grows will be difficult because of the increase in transactions. You’ll need more rows and columns, and handle more values. You’ll need to store and secure your financial data as your business expands.

 

Difficulty in Consolidating Data

One of the challenges of using spreadsheets is that it is difficult to consolidate financial data when you need to make a report. You have to manually review all of the sheets you made, make summaries and analyse the data. This time consuming process is unproductive and prone to human errors.

 

Data Recovery

If you fail to save the spreadsheets, you might lose all of your financial data or lose important corrections made. Loss of office equipment, desktops, laptops, and hard drives may make recovery of data impossible.

 

Slow Decision Making

The slow process of reviewing different spreadsheets stalls decision making. Small business owners sometimes have to make a decision in real-time. Having access to consolidated financial data allows you to make decisions immediately.

 

These are just some of the reasons to abandon spreadsheets and move to cloud based bookkeeping software. As your small business grows, your needs will also change because of more customers and transactions. If you need assistance with setting up automated bookkeeping or you want to hire virtual bookkeepers, contact us at Robookkeeper.