For any Social and Economic Committee (CSE), having management and accounting software is now highly recommended, even essential.

But how to choose the right CE / CSE software?

The challenges of CE / CSE software

This article does not claim to be exhaustive, but aims to help you choose the right CSE accounting management software. Thus, it will allow the newly elected to avoid errors of choice and disappointments.

In other words: make the right choice!

Indeed, since the passage in CSE, and by the short time allotted to each one, the elected officials must face an increasingly demanding management. Accounting and management then become a major efficiency issue for any CSE. This raises the following question: how to navigate through the jungle of existing service providers?

Have you just been elected, are you taking charge of your CSE, or are you already in place?

Or, you find that the management and accounting work for your CSE is enormous, and that your accounting knowledge is limited

So you decide to equip yourself with accounting management software for your Social and Economic Committee. This article is made for you.

Choose your CE / CSE software in 5 steps

Before taking any action, you absolutely must define your objectives and selection criteria. Indeed, we advise you not to start without making an inventory of the data. Whatever the size of your CSE, you must first establish functional specifications. Of course, this will be provided differently, depending on the size of your CSE but also on the accounting of the CSE and its activities.

Some publishers specialize in large-scale social and economic committees. The following paragraphs will present you with examples on which to base yourselves. Start by describing the context, the reasons for your project and its overall objectives. If you have an existing one (Excel files, Word documents or another software), describe this existing one here.

List the desired features

This step consists of producing a summary of the expected general functionalities. All the possible functions will be detailed in the following paragraphs. Therefore, model at each stage, according to your wishes and list each phase.

Communication portal or website?

In this part, describe what you expect from a portal or website. We refer to the following elements: headings, secure access, activity portal, communication, general information (such as hotlines or contacts), etc.

Socio-cultural activities (ASC)

Describe your ASCs and organize them by group: Ticket office & Standard activities, Holiday vouchers, Reimbursements, Rentals, Canteen, Media library, etc. Then, detail your need for inventory management.

Fix the constraints of the CSE Software in connection with your project

To do this, it is necessary here to specify the time constraints, the access rights constraints, the ergonomics constraints, etc. You can also list budget constraints as well as priority selection criteria, as well as your value for money slider.

Among your security and performance criteria, it is important to think carefully about the following elements

Research potential providers and choose the right one

Before any search, you must have summarized your selection criteria and, for each criterion, determined priorities. Now get started! And to do this, here are some tips:

Indeed, the best service providers do not necessarily appear on the first page; do not hesitate to carefully explore the websites of service providers.

CSE Software or Package?

It is then necessary to select as a priority the software packages, the service providers whose specialty is exclusively the management of the CSE.

Try to determine if your service provider has more access to the CSEs of small, medium, or very large companies to avoid setting up an oversized software package.

How to test CE / CSE software?

Once the list of service providers has been established, contact them. The service providers contacted will offer you one of the following solutions:

Online video through which you can discover the interface and the various functions. The major disadvantage is that you will have a simple view of the software package, but you will not be able to really test it.

The online demonstration this approach is very good if you request temporary access in order to test the functionalities yourself to appreciate the ergonomics and user-friendliness of the CE / CSE software. The free trial: this solution is by far the best, you will have a free demonstration which will then allow you to test all your criteria yourself.