6 Technologies Transforming Small Business Accounting 

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Technology can streamline your data entry, expense tracking, payroll and even assist you in creating bids for jobs, so you can focus on what you do well.

There are a lot of options and apps; two of the most well-known are QuickBooks Online and Receipt Bank. Working together, they allow you and your staff to upload receipts, track expenses and make HST and other tax payments.

At Mason Miller, we can help you create a technology plan that is customized and enables you to easily monitor staffing and supply costs or accurately and quickly project costs for a job bid, as well as how to ensure your books are correct by reconciling your data.

Let’s take a few quick looks at some of the major apps available.

1. QuickBooks

Want quick access from your mobile phone or tablet to your profit and loss accounts and other business accounts?  You can easily access all your accounts through Quickbooks Online (QBO). 

Connect your business’ bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks Online and let it automatically import your transactions for your review and processing (this process provides a bank feed to review and enter transactions, but it does not necessarily replace the bookkeeping process or the need for bookkeeping knowledge/support). QuickBooks Online will sort them for you according to the rules you set up for expense and income accounts. QuickBooks also features a dashboard so you can track spending in categories, see trends and run reports. The bottom line is QuickBooks eliminates tons of data entry, helps you understand spending and allows you to keep your books up to date. It is one of the best tools for small business accounting. 

Additional benefits include: 

• Better shared access to data with employees and your accountant
• Ability to automatically send invoice, statements and reports
• Track inventory 
• Phone or tablet app access to manage your business from anywhere
• Integration with other apps to help manage your business and track expenses

2. Receipt Bank

Imagine never having to sort through receipts again, and instead of snapping a photo with your phone. Just like many of the consumer coupon-clipping apps, Receipt Bank enables you and your staff to snap a photo of a receipt.

 “What? You mean I will never have to save my paper receipts again if I just use this app to snap a photo?” one client said in disbelief.

Yes, that’s right. One of your least favourite things to do is suddenly replaced with a snap on your phone. Gone is the wallet or purse stuffed with receipts, along with the need to manually input the information. Receipt Bank offers easy automation that helps you track your spending in various categories and line items. You can rest assured that because everyone’s snapping, every expense is getting inputted and every tax-time deduction can be made – and proven. Watch the video at Receipt Bank.

Beyond the banking and bookkeeping, there are other apps that can help you grow your business as you are freed up to grow your business.  Of course, the CRA has standards about recordkeeping and you can learn more at Businesses – Keeping Records & Acceptable Formats.

 

3. Knowify

Knowify is a cloud-based, customized project software for those in the construction industry.

Once you enter in the various lines for staff and supplies costs, as well as the text for job bids and the structure of a project budget, you can manage all of these costs in real-time. 

Using a smartphone app, employees can check-in and out of the job site; Knowify will track the costs for the various trades, as well as create a supplies budget.

For contract bids, you can accurately create a proposal with staffing and supplies costs, add explanatory text and email the proposal to the client, who can e-sign the document and return it to you. When that occurs, Knowify creates an active project using the information laid out in the proposal. Knowify then creates a GANTT chart and staffing plan, so employees know when and where to report to work on each project. Up-to-date project costs are easy to obtain, which makes it easy to invoice the client. 

Check out a demo of Knowify here

4. Shopify

Shopify supports entrepreneurs — whether artisans, artists, bakers, consultants or those who provide services — to succeed in business. The e-commerce platform makes selling easier, whether online or in real life. Shopify’s client base includes big and small businesses, ranging from Nestle and Allbirds to small boutique firms.

Shopify opens the world to entrepreneurs as the platform enables them to sell products to anyone anywhere. It brings together an e-commerce store, marketing and social media advertising campaigns and enables the transaction to occur conveniently and easily for mobile users. 

Shopify’s dashboard helps sellers manage orders and payments as well, critical for bookkeeping and passing on taxes collected. 

5. PayPal and Stripe

PayPal and Stripe are known for online payment processing, but Stripe also offers payment processing.

PayPal allows customers to pay a merchant using their own online PayPal balance or a credit or debit card. For businesses, it can do more, including issuing online and in-app invoicing and donation and buy buttons. PayPal offers a variety of service plans, so you can choose which fits best with your business and your budget.

Stripe offers invoicing, recurring billing and subscription tools, as well as support for online and in-app checkouts, credit cards and localized payment methods. It includes advanced fraud management tools, SQL-based business intelligence and can also manage employee expense accounts. Unlike PayPal, which is more user-friendly, Stripe requires expertise with coding and accounting expertise. 

For a more in-depth comparison of the two, check out this article, at Merchant Maverick and then come to us for more customized advice; find out more about how we can help you Accounting & Bookkeeping Services.

6. Pagecloud 

PageCloud‘s powerful drag-and-drop website builder gives you everything you need to succeed online. With lots of beautiful themes to choose from, an intuitive interface, and opportunities to add custom code, PageCloud’s flexible, easy-to-use platform is a great fit for individual entrepreneurs or small businesses — in other words, anyone looking for an easy way to create a professional-looking website on a budget.

The PageCloud platform combines the functionality and features of a content management system (CMS) and a site building/design tool. PageCloud makes it easy to build and manage a website by including fast and reliable hosting, automatic SSL, custom domains, and professional email support.

As you can see, technology can be a key input in your business. At Mason Miller, we understand technology, accounting and business management. We can help you find the best technology for your business, help you set it up and show you make the most of it so you can harness its power to make each day more profitable and use the insights technology delivers to grow your business. Put the paper and worry away and contact us about harnessing the power of technology to save you time, worry and money.