A financial management software (FMS) connects, creates, reports, and stores various transactions related to cash flow throughout the business.
The primary purpose of any financial software for businesses is to count the money in circulation within the organization, affiliated vendors, and customers. It helps the treasurers and finance managers manage the to and fro movement of resources. Thus, businesses of any size need a basic accounting solution to report credit and debit transactions.
Why Do You Need a Financial Management Software?
For many years, businesses thought a comprehensive financial management solution was only for enterprises and multinational companies. However, the thought process changed since many software as a service (SaaS) providers offer robust on-premise or on-the-cloud FMS subscriptions at an affordable price to attract businesses.
These days, SMBs are also going for a scalable FMS for the following reasons:
#1. An online or offline FMS tool can help you eradicate financial errors like overpayment or underpayment of tax, payroll errors, overpayment to vendors, etc. This way, your business can stop leaking money as waste and invest that in operations instead.
#2. Standard FMS solutions come with an advanced reporting and analytics system. The leadership team can generate actionable reports on business revenue with a few clicks to show the investors past, present, and future growth trends across products and markets.
#3. SMBs need to get financial management software for enhanced financial and data transparency across all the departments. Else, the leadership will have to rely on guesswork and lose control over money flowing out of the company.
#4. FMS providers constantly update their tools as the accounting standards and tax codes change globally. Thus, you don’t have to assign a team of accountants to include the latest tax changes or accounting practices into your book manually.
Must-Have Features of a Financial Management Software
You can’t just grab any FMS tool online. The tool needs to offer the standard features and functionalities so that you get value for money. Here are the features that you should look for in an ideal FMS tool:
#1. General accounting module to cover accounts payable (AP), payroll, accounts receivable (AR), general ledger, etc.
#2. An FMS should also include a dedicated tool to manage cash, revenue, and treasury.
#3. You’ll also need functionalities like budgeting, planning, and forecasting in your FMS platform.
#4. To ensure your business complies with all local and international laws, you need governance, risk, and compliance tools in an FMS.
Below is the ultimate list of the best financial management tools for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).
Workday
Workday is a renowned brand for business applications. One of its most subscribed tools is its finance management solution. SMBs use this tool to focus more on financial transaction analysis and planning than processing the transactions. Also, Workday updates its tools and functionalities more often so that your business can stay relevant in the market.
Furthermore, the Workday FMS tool employs state-of-the-art data processing technologies like machine learning, object data modeling, and in-memory computing for financial transaction anomaly detection. The tool can also provide intelligent and practical recommendations based-on your business process and finances.
Hence, with the Workday finance system, you need to invest less time in managing the routing transactions and processes. You can invest time savings in business areas like marketing and sales to improve revenue collection.
Causal
Causal is a simple spreadsheet tool, just like Excel, without the complexities of Excel. Your accounting and finance team can use this tool to perform complex business finance calculations like scenario planning, data forecasting, and data modeling. Additionally, the tool allows for intuitive and interactive data visualizations in freeform texts, tables, and charts.
You can also integrate Causal with business data sources like accounting software, ERPs, and hosted databases. Doing so will allow your teams to pull data from these sources and incorporate live data or historical data in business reports.
Therefore, the product is appropriate for startups, not-for-profit organizations, cryptocurrency businesses, finance teams, and marketing teams.
Sage Intacct
Since 1999 Intacct has been the leading service provider that offered tailored cloud-based FMS tools for small and medium-sized businesses. Additionally, it has been the pioneer in amalgamating finance and accounting with cloud technology and bringing the FMS tools online, accessible from anywhere.
Moreover, it has been the preferred source for advanced financial applications for the AICPA or the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Sage acquired Intacct in 2017 and branded the FMS tool as Sage Intacct. It has become a vital part of the Sage Business Cloud. The new FMS comes with separate program cores like Core Financials, Advanced Functionality, Dashboards & Reporting, and Billing to cater to all the needs of global SMBs.
