A business process, if boiled down to numbers, is nothing but an account of earnings and expenditures. Business owner spends on the resources like man, materials, land and technology and generate revenues off these by selling the final product, service of consultation. Even a cup of tea served to a visitor is a business expense and can never be neglected. Though recording of expenses and earnings is not that complicated a process, but the factoring of taxes is what makes the whole process quite difficult to follow. This is where bookkeeping software steps in and offers a fool-proof way of accounting both the sales and expenses including the taxes involved.
Bookkeeping software can replace a number of instruments used for accounting such as cash book, balance sheet, etc. One can always have the soft copy of profit and loss statement, account of payables and receivables and so on at one place in bookkeeping software. This ease of having multiple records at one place helps small businesses in the following ways.
• Manage cash inflows and outflows: Cash is the everyday tool a business requires. All the processes typical to a normal day can be managed when the cash flow is managed correctly and regularly. The bookkeeping software is designed to enable entering of each and every transaction occurred during a day. This eliminates the need to refer to bank account daily. Only thing to assure is that the initial bank figures are reconciled with the software before starting to use it. Rest that follows is an error-free account that can give the correct picture of cash position to the business owner.
• Prepare invoices: The bookkeeping software is provided with the templates for making customer invoice. The invoice works as fool-proof record of the sale made by the business. Thus, one can club all invoices’ figures and find the total sales. Similarly, the invoices received from the vendors and suppliers can be uploaded in the bookkeeping software to find the exact amount of payables. Thus, the businesses can take timely actions as regards to the payables and avert losses.
• Clock the employee work hours: The bookkeeping software can be integrated with the employee in and out timings recorded through bio-metric means or through payroll software. The information about total work hours of the employees can help in calculating payable salary, first. Second, it also helps in finding the non-performing employees and take decisions regarding their training needs or for deciding about the lay-offs. Bookkeeping software helps in managing job cost by giving the daily performance information to the decision makers of the business.
• Deducting the repetitive expenses automatically: The bookkeeping software comes with a facility of pre-feeding the regularly due payments which are of fixed nature. For example, rent amount or mortgage payment, as applicable, can be pre-fed in the software and the deduction takes place on the set date, making it easy for the businesses to plan the expenses of such nature in a better way. The software also allows entering this expense a few days in advance to prepare and arrange for the payment beforehand. Thus, it helps in managing the image of a trustworthy and reliable business.
• Easy reconciliation of all heads of expenses: Bookkeeping allows keeping track of all the expenses occurred under various heads simultaneously. That is, the loans repayment module, expenses made by credit card, payroll liabilities and payables to vendors and authorities – all of these can be accounted for in the single module. This makes it easier to find overall picture of expenses made and due at any point of time. Using a business expense tracker software allows you to have all your expense records in one place, making it easy to track each expense made for your business. Any decision pertaining to purchasing, selling, financing, etc. can be made with the help of the reconciliation procedures.
• Check printing: The check printing facility eliminates the process of data entry for paid dues. One can have the record of check numbers, amount and date stored at one place in the bookkeeping software. This reduces the effort of referring to bank statements where knowing beneficiary name is not possible at times. Thus, check printing feature allows the users to keep track of payables and paid expenditures and offers clear overview of cash flow.
• Integrating online banking downloads: All the records of online banking download can be saved in the bookkeeping software. This software not only integrates the records from the banks, but also from the financial institutions which offer the facility to do so.
• Ease of journal entries: Journal maintenance is the classic activity that goes with maintaining accounts. Bookkeeping software is designed keeping the importance of this activity in mind. The businesses rely heavily on journal entries to find issues or fix errors, if any. The ease of journal entries in the bookkeeping software makes the whole process of accounting easier and one can continue doing the accounting the traditional way, if required. This flexibility to use all kinds of accounting methods certainly helps small businesses a lot.
• Acceptance of online payments: The bookkeeping software is designed keeping the present trend of online shopping in mind. The bookkeepers can offer the buyers the option of paying less commission as compared to what is charged by the banks in the online payments. Thus, the businesses can cut on the cost of merchant processing fees and get the payments faster too. This certainly reduces the receivables to a large extent, allowing which to grow makes recovery difficult and affects the margins badly.
• Emailing of invoice: Prepare invoice and send it directly to the customer’s email ID. You can get the acknowledgement, too, for such emails sent. This makes the whole recovery process fast and accountable. It also helps in easy handing over of the job to the next person when the new person is appointed for the same job.
Download QuickBooks, the most trusted bookkeeping software, that does all the functions mentioned above and makes the accounting an easy process for the businesses of all sizes and scales.