Can accounting software replace accountants?

This is a question that often strikes business persons, especially small business owners – can they simply use accounting software to handle all the accounting for their business, to the extent that the position of an accountant is rendered redundant?

Broadly, as we look to understand this aspect, we find that the answer is largely in the negative; in other words, you can’t really expect software to deftly handle all the work that an accountant does. In fact even the best accounting software such as QuickBooks, Peachtree Quantum, QuickBooks Enterprise, ACT, ACT Software, Sage Software, MAS90 Software, and so on too cannot replace human functionality.

At the same time, without a doubt, accounting software certainly makes an existing accountant that much more productive and deft with his or her work. In other words, accounting software serves to complement the work that an accountant does and not necessarily replace that person and the position that he or she is handling.

In understanding this aspect, you need to appreciate the fact that the work of an accountant goes way beyond that which any accounting software does; for instance there is a lot of human communication involved. There is also a lot of documentation to be taken care of as well as physical note making with regard to diverse transactions, both payments receivable as well as the ones that are to be made. With so many different tasks and responsibilities that an accountant is entrusted with, it is obviously no surprise that even the very best accounting software really cannot replace an accountant.

At the same time, when it comes to small businesses which probably see lesser volumes of business transactions than the bigger businesses do, one possibility is to have the owners or proprietors themselves undertake all of the accounting, using diverse accounting software. Of course they need to have rigid training in that software; for that, they can always go in for top notch business accounting software training which is often provided by specialized entities who not only work on deploying accounting software such as payroll software, ERP software and so on, but also provide all of the perfunctory training related to that software.

Thus, with these singular entities, you will actually be able to obtain the software, have it installed on the desired machines, and then subsequently receive training for running that software as well.

In summation, going back to addressing the question of this post, software can certainly complement accountants but not necessarily replace them altogether.