Bookeeping Software

Every business has the responsibility of keeping accurate accounting records to judge the performance and profitability of their business. The first of this is called bookkeeping so the prime records, sales invoices and purchase invoices will be entered in the software.

You will then be able to allocate payments and receipts to a bank accounts either bank or credit card and then once this all reconciled you are certain that there are no missing errors, and this is accurate.

There may be external organisations that also need look at these and one of them is HM Revenue & Customs should they decide to investigate your or the company tax returns.

Having accurate and good accounting records can also make your accountancy fees cheaper as a lot of accountants these days work on a fixed price rather that time-based billing.

Once you reconcile the bank accounts you will have and accurate debtors and creditors list of who owes you money and who you owe money to.

Another great feature of these packages is to process your VAT returns through the software and submit them to HM Revenue & Customs electronically.

You can also run profit & loss reports to see how the performance of the company is doing.

Making Tax Digital

When making tax digital started with VAT on 01 April 2019 where you will have submitted your VAT return in digital format (no more typing the figures in to the government gateway) by using software this will make your VAT process easier to do.

If you submit this by software you will be able to save reports of exactly what is in the VAT return and you can review this before you submit the return to ensure you have not missed anything from this and also to review any errors that may me in the report.

Software Choices

You now have the choice of opting for desktop software or cloud-based packages and the difference will depend on your needs:

The traditional desktop programme you will be able to use on desktop or laptop and this will only be available on that machine so the only way to view this from an independent location is via an internet log in session.

The draw back of this is that only one person will be able to use this at a time so once the Accountant has the live data you cannot work on this.

A cloud-based package will give you greater flexibility as you can have multiple users and they can log on to this via the internet no need for remote log in sessions.

They all work in similar way and they would focus on the four main Customers, Suppliers, Bank Accounts, Dashboard and Reports

He dashboard will give you a snapshot or a picture of what the financial and key information of the business looks like.

The reports help you to see how the business is doing and you have a profit & loss so at the click of a button you can see wat your profit is like.

You can look at who has invoices outstanding by running a debtor’s report.

You can issue your sales invoices from the software so they look more professional and they can be emailed direct from the software along with reminders that it is still unpaid, and you can set this up.

One of the great aspects of using a cloud package is the apps that you can add on to your programme and these have generally been developed by other software companies but they just slot into the programme and incorporate and some examples could be t-sheets or stock inventory or even a small CRM system.

One application which is a great time saver is data caption software programmes such as IRIS Snap or Receipt Bank where you take photos of the purchase invoices and then submit them via the app on your smartphone which the get submitted directly into the software and direct into to relevant supplier account.

Company Growth

As your company grows with cloud based packages you can use automation to ease the burden of manually doing the tasks so if you do repeat invoices for the same amount this can be set to happen automatically as well getting paid by debit and credit card there is bank feeds that automatically feed the transactions into the package so the latest information is there for you.

Whichever route you decide to take you would be well advised to get training on this. If you do not get the training, then you run the risk of it all being input wrong and may have to pay for the bookkeeper or accountant to put this right which could be costly.

Automation

If you are looking for a time saving then you could look at data caption this is where you use software like Receipt Bank or IRIS Snap and instead of manually entering your invoices into the software either desktop or cloud version you can take a picture with your smartphone or tablet it then uploads it direct in to the software in the correct account e.g. Cubic Accountants for Accountancy & tax service.

There is a monthly cost for this and my belief is that time saving and accuracy of this out weighs the cost.

If you would like more information on this please get in touch:

Email; gary@cubicaccountants.co.uk

Phone: 07795 425032