The pandemic has brought many challenges for businesses over the past year but has also created many opportunities. Businesses were forced to work more flexibly over this period and to adopt different working practices with many staff members working from home.
This posed challenges for some businesses which still operate traditional desktop accounting systems which required staff to be on premises to enter data. Many businesses have taken the opportunity to change their software over this period to cloud accounting systems which can be operated anywhere in the world on almost any internet connected device such as a PC, laptop, tablet and even a mobile phone.
Before the pandemic, we had already witnessed a sharp rise in cloud technology over the last 5 years and Covid-19 has accelerated this change for many businesses. There is now a focus more than ever before on how we can automate repetitive and tedious tasks to improve productivity in the workplace and cloud technologies enable this.
The latest cloud accounts technology can link sales invoices to payment platforms such as Stripe or GoCardless which can dramatically improve cash collection and reduce debtor days. Customers are sent the invoices electronically and only need to click a link to pay or setup a direct debit.
Bank transaction data is automatically sent to the software using a secure one way link from the company bank account thanks to Open Banking regulations implemented back in 2018.
Supplier invoices and expenses can be scanned on an app or in large batches using a scanner and entered automatically by the system.
Supplier payments can be made securely straight from the software which can dramatically reduce time spent on supplier payment runs.
There are over 800 cloud applications which all integrate with one another to process data automatically to free up your time. These include point of sale systems, stock systems, project management and CRM systems to name a few. Most businesses will only need a few of these systems linked together to automate many processes in their finance function and almost all of these systems operate on a monthly no obligation subscription, so there are no significant upfront costs for the software.
If you’re not currently using cloud technology for your accounting system, please ask yourself how much time you are spending entering data onto spreadsheets or into old desktop accounting software? Are your evenings and weekends spent on tedious accounting tasks? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, please speak to your local Mitchell Charlesworth office or if you’re not currently a client, please contact me for assistance with your move to cloud software.
Alternatively, we have a lot of businesses who don’t want to deal with their bookkeeping at all. I speak to a lot of business owners and the common theme is that they all want to spend time actually running their business or balancing their work/life commitments and not being bogged down in paperwork.
If this sounds familiar then you could also consider our full finance outsourcing service where we can look after your bookkeeping, VAT returns and provide regular management information on your business performance so you can focus on more important things. Please contact either your local client partner or me if you’re not currently a client to discuss this service.
