Are you spending too much time on admin work in your business?
As a small business owner we wear a lot of hats:
- generating income to the business (aka the bread winner)
- issuing invoices and following up on overdue invoices from non-paying customers
- managing bills and payment of such
- recording transactions and preparing BAS
- responding to requests from clients/leads
- checking the mail/emails
- keeping up with your industry’s regulations
- Tidying up the office
- … the list goes on.
Question to you: on average how many hours of admin work do you do every week?
A quick search on the internet suggested that on average small business owners spends 2 out of 5 working days on administrative work. Depending on the nature of your business you may spend more or less time than the average.
This leaves around 3 days of generating income for your business.
Another question to you: if you have 2 extra days per week to generate more income, how much extra income would you earn?
Wow, that would be great! But is it achievable?
Yes it is! Here are 3 simple ways to reduce your administrative workload
Use of technology
Take advantage of the technology available to you to reduce your admin time – things like Internet banking, making payments online and emailing invoices instead of posting them will reduce your admin time by quite a bit.
Doing so will not only reduce the number of trips to the bank, it also ensures money are paid or received in a more timely manner, and mitigates the chances of lost mail!
For those who are managing multiple jobs (eg plumbers, electricians, painters etc), there are time-tracking and job-tracking apps that are available to use, some will allow you to link up with your accounting software so it makes invoicing a swift!
For those who are running coffee shops or maintains a cashier, a POS system that speaks to your accounting software will make your tallying the till much easier at the end of the day.
More efficient record keeping method
If you are still using paper to record your money received and spent, and find it time consuming at the end of a quarter to locate and record the information, it is time to think how you can improve and streamline this process.
There are some apps or add ons or standalone software available that helps you keep track of your invoices and receipts. Some of them may have a small ongoing fee but imagine the time (and hassle) saved by having one of those software!
Most of the accounting software are now on the cloud, this means you and your accountant (us!) will have access to the same file, at the same time. So if you have a question about your cloud accounting file, you can simply ring us and we can give you instructions or advise on how to proceed.
Outsource
If you find that you are really struggling with keeping up with the administrative work, you can always get help!
While we cannot perform all of the administrative work for your business, Aston Accountants are able to help with the record keeping and accounting side – our bookkeepers are trained to assist small business owners by properly maintaining their books, payroll and superannuation payments, preparing BAS and ensuring your business oblige to the legislation. The synergy between our in-house bookkeepers and accountants mean less cost to you too! Speak to us before the mountains of paperwork get the better of you!
