Over our time, we’ve dealt with a lot of business owner’s accounts, and in doing so, we’ve dealt with a lot of spreadsheets.
This isn’t just another one of those blogs in the crowd of information about Making Tax Digital. We’re not writing this to induce widespread panic, and it’s not just an excuse to big up Xero.
Yes, tax is going digital very soon, and we will discuss what’s required of you here. But, more importantly, what we’re here to do is give you the the benefit of our experience working with all kinds of business owners who’ve seen their businesses strengthen and grow by moving to cloud accounting.
First things first, you’re not the only person still using spreadsheets to do your books. But, if you’re anything like those we’ve worked with, you’re probably experiencing the same frustrations:
- Lack of flexibility: Okay, Excel is flexible in the sense that anyone can edit anything. But… anyone can edit anything. £200 could become £20000. You don’t know who has entered what, and sharing with your team feels risky without hefty systems or guides for each spreadsheet you have. Only one person can work on one sheet at a time, and only slave at their work desk.
- Everything takes time: Firstly, you’ve got to build the spreadsheets, charts and tables you want for each function. Then you have to fill it in, manually typing in bank statements, receipts and sales invoices. It’s boring, time consuming and prone to little typos that make a huge difference.
- You worry about security: You’re making back-ups upon back-ups, but if your electricity goes out, or you’re in a similar risky position, you could lose your most important data.
It can feel intimidating weaning yourself off something you know and have always known. But with our help setting you up, you won’t need to worry about a big scary transition, and you’ll be amazed at how transformative it’ll be. Because:
1. It does everything for you
All of those frustrations just mentioned can all be eliminated by automation. You’re not chained to your desk when you want to make adjustments to your financial data. You can upload invoices and statements on the go. You can collaborate with your team and your accountant without the fear of data-entry errors.
Xero is a pre-built programme, so you don’t have to waste precious time on DIY sheet building and programming. Plus you can finally be at peace knowing that your data is protected by multiple layer security. You won’t need to have 10 back ups in top secret locations.
2. …and more
Moving onto software like Xero will be a breath of fresh air after dealing with those daily bookkeeping frustrations. But the most exciting part of getting upgrading to a smarter piece of software, is the opportunities it gives you to go above and beyond what you’re doing right now.
Once all of those processes have been streamlined, and you have access to a real-time view of your most important numbers, you actually have the time and the information to be able to see what changes can be made to make your business more successful. You can start making decisions and projections for a more profitable future.
Not to mention Xero has some amazing apps to help you make marginal improvements to all kinds of areas of your business – invoice chasing, team productivity, HR!
3. It’ll make MTD easy for you
There has been a lot of negativity surrounding Making Tax Digital. A lot of talk of being ‘forced to change’, whilst your time is ‘running out’. Yes, MTD is on it’s way, (if you want to understand more about what’s actually going to happen from April, check out our dedicated article), but it doesn’t have to be doom and gloom.
With smart accounting software like Xero, the requirements of MTD can be seamless. You’ll have a real time view of your data and easy collaboration with your accountant, eliminating the chance of mistakes, and it’ll be really easy to submit your returns.
Xero isn’t expensive, and in our experience it’s a no-brainer move if you want to simplify your bookkeeping, shelf your worries about MTD compliance, and really empower yourself with a knowledge of how your business works, so that you can make profitable changes.
So I guess the questions is… why wouldn’t you upgrade from spreadsheets? Explore more Xero magic
