The Best Back Office Software for Running Your Business
Last month we told you the best options for front office software. This month we asked the experts to weigh in on back office software to improve your business operations.
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Never have there been more software choices for the small business. Considering all the information you need to manage, which ones do the best job? Should you use separate solutions for different functions, or should you buy an integrated suite that can manage many aspects of your business? It depends, say the experts we talked to about back office software on the market today for SMBs. In this guide we present what we hope is a good start for SMBs investigating the best back office software.
What is the difference between front-office and back-office software?
First, though, a bit of clarification. The definition of what constitutes back-office versus front-office software is open for debate.
“There's a lot of bleed between what used to be distinct categories, and that trend is being driven by organizations having [fewer] people doing more functions, and not wanting to purchase four apps when one or two can cover all bases,” says Andrew Baker, director of service operations for SWN Communications and expert on the Focus network.
To be clear, when we say “back office” software, we’re referring to the platforms and applications that don’t interface with customers but help you manage core functions such as accounting, human resources, or manufacturing. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a term that includes many back-office functions.
“Front office” software, which we covered in July as part of our focus on the best software for SMBs, is often related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and is useful for managing sales, marketing, and other customer-facing data. We also include things like innovative social media tools, customer service solutions, and more as part of the "front office."
So, without further ado, we present what we hope is a good start for SMBs investigating their best back office software options.
Accounting/Finance
It almost goes without saying that Intuit’s QuickBooks and Sage Peachtree should be on this list. In fact, according to the Massachusetts-based research group IDC Industry Insights, more than half of all small businesses use Intuit software. While Peachtree captures a smaller share of the SMB accounting market, it offers similar features and pricing—both range from around $200 at the entry level to $3,000 for an enterprise solution. QuickBooks also has an online version from $13 to $63 a month that stores all your financial data safely on the cloud.
They’re not the only players in the numbers game, however. For estimating taxes, try Outright. Mint is free and as such, very popular with businesses on a tight budget. Expensify is great at—you guessed it—expense tracking, as is Coupa.
FinancialForce is an immensely-popular SaaS tool because of its integration with Salesforce, a CRM tool we discussed in our front-office software story. It starts at $175 per user per month and like many of these apps, it’s available on the iPhone and iPad.
Intacct, which also works with Salesforce, is a full-featured accounting solution good for businesses that have outgrown QuickBooks or Peachtree. It’s often sold by CPAs as part of their accounting services for as little as $100 a month and also includes things like purchasing, inventory and multi-currency management—something SMBs need to think about since even the smallest firms might have agents representing them in other countries.
“Companies like Intacct and NetSuite are very big on being allied with accounting firms,” says Brian Sommer, president of Illinois-based research group Vital Analysis. “The CPA only needs to log into the [cloud solution] and they can have access to all their customers’ books at once. It’s all secure and all the accountant needs is an internet connection and valid credentials to get into the system. It works really well.”
Learn More: How to Choose Business Accounting Software
Human Resources
“There are literally hundreds of human resource-related products on the marketplace, many of which are available on the cloud,” says Sommer. “Buying your payroll and HR software separately from [an ERP suite] is quite acceptable. When a smaller company tries to add employees in other jurisdictions, states or local municipalities, knowledge of the tax and filing requirements is actually a highly-specialized capability that big payroll service providers like Paychex or Ceridian are really well-suited to deliver.”
The SMBs we talked to suggested Recruiterbox for hiring, Trinet for benefits management and payroll, Journyx for timesheet tracking, Dice for finding qualified technology employees, Net-Temps for finding temporary workers, and of course Monster and CareerBuilder for posting jobs. Jobfox, which integrates with LinkedIn and Facebook, is a career social networking site that’s recently been seeing good traction. However, the best place for finding talent these days is LinkedIn Recruiter which can filter its more than 100 million users and share your job listings with the people who closely match your requirements, whether they’re looking for a job or not.
