Custom Accounting Software
Features, Benefits, ROI Factors, Costs
ScienceSoft applies 16 years of experience in corporate financial software development and practical knowledge of 30+ industries to help businesses build effective accounting solutions tailored to their unique needs.
Custom Accounting Software: The Essence
Custom accounting software is a solution that provides unique functionality tailored to each company’s specific needs across general ledger, payables and receivables management, asset and inventory accounting, financial data reconciliation, payroll and tax management, and financial reporting.
To ensure real-time financial data sync, custom accounting solutions may integrate with CRM, HRMS, an inventory management system, asset management software, a financial planning and analysis solution, and other business-critical systems.
The cost to develop a custom accounting system for a midsize company can range between $200,000–$400,000, depending on the solution complexity. Annual ROI for custom accounting software may reach up to 290%.
Key Features of Custom Accounting Software
Custom accounting software has unique functionality to serve specific accounting needs. We have summarized fundamental accounting software features based on ScienceSoft’s experience with custom accounting software projects.
Go-to Integrations for Custom Accounting Software
ScienceSoft designs a cohesive business environment where the accounting solution is integrated with financial transaction sources and corporate finance planning systems. The main benefit of the integration is time-effective and accurate financial data entry.
- Custom accounting software + CRM: to automatically populate invoices with accurate customer data, payment terms, price and quantity of ordered goods.
- Custom accounting software + inventory management software: to enable accurate recording of inventory values on inventory purchasing and utilization.
- Custom accounting software + asset management software: to enable accurate calculation of the fixed asset depreciation.
- Custom accounting software + a procurement system: to enable the automated purchase order recording in the A/P ledger.
- Custom accounting software + HR management software: to enable accurate payroll calculation.
- Custom accounting software + a cash management system: to automatically create entries on financial transactions across operating, investment, financing activities in the general ledger and subledgers.
- Custom accounting software + financial planning and analysis software: to support accurate financial performance analysis, financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting.
- Custom accounting software + bank accounts: to enable faster reconciliation.
- Custom accounting software + BI solution: to enable accounting analytics and reporting.
Accounting Software Development Services by ScienceSoft
An accounting software development company with 34 years of experience in creating custom solutions, ScienceSoft helps businesses in 30+ industries build effective accounting systems tailored to their unique accounting needs.
Accounting software consulting
- Analysis of your accounting needs.
- Assessment of the existing accounting processes and tools.
- Suggesting optimal features, architecture, and tech stack for the accounting solution.
- Preparing an integration plan (with CRM, HRMS, asset management system, cash management software, etc.).
- Development cost & time estimates, expected ROI calculation.
Accounting software development
- Accounting solution conceptualization.
- Architecture design.
- Accounting software development.
- Integrating the custom accounting solution with the required systems.
- Quality assurance.
- User training.
- Continuous support and evolution of accounting software (if required).
Success Factors for Custom Accounting Software
In ScienceSoft’s accounting software development projects, we always look to cover the following important factors that help bring additional value across our customers’ accounting processes:
AI-driven accounting analytics
To get recommendations on the optimal payment queues and payment methods, depreciation calculation methods, and more.
Cloud deployment
To reduce accounting software maintenance costs, enable faster updates, and provide easily accessible workspace for global collaboration on accounting processes.
Easy-to-use APIs and connectors
To streamline accounting software integration with your essential back-office systems and relevant third-party tools.
Strong security is a must for corporate accounting apps. We power accounting solutions with robust data security mechanisms to control access to sensitive financial data, promptly spot malicious user activities, and easily recognize non-compliant and fraudulent transactions.
How to Develop Accounting Software
Accounting software development requires an accurate action plan to establish smooth project flow and prevent risks. Below, ScienceSoft describes the key steps of our custom accounting software development process to provide you with a general idea on how your project may look.
1.
Business analysis and requirements engineering
- Conducting interviews with the stakeholders and accounting subject matter experts to understand their challenges and needs.
- Auditing the currently used accounting software and IT infrastructure.
- Determining relevant regulatory compliance requirements (IFRS, GAAP, ZATCA, etc.).
- Composing a detailed list of functional and non-functional requirements for the accounting software.
