Hi readers,
It is my great pleasure to share with you an interesting topic. At AiNA soa we never stop developing and improving in all areas of work. Everyone gives their best to achieve the best quality possible. This is only possible with encouraging and good leaders. By the way, greetings to all. :)
At the very beginning of AiNA Soa in Madagascar, which was in January 2013, the accounting was handed over to me. At that time, all the accounting was done in an Excel file. This worked very well. The presentation was appealing, and it has several sheets where the total of income as well as expenses and the balance sheet and everything else could be easily seen. In short, it looks good, is practical and pretty easy to use. So, I did the accounting with Excel for eight years.
Well, as already mentioned, we are always evolving. Among other things, because new people with new ideas join AiNA soa. Not only in the team in Madagascar, but also in the board in Switzerland. So it happened that Stephan – as a very enthusiastic person with a good eye for details – joined the board of AiNA soa as financial manager. Shortly after starting with us, he had the idea to implement a new accounting software. He told me, “Jimmy, the previous accounting in Excel wasn’t so bad, but we should switch to a more professional one.” That’s how I first heard about Banana.
Change to Banana
At the end of 2020, we decided to start using the Swiss accounting program Banana, which is often used by local companies. Stephan carried out an online coaching with me.
In 2021 we started step by step with Banana accounting +. We started by transferring data from the previous year from Excel files to Banana. Then we inserted the budget for the current year and added the first transactions. Indeed, it was a great new experience for me because I learned many new things. I was able to see the benefits of this software and the various functions and soon realized the differences between the two systems.
Of course, I like working in Banana very much, not only because the content is easier to read and understand, but also because a large part of the work to get the financial report can be done much faster. With three or four “clicks” I can create the financial report. This is very positive, because this automation additionally helps that there are fewer errors. This is because the budget is directly compared and merged with the actual expenses. A chart is created which compares both items, so I can quickly see where we stand financially. Additionally, the monthly and year-end closing can now be done easier and faster. In the Banana system I can simply choose which month I want to look at. In the “segments” area, I can juggle with multiple bookkeeping in one place and at the same time.
Long story short, Banana software is recommended for anyone who works in the field of accounting. I like it very much; it has many functions, is easy to use and very professional.
To conclude, it has been very exciting for me to experience this change and evolution from Excel to Banana. It allows me to work more professionally and shows me that we have evolved over the last almost 10 years.
That’s it for today and see you next time. Stay healthy and happy :)
Kind regards
Jimmy