Assuming you already use cloud accounting software (and you’re mad if you don’t!), there are numerous other apps in the eco system that can enhance your business; save you time and free you up to get on with your driving your business forward.
No one wants to waste time with data entry or key strokes. We all want things to be streamlined and efficient. We want data analytics and information. When I’m discussing ways to digitally transform the businesses of my clients, I talk about leverage the tech that is available to us. Letting the tech do the heavy lifting. Here are 5 apps that I use and regularly recommend.
1. Harvest – easy online time tracking
Gone is the notebook or excel spreadsheet with times spent on jobs or clients. Welcome to Harvest! This time tracker lets you set up clients; projects; jobs; billable and non billable work. You can put in agreed project prices and track time against that. It has great reporting options and can even issue invoices for you
2. Trello – intuitively simply boards; lists and cards
I organise myself with Trello. Like all cloud based solutions; I can have it on my phone and my desktop. I can share boards with clients or team members; set due dates; allocate tasks to people. If it’s on there, it gets done!
3. Receiptbank – the pre-accounting tool
OCR or optical character recognition is instrumental in cutting down on key strokes for data entry. Receiptbank takes your bills and receipts and extracts the key pieces of data from them and uploads them to your accounting software. If you or your book-keeper aren’t using this or an equivalent, you’re missing out big time! It saves time and therefore money and is highly accurate
4. Practice Ignition – from proposal to paid
This software enables me, quickly and seamlessly, to put scope of works and quotes together for new clients. It invoices for me and collects the payment. I don’t waste time anymore invoicing or chasing payment. Simples!
5. Payment gateways
There are numerous payment gateways and some cost more than others. I recently converted my school’s P&C to Square but have used Stripe myself. Integrating something like Stripe into Xero is so easy. The fees paid for using this far outstrips the time saved by facilitating easy payment for your customers and removing some need for you to chase payment. Customers are more likely to pay if they can simply click through.
It always pays to check in with your network and see what they’re using to power up their business!
