When you run a business it comes with many obligations to ensure that your venture is a successful one. Marketing, customer service, networking and administration are to name a few and if you break each of those categories down, they are made up of various sub categories, and even under those, there are further rungs to the ladder.
Today we’re going to talk accounting, one of the sub category items that form part of your business administration. Your business accounting basics will more than likely consist of the following:-
- Income and Invoicing
- Business Expenses
This is also known as your business sale and purchase ledger. Producing accurate accounts is not only important to your business; it is also a legal requirement.
Many people find that they like to do things the old fashioned way, with a ruled book and a pencil. Others that are taking the next step in technology may have an excel spreadsheet that enables them to track their income and expenses easily by inputting data. However, with the ever increasing development of technology, there are a number of useful accounting and invoicing software packages available on-line, which can enable you to invoice, and log your expenses all under one roof. You can send out electronic invoices, and log any online purchases with the click of a button and relate it back to the software account that you are using.
It makes life easy when it comes to credit control too!
Here are a few suggestions of accounting software, that could help take the dread out of your business bookkeeping and keep things streamlined, easy and ready to hand over to your Accountant at the end of the financial year.
That’s another benefit … you can also give your Accountant access to your software too, by issuing a password. Super simple!
Create professional-looking invoices displaying your own business logo. No more word documents, which you have to amend each time with a new invoice name and address. You can also receive online payments by credit card or services such as PayPal, which will automatically apply the credit to the invoice.
If you work internationally, Freshbooks gives you the facility to accept payments in foreign currency and also if you have those clients or customers that need a little reminder push to pay, there’s a payment reminder service. Leaving you to focus on your work and your accounting package to do the chasing.
If you are a business that charges via the hour, you can also hook up your time tracker to Freshbooks, which allows you to bill your clients automatically for the time taken to perform a task.
This is just focusing on your income. There’s so much more you can do with your expenses too.
If you would like to read more about Freshbooks, you might want to check out this useful review.
They’ve also created an awesome free tool: introducing… freeinvoicecreator.com
A free tool that creates beautiful invoices that are on par with FreshBooks in under a minute… no more spreadsheets, templates, just a beautifully customized invoice.
As with Freshbooks, Quickbooks is an easy to use cloud accounting software. It helps to organise your business and makes it easier to meet with HMLR requirements.
You can use Quickbooks for your invoicing, expense logging, time tracking and you can also use it to run payroll. So if you have a number of employees, this could be a great package to use at no extra cost. Why have two pieces of software, when you can have one that does the lot!
Produce quotes to your potential clients, keep on top of your credit control and it’s all for a very reasonable monthly price.
Kashflow prides itself on being “easy to use and jargon-free”. It features the same tools for invoicing and logging expenses as Freshbooks and Quickbooks.
The design is intuitive and great for small businesses or individuals who have limited accounting experience, enabling those to pick up quickly how to do their bookkeeping, and take away that daunting feeling of numbers.
You can also access Kashflow (as well as the above mentioned resources) on your mobile phone or tablet. So you can issue a quote on the spot if required, or send that invoice you forgot to send this morning before your business meeting.
‘Beautiful accounting software’ is the tagline for Xero and one of its self stated top five reasons to use this resource is that it’s the perfect balance of simplicity, power and elegance.
Its features are pretty much the same as Freshbooks, Quickbooks and Kashflow, but visually Xero may just be that one step ahead.
You can also produce reports with Xero (as well as with the other resources too) and all of these great resources offer free trial periods, so you can test out each one to see what best suits your needs.
Take away the stresses and strains of bookkeeping and research what cloud accounting software can do for you, and how it can benefit your business.
If it’s just not your forte, then there are Virtual Assistants available, that can work individually or alongside your accountant to ensure that your figures are taken care of. All you need to do is concentrate on the work that results in producing an invoice and spending on those items and services that are going to enable your business to grow!
Employing staff is a whole new ball game with its own set of rules. Working with a VA is an option that a great many business people are turning to. Check out my book on How to Hire a Virtual Assistant. Available on Amazon by clicking here.
Learn how you can work with Virtual Hand; how your business can grow and how you can communicate better with your audience.
