Is it time to upgrade your accounting system for your marine software?
QuickBooks is a popular accounting system and is used by many small business owners in the marine industry. But as your business grows, there comes a time when QuickBooks simply may not provide you with the level of operational support you need to run a multi-faceted marine business. Here at DockMaster, we’ve always made it a priority to continually upgrade our software, because we understand that marine businesses, including existing customers of ours, see their needs change as their businesses grow.
Here are six signs that you’ve hit your limits and are ready to step up to a comprehensive, full featured operations management solution:
1. You Rely on Excel & Spreadsheets to Manage Your Business
We hear all the time from customers that before implementing DockMaster, they managed nearly all their reporting in Excel and used simple accounting programs, like QuickBooks, as a check writer and space to log journal entries.
2. You’re Wasting Time on Manual Entry & Re-entry
Time is a currency, just like money. If you wouldn’t spend a good chunk of change on useless things that only drag your business down, then you shouldn’t spend your time (and resources) on manual, repetitive data-entry. QuickBooks is a good general accounting system, but it is not robust enough to handle the specialized demands of large marinas, boat dealerships and boatyards. It wasn’t designed to manage storage contracts, track inventory, auto-invoice your slip renters, handle the movement of inventory between locations, etc. So you spend a lot of time importing data from one program to the next or using spreadsheets to keep track of everything.
3. You Can’t Trust Your Data
This is really the result of a cause-and-effect relationship with the point above. A certain level of risk is introduced each time users enter or change data- nobody’s perfect & mistakes happen. The higher the number of entries, the higher the risk.
4. Or Worse Yet…Your Data is Fooling You Altogether
When changes are made in QuickBooks, do you know who made these changes, when they were made, why, or even how much it threw your balance off by? The answer oftentimes is ‘no’ because while QuickBooks does provide an audit trail for some information, there are situations where data can be removed or changed without any record.
DockMaster’s accounting module adheres to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) compliance- an industry standard set by the SEC. It ensures your data integrity by providing a complete financial audit trail.
5. Your Accounting is an Isolated Function
If you want to make intelligent, calculated business decisions then you need to see the whole picture in real-time. Your financial data should be synced and analyzed with your CRM, inventory, service & work orders, boat sales and F&I, and all of your marina operations, to have an actual impact on maximizing your revenue and reducing expenses. There is a lot more hiding between the lines of your recorded transaction history- and you should know it.
6. Multiple Location Support
Do you have more than one location or are thinking of expanding your business to add a new store, including boat rentals to your product offering, or open a new marina or service facility?
If you are operating one location using QuickBooks and decide to expand, a number of challenges could materialize because QuickBooks was not designed to handle multiple locations, each set up under separate LLCs. An income statement for each location should be readily accessible but the system needs to produce consolidated financial statements across the entire business.
Furthermore, the systems should be able to handle intercompany transfers of parts inventory and major units.
Find out more about financial management in DockMaster
Financial Management helps all areas of your business that generate accounting entries that feed into the General Ledger, with a full audit-trail capability.
Conclusion
Can you relate? If so, it’s probably time to consider a change. Selecting and implementing a new software solution takes time, planning, and effort but the longer you wait, the more you stand to lose. Don’t hesitate in searching for upgraded software if you feel your current software is no longer suitable for your expanded business’s needs.
Are you ready for an upgrade to your marine accounting system? If you want to find out more about DockMaster and our range of products, just get in touch with us here.
DockMaster Software has launched DMPay, an online payment portal where customers pay invoices online, in a secure cloud environment. For more information on DMPay, reach out to your account manager, or contact us here.
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DockMaster Software is an industry leading management system for marinas, boatyards, and boat dealerships. DockMaster includes Unit Sales, Prospecting and F&I with fully integrated financial management and numerous integrations with CRM applications, dealer websites and text/messaging services. The Service module includes estimating, labor tracking, and complete parts management with ordering/receiving, subcontractor fulfillment and invoicing. DockMaster Mobile allows technicians to clock on/off jobs from any mobile device. Visual Marina™ management includes storage & billing, occupancy tracking, reservations and dry stack management, including integrations to leading consumer applications for boat rentals, online reservations, concierge/launch scheduling and our new Fuel Integration with FuelCloud. DockMaster also includes Point of Sale, Order Entry with eCommerce and a complete accounting system. Learn more at www.DockMaster.com and follow DockMaster on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Or email info@dockmaster.com
