How to Transition from Manual Accounting to Computer Software
Many accounting computer software packages are available to make accounting much easier. However, people who have always used manual accounting might be leery of transitioning from manual accounting to computer software. Once you discover how helpful computer software can be in keeping track of accounting, you are likely to wonder how you ever lived without the accounting computer software. Here is how to transition from manual accounting to computer software.
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Instructions
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Recognize the value of handling your accounting through accounting computer software. Computer software can run reports significantly faster than a person can run manual reports. Computer software makes it much easier and faster to reconcile accounts. Computer software can also help you set up and track a family budget. If you want to know where every dollar is going, it is much easier to find out by using computer software.
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Explore available options. Quicken is one of the most popular accounting computer software programs. Other options, such as Microsoft Money, are also available. Read up on what each computer software package has to offer, and decide which one sounds like it will best meet your accounting needs. Links to Quicken and Microsoft Money are provided in the Resources section.
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Try the software before you buy it. Many software companies make their accounting computer software available to try for free for a period of time. Take these companies up on their offers. Go to their websites and download the trial software. This gives you the opportunity to compare and contrast accounting computer software packages as well as to see the difference between using the computer software versus doing your accounting manually.
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Transfer your accounting data for one account, such as a checking account, to the accounting computer software. For 1 month, get in the habit of recording your deposits and checks in the computer as well as your manual accounting system. Be sure to use the computer software to reconcile your checkbook. For many people, simply seeing how easy it is to reconcile a checkbook through accounting computer software sells the software.
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Use the features available for that account. When you write a check, use the accounting computer software to record what you are spending your money on. At the end of the month, run a report to view your cash flow over the past month. Once you have a month’s worth of data on the computer, you can take advantage of many of the financial reports that the software has available.
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Transition the rest of your accounting data over to the computer software once you are sold on the value of the accounting computer software. Once you do this, you can run a variety of reports that will help you feel much more on top of how you are spending your money.
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Back up your financial data regularly. One big fear that many people have in transitioning from manual accounting to computer software is of losing all of their financial data. Be sure to back up your accounting computer software data onto a disc on a regular basis so you have that data available if your computer crashes.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Faith Allen
