To save money, time and tax
Cloud technology for accounting purposes is now widely available and known to save time, money and resources. Long gone are the days where work is just carried out at your desk or in your treatment room, and just during practice hours. In this mobile, 24/7, fast-paced world we live in today it is essential to have access to everything whilst on the go.
The views expressed in this article are specifically those of Lansdell & Rose Accountants.
Keeping up with the new pace of life
For small businesses, the effects of this new pace of working life are magnified, as more often than not, time is precious, resources sparse and money-saving always a high priority.
If you haven’t already embraced cloud accounting in your business, here are 5 great reasons why you should.
(1) Access and assess your true cash flow
Not so long ago, many doctors and dentists still kept one of those big red books, where income and expenses were recorded manually, monthly or, worse yearly and neither the practice owner or practice manager had an accurate idea of business performance until the accountant prepared the figures, often six months after the year had finished.
Thankfully times have moved on with almost all serious business owners at least holding their accounting records electronically. Electronic accounting allows the data entry process to be streamlined, with the chosen software doing large proportions of the work.
Most cloud-based software packages take this a step further and enable a secure, direct link from your business bank account, downloading data daily and allocating the transactions in the same way as earlier ones of the same nature, basically, educating your software to know what to do without instruction every time. This method is a lifeline for small business owners short of time.
Utilising this live link also means your data, and therefore any reports generated using this data, are 100% up-to-date, relevant and useful for business decision making.
This includes access to your true cash flow, money in the bank, money coming in and money going out as well as your profit figure to date, and even tax estimates.
(2) Manage your finances on the go
Subsequently, all of this information is readily available from your home computer, your laptop, your mobile phone or wherever in the world you may be, if you are cloud computing.
As a busy healthcare professional, time is precious, especially when juggling running a business with picking up children from school or queuing in supermarkets. Every moment counts and this is why many business-savvy doctors and dentists are enjoying the time-saving benefits of cloud accounting.
Reconciling your bank account balance has never been easier.
There is even a function to take a quick photo of your receipts and upload them at the click of a button, making sure primarily you never miss out on the valuable tax relief, and secondly everything is stored in the cloud.
(3) Save resources and therefore time and money
Small businesses are frequently struggling with a lack of resources and often, roles within the team overlap; the practice manager sometimes covers the cleaner and the practice owner answers the phone.
To this extent, any resource saving is valued.
Cloud accounting on the whole requires much less IT resource as software updates happen instantaneously by the provider and the application is built in such a way that focuses on the everyday user, not an accountant.
Whilst data entry is largely taken care of by the system, the review process and reconciliation doesn’t require someone with experience.
Virtually anyone you trust with your private data would be able to perform the week-to-week or month-to-month tasks required to keep your accounting completely up to date.
(4) Collaborate from anywhere
Another key benefit of cloud accounting compared to the paper-focused issue of manual accounting, or the version-confusion issue of non-cloud based electronic accounting, is that multiple users can access the same information at the same time.
If you need help, your accountant can login and see exactly where you have got to, and make amendments if necessary.
They can also login to access the reports required to prepare a brief tax estimate, or provide advice on any other accounting or tax matter.
Viewing information in real-time with real people allows collaboration and better business functionality.
(5) Integration with business apps
Integration with other business applications is easy with cloud accounting software, which saves duplication and means all your systems are running in conjunction with each other.
Link-up with your payroll system or Google Docs to give you an overall view of your business from all angles.
If you haven’t already made the move to cloud accounting it is likely your competition have, and they will be enjoying the valuable information at their fingertips to make informed business decisions. With extra time and resources available from cloud accounting you can focus your energy on your customers and business growth.
Read more of Michael’s tax planning and business updates:
- 7 great KPI’s to track financial performance
- How financial forecasting can save you tax
- Incorporation is going nowhere