As a small- to medium-sized business owner, you are probably all too familiar with the question: When is the right time to start using back office software?<\/em><\/strong> The answer to this question is simple: it’s never too early, provided the benefits of using the software are larger than the time and effort <\/em>that goes into implementing it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n At Five, we specialize in building user-friendly, ready-to-use and affordable back-office software solutions. Meet our library of prebuilt systems and learn how they can help you work smarter, not harder!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back-office software describes systems and solutions that help streamline business operations. Its the software that is used by internal staff members and departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its simplest form, back-office software provides structure to your business’s data, such as customer information, order information or asset tracking. A good question to ask yourself is how much of your data is currently stored in spreadsheets. While spreadsheets are not a problem per se, they are likely to lead to operational issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most SMEs that work with our back-office tools migrate from spreadsheets. When asked what their current back-office software is (prior to working with us), the answer is more often than not “spreadsheets”. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spreadsheets, however, can create several issues, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Lack of Access Control<\/strong> 2. Poor Data Recovery:<\/strong> 3. Lack of Version Control:<\/strong> 4. Lack of Scalability<\/strong> 5. Risk of Human Error<\/strong> In summary, ditch the spreadsheets\u2014modern back-office software automates what manual tracking can\u2019t, saving you time, errors, and headaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nWhat Is Back-Office Software?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Back-Office Software vs Spreadsheets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Shared spreadsheets offer very little in terms of access control: whoever has the spreadsheet can almost see, edit or delete everything. This creates risks, as valuable data could be lost or fall into the wrong hands. With professional back-office software, you can control exactly who has access to what through role-based access control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recovering data from a spreadsheet or restoring it to a previous version is difficult and time-consuming. Back-office software, on the other hand, offers professional data recovery and storage, eliminating this risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How many spreadsheets start with the good intention of having ‘a single source of truth’<\/em>, but end up copied and shared multiple times, so that after just a few days, no one is quite sure anymore which file is the latest version? A good indicator of version confusion in your business is file names. Does your business share files named “Spreadsheet – v2”, “Spreadsheet – NEW”, or “Spreadsheet – Comments”<\/em>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nowadays, spreadsheets can hold a lot of data, but they impact your business’ scalability in other negative ways. The viability of almost any business depends on its ability to use data effectively. Data in spreadsheets is not made for advanced analytics, Business Intelligence (BI) or Artificial Intelligence (AI). With back-office software, data is stored in a structured way, so that it can be analyzed (by a human or a machine) in ways that spreadsheets don’t allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spreadsheets can be easily manipulated, and they increase the risk of human error. Say one of your employees accidentally makes a change to your gross margin calculations without realizing their mistake. With proper back-office software, you cannot fully eliminate the risk of human error, but you can minimize it. Back-office software can run validations, enforce standards, or alert other staff members to unusual results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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