Xero
Xero is an elaborate accounting tool that lets small and medium businesses enter bills, send quotes to clients, send invoices to customers, digitize receipts with Hubdoc, bulk reconcile transactions, etc.
However, you can also subscribe to their add-ons like Claim expenses, Analytics, and Track projects to transform the accounting tool into a robust FMS. Furthermore, it offers you bonus built-in functionalities like project finance tracking, contact management, secure file storage, inventory management, etc.
Xero brings all the accounting and finance features to the table to enable SMBs to manage their business efficiently and achieve profitability goals. With its more than 20 features, the Xero dashboard will be in control of your business finances.
The dashboard brings cash flow statements, account balances, bank reconciliations, outstanding invoices, and specific business products in one place so that you can keep track of your company’s health.
Kissflow
Kissflow is not just another finance management solution. It is a unified tool that enables your finance team to do everything an ERP tool can’t deliver. For example:
- Give approvals to projects and procurement that follow the internal and external financial guidelines. With this rule-based system,
- You’ll never delay any legitimate procurement but always stop wastage and unnecessary purchases.
- Secure sensitive business data from employees with role-based and need to know basis tool access.
- Get all the finance and operations data in one simplified dashboard to make smarter decisions.
Furthermore, the graphical user interface (GUI) and visual elements of Kissflow lets SMBs customize the app effortlessly depending on the products and services the business offers.
FinancialForce
FinancialForce is another popular name for business financial management, planning, and analysis. Its FMS ERP has been developed on the cloud-based Salesforce development platform.
The intelligent software programming enables the FinancialForce ERP to deliver a comprehensive and customer-centric status of the business. Furthermore, being a unified FMS ERP, it brings front-end and back-end in one centralized space without creating a workflow doubt among the employees.
Therefore, the leadership team can access merged data for important decision-making while bottom-line employees can accomplish their tasks efficiently. Moreover, with the FinancialForce tool, you bring home not just an FMS but a whole bunch of business tools like:
- PSA or professional services automation solutions
- Inventory management solutions
- Billing and invoicing systems
- Accounting and financial management systems
Thus, your accounting, finance, and leadership team can always access real-time data related to the operations and customers.
AccountsIQ
AccountsIQ is a cloud-based accounting tool that transforms financial data processing, collecting, and reporting works enjoyable and error-free. It offers simple yet sophisticated tools for budgeting, automating consolidation, filing digital VAT forms, auditing, and managing cash flow.
The AccountsIQ development team developed the product, keeping in mind the needs of business entities that have many departments working in silos. Working in silos could prove financially unfavorable for small to medium businesses.
Hence, with this FMS tool, various business entities of your company like HR, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, procurement, service delivery, and inventory will come under one umbrella.
AccountsIQ includes 250 report templates, dashboards, management reporting packs, Power BI links, and Excel Add-Ins. Furthermore, the tool comes with a customizable 6-dimension BI coding structure and 3-tier General Ledger. Ultimately, all these features let you use the FMS tool for performance benchmarking and granular reporting for all the business verticals.
NetSuite Financial Management
If you need an FMS tool that will effortlessly integrate the sales, back-office, and service processes of your business, you can try NetSuite Financial Management. Its proven and comprehensive financial management abilities take any company beyond conventional accounting tools.
NetSuite financial software helps you with:
- Accelerated and error-free closing of financial books and ledgers
- Robust expense management functionalities
- Auditable and streamlined revenue management
- Real-time and overall view of the financial health of the business
The tool is based on the cloud so that employees and business managers can access the required data from remote locations. There is no need to install any standalone software, and all the tasks can be performed from a lightweight web app.
It features all the necessary modules and tools for accounting, billing, budgeting, planning, financial reporting, revenue reporting, and so on.
Final Words
Financial management software is vital for your business’s general enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool. An FMS, along with the ERP, integrates financial and operational data into one central software system that business stakeholders and managers can refer to for decision making.
You can get started with any of the tools mentioned above to manage your business money. Moreover, these tools help you transform your company into a digital one for better handling of financial data while complying with global standards.
