As a small business owner, every precious dollar you spend can feel like pulling a tooth. Unless you’re a startup; then it’s more like pulling a tooth out of your firstborn’s mouth.

But if you have designs on moving out of the back bedroom office and into the realm of a burgeoning venture, you’ll soon need to consider loosening the purse strings for software that will help you manage your business processes.

Why? It’s impossible to fulfill growth aspirations if your time is consistently eroded by inefficient back-end processes.

For example, if a customer asked you right now to resend their last invoice, what process would that entail?

• Rummaging in filing cabinets?
• Searching through 1,564 emails in your outbox?
• Calling your accountant?
• Navigating a tangled web of Google Drive spreadsheets?
• Or a combination of all of the above mentioned activities?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above, the time to streamline your operations is now – i.e. before you enter your growth phase. If you have one eye on expansion and the other on the bank balance, the key to not blowing your operations budget is finding subscription-based software. This allows you to split your investment, over time, into ongoing operating costs and helps you keep your valuable investment capital intact.

Thankfully for you (and your small business accountant), there are subscription-based tools that can help your business grow – as well as offer the scalability to keep pace with your company’s growth.

Here are two products that should be at the top of the shopping list:

Dynamics GP – ERP

Microsoft Dynamics GP is a mid-market business accounting software or ERP Software. Even if you’re a small business operating out of a single location, Microsoft Dynamics GP is well matched to your needs. It is a comprehensive business management solution that can be upgraded – right up until you reach the 1,000 employee mark.

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What is ERP? Enterprise resource planning is an industry term for the broad set of activities that helps a business manage the important parts of its business. “Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business process management software that allows an organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and automate many back office functions related to technology, services and human resources. ERP software integrates all facets of an operation, including product planning, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing.” (Webopedia)

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In short, Dynamics GP helps you manage your customer relationships from end to end, automating tedious finance-based tasks (e.g., billing) and gives you complete task visibility across your organization. This enables you to considerably increase the speed of your decision making and improve your ability to respond quickly to change.

Being a Microsoft product, Dynamics GP integrates with many of the Windows programs you already use – like Excel and Outlook – through a familiar-looking Office-based interface. And because Dynamics GP operates a subscription-based model, it’s a manageable operating cost with no capital investment required; you only pay for the licensing and functionality you need.