All businesses, big and small, can find amazing insight in their financial data. For many, however, it’s often felt out of reach. Here we show you how even for the smallest businesses that’s no longer the case, with our simplified version of the traditional app stack.
Since we started in 2010 we’ve pioneered the use of technology to drive financial efficiency with Xero at the core. Often we would talk about an App Stack, a collection of best of breed apps that work together to help businesses thrive.
We’ve realised that the App Stack doesn’t tell the whole story. The technology is only useful if it engages the user, the human behind the business. We also know that the best results are achieved when the business owner has a partner to support them alongside the tech.
We’re therefore delighted to introduce the Raedan TrifectaTM. Not a new way of working for us but a visual representation of the importance of technology alongside a strong relationship with your accountant.
You
It all starts with you, the creatively minded business owner. It’s your ideas and enthusiasm that started your business but you know you need to understand the finances to truly drive things forward. Maybe it’s time holding you back, you can’t get the finances in order? Or maybe it’s language, you need support deciphering what the numbers are telling you?
So, what’s the answer?
Partnerships
No business is an island! The most successful businesses gain support and create partnerships.
One of the most important partnerships for a business has been shown to be that with an accountant or bookkeeper. Someone who both understands the figures and your business (or possibly more importantly you). Who understands that for you to be able to make great decisions you need up to date financials. If you’re not sure how that might differ from traditional accounting read our blog: [Real-time Accounting vs. The Old Way: There’s only one winner].
Tech
So then you add great tech. That helps with efficiency, which gives the time for better conversations, which in turn leads to better insight.
But it’s no good using technology for technology’s sake. We want you to be engaged with both us as a support team and the technology available. So when we chose the software we suggest to our clients, we test it to make sure that it is engaging and user friendly. That it works the way we believe business owners want to work, not the way accountants work.
We’ve mentioned Xero is it the core of the tech we use. If you don’t use it already you can find out more on our dedicated Xero page here. With it being the hub of our financial data, we’re always keen to use apps that integrate or play nicely as we like to put it!
So let’s take a look at some of the key solutions we feel augment a great relationship with your accountant and Xero. Importantly, we put them in the order required to create a great process for your business.
Receipt Bank – Data Capture
Receipt Bank is expense management software that makes bookkeeping effortless. It is our number one Xero add-on for creatives. Find out more on our website.
Fluidly – Cash Management
Fluidly uses artificial intelligent to automate cash flow forecasting and help businesses manage cash. Still a young product it has a hugely exciting roadmap in terms of features. Again we have a dedicated page with more info!
GoCardless – Better Cash Flow
This year GoCardless won the Xero App Partner of the year award and it’s so well deserved. They provide a brilliant and easy to use system to take payment by Direct Debit. Driven by the invoices you already have in Xero it reduces admin and increases cash flow, what’s not to love!
Soldo – Expense Management
Soldo helps businesses manage expenses through the use of pre-paid debit cards and a very clever App. It is one of the first add-ons to use the new Xero Bank Feeds API leading to seamless integration with your Xero data.
FUTRLI – Data Visualisation
FUTRLI provides a more visual platform to help users understand key information from their businesses. It links syncs daily with Xero to help analyse accounting data and also supports the addition of non-financial information such as client numbers, marketing performance and lead conversion.
Practice Ignition – Proposals
Practice Ignition (PI) is the platform we use to send out our proposals and engage clients. As a firm of Chartered Accountants the rules around engagement are very strict, what used to take hours now takes seconds thanks to PI.
The great news for you is that it can be used for proposals for any form of service company not just accountants.
Karbon – Communication and workflow
We started using Karbon in January 2017, testing its feature before rolling it out across the company. Many of us used to use our Inbox as a to-do list, alongside a more traditional list. Karbon is brilliant because it combines the two giving one central place to drive workflows from.
They too have extended their offering beyond just accountants and we think it’s a great choice for agencies.
Slack – Communication and notifications
Slack is probably the one app that none of our team ever close. It’s brilliant for communicating amongst the team and also with clients. It also provides a hub for notifications from many of the apps listed here and our website. It’s already hugely popular amongst creative businesses…so you probably already have it installed!
LastPass – Password management
As this article shows, businesses rely on a number of apps all needing their own passwords and as such it’s vital we all get to grips with password management. Many of us are guilty of using the same password for all our logins, a risk we shouldn’t take with our business data. LastPass will generate secure passwords for you and store them securely so you don’t have to remember them (or write them down next to your computer!).
One of our favourite features is the ability to share access to systems with both our team and clients, without having to reveal the password.
…and more!
There are a great many other’s we could mention, along with ‘connectors’ like Zapier that allow you to build custom integrations but it’s clear there are some amazing apps that can help you create efficiency in your business, you just shouldn’t have to wade through a whole app stack to get there! Creating time for better partnerships with those that can help you achieve your goals.
If you’d like to see how you can use systems like these to digitise your business and how Raedan can support you, we’d love to hear from you!
