Accounting Software Outlook for 2012

Mark Canes

As we all know, the world will end in 2012. That means that this is your last chance to improve your accounting software - buy or upgrade now to avoid the apocalypse rush!

I do have three somewhat serious predictions for 2012:

  1. The percentage of new cloud computing / SaaS implementations will continue to rise rapidly: this one's a no-brainer, as we seem to have gone beyond critical mass in acceptance of the cloud by smaller businesses as well as larger companies. In fact, if the trend we saw in 2011 continues apace, then by the end of 2012 a new on-premise implementation will be as rare as a SaaS implementation was a couple of years ago.
  2. Driven to some degree by the affordability of SaaS, more small companies will invest in newer ERP and Accounting software in order to improve efficiency and thereby reduce personnel costs. This may add marginally to the unemployment woes in North America, but in reality many of these investments will fail to pay off due to inadequate implementation planning and spending.
  3. By the end of next year there'll be a massive reduction in the (already smaller) volume of business transactions reduced to paper and sent by mail. We've already seen this to a degree, but the number of companies that (a) can send invoices, purchase orders and confirmations by email, and (b) that are willing to accept emails instead of hard copies, is increasing rapidly. This will mean that accounting systems that cannot easily generate and email these documents are strong candidates for upgrade or replacement in 2012.

Wishing you all a very happy new year and all the best for 2012 (as long as it lasts...)!