For businesses to streamline internal processes, speed up tasks, and boost productivity, automating accounting activities takes precedence.

 

A cloud accounting software lets you record income and expenditure, generate invoices, access accounting reports, and manage finances from any part of the world. Automated bookkeeping allows you to control business spendings with effective forecasting and budgeting, and facilitates smooth auditing during the tax season.

 

If your business leverages an accounting software to manage day-to-day finances, here are 5 accounting software tips and tricks to improve its functionality.

5 Quick Accounting Software Tips to Boost Accounting Functionality

1.  Get your account software mobile app

If you’ve purchased a top-rated accounting software in UK, you will typically have the option to download and install a mobile app on your phone for go-to access to your accounts.

 

Trust us, being able to check up on payment statuses or send a quick invoice to a client without having to fire up your laptop each time brings you indefinitely closer to your finances—and makes life exceedingly simpler.

 

A cloud-based accounting software ensures your account payables, receivables, receipts, invoices, etc remain at the tip of your finger. You can stay on top of your accounts at all times and be better-equipped to track business finances with ease and efficiency.

 

Make sure your accounting software app is updated regularly to deliver its full potential.

2.  Leverage available integrations and add-ons

Business owners and accountants don’t take full advantage of their accounting software. More often than not, they are unaware of add-ons, powerful integration options, and other features which boost the efficiency and usability of their accounting software.

 

For instance, a cloud-based accounting software allows eCommerce sellers to integrate their eCommerce platform with the accounting software, thereby saving time that would otherwise be spent in manual data entry of sales data.

 

Similarities, there are a host of add-ons that can improve the functionality of your software. From receivable and accounts payable tools to inventory management features, accounting reports, and other ancillary services—it’s a good idea to take out time and learn about any additional features you can use on a day-to-day basis to make your life easier.

3.  Track your bills manually and tally with account reports

Yes, you can track your bills using your accounting system but if you are a small business, we strongly discourage you from doing so. While larger companies can leverage cash flow management to earn additional interest but for small businesses—where the cash flow is relatively less—an accounting software simply makes tracking bills complicated. it is much easier to instead pay your bills twice every month.

 

However, if you do decide to track bills with the help of your accounting software, make sure to check your accounts payable and receivable aging reports regularly to stay on top of pending bills.

4.  Leverage forecasts and budgets to track your finances

For both small and large businesses, the ability to test and track different budgets and forecast possible scenarios is key to effective business planning. It allows you to devise and implement counteractive measures should an unfortunate situation arise.

 

For example, if a high-ticket client were to terminate their contract with you, would your business be able to cope with the temporary cut down in funds? Or if you were to onboard several new clients at once, could you afford to hire additional staff members to assist in project completion?

 

Budgeting and forecasting allows you to control business expenditure and allocate funds to key areas as needed. With timely financial projects and reports, you can review your business’s financial health years down the line by reviewing market prices, product demand, production costs, etc. You are better-positioned to design long-term plans when you have a better understanding of your financial situation.

 

Most accounting software do not include features for financial budgeting and forecasting so make sure to double check before making a purchase.

5.  Prefer automated record-keeping practices over manual data entry

Your accounting software is only as accurate as the data you feed it. This includes sales data, expenses, cash infusions, credit statements, etc — all of which are pretty easy to lose track of. If your record-keeping is poor, your entire accounting software comes tumbling down. This also poses a problem at the time of tax filing when you are likely to end up underpaying and eventually attract penalties.

 

It is always a good idea to leverage the automation features of your bookkeeping software to avoid potential human errors. Accounting software like Dext allow users to upload invoices, receipts, accounts statements, and so on to ensure accuracy in record-keeping. Since soft copies remain stored on the cloud, you can also easily retrieve them for further use should you ever need to.

 

In addition to this, users can generate real-time accounting reports for uninterrupted visibility into business finances, categorize accounting data for efficiency, and access their finances from anywhere in the world.

 

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