How much are you losing?

Exact software recently carried out a survey of small and medium sized businesses and estimate poor systems could be costing £3.7 billion.

The survey revealed one in five businesses admit to forgetting to invoice for goods and services. However, the biggest stress for SMEs is fighting for new business with cashflow and business planning also causes for concern. But, amazingly a quarter of business owners feel they are not in control of their accounts and business finances.

The implications for SMEs of weak systems, poor planning and fewer sales is serious. Nearly half admitting to paying suppliers late and 12% have failed to pay their employees on time.

Interestingly, business owners reported high levels of trust for their accountant but nearly 70% communicate no more than once a month. That is a minimum if you are working strategically with your accountant.

But, what surprised me was around a third of businesses still use Excel spreadsheets and paper records as part of the accounting function.

At Sackmans we believe new technology like Xero Accounting Software can help. This can be linked to other systems in your business to streamline internal systems. It also reduces the time spent on basic bookkeeping because of features like bank feeds. These automatically bring  in banking data without the need for manual entry.

The budgeting feature can help with planning and control. You can plan for the future and report against targets.

Budgeting is a key part of our Get Set service for pre-start businesses as well as our On-Track programme.

If you want to make sure you are maximising your business to the full then get in touch and book a free review.