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How To Use Software For Your Accounting For Your Small Business

 

Streamlining your business comes in many forms. Lately, one of the easiest and most effective ways is to use software to take care of many aspects of your business.

 

With cloud computing making advances every day, it is more efficient than ever. Accounting software is one of the best ways to save money and increase your revenue at the same time.

 

It can be in the form of employee timesheet software but that is only one aspect. There are a lot of ways to use these apps and software. Before starting with any of these software make sure you consult with a tax consultant or accountant to make sure you have a solid roadmap and understand what you need.

 

In this article, I will go over some of the ways you may not have thought of to use accounting software for your small business.

 

Invoice processing

One easy way to potentially increase your revenue with accounting software is to manage your invoices.

 

When invoices are accurate and sent on time, then the chances of being paid quickly increase. People are always looking for ways to pay invoices online, so instead of printing and sending one out, make it a digital invoice that is easy to pay online.

 

Make sure that clear and non negotiable due dates are established and that it is communicated beforehand.

 

Track your expenses

With cloud computing advances, it is easier than ever to track your expenses. You can use a smartphone to help instantly register an expense. In some cases, you can take a picture of a receipt that will automatically get processed by the app.

 

Bank accounts and credit cards can be linked easily to your software so expenses are automatically deducted and accounted for. Manually entering the outgoings on a spreadsheet is way in the past at this point.

 

Saving your receipts and invoices in the cloud is a very secure way to manage your records. There is still no substitute for a hard copy, but it pays to back everything up to the cloud for ease of access and safety.

 

Pay your vendors

You can better manage your cash flow by paying your vendors directly. Rather than cut a check manually and send it by mail every time you need to pay a supplier, you can do it at the click of a button.

 

Many software applications will allow you to process payments through your financial institution but from your software dashboard. You don’t have to log in to your account for your bank and go through each vendor payment one by one.

 

You’ll be saving time and money by doing it this way so your business can be more streamlined. It also is easier to prevent fraud and theft if your bank is ever compromised.

 

Inventory management

Having control over your inventory is the bedrock of your business. Many businesses fail due to a combination of poor cash flow and not having control over the inventory.

 

If you don’t know how much you are selling, then it is difficult to know how much you are making.

 

There is also the issue of time management. Inventory tracking done manually is a very big black hole for your time.

 

Instead, let the software do the heavy lifting. It can track the movement of orders by serial number, for instance so you always know where in the shipping process your stock is.

 

Your software can automatically convert an order into an invoice, set a reorder automatically when stock levels reach a minimum and also generate reports about how the inventory is managed.

 

Report generation

You can only make good business decisions based on good data. And the reports you get from your accounting software is so detail rich that it almost makes the decisions for you.

 

The three most important reports will be included with any software at this point. These are the cash flow statement, profit and loss statement, and the balance sheet. Many advanced software applications will allow you to go very granular into the details from each of these reports.

 

When you can see how your business is performing at a glance it makes it very easy to figure out what areas need attention.

 

This saves you so much time and avoids any kind of surprises. At this point in time, it almost doesn’t make sense to have a dedicated accountant when you have a small business when there is software that can do pretty much everything.

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