Media and Newspaper Accounting Software Is All About Staying on Top of Your FinancesBy Peter Lalush, Technical Content Writer at SelectHub
In the news and media business, you always have to be on the ball. The 24-hour news cycle is no joke, and every outlet is constantly looking for its next big break. But business is business — on top of all you do to compete in this fast-paced industry, you still have your finances to worry about.
That’s why media and newspaper accounting software can be a real asset to your business. It streamlines and helps manage your daily financial processes, so you can focus on following leads and chasing stories.
Ready to see what the right media and newspaper accounting software can do for your business? Read on!
Executive Summary
- Media and newspaper accounting software helps media companies and news organizations keep track of their finances and analyze their performance.
- Key features include automated data entry, subscription management and reporting.
- Be sure to ask potential vendors any questions you have about the software before committing to a purchase.
What This Guide Covers: What Is Media and Newspaper Accounting Software?
Media and newspaper accounting software is a specialized tool created specifically for media companies and newspaper organizations to help manage their financial needs. It’s a type of industry-specialized accounting software that tracks revenue and expenses, manages subscriptions and generates financial reports, among other capabilities.
Primary Benefits
Better Visibility
With real-time tracking, automated data entry and data visualization features, media and newspaper accounting software makes it easier to understand how your business is doing financially.
You can view transaction data as it occurs, as well as share it with stakeholders and outside parties. This promotes transparency throughout your business’s finances and keeps everyone on the same page. You’ll also gain performance insights that can be used for better decision-making.
Improved Efficiency
Time is money, especially in a fast-paced industry. Media and newspaper accounting software gives businesses the freedom to eliminate manual data entry from their work process entirely. This frees up personnel to work on more important tasks and perform more high-level analysis to optimize workflows.
Reduced Errors
If you work in the media, you know how disastrous typos can be — not to mention embarrassing. Between declining revenue and increasing competition, you’ve got bigger fish to fry than a mistyped figure.
Using automated data entry to populate media and newspaper accounting software databases means information will always be copied exactly as it was read. This eliminates the risk of typos and other human errors that can come from manual data entry, saving time that would otherwise be spent identifying and making corrections.
Key Features & Functionality
| Automatic Data Entry | As transactions and financial changes occur, media and newspaper accounting software can automatically update databases with the exact numbers that have been exchanged, ensuring you have the most accurate information possible. |
| Accounts Payable and Receivable | Keep track of short-term debts your business owes to others with accounts payable, and short-term debts owed to you with accounts receivable. Media and newspaper accounting software can help you balance the books faster than ever before. |
| Billing and Invoicing | Whether you’re collecting payment from a customer or billing another business for use of your facilities, media and newspaper accounting software makes it simple to personalize invoices with your company letterhead and logo. It can also link with payment processors to collect the money owed directly. |
| Reporting and Data Visualization | Easily generate professionally formatted reports from financial data, allowing you to share your financial status with others both inside and outside your business. You can also plot financial data on graphs to better understand it. |
| General Ledger | Media and newspaper accounting software makes use of a general ledger to make sure all of your transactions are logged and tracked, automatically updating it as those transactions occur. The data in the ledger contributes to other databases as well, allowing for a complete financial picture. |
| Subscription Management | Manage subscriptions to your service, including customer information, renewals, billing and deliveries. This feature maintains accurate subscriber records so you can keep your subscription deliveries on track. |
| Advertising System Integrations
| Most media and newspaper accounting software platforms can integrate with advertising systems. In the media business, advertising is your bread and butter. Integrating this aspect of your business with your software helps streamline billing and revenue recognition, and automates invoicing and payment processing when it’s time to collect. |
Software Comparison Strategy
Media and newspaper accounting software options can appear very similar to each other at first glance, but there are plenty of differences under the hood worth considering if you’re in the market.
Start by making a list of your business wants and needs. What challenges are you currently facing? How could the right software help you address them? If you need help with this step, look no further than our free accounting software requirements template to determine your unique needs.
With these considerations in mind, make a list of every software that meets all or some of your criteria before narrowing it down to three to five options to explore in depth.
From there, you can start reaching out to vendors. Make sure you ask them any questions you might have about their software. Some vendors offer a free trial of their product, so you can see how it functions in your workplace before you commit.
Cost & Pricing Considerations
Media and newspaper accounting software may be an investment in your business’s financial future, but it’s worth considering how you can minimize upfront costs too, so the benefits are even more immediate.
The size of your business can significantly impact how much adopting new software will cost. Having fewer people that need to be onboarded with your software means it will cost less overall. You may also run into additional costs if you want to integrate your new platform with the older software you’re already using.
It’s also important to consider how your software will be deployed. On-site deployment involves a single upfront cost. Cloud deployment may cost less to start, but requires a monthly or yearly subscription payment that can add up over time. Cloud-based software comes with another potential advantage over on-site, however, since maintenance, updates and upkeep are typically handled by the vendor.
Questions To Ask
To get a better understanding of your company’s requirements, ask yourself these guiding questions:
- What’s our budget?
- How many employees will use the software?
- Will our employees need training to use the software?
- What features do we need the most?
- Is this compatible with my existing software?
Here are a few questions to ask potential vendors to help you learn more about the software and vendor:
- How do you ensure data security?
- What integrations does the software offer?
- Is this software compatible with my existing system?
- What company sizes do you typically work with?
- How can your software’s capabilities benefit companies in my industry?
Next Steps
Media and newspaper accounting software can be an asset in optimizing your business’s financial performance. Adding it into your operations can improve efficiency and visibility while simplifying complicated accounting tasks, which all helps you perform at your best.
We hope this guide has given you some insight into how you might benefit from this software, as well as a place to start your search.
Ready for the next step? Take a look at our free comparison report to gain further insight into our top picks.
Product Comparisons
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