Automation & Business
Ask any small business owner what they need more of and the answer is always TIME! Running a small business is time consuming and there is often never enough of it. The second response is probably around cash flow. Small businesses need to operate on a lean budget and every dollar counts. So what if there was a way to save both time and money?
Here are our top tips on how to save money and time through automation in your small business:
- Customer Relationship Management
Managing and nurturing sales leads and relationships can be time consuming, and if you miss an opportunity it can be costly. Having a CRM software tool can help you manage and automate many of your relationships key to sales and growth. Most of these tools are designed for small business, but have the ability to scale as you grow.
2. Invoices & Finances
Gone are the days of sending out manual invoices and then chasing them up with phone calls and letters. By using a cloud based accounting software it will remember client details, you can email out the invoice and the system will automatically generate reminders for unpaid accounts. They can even connect to many CRM systems to allow for even more detailed reporting of the sales process.
3. Payroll & Super
The ATO are now requiring more transparency and frequency when it comes to both payroll and super. While this takes a bit of focus to set up, in the long run it makes the process a lot easier and means that you are on top of your requirements. Using a cloud based accounting software is crucial to making these steps a click of a button to complete.
4. Collecting Receipts
We all know that collecting receipts and ensuring that they are kept in a manageable way is difficult. We now get receipts in multiple forms such as online, email and printed making it even harder to keep track of. Even if you do have a folder or shoe box for your printed receipts the paper and ink used means that they can often fade over the years and be useless when it comes to an audit. Using an automation tool such as Receipt Bank will help you collect your receipts on the cloud. They will even extract data from PayPal, Dropbox and your bank feeds. You can then have them automatically connect through to your cloud accounting software. Even more impressive is that you can also use this to capture employee expenses.
5. Taking Payments
Allowing multiple payment methods gives clients multiple ways to pay you. This means that you often get your money faster and easier. When sending out invoices include a number of payment methods such as direct deposit, credit card (through Stripe or similar) or PayPal. Payment through these methods also helps with reconciliation as they appear in your bank statement and your accounting software can identify the match to the invoice.
At Sum & Substance we are passionate about helping small businesses run smoothly and efficiently. If you would like our support in setting up some of these systems please contact us.
