Having proper control of your business finances is a big advantage.

It helps you make well-informed business decisions and keeps your organization profitable.

With so many digital tools for managing your bookkeeping, accounting and management reporting, it’s never been easier to manage, track and forecast your financial position.

But what are the main tools you need? And how do you set up your financial systems, apps, processes and reporting to put yourself back in the finance driving seat?

1. Bring your bookkeeping into the digital age

Digital bookkeeping apps are a great way to digitize your receipts, records and source documents. This not only saves a lot of time at year-end, it also makes it much easier for you to keep track of your company’s finances and accounting. Keeping your receipts in a box to manually enter at period-end is no longer enough. Take the next step and digitize your receipts at source, so you have up-to-date digital records and copies of source documents.

Optical character recognition (OCR) software, like Dext Prepare or Auto Entry, scans the receipt, converts it into a digital format and stores it in the cloud.

2. Do your accounting in the cloud

Cloud accounting is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that helps you carry out all your main accounting and financial management online, without having to install any software.

Cloud accounting providers, like Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB or Sage, design their accounting platforms to take the pain and hassle of business accounting. You get all the tools and features you need to work on your accounting tasks. And your platform provider will also take care of all the data storage, backups and security of your data.

A good cloud accounting platform does more than just save your hard drive space. It also provides you with tools and dashboards that improve your access to management information, financial reporting, forecasting and projections, performance tracking and more.

3. Use the latest in expense management tools

Expense management can be a time-consuming and tedious job. But it’s also a vital task that helps you ensure you’re spending company money wisely and not overspending. If employees start going over their budget limits, this can be a costly mistake for the company and your cashflow.

Expense management tools, such as Soldo, Weel or Pleo, help you manage staff spending by giving employees virtual cards that are linked to a specific budget, account and code. This helps you track their expenses easily and make sure they’re staying within their budgeted limits. These platforms also give you detailed reporting and analytics, so you can see where money is being spent, and where savings can be made.

4. Make it easy to accept digital payments

The problem of slow payment is one of the most frustrating things for small businesses. If your customers don’t pay on time, this can result in a loss of revenue, poor cashflow and an inability to cover your basic costs and overheads. To resolve this issue, many companies have begun to switch to digital payment platforms that make it simpler, faster and easier to collect payment.

Payment platforms, like PayPal, Square or Stripe offer faster payment times and more control over the customer experience. Some platforms even integrate with your cloud accounting, so you get automatic bank reconciliations.

5. Embrace the latest in digital reporting and forecasting

With digital accounting changing so rapidly in recent years, there’s never been a better time to embrace the benefits of the latest in digital reporting and forecasting.

Economic conditions are hard to predict. So it’s crucial to be able to quickly analyze data, check your performance and make predictions about how your company will fare in the coming months. When you use cloud solutions for financial reporting and key metrics, you’ll be able to monitor trends in real-time while having access to the data anytime, anywhere.

Having this information at your fingertips helps you make informed decisions faster than ever before – and that translates that into more sales, increased business growth and bigger profits.

Talk to us about updating your financial systems

If you’re looking to give your finances a touch of digital magic, please do come and talk to us.

We can walk you through the best cloud platforms, fintech apps and business tools to add to your app stack – so you’re ready to make the most of a digital approach to your finances

Get in touch to supercharge your finances.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Making good business decisions is easier to do when you have excellent information at your fingertips – and that’s the value of having great reporting at the heart of your startup.

Any cloud accounting software worth its salt will offer you straightforward ways to run your financial reports and track your important metrics. That’s standard in the new digital world. And this level of reporting gives you real, tangible data on which to base your decision-making. But good decision-making isn’t just about the numbers.

As well as having an effective understanding of your finances, you need a sense of what’s good for the business, how decisions will impact on your growth and what your future path looks like.

Here are 5 tips to help you get started:

1. Run management information at least once a month

Modern cloud accounting software makes it easier than ever to run detailed, up-to-date reporting on your financial position. With the click of a button, you can run numerous in-depth reports and statements that show your past and future position. Doing this regularly gives you a wealth of financial information on which to base your decision-making and strategic thinking.

At each stage in your startup’s growth, you’ll have to make important decisions about your next step – so, it’s important to think about the financial implications of any new projects, the amount of cash in the business and the availability of new sources of funding.

2. Use metrics and projections to inform your decision-making

Setting up a custom dashboard to monitor the most important metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) is definitely a good idea. Most accounting apps will let you tailor your dashboard, so you can pick and choose from KPIs that are most relevant to your startup.

Set clear and democratic targets for all your main KPIs and track them on a weekly basis, so you’re monitoring the financial heartbeat of the business. If cashflow is looking poor, look at freeing up some cash, or borrowing money to fill the gap. If sales revenues are dropping, put some renewed vigor into your sales activity, or get a new marketing campaign underway to raise awareness of your most profitable products and services.

3. Talk to your board and executive team when scenario-planning

You may be the sole founder of your startup, or you may be part of a bigger team of co-founders. But the reality is that no one person can make all the decisions in a busy startup. To get the best overview of a challenge, or to come up with an effective way to grab a potential opportunity, you need to talk to your team – that’s the only way to get an effective consensus.

