The Accounting Software Library On-Line Edition
Software Pricing: Important Considerations.
Estimating the cost for any accounting system above small business systems is difficult at best. It is particularly difficult for us as developers of this software selection tool. While we could both agree that it makes no sense for you to consider products that are clearly above your budget comfort level, there is a middle ground where some systems might be appropriate in certain circumstances, while the same product may exceed your budget significantly.
If you are searching for a fairly robust system in terms of functionality, but only need basic accounting modules (General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Payroll as an example) for five users, many middle market products might be appropriate. On the other hand, if your prospective system includes many modules and say 25 users, the same product may become significantly more expensive.
Vendors participating in the On-Line Edition may set a price of $5,000 or $10,000 so that they are not eliminated due to your budget ceiling for these basic system configurations. At the same time they are somewhat afraid of the perception on your part that they are not appropriate simply because their Product Web Page seems to indicate that they are substantially cheaper than other products. A low price does not necessarily mean they are not functionally appropriate.
How should you approach this? If your budget is $10,000 or even $25,000 for software only (remember that the total cost for this project may be twice as expensive or even more because we cannot estimate the complexity of the implementation and training), use that to clearly eliminate products that are too expensive. For all other products, please do not assume a product is not functionally well suited simply because the vendor has indicated a relatively low price. Instead, use The Accounting Library to create a detailed needs requirements document and then use our reports to compare your requirements against the products that appear to have done well in the basic ranking. Identify the requirements that have been met by the products that score well (even though a product might not be well known) and of greater importance identify the requirements that cannot be met by these products. If a product does not meet as many of your most important requirements as other products, then make the decision to go forward with the other products. If it’s a toss-up, talk to the vendor or one of their resellers. Determine for yourself if this is a product or vendor or reseller with which you can form an effective and efficient partnership.
