Streamline your business administration with digital record keeping

Good record keeping is the mainstay of accounts management. It assists you to both meet your compliance obligations and provide verification for all your business transactions.

The Government requires that relevant records exist to support all business transactions – purchases, sales, payroll, and other business matters such as loans or foreign currency dealings. It is a business owner’s responsibility to maintain and store accurate records for all financial transactions.

Did you know that you are allowed to store all business records digitally? This is both more efficient and sustainable than having to keep years’ worth of paper records at your office.

The most important thing to take care of if you are moving to electronic record keeping is the security of your information.

Using cloud accounting platforms, such as Xero, with add-on apps and systematic electronic record keeping makes it so much easier to run your business. 

This is because you will not waste time trying to find documents when you need them; whether that’s for yourself, your bookkeeper or your tax agent.

Most government departments allow business records to be either in paper or digital format. The legal requirements for record keeping are the same, regardless of format.

All records must be:

• True and correct
• Unaltered once stored
• In English and legible
• Stored in a secure system, whether physical or digital
• Easily accessible if required
• Held securely for the statutory five to seven years, depending on the type of record.

For best protection, store records both locally on your business computers and secure external online storage. This makes the records easily accessible from anywhere at any time.

Always take care of who has what level of access to your documents and manage user access accordingly.

If you need help understanding which apps will work with your business systems, we'd love to hear from you.

What are the benefits of forecasting?

There are many benefits to forecasting for your business.

First and foremost is that you’re more likely to maximise your profits if you are able to accurately project your revenues and expenses.

Additionally, accurate forecasting helps you to identify potential opportunities and manage your cashflow. And when you have this information you are able to make educated decisions at the right time for your business.

Here are some examples of questions that an accurate forecast of your cash flow could help you answer:

• Can i start creating a new product/service?
• Can I open a new office/location or start selling in a different area/country?
• Can I afford another member of staff or outsourced assets?
• Can I take more money out of my business?
• Am I at risk of running out of cash?

How do you create a forecast?

The short answer is you don’t have to do it manually anymore.

Forecasting Apps, such as Futrli, mean that the complex, manual time-consuming forecasting is a thing of the past. Forecasting is now possible with the click of a button.

An added benefit of using Futrli to forecast, is that you can test out your decisions before you make them.

Using automated predictions means you have a second brain on your business 24/7.

Futrli

• Creates separate predictions for invoices, cash transactions and journal entries
• Works out how many days it takes for invoices to be paid for every account
• Considers ‘what we thought the month will look like’ compared to current month actuals and adjusts accordingly
• Reads account names and looks for account-specific patterns
• Creates staff payroll predictions just like your payroll software does

And the information is presented in chart format, making it easy to understand.

How far into the future should I forecast?

Forecasts are most beneficial for looking at the next year. They should be used in the short term for immediate planning and decision making and medium to long term to assess and extrapolate current trends.

It’s important to remember that the further you look into the future, the less accurate your cash flow forecast will be as there are too many unknowns yet to pass.

Talk to us about forecasting and how Futrli can benefit your business. 

Xero's short-term cashflow feature for businesses

Business cashflow is simply money coming in and money going out of the business. Your outgoings will include things like rent, payroll, taxes and supplies. Your income will be revenue from sales but might also include investment funds or the sale of assets.

For most businesses, income and expenditure don’t always happen at the same time so focussing on strong cashflow management will help you prepare for the shortfalls and also manage surplus income.

Cashflow reports allow you to look back at cashflow in your business. This can uncover cashflow patterns over time and show you how much money you need to run your business each month.

Cashflow forecasts look forward by combining payment dates and due dates for invoices, to give you an idea of what your cashflow will be like going forward.

Managing healthy cashflow

Xero’s short-term cash flow feature gives you an up-to-date dashboard view of your organisation's cashflow. You can choose multiple bank accounts and see the projected cashflow over 7-30 days. The more information you include, the more accurate your forecast will be.

Healthy cashflow management gives you better control, so you are more prepared for growth or for the unexpected. Read the article at Xero Central to learn more about this feature.

We can help. Talk to us about improving your business cashflow.

Social distancing: Running effective online meetings

In unprecedented times, businesses must adapt to remain productive. If face-to-face meetings are a key part of your daily business operation, here are some tips to take your meetings online with minimal disruption.

Find the best system for you

There's a range of free or low-cost platforms, including GoToMeeting, ezTalks, Join.me, Zoom, Google Hangouts, and TeamViewer.

Before you choose one, consider:

• How many people generally attend your meetings?
• Do you require screen share functionality?
• How many meetings do you run? (If it’s a lot, a small monthly subscription may pay off due to better functionality)

Schedule your meeting

Depending on your chosen system, consider how you schedule your online meetings. It may be that you include a link generated by your system into an email calendar invitation. However you do it, make it easy for your meeting attendees to be reminded of the meeting and access the meeting at the time.

Check your tech

Do you need a webcam (usually built into laptops) or an audio headset? These are a must for any online meeting. Communicate the need for this technology to your meeting attendees, and if required consider completing a quick online tech-check before the first meeting.

Set a clear agenda

Like any face-to-face meeting, you’ll need a well-structured agenda to follow. You’ll also need to specify the time a length of the meeting, and respect this. Decide who will take minutes, define the next steps, and if appropriate - BAMFAM (Book a meeting, from a meeting).

Does it need a meeting?

These unfortunate times act as a friendly reminder that some meetings can be emails. Consider using free tools such as Loom to document a longer and more engaging message in a video to send via email. The recipient can view the video multiple times before responding, resulting in a more considered reply.

Online meetings have been a great tool for global businesses for some time; maybe it’s time for your business to adopt online meetings as part of social distancing. They also create capacity for you to do other, more productive, things through reduced time spent travelling to face-to-face meetings.

We can help you.

Talk to us about which apps will best suit your team.

There's an App for that!

Are you overwhelmed with paperwork? Or do you spend too much time wading through administrative tasks? Do you need more time for key staff communications?

As life gets more frenetic, it’s worth looking at utilising the tools to help improve workflows and productivity. In an ‘always on’ digital world, it’s time to get the technology working for you.

But with so many out there, which do you choose?

The idea is to spend less time on admin - not more. So, we have done the research for you.

The following Apps can help streamline your business operation and maximise productivity.

Evernote 

Keeps your notes organized. They can also be files, photos and voice memos. Great for projects, sharing information and collaboration.

Trello

Great for project management.Like an online ‘to-do’ list, your Trello board is the place to organize your tasks, keep track of due dates and keep everyone in the loop on a project.

Google suite 

If you use gmail you can use google suite.You get easy creation, collaboration and sharing of documents (Google Docs), spreadsheets (Google Sheets), presentations (Google Slides) and more.

Toggl

Tracks time on tasks and projects. You can set up manual time entry or put a timer into any web tool making the whole process easier and providing valuable information for billing but also to track your productivity.

Sl​​​​ack

Slack is a communication channel designed specifically for teams. Teams create dedicated channels for projects or areas of work so that the members have all the information in one place.

Zoom

Video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars. Zoom allows participants to join a meeting from their desktop, mobile and tablet device. Easy to set up and free for up to 50 participants for a maximum of 40 minutes.

WhatsApp 

Send messages, images, audio or video.The app allows you to automate, and quickly respond to messages from customers. Also great for sports teams or other groups.

Other Business Apps

We specialise in understanding the different options of business apps for different industries and businesses. And, we can provide you with insights and guidance on what Apps would best suit your business. 

Talk to us today about finding the right Apps to help you grow your business.