Talk through the current threats and opportunities and run through as many different potential scenarios as possible. What’s the best-case scenario, and how can you achieve it? What’s the worst-case scenario, and how do you plan for it, if things don’t go according to plan?

4. Work closely with an experienced external adviser

When you’re working in the business 24/7, it’s hard to see the business in an objective way. Your judgement on some issues can be overly emotional and clouded by internal or political factors. Working with an experienced accountant, business adviser or business coach brings a fresh perspective to the business – both financially, strategically and emotionally.

Having a trusted external accountant on the team helps you get your numbers straight. But they can also bring their knowledge and experience to bear on your strategic thinking, your decision-making and the impact of the business on your own mental health and wellbeing.

You can open up to them about your worries, share your aspirations for the business and bounce strategic ideas off them – taking some of the pressure off your shoulders.

5. Track how you’re measuring against your goals

To meet your goals and make good business decisions, it’s helpful to monitor and track your progress against these targets. If you refer to your reporting and KPI metrics, you can easily measure your performance over time – and take action if progress is starting to slip.

Areas to keep an eye can include your:

• Cashflow position – to make sure there’s enough cash in the business to keep your project moving forward and heading towards the agreed end goal.
• Sales figures and revenue – so you can see how you’re tracking against your sales targets and if the intended revenue from the project is being achieved.
• Budgets and expenses – to check that you’re not overspending on your project and that the team is being sensible with costs, expenses and essential overheads.
• Gross margin percentage – so you can keep the business profitable and aim to meet your profit targets for the period, or year-end.
• Growth against targets – to keep the business performing well and growing at the rate you predicted to meet your growth target for the period.

Making a few bad decisions along the way is all part of the learning process. But by monitoring your performance and talking to the best advisers, it’s easier to keep the business on track.

If you’re at the early stages of planning out your business idea, please do get in touch. We’ll help you set up the best possible management information, to help guide your decision-making.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Without your customers, you have no business.

It’s their engagement, loyalty and sales that power your cashflow and drive the business to new heights.

But when was the last time you reviewed your customer service levels?

And how often are you talking to your customers to find out if they’re happy, satisfied and still true advocates for the business?

Let’s dive into the power of great customer service and asking for honest feedback.

Why is customer service so important?

We live in a hybrid world, where customer interactions are as likely to take place online as they are in person. Customers follow you on social media and advertising can help you target specific customer demographics with almost forensic levels of detail.

But people buy from people, and that’s why treating your customers in an open, honest and welcoming way is so vital to the success of your small business.

What do customers want from your business?

Customer needs drive your business strategy (and if they don’t, then it’s time to review your strategy!). But what does the average customer want from your business?

Overall, customers want:

1. Reliability: Customers want your small business to consistently deliver on its promises, and to deliver your products/service on time, every time, without excuses.
2. Personalized service: Customers want to feel known and valued as individuals. They like tailored solutions and responsive communication that’s aimed specifically at their needs.
3. High quality: Customers expect your products and/or services to consistently meet or exceed their expected standards. They want their problem understood and solved, quickly.
4. Clear communication: Customers like your communication to be clear, transparent and as simple as possible. They want to contact you easily and get prompt responses to all enquiries.
5. Great value: Customers expect a good balance between price and quality. They want a product that adds value, but at a competitive price that they feel is fair.

Keyways to find out what your customers are thinking

Building relationships, understanding your customers and learning their basic needs sits at the heart of tailoring and updating your business strategy.

So, how do you find out what’s going on in your customers’ minds?

Here are a few ways to gather customer feedback and insights:

1. Post-interaction surveys:

Once you’ve made a sale, send the customer a short, targeted survey. Use this as a chance to ask why they chose your product/service and how they rated the interaction. Keep it short and concise but look for the service pain points and highlight any areas that could be improved.

2. Engage on social media:

Actively monitor and engage with customer comments, mentions, and direct messages on your social media platforms. It’s a good idea to use polls or direct questions to gather opinions and collate more customer data. This shows customers their feedback is valued and acted on.

3. Direct feedback forms/buttons:

Put easy-to-use feedback forms or feedback buttons on your website, app and e-commerce store. This gives customers a convenient, non-intrusive way to share their suggestions or report issues. It’s quick, simple and gives you instant direct feedback from your customer base.

4. Incentivized feedback programs:

Offer small incentives (discount codes, loyalty points) for completing surveys or providing detailed feedback. This boosts your response rates and encourages customers to invest some of their time in offering constructive criticism.

5. Personalized follow-ups:

For more complex services or larger projects, make sure you have post-project meetings or personalized email/phone follow-ups with the customer. This is a great forum for customers to give feedback and get the snags, frustrations, high points and wins off their chest.

You’ll get deeper qualitative insights, and it demonstrates a commitment to open communication. Start talking with your valued customers.

Your customer base is one of the most valuable assets in your business. So, make sure you’re using every channel possible to talk to your customers and meet their expectations.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.