The eras of automation, followed by internet technology and now by AI have encouraged progressively more user-friendly ways to operate a small business. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in offices and recordkeeping.
From supply line management to payroll to customer service to accounting, the use of computers has enabled even the most inexperienced layman to work with computers to become more efficient. But that rapidly evolving computer work and its accompanying software has outstripped the willingness and capacity of owners to involve themselves in the hands-on administrative details. Rather, they are able to hire competent staff for positions at varying skill levels.
While many companies use bookkeepers, rather than accountants to handle their financial matters, most turn to office workers who are relatively adept at computer work to learn and conduct all bookkeeping duties, including ordering, payroll, purchase payment processing and customer service. These people often are not familiar with all the requirements of accounting and recordkeeping required by the government.
This leads to frequent errors, but, much more frighteningly, to intentional fraud and theft.
If you, as owner or manager, do not understand the nuances of recordkeeping, you open the door for employees and contract workers to take advantage of your naiveté and lack of knowledge.
The flood of employee frauds that make the news every day is proof of that vulnerability.
Small- and micro-businesses tend to rely on two sources for recordkeeping: spreadsheets and accounting software, with the former used far more frequently than computer accounting software.
A 2025 Quickbooks survey (https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/small-business-data/financial-literacy-statistics/) found that 71% of small business owners rely on spreadsheets or pen-and-paper to manage their bookkeeping, rather than bookkeeping software. Another 2% use no method at all. By extrapolation, that leaves 27% possibly relying on quality accounting programs.
Many cite cost as a factor. Spreadsheet software like Office Excel is relatively inexpensive and versatile. It can be used for much more than bookkeeping. Others cite ease of use and familiarity as a reason to use spreadsheets. They also migrate easily from one platform to another, with opensource spreadsheets and multi-system programs like Google Sheets being available.
Truthfully, Sage, Quickbooks and other accounting software can be confusing if you do not understand basic accounting terminology or practices. However, that is not a good reason to rely on spreadsheets.
Spreadsheets offer a feature that makes them particularly attractive to people who are loathe to do computer work or delve into financial management. They forgive errors.
Make a mistake? Simply erase it. Want to experiment with design? Erase it after. Put something in the wrong category? Erase it and replace it.
But accounting software (generally, by law) has to leave an audit trail, to prevent against fraud. True, accounting software does not eliminate all fraud. Far from it. But it makes all fraud traceable, because the audit log shows every keystroke in every category. It doesn’t show up as a messy Profit & Loss Statement, Cash Flow or Balance Sheet, but it still is on the file and can be uncovered easily.
This is a major plus and possibly the best reason to use accounting software (other than ease of filing taxes). You may not catch the thief immediately, or the mistake at the moment it occurs, but you can track them, like footprints in snow. Except the snow never melts.
With frauds often reaching six digits for a plethora of businesses, spending a couple of hundred dollars more for accounting software, while keeping your spreadsheets for other purposes, seems like a no-brainer. Except, of course, if you happen to like the thrill of not knowing if your employees have their hands in your pockets.
By the way, don’t forget to download our anti-theft app, MOI Inventory, or buy our book, “Get Your Hands Outta My Pocket,” for much more detail on detecting and preventing theft and fraud in the workplace.
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