Technology is transforming every aspect of business due to which even legacy businesses are adopting technology to stay ahead of the curve. Gone are the days when technology was considered a necessity only for tech-oriented businesses, it has now become a necessity for 'any type of business'.
Globalization and Digitization are playing a key role in the transformation and Small & Medium Enterprises (SME's) need to harness digital technologies to scale and remain afloat. Every business, big or small goes through a transition phase and it is important to adapt the best practices in business to maximize revenue-making opportunities.
Even in today's times, SME's spend a considerable amount of time in filing GST returns, generating invoices, manual reconciliation with banking transactions, etc. using a good ERP Software can ease this tedious process for them. The business should leverage the benefits of technology to stay relevant in this digital economy.
Many SMB/SME owners are under the impression that a good ERP Software is difficult to use and exceptional technical expertise is required to use the same. This is just a myth since the role of ERP Software is to ease the accounting & banking related tasks associated with your business. Choosing a right ERP software can make all the difference. Business owners should choose ERP Software that is intelligent, business & scale agnostic, and that provides industry best practices. More importantly, the one which allows you to manage all the functions of business and handles the complexities as you grow.
Below are some of the essential features of ERP Software that SMEs should look for while choosing an ERP Software:
ERP implementation that is been in the market for years
You should choose an ERP Software provider that is trusted by other business owners and which has been in the market for years (if not decades). An ERP Software provider like Tally not only has decades of experience under its belt but the trust of its users that have been using their ERP Software before digital technologies became mainstream.
Since they have been around for years, they understand the business needs, the pain points of a growing business and their expertise can be seen in the robustness of the ERP Software.
Coverage of major business functions
Irrespective of the size, scale, and domain of the business; some things are common across businesses. A good ERP Software should include major business functions in their package, some of them are below
- Automatic Bank reconciliation
- Inventory Management
- Management of banking transactions
- Accounting Management
- Management of an unlimited number of companies and group companies
- Employee and Payroll Management
- Data and exchange utilities
- Statutory and Compliance
Many business owners spend their time in follow-up & coordination related activities across different business functions. This time can be spent on more productive activities that can contribute to the growth of the business. One of the important features of ERP Software is that major business functions are interconnected and accessible on a single platform.
Tally.ERP 9 provides the business owners with business intelligence and real-time analytics that gives complete visibility about the business. An entrepreneur who has a flourishing business with several group companies can still manage data of multiple businesses operated within the same license using Tally.ERP 9.
Provide reports with actionable insights
Quarterly reports, P&L (Profit & Loss) statements, Balance Sheet, performance reports, cash flow projection, comparative reports, bills ageing etc. are some of the reports that any business owner would see before arriving at any important strategic decision. A good ERP Software should be capable of providing these reports at a click of a button.
The reports should also provide actionable insights i.e. highlighting periods when the business growth was slower than expected, payment performance of different parties/vendors, etc. so that informed decisions can be taken.
With the widespread mobile internet penetration, accessibility while on the move has become extremely important. Things that are critical to the business should be accessible from the ERP Software even when you are logging in from the phone/tablet/other devices.
It should pass the necessary security checks before it allows login on a new machine. Hence, you can manage your business even you are not in the office i.e. when you are on the move.
GST Compliance and filing returns
Goods & Service's Tax (GST) has been a major hurdle for SME's since its introduction. The ERP software should be GST compliant and should be updated with any changes in the structure of GST e.g. GST-1, GSTR-3B, etc. A good ERP Software should be able to handle GST transactions, reverse charge scenarios, advances, etc.
The latest Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.5.4 is GST compliant and also eases the filing of GST returns. The intuitive intelligence designed in Tally.ERP helps you to generate 100% accurate returns in a matter of minutes. This is made possible using Tally's renowned Prevention - Detection - Correction' technology. With its latest release, it supports the annual computation summary for filing GSTR-9 and CMP-8 for composition dealers.
Running a business is a constantly evolving process and it is extremely important to embrace technological change as and when required. Good ERP Software can be a starting point to make that shift in your business.
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