Being around a few of my friends this weekend who work for large corporates, it struck me that small businesses have an exceptional opportunity when it comes to the accounting capabilities to which you now have access.
As a small business, in the past you have been greatly hindered by the software that is available to you.
You’ve gotten by with Excel spreadsheets and paperwork stuffed into shoeboxes and pockets, and your accountant pulled it all together once a year.
After the initial gasp or two at how much tax you have to pay, you sorted it out and got back to what you were doing – running your business.
And if you wanted corporate-style capabilities and reporting, such as the automated raising of invoices, or detailed cash flow reports complete with graphs and executive summaries, the costs of this kind of software were laughable for your size of business.
So small businesses struggled on with accounting software that you downloaded onto your computer and hardly ever looked at. Or you would make a new resolution to use it properly this year, and after three hours of swearing at the terminal and nearly pulling your hair out, you decided to go back to your Excel spreadsheet and let the accountant figure it out.
Well, Xero cloud accounting software has been a real game-changer for the small business.
No longer are you penalised for being small. As a matter of fact, you are rewarded for it.
You’re encouraged to be as small or as large as you’d like to be – and the cloud accounting software that’s available to you as a small business has all the capability of what the “traditional accounting platforms” have had – but at a fraction of the cost and about a thousand times the ease of use. Xero may not be the only cloud accounting software in the game, but in our opinion it’s the only one on the table. (It’s the only one on the MAP table, anyway.)
And the reason for this is the robust accounting capabilities that are now available to you – on your smartphone. Within a few minutes, or possibly even seconds, you can:
- Claim expenses
- Raise invoices
- Pay bills
- Chase debts
- Reconcile bank accounts
And there’s far more.
One of the most comprehensive beauties of Xero cloud accounting software is the 400+ add-ons that integrate seamlessly with the Xero software so that it’s not just about your accounts anymore.
That’s the key.
The 400+ add-ons is where Xero has really come into its own – and where you can benefit in a greater way than you ever did before.
The Xero add-ons are applications that do far more for you than just accounting and tax – but they integrate with the numbers which are critical to your business.
At MAP, we’re passionate about the numbers. Identifying what your current numbers are. Identifying which numbers will make you the most profitable.
Tracking those numbers so you can make good business decisions about how to improve them. And making further decisions as you review so that the numbers go higher and higher (or lower and lower, depending on the type of number), and your business succeeds like it never has before.
Now you as the small business have a top-class accounting software, customised to your unique needs, business type and industry, and you have the reporting capabilities that some large businesses probably aren’t taking advantage of.
And you didn’t have to pay an Oracle consultant to do it – or mortgage your life and promise your firstborn child, either.