2.
Accounting software design
- Creating an optimal feature set for the accounting software, including advanced functionality such as AI-supported payment planning, intelligent fraud detection, or blockchain-based bookkeeping.
- Designing the logic for accounting calculations, journal entries, reconciliation, and more.
- Designing a scalable and secure architecture for the accounting system.
- Prototyping convenient UX and UI, customizing it for various accounting roles (A/R specialists, payroll specialists, etc.).
- Planning accounting software integrations with the required corporate systems (CRM, inventory software, etc.) and external data sources (e.g., bank systems, payment gateways).
- Selecting a best-fitting development tech stack (programming languages, platforms, frameworks, third-party APIs, and more).
3.
Project planning
- Defining the deliverables, scope, and KPIs for the accounting software development project.
- Composing the optimal development team and creating a detailed work breakdown structure.
- Estimating the project timelines, costs, and ROI/NPV.
- Analyzing potential risks and introducing a risk mitigation plan.
4.
Development, integration, and QA
- Coding the back end of a custom accounting system, including APIs.
- Creating role-specific user interfaces.
- Setting up accounting data storage.
- Establishing the required integrations.
- Quality assurance of the accounting solution (functional, security, performance testing, and more), performed in parallel with coding.
Optional:
- Designing and tuning AI models for accounting process optimization.
- Development of blockchain smart contracts for fully automated accounting operations.
5.
Financial data migration
- Migrating financial data from the currently used accounting tool or spreadsheets to the new solution.
- Identifying missed, duplicated, or inaccurate financial data and fixing the issues.
6.
Deployment and after-launch support
- Configuring accounting software infrastructure and solution deployment to production.
- Establishing robust infrastructure security, financial data backup and recovery procedures.
- Providing all necessary accounting software documentation, including user tutorials and maintenance guides.
- Training the accounting teams in a remote, in-person, or hybrid format.
- Monitoring accounting software performance and promptly fixing any arising issues.
- Running regular security and compliance audits.
- Accounting system upgrading with new features when needed.
Custom Accounting Software Costs and Financial Outcomes
The cost of custom accounting software varies greatly depending on:
- The number and complexity of a solution’s functional modules.
- The type of automation (RPA or AI-powered features).
- The volume of data that needs to be migrated from spreadsheets and/or existing accounting software.
- The type of accounting software deployment (cloud, on-premises, hybrid).
- The number and complexity of integrations (with CRM, HRMS, asset management software, an inventory management system, a BI solution, etc.).
How much does it cost to build accounting software?
Based on ScienceSoft’s experience, the cost to build a custom accounting app of average complexity ranges between $200,000 and $300,000, while accounting software development for a large enterprise may cost more than $400,000.
Want to know the cost of your accounting solution?
Learn the Cost of Your Accounting Software
All you need is to answer a few questions about your business requirements. This will help our team calculate the cost of your unique accounting solution much quicker.
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ScienceSoft's experts will study your case and get back to you with the details within 24 hours.
How long does it take to develop accounting software?
The development of custom accounting software may take 6–12+ months, depending on the solution’s functional scope and complexity. ScienceSoft can deliver an MVP of your accounting app in 3+ months and consistently grow it to the fully-featured solution with major releases every 2–3 weeks.
Key benefits of custom accounting software
The annual ROI for custom accounting software may reach up to 290%.
When Custom Accounting Software Is Your Best Choice
Custom enterprise accounting software is aimed to introduce unique functional and non-functional capabilities to help companies from various industries maximize the efficiency of their accounting processes.
ScienceSoft recommends opting for custom development in the following cases:
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You need an accounting solution providing specific features, for example:
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You need a business accounting solution providing compliance with local regulations in the regions your company operates. |
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You need highly secure accounting software providing advanced tools to protect your sensitive financial and business data. |
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You need to integrate accounting software with your custom legacy systems (CRM, HRMS, asset management system, cash management system, etc.) smoothly and cost-efficiently. |
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is an international IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. Since 2007, we help businesses build effective custom accounting software. Being an ISO 9001- and ISO 27001-certified company, we apply a mature quality management system and guarantee that cooperation with us does not pose any risks to our customers’ data security.