Should I use accounting software?
Should I use accounting software?
Accounting software...what's right for me? 🤔
If you want to efficiently maintain your business financial records using receipt capture technology, automated bank feeds, issue invoices digitally...and be able to see your figures at the click of a button, then cloud accounting software is the route for you 👌
Spreadsheets can serve a purpose, and have amazing customisation options, but lack the automation aspect. I'm not hating on them entirely, as deep down I love a good spreadsheet! 😆
There are many well known providers of cloud based accounting software such as Xero , Intuit QuickBooks and Sage.
There are also providers who have been sat in the shadows for sometime but are having a big push recently to promote their offering, such as FreeAgent.
Xero's pricing structure is changing in the coming months (hint: it's going up). If you love Xero's functionality and feel it's value for money, then you'll choose to stay with them (I use it and love it 💙). However, you may be tempted to look at other offerings 👀
A FreeAgent licence can be obtained for free, nada, zilch, nothing, if you bank with Mettle, NatWest or RBS. Their reps tell me they try to cater for businesses with turnover upto £1m and no more than 10 employees.
QuickBooks have a great offer ending soon, with a discounted rate for 6months.
If you're new to business it's a great time to get setup on cloud accounting software, and take ownership of your financials.
If you're an established business, and want to migrate to another system you need to be mindful of what happens to your historic data, how any third party apps integrate with it, what the migration process looks like - how time consuming it would be, will there be downtime, telling customers to expect invoice emails from a different system, whether your payment collection host integrates, how accurate your data would be (you may enlist a professional to help you 👋) etc
Embrace the automations of cloud based software, and let it do the 'heavy lifting' when it comes to your finances; so that you have more time to work on your business 👌