The small and medium enterprise sector is seeking accounting solutions that meet the needs of the high-pressure environments in which they operate, according to David Greenleaf, commercial director at Ability Solutions.
“They want integrated solutions in which they capture a document once and the information automatically flows through to every appropriate area of the system.
“In this way, information cannot be lost and the administration overhead is reduced,” Greenleaf says.
He says the South African Revenue Service (Sars) is becoming more efficient and companies feel they can no longer take the risk of incomplete records and sketchy financial accounts.
“Smaller businesses have a renewed focus on making sure that their tax payments are correct and paid on time. In addition, they need to ensure their VAT returns are properly reconciled,” Greenleaf says.
Andy Kudla, MD of Omni Accounts, says in addition to the need to meet statutory requirements, many businesses have some form of funding and have to report to financial institutions.
“If your business is running an overdraft or any other loan facility, you have to submit financial statements and other records.
“Small businesses have also been told repeatedly that, if they do not get the financial side of their businesses under control, they have an 80% chance of failure. And they are getting the message,” says Kudla. He says South Africans are entrepreneurial, like being at the forefront of new ideas and are willing to learn.
Ivan Epstein, CEO of Softline, says the small and medium business segment is proving to be less price sensitive and more interested in reliability, service and support.
“As a business becomes more dependent on software applications, the emphasis shifts to having it available all the time,” Epstein says.
He says smaller businesses are becoming more sophisticated in terms of their software requirements and software developers such as Softline have to make life as easy as possible for their customers.
“We must also work to make our customers’ businesses function more effectively from a technology standpoint. A small business that has technology driving the operations can transact on a more competitive basis,” Epstein says.
Gary Epstein, MD of QuickBooks, says small businesses want to keep their staffing levels down and staff must be focused on generating income, not back-office functions.
“This means that small-business owners want a quick, easy solution that enables them to enter the information and obtain the required records at the press of a button,” says Epstein.