Accounting Software: The importance of simple design

Bold, bright colours and clear, graphic design will revolutionise the way your business uses accounting software.

Back in the early 1900s, Henry Ford told the American public they could have any colour of car they liked, “So long as it’s black.” His offer kept customers satisfied for decades, even though there was nothing stopping them from getting a completely different shade of paintwork.

It’s the same with your business systems. Everyone’s got used to grey boxes and extremely functional software, especially in finance. In fact, we’ve all come to expect it. That’s fine if your accounting software is only being used by the finance team. But when you start sharing authorisation screens to budget holders and dashboards to management teams, they may find it difficult to pick up, or simply won't want to!

Bold and visual accounting software isn't brave, it's smart.

Lots of bold graphics, strong colours and simple signposting all help to make the software extremely user-friendly. So people who might not normally use finance software, say heads of other departments, can find their way around quickly and easily. That’s good news for your business. After all, there’s no point getting new software if it’s holding some people back. But with a user-friendly system, you can make sure you unleash all the benefits:

• The introduction of a self-service culture, so budget holders and directors can get the information they need, when they need it
• More power for managers – they can take full control of their financial data
• Faster business performance – managers have the facts at their fingertips to make decisions instantly
• More freedom for your finance staff – rather than producing reports for every department, they can focus on strategy and building the business
• Faster invoicing – with no need to send invoices off for approval
• Controlled spending – your colleagues can see exactly what they’re spending and pull the reigns in whenever they need to.

It’s all pretty compelling stuff. And with user-friendly graphics and 'at a glance' dashboards, you are falling behind if you're still settling for boring grey screens.

 

Tailored and personalised, rather than dumbed down.

But what about the finance pros in your business? Won’t they feel patronised or short-changed by bold and bright software? Not at all. Although the visuals look simple, that doesn’t mean the software is. Any accounting system worth its salt will still have all the core functionality you need under the bonnet.

By making sure that your system can be tailored according to the needs of the end-user, all the financial whizzes in your organisation can still get their hands on all the core functionality. While departmental managers and users just see what they need to.

So rather than dumbing down, it’s about making everything more intuitive for everyone. Simple graphics make it easy to access and see on smaller screens too, like mobiles or tablets. So if a department director is on the go or in a meeting, they can still get the info they need to make those key, business-changing decisions.

Simple to follow screens help to speed up processes across departments too. Admin users just have a few steps to follow and a few clicks to make.
 

The current big trend in software development is simplicity.

Flat is the way forward, with 'at a glance' menus and swiping technology. If you’ve used Windows 8 you’ll know exactly the kind of thing. Or take iOS, which comes with lots of new intuitive functionality, and bold, bright designs.

You’ve probably heard of ‘flat design’. It’s really just a fancy term for bold colours, minimal text and user-friendly features. Interfaces are no longer designed to look like other things, like car dashboards or calculators.

Instead, you get simple graphics, straight lines and high colour contrasts. That’s exactly what the end-user wants.

Flat design is used throughout our favourite personal tools. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram make up some of our most downloaded apps, and all of them use flat design. It’s easy on the eye, and intuitive for new users to get the hang of too.

In fact, a recent article looking into hot software design trends included clean "easy on the eye" visuals and "creative data visualisation" amongst their predictions for 2021. It shouldn't be a leap for anyone to see how these could benefit their finance system. 

It's time to stop settling for crowded and dull systems in the workplace. Learn about how modern, intuitive accounting software can help your business.

 

It's time to see bluQube in action

Book your own online demo to see how bluQube's unique and intuitive design could transform your business.

 

More Reading

• Accounting software isn't just for finance folk: 6 reasons why

• 6 lessons your finance team can learn from remote working