Would you like to be spending less time on routine admin chores and more time focusing on revenue-generating activity? In the digital age, there’s plenty of technology to help you make easy work of dealing with the mundane but essential tasks that running a business entails.
One critical area that many business owners find onerous is managing their finances and accounts – but there’s a wide range of solutions out there to help you work more efficiently.
If you’re a business owner currently making the switch from a manual to a digital accounting system to comply with Making Tax Digital, now is a great time to consider integrating other technologies to help reduce the time you spend on financial and accounting admin.
Inca founder Graham Carson recently visited Accountex – one of Europe’s biggest events for the accounting industry. He met with providers of some exciting new technologies, and we asked him to pick out three products that caught his attention.
In no particular order, here they are:
1.Receipt Bank: Easy automation for collecting, processing & publishing receipts & invoices
Receipt Bank is a smarter way to track business expenses and share them with your accountant. Don’t be misled by the name. Receipt Bank does much more than help you manage hard copy receipts. Yes, you can use the app to capture and upload images of your paper receipts, but the real benefit of Receipt Bank is in how it processes the electronic invoices your business receives.
Suppliers send invoices to your unique Receipt Bank email address – and they’re automatically categorised and entered in draft form into the system for you to review. You simply approve the data and publish it to your cloud accounting software, export it as a CSV file or share it with your accountant, and your receipts are safely stored online.
Receipt Bank brings an end to storing paperwork and entering data. It integrates with leading accounting, payroll and payment software including Xero, QuickBooks, Sage and KashFlow. For more information on Receipt Bank, visit www.receipt-bank.co.uk
2. Fluidly: Real time cash flow forecasting & automated credit control
By enabling you to see exactly what your financial future holds and helping you to optimise your position, Fluidly puts you in control.
Graham was so impressed with this solution that Inca is now an official partner of Fluidly!
- Cash flow forecasting
Every business owner knows that ‘cash is king’ and that a cash flow crisis can spell the end of a business – even one that’s otherwise trading healthily.
Good cash flow management and forecasting is important for you to be able to make effective financial decisions. If you want to hire a new team member, invest in new equipment or simply pay a bill, you need to know your cash position. But most small business owners find staying on top of cash flow forecasting time-consuming and complex.
With Fluidly, predicting the future is simple. By combining Artificial Intelligence with financial modelling, Fluidly allows you to produce an accurate, up to date cash flow forecast whenever you want, so you can always see exactly where you stand.
- Automated credit control
How much time do you spend chasing up overdue invoices? Aside from the cost of your own time, how much do late payments cost your business?
Fluidly can be configured to automate your credit control process. By sending out emails, scheduling follow-up calls, and keeping a record of your debtors, Fluidly gets you paid faster and gives you back time you can use more productively.
Fluidly integrates directly with Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. For more information, visit www.fluidly.com.
3. Fathom: Assess performance, monitor trends & identify improvement opportunities
If looking at numbers sends you dizzy, you’re certainly not alone: we have many clients who tell us the same thing. But in business, the ability to quickly analyse and interpret figures relating to the performance of your organisation is essential.
Fathom is a management reporting and financial analysis tool which recognises that a lot of people find it easier to take in information when it’s presented to them in a more visual format.
It provides a suite of in-depth analysis tools and metrics to help you see exactly how well your business is performing. Fully customisable, Fathom lets you configure data in a highly visual format using techniques like traffic light colour coding and thumbs up/down icons to help you monitor profitability, cash flow, growth and other key performance indicators.
Fathom also lets you create beautiful reports when you have a presentation to make, and allows you to set up alerts, so you receive an automatic notification when a key metric is exceeded or missed.
Fathom integrates with Xero, QuickBooks Online/Desktop and MYOB. For more information, visit www.fathomhq.com
Running a small business with limited resources is hard work, but technology can take care of many repetitive tasks, leaving you more time to spend on your business – rather than in it.
New solutions are being developed all the time. Sites like Xero’s App Market place https://apps.xero.com/uk are packed with hundreds of apps that can seamlessly integrate different business functions with your accounting software.
And if you run a business which makes its services or products available to buy online, retail platforms including eBay and Amazon have developed apps that automatically populate your accounting software when a sale is made, avoiding the need to enter data multiple times.
Can We Help You Make the Most of Technology?
Making Tax Digital means all businesses will soon have to adopt a digital accounting system. It’s a great opportunity for business owners to take full advantage of technology and operate their businesses more efficiently.
We’re experts in accounting, not software, but from working with small businesses like yours, we have acquired a good knowledge of the solutions that are out there.
Would you like advice about introducing a digital accounting system that’s Making Tax Digital compatible – or about integrating other software solutions with your accounting system?
Get in touch with us now for an initial chat by calling us on 01235 868888 or email us at [email protected].
