The explosion of innovation in the technology sector means your accounting software is getting smarter. This massive growth frees up small businesses from tedious administrative tasks and allows more time to focus on your customer. Software review website GetApp published an infographic detailing the most significant trends in accounting software, which is predicted to hit $9.6 billion USD in 2017 global revenues. Here’s a summary of their most important findings. 1. Cloud Accounting Software Will Overtake Desktop Applications by 2025 With improved security and real-time updates, cloud-based accounting solutions empower users to do business anywhere, anytime and on anydevice. Providing accounting software on a subscription basis lowers the cost of entry and keeps expenses predictable. 93% of respondents to a Gartner survey plan on spending more on cloud-based accounting in the next two years. Because cloud-based accounting software already includes automated features, there’s less room for human error and data processing takes seconds. Collaboration is much easier. Provide access to your accountant and all financial information is immediately available. Giving all users in your business access provides a higher level of transparency, as well. Today’s businesses conduct transactions everywhere. Mobile card readers allow companies to accept credit and debit card payments in the middle of nowhere. Your accounting software now provides the same flexibility with versions available for your smartphone and iPad. 2. Artificial Intelligence Reduces Redundancy Though artificial intelligence (AI) will never fully replace your accountant, accounting software like Kashoo is already using AI to perform a number of tasks. One of Kashoo’s greatest feats is automatically matching transactions from connected bank accounts to invoices and expenses. This significantly reduces the amount of time needed for bank reconciliation. No more pouring over paper statements every month to make sure the transactions match your ledger. By allowing AI to handle redundant tasks, the margin of error is much lower. Of course, some tasks will always require oversight, but AI-based accounting systems will alert you when data needs a human touch. AI also learns from human input, and can automatically correct mistakes you make that are always changed by your accountant. 3. Blockchain Will Make Accounting Simpler Disruptive technologies like Blockchain, which is at the heart of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, are making waves because of its resistance to fraud and ability to record transactions without a middleman. For example, businesses have to use a third-party (bank or payment gateway) in order to accept money from a client. But with blockchain technology, transactions happen instantaneously and are digitally recorded without the use of a bank or payment processor. In accounting, blockchain technology can automate auditing and make fraud almost impossible. But don’t expect to see any sweeping changes yet; only 15% of Canadian, US and European banks are providing any blockchain-based solutions in 2017. The technology is still too new. 4. OCR Eliminates Manual Receipt Entry With so many exciting new developments like AI and blockchain, it almost seems inappropriate to talk about a technology that has been in development since as early as 1914. What began as a way to convert characters into telegraph code is now standard practice in the financial sector, where OCR (Optical Character Recognition) saves countless hours of processing time by using machines to read handwritten characters and translate them into electronic data. Today, users can snap pictures of receipts with their smartphones and upload them to mobile versions of their accounting software, which automatically creates expenses complete with vendor name and amounts. This substantially reduces data entry time and errors that come along with it. The Future is Bright with Kashoo With all the technological advances in accounting software, it’s not surprising that 88% of small businesses use it. If you’re looking for innovative accounting software that works as well on your iPad as it does on your desktop, why not give Kashoo a try? Not only were we the first accounting app available for the iPad, our developers are constantly integrating your feedback to make Kashoo the best it can be. Get started for free today.
