How does your finance back office operate? It could be that you’re doing most accounting and finance tasks manually – using a cash book or an excel spreadsheet. It could be that you’re already using a digital system like Xero. Whatever your process, it’s important to step back every now and again and ask yourself – is it really working for me? Can I make it more efficient?
As a business owner with a bucket load of responsibilities, it’s tempting to adopt the mindset of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” when it comes to your systems. After all, you didn’t go into business to become an accounting whiz, so when you find a system that gets the job done – you stick with it. The problem is, the system itself may not be broken, but it may be causing significant damage to your time and energy.
It’s true – you didn’t go into business to become an accountant. So let’s make sure you’re spending as little time as you need to be on the accounting tasks, so you can do more of what you did go into business for.
Whether you’re still doing things manually or using Xero, you want to be sure your software and systems are working for you (not against you)
Feel stuck doing tasks manually? How many of these statements ring true to your experience?
- You can spend hours fiddling with excel sheets, only to have to spend even more time doing the same task again next week.
- Accounting documents are constantly having to be re-saved, or re-named. Dates and numbers are having to be re-entered each month. It’s frustrating.
- Your team has to remember to keep track of their own receipts, either holding onto a paper trail or having to upload all the details into a spreadsheet.
- Processing invoices is slow – there’s a long approval process and it has to be entered manually into the accounting system without error.
- You spend all this time on the input of data, but you don’t have a good grasp on your financial position day to day.
If you can relate to any of these, automating some of your processes is going to take a whole load of stress off your plate.
When you move over to a cloud accounting software like Xero, you can access your financial data anywhere with any device, and integrate your accounting with some seriously helpful apps.
This means you’ll have a real-time understanding of your finances rather than have to wait months to know how the business is doing. By choosing the right apps, you can set up systems to do those manual tasks for you, reducing the amount of hours you spend on accounting.
Our clients really do love Xero – we wouldn’t recommend it if they didn’t. Transitioning to Xero saved our client Michael a significant chunk of time. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“We love Xero. It’s fast, efficient and intuitive to use and it saves us so much time. In fact, we have two businesses, and we now spend less time doing the accounts for both businesses than we used to spend on just one. In short, it demystifies the whole accounting process.” – Michael Webster, Ye Olde Friars
Visit our Xero page to see how you can make life easier and understand your business better by managing your finances in the cloud.
So what if you’re already using Xero but you’re not seeing the benefits?
You may have adopted Xero already but find you’re still spending more time than you’d like to be on your financial processes. Often we meet folks who have been moved over to the platform, but haven’t had the support to follow. You may be aware you’re not getting the most out of the software, but unsure how to optimise it to work for you.
“Sign up for Xero today!” the adverts say. But now you’re on it, you’ve suddenly got to watch all the training videos and read up about all the features to make it worth the move.
You don’t have the time to be researching and sampling and testing.
Do any of these statements feel relatable?
- You’re not getting payments through as fast as you’d like to be
- You’re still keeping paper receipts and having to sort through them to make sure you’re able to claim expenses
- You’re importing CSV bank statements because you’re not sure how to set up bank feeds
- You’re seeing up to date numbers, but you don’t know how to use Xero to plan ahead for fluctuations in revenue
- You know Xero integrates with a lot of great apps, and while this is exciting, it also feels overwhelming.
Get a review of your finance function first. Save yourself time and hassle guessing what needs to change and how.
Many of us go into business because we want to be in control of our working lives. It might be your aim to work fewer hours in the week, take more holidays, have more flexibility.
But when the work piles up and the to-do list feels never-ending, the idea of flexibility can feel like a far off dream. You work all the hours in the day just to get things done.
The good news is: whatever your business, you can work smarter, not harder. You can reach those lifestyle goals. Making sure your systems are working for you, not against you, is key to freeing up more time for the things you want to do in the business and in your life.
You might just need a little help to see the light through the trees. We help our clients by understanding what they want their business to do, and we find the gaps in their systems.
We start by:
- Carrying out a review of your current manual systems
or
- Doing a health check of your Xero account to see what needs to change
You may not need to change everything. That’s the great thing about getting an expert eye on your processes. Make only the improvements that need to be made and get it right first time.
Our Finance Function page shows you what it looks like to go through this process with us and gives you an understanding of the costs involved.
Remember, time is money. The initial spend to get up to speed with the technology and get your systems automated will save you hours of time now and in the future. That’s time you could be spending growing your team, your sales, your culture. Or it could be more time with the kids, on hobbies or simply resting. Imagine that?
