A recent survey of financial service professionals, including accountants, has found that while many are purchasing new business software, many also regret buying the product they ultimately got.
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However, the survey also found that 70% of the respondents regret at least one software purchase made in the past 18 months. Additionally, 42% of respondents experience purchase regret with accounting and finance tools in particular. Of those who regretted at least one software purchase, 57% indicate these regrettable decisions have resulted in substantial (50%) or even monumental (7%) financial repercussions.
As for what exactly they dislike about their new software purchase, the most common reason (35%) was because the product was too basic for their needs. The next most common reason (32%) was the respondents either could not find meaningful ROI on their purchase or the total investment was more expensive than they anticipated. Other reasons cited were the technology was too complex versus too simple (31%), the technical implementation was too slow or difficult or it was incompatible with existing systems (both 30%), or the software was not user friendly, had poor technical support service, and was difficult with training/onboarding users (all 29%).
"With such a high number of buyers regretting recent software purchases, this can indicate that many companies fail to align their technology investments with clear objectives. A lack of alignment often leads to underutilized tools, delayed implementations, and unmet ROI expectations," said the report.
If these organizations are regretting their software purchases, why did they go with that vendor in the first place? The most common answer, at 49%, was that they have previous experience with the same vendor or product, followed closely behind by the vendor's reputation and industry prominence, at 48%. Other reasons include seeing it at a trade show or conference (35%), peer recommendations (31%), social media (30%), word of mouth (29%), advertisements (27%) and media coverage in trade magazines (24%).
Additionally, when conducting formal research to develop a shortlist, 38% of buyers rely on product reviews and comparison websites; another 38% on rankings and lists of top software providers; and another 38% listen to recommendations from professional associations or industry experts.
The survey also found that 32% of buyers use generative AI to inform their decision-making process.
Eduardo Garcia, an analyst at Capterra, said businesses should be thinking more in terms of the degree to which a specific software solution aligns with their business goals.
"To avoid an ill-fated software purchase, financial organizations should take a goal-oriented approach to the buying process and have a firm grasp of how success will be measured," said Garcia in a statement. "This means setting clear goals early on and establishing KPIs to measure software performance — both of which will provide a reliable compass for purchasing teams evaluating vendors."
Capterra's 2025 Tech Trends Survey was conducted online in August 2024 among 3,500 respondents in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, France, India, Germany, Brazil and Japan, at businesses across multiple industries and company sizes.
