Every business wants to increase sales and generate more revenue. Often, increasing sales means creating sales processes and sales orders. But scaling up sales orders creates a challenge for multiple teams within your organization, requiring you to adapt a number of processes—from sales to accounting to inventory management—on the fly. It’s a good problem to have, certainly, and one that can often be remedied with an accounting automation solution that has built in sales order processing functionality. To better facilitate future growth and streamline your operations, here are some tips on how to choose the best sales order processing solution for your business and why building a strong process is critical for long-term success.
What kind of software do I need?
When it comes to sales order processing and structuring business operations for efficiency and future growth, the type of software you use matters. Many times, the growing pains associated with increased sales push business leaders to consider standalone or bolted on order management software solutions. This makes sense as they fill an immediate need and many of these systems work quite well. But as you continue to grow, you will encounter new challenges, struggling to integrate disparate systems, outgrowing your software and even experiencing vendor fatigue.
This is why some business owners go the other direction, opting for an ERP-level solution that provides more functionality than they need, believing it will set them up for future growth. But these types of systems also come with very high price tags on high complexity, money that’s wasted on capabilities you don’t need. This hinders cash flow and creates unnecessary challenges for your accounting team as they try to navigate software that was designed for other purposes.
Thankfully, there is a better way. By selecting accounting software that was designed for small to midsized businesses (SMBs) and combines strong sales order processing capabilities with inventory management and other functionality, you can get everything you need in a more budget-friendly solution. The key is to understand exactly what capabilities you need to enable efficient processes and future growth without overstretching your budget and burdening your personnel.
Building efficient processes
If you don’t have sound sales order management processes, it won’t matter how good your software is. Accounting personnel need to be able to easily complete the quote to cash cycle, and fulfillment teams need to be able to track inventory in real-time. The key is to streamline operations and improve communication from end to end.
This is easier said than done, and likely part of the reason why 49.3% of total B2B sales, or $7.37 trillion, are still conducted manually, such as by account managers and sales reps.
With so many factors in play, it’s important to review your processes at this stage of business growth and build operations that can enable future expansion. Map out your current sales order processing practices and look for places where communication is breaking down and how handoffs between business segments can be improved. Automating these kinds of processes with better sales order processing software is likely the answer but be sure to involve all relevant stakeholders to develop processes that work for your entire organization.
The right solution for your business
Entry-level solutions like QuickBooks don’t provide comprehensive sales order processing capabilities and ERP systems come with too many functions, too much complexity at a high cost. For an alternative that can enable future growth and increase efficiency by providing everything you need in a single, cost-effective solution, consider Gravity Software® (Gravity). Our unique accounting solution was designed specifically for SMBs and offers built-in sales order management functionality. This gives you the visibility and control you need to optimize financial operations from end to end.
When it comes to sales order processing specifically, Gravity allows you to:
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Automate your quote to cash process
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Improve efficiency in your order management workflow
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Improve visibility and control over inventory and fulfillment processes
When you combine these sales order processing capabilities with the business insights provided by Microsoft Power BI and highly visual financial dashboards, you can exert greater control over your entire enterprise. This allows you to simultaneously future-proof your organization while directly addressing your current needs and staying within your budget.
Don’t let something as mundane as sales order processing hold your organization back from experiencing your true growth potential. By investing in software that allows you to automate financial processes and gives you visibility into inventory and other critical operations, you can continue to grow without adding complexity to your business.
Want to improve sales order processing for your growing business? Contact Gravity today to schedule a demo to see how our unique solution, designed specifically for small to midsized businesses, can revolutionize your financial operations.
Gravity Software
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