The future is here, now.
You may remember the “good old days” where you took a brown paper bag to your accountant who would then spend hours putting old tatty receipts in order and logging them individually by hand. Not any more - welcome to the cloud!
Is Cloud Accounting right for my business?
In short, the answer is almost definitely yes. The solutions we offer are remarkably simple yet extremely powerful.
Quick and Easy allowing trades-people to go from job to job and invoice on the go, with the power for large organisations to benefit from extensive dashboard reporting and more in-depth features. Read on to find out more…
What is Cloud Accounting?
Recording the income and expenditure of your business to keep track of your financial performance is the foundation of every busines. Double-entry bookkeeping has been around for hundreds of years; the Personal Computer brought us accounting software that hasn't really changed for decades making the ability to record and track company finances easier than before.
So, how does cloud accounting improve on this? Let’s take a look at the key differences:
Traditional Accounting Software
You may remember VisiCalc or Lotus 1-2-3 from the early days of accounting software. Most was desktop-based. In other words, the actual application was installed and run from the hard drive of your office computer. This had a number of drawbacks, including limited access to your data, the need for constant software updates and the ongoing cost of backing up all this financial information. GDPR brought in further rules and the need for protected off-site backups as well as updated security measures.
Cloud Accounting
Cloud accounting (or online accounting) has all the same functionality as desktop accounting, but moves the whole process to the cloud and expands upon it. There’s no desktop application – you log in to an always-up-to-date online solution and all data is safely stored in several locations on servers around the world - all robustly secure.
Benefits of Cloud Accounting
Moving accounting from the desktop to the cloud has been a huge leap forward in financial management, with many of the drawbacks and cost implications of traditional accounting being removed from the equation. But how exactly does cloud accounting benefit your business?
Below are the key areas where a cloud accounting system adds real, tangible value.
Access your accounts anywhere
With a mobile app that has most of the functionality of your desktop system (and is being constantly improved) you now can do things like create and email an invoice to a client while you are still at their premises or check to see if you really have been paid. You can add expenses on the go and forget about having to keep those petrol receipts.
Access to real-time information
So, you’ve got an idea – maybe you think you need a new member of staff, or you need to make a quick decision on an investment. You don’t have to look at the previous years accounts and take a stab – by creating reports in your software it’s easy to know exactly how profitable your business is today. Combined with good advice from Target Accounts, navigating growth and investment has never been easier. Xero is packed with useful detailed reports that you can drill through to individual transactions.
Access to the app ecosystem
Open APIs mean you can add a range of third-party apps and tools to expand your core business system. There are bill capture apps, cash flow forecasting apps, industry-specific project management tools, payroll add ons and a host of other practical solutions to choose from. These tools enable you to further save time, reduce resourcing costs, identify problems further in advance, and generally ease the pain of unnecessary admin that’s weighing you down.
Live bank feeds
Your business bank accounts should always be at the centre of your Company accounts. It is advisable to keep all the company spending coming from your business Current account and linked cards and not buy anything with your company account that is for your personal use. Keep a couple of savings accounts active too and regularly squirrel away money for tax bills and investments. A live feed pulls your bank data straight through into your accounting package every day. Now you can reconcile bank transactions as you go along and see an accurate view of your bank balance.
Always working with the latest software version
When you log in to your accounting platform in the cloud, you’re always using the latest version of the software. There’s no need for time-consuming and costly updates – you just sign in and start working. Plus, you don't have to be responsible for applying security fixes - your software provider will handle that for you automatically.
Secure sharing of data
When you’re working with your accountant, bank or other advisers, up to date and secure access to your accounts comes as standard with cloud accounting software. You can forget the risks of USB memory sticks or sending emails back and forth. Your advisers can have safe and secure access to the financial information they need, in real time. This means when you ring your accountant for advice and information, you know they can see what you’re talking about!. You can give others bespoke access too – let your staff create their own login to enter expenses, or generate quotes, for example without letting them see the financial ‘nuts and bolts’.
Target Accounts have been a Xero partner from the early years of cloud accounting. Xero is the preferred package for many accountants now because of it’s ease of use and flexibility to cope with your business demands, whatever the size of your business.
Let’s Work Together
It’s good to stay in touch - contact us via email (click this button) or give us a call on 01449 798444; and if you’d like to arrange an appointment to see us in person, please book a meeting with us so we can make sure we’re stocked up with your favorite biscuits.