Every start-up, no matter what its line of business, must pay very close attention to financial management. This may not seem like the top priority in the early stages, but as your business grows and demands more of your time, effective accounting and cash flow management structures will be critical to your business’ ability to grow.
Bookkeeping and accounting can be extremely time consuming and cost intensive, particularly when you are unfamiliar with local rules and practices. Fortunately, the entrepreneurs of today have access to a host of new organisational tools and technologies that are designed to reduce the difficulties of managing invoices, bills and receipts while increasing the time spent pursuing new business opportunities. These tools are increasingly available as cloud-based offerings.
What, exactly, is the cloud? Cloud-based software offers users access to technology on a subscription basis. The software provider securely hosts all necessary databases and servers, and allows small-business owners to access their data anytime, anywhere via an Internet connection, providing you with a better overview of your finances and improving collaboration with your team.
Sovereign is a Gold Partner of Xero, one of the leading cloud-based accounting software providers worldwide. Our team in Hong Kong is trained on Xero and can help transform the way you do your bookkeeping, run your credit control and even pay your employees.
Xero software allows you to:
- Enable smart organisation for a distributed workforce regardless of their physical location.
- Share and distribute financial information to business owners, advisors and shareholders to make business decisions and assess strategies quickly and efficiently.
- Invite team members, accounting professionals or other parties – whenever and wherever – to keep up-to-date with the financial and cash flow position.
- Maintain relationships with partners, suppliers, vendors and distributors and easily verify discrepancies.
- Create performance reports and budgets for any period at any time.
- Do invoicing, create expenses claims, process payments and track sales and income on the go.
- Integrate other business applications like inventory and time tracking.
Sovereign can set up and manage an online accounting and invoicing platform that provides you with a real-time overview of your cash position, as well as accurate and timely accounting reports on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.
The key benefits of using cloud-based accounting software are:
- Accessibility – Your data can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection. This provides added flexibility and peace of mind, and means you don’t have to be sitting in your office to check your cash flow or access your accounts.
- Real-time updates – Your data is always available for viewing in real time, which allows businesses to make better-informed decisions about their financial future.
- Security and reliability – A cloud-based system provides enhanced levels of data loss protection against damage to computers, hard drive or servers because all data is automatically backed up to the cloud.
- Upfront business cost reduction – Cloud-based accounting software is sold under the ‘software as a service’ (SAAS) model and only requires fixed monthly payments. This can assist with the cash flow management of a newly established business.
Small-business owners start businesses because of passion for what they do – not to spend time managing accounts. Migrating traditional accounting workflows to cloud-based solutions enables small-business owners to reduce time spent managing information and improve their overall operational efficiency.
Sovereign and Xero is a winning combination to get an important part of your business running effectively and delivering results. To learn more about Xero’s time saving cloud accounting software, visit xero.com or contact us for further information.
