Ep. 81: Andrew Royer - Choosing the Right Accounting Software

Contact Andrew Royer:


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/royeraccounting/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/royer-accounting/



Royer Accounting:
https://www.royeraccounting.ca/


Andrew's Recommended Readings:
Tim Ferris, 4-Hour Work Week: https://fourhourworkweek.com/Mike
Michalowicz, Profit First: https://profitfirstbook.com/Dave
Chilton, The Wealthy Barber: http://www.wealthybarber.com/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00)
 Welcome back for episode 81 of Count Me In. I'm your host,
Adam Larson, and I'm happy to share another conversation with you
about various things affecting the accounting and finance world.
Today's conversation features Andrew Royer, Founder and CEO of
Royer Accounting in British Columbia, Canada. Andrew is an
entrepreneur who uses the tagline, “Transform Your Business from
a Cash Eating Monster to a Moneymaking Machine.” He loves working
with other entrepreneurs to help them see cashflow issues and
showing them how growth and profit go hand in hand. In this
episode, Andrew shares a perspective on various accounting
software options, and how it can enhance work productivity to
ultimately lead to a more profitable business. For a further
explanation on what it means to be efficient and effective in
business, keep listening as we head over to the conversation
now. 
 
 Mitch: (01:01)
 So from your experience working with accountants and
clients, what are some of the advantages to utilizing a desktop
accounting software? 
 
 Andrew: (01:09)
 Okay, well in some cases you don't really have a choice. If
you're in an area that's got a slow or unstable internet
connection, you're not going to be able to use an online
application. Another benefit is that the, the applications, the
desktop versions that are installed on your computer tend to be a
lot more robust and have more features available to them. And a
couple other, you just, you'll, there's a onetime cost option,
which you don't get online generally, and, you have more control
over the upgrades. You can decide, you know, when you're going to
install it, you don't have to worry about them installing it when
you're, you know, you're busy with something. 
 
 Mitch: (01:52)
 That makes sense. And then I guess the opposite here, the
online accounting software, what are some advantages to utilizing
some of that? 
 
 Andrew: (01:59)
 Yeah, I mean, the, the biggest advantage is that you're not
tied to your computer. So a lot of the software, you can access
it on your phone. Take your laptop, you sit on the beach, not
that you want to be working on the beach, but, it's better than
working in an office. But yeah, I mean if you get a call at home,
you're able to look information up thats, and enter information
when you need to. You don't have to worry about like, so the
benefit of the desktop is that you, you get control over the
installations, the downside, or the benefit of the online,you
don't, have to worry about the installation. Somebody is doing
the installations, they're backing up the software, they're
installing the updates for you. It's also easy to give access to
your staff. You give access to, accountants and bookkeepers,
whereas on a desktop version, unless you're getting into a really
expensive enterprise kind of options, it's hard to get multiple
people involved. And the online makes that, you know, the
interconnectedness  is very powerful. You can also make up,
so the shortfall of the online, which I had mentioned before was
that you have less power than the desktop, but, with the online,
you can actually integrate with thousands of apps that will
increase the power of the online. So there's a lot of benefits
you're not closed and tied to what the desktop gives you. You can
add whatever features you want. 
 
 Mitch: (03:21)
 So I guess a lot of it sounds like, you know, there are
pros and cons to both of these, for those who are interested in,
you know, looking at different software options, whether it's
desktop or online, we'll start with desktop to stay consistent
here. How do you go about determining which desktop software is
right for you? 
 
 Andrew: (03:40)
 In my opinion, it's, it's largely preference. I've
used.,I've used most of the different options out there, the big
names anyway. So, the primary options are QuickBooks Desktop, and
then the Simply Accounting or the Sage version. So those are,
those are the two main competitors. There may be some advantages
to one or the other based on the size of the company or the
particular industry that you're in. But otherwise I find that
it's mostly preference. I find more technically minded tend to
prefer the Simply Accounting and, the QuickBooks, if you're just
getting started, QuickBooks tends to be simpler, easier to use.
So a lot of people start with that. 
 
 Mitch: (04:21)
 Then what are some of your options on the flip side? Like I
said, what are some of the ways that you can choose the right
online accounting software and what are some of those
examples? 
 
 Andrew: (04:31)
 Yeah, I think so picking the right online software is
probably a little tougher. For our firm, what we've done is we've
gone just to be consistent. We've gone with QuickBooks online,
just across the board for everybody. This is QuickBooks has been
in the market the longest and online,aAnd so they have the most
integrations with other software out there. They're, it's easier
to find people that are more familiar with it and able, so it's
easier to find people in, to work with it and so there's less
training involved with that. And, I mean, it's not, it's not
perfect. I'd like there's issues with it that drive me nuts, but
it's kind of, I can say it's the worst system until you consider
the alternatives. So then we look at, like Sage has started the
game a little bit later. I think they were digging their claws
into the desktop version and really just didn't want to let it
go. And so they joined the game a little bit later and, they have
a lot less integrations thanthan QuickBooks and otherwise I think
between the two, it's more of a, just a preference thing. And
then the last one, the one that I've been keeping my eye on a lot
is XERO. So they never had a desktop version. So both QuickBooks
and Sage, they were basically competing with themselves, trying
to create some of the same features that they had in the desktop
version. XERO didn't have that liability. So they were able to
just create something from scratch, make it the way that they
wanted to, with an online interface. Some of the issues that they
ended up getting into with that is that, people are used to doing
things a certain way with all other accounting software and
they've kind of done just something completely different. The
biggest benefit with XERO isit works great with the foreign
exchange transactions, which can be tougher in both, you know,
QuickBooks online and Sage. And really, the only reason that we
haven't moved everybody over to it is it's really lacking in the
Canadian sales side. So the sales tax handling, they're working
on it, but, until that's done, I can't even, consider it, but
we're definitely keeping our eye on that one is potentially a
future leader in this industry.
 
 Mitch: (06:50)
 So you've said it a few times where it really come...