5 time saving tips to managing your business
Small business owners wear a lot of hats – they are managers, marketers, salesmen, customer liaison officers, human resource managers, workers, bookkeepers and more!
It can be overwhelming at times so smart business owners try to manage these by working smarter. While we cannot tell you how to run your business, if you are using Xero accounting software, there are smarter ways to run your business when it comes to bookkeeping and record keeping, here are 5 of them.
Bank feeds & bank rules
By setting up bank feeds for your business accounts on Xero, all transactions will be automatically fed into your file. It happens daily so every morning you would see all the transactions from yesterday and can start reconciling straight away!
For the repetitive transactions or transfers between your business bank accounts, you can also benefit from running some bank rules so Xero can automatically match them up for you (all you need to do is click OK!)
Send invoices directly to your clients’ Xero
If you and your client both use Xero as the accounting software, do you know that you can send your invoices directly to their Xero file? This will ensure accuracy and can ensure the invoices reach your client’s file without delay!
Use batch payments
When making payments to suppliers or employees, rather than entering bank details for each recipients or choosing recipients on your Internet banking, do you know you can download an ABA file to be uploaded to your internet banking as a batch payment? You can also export files from Xero when you are trying to pay multiple bills from the same supplier! The bills will all be combined to one lump sum payment so it will be paid as one transaction, but you can always send your supplier a remittance advise for them to know which bills are paid.
Ditch your receipts!
What do you do with the paper receipts that you received when making business purchases? Do you keep them in a big shoe box? Or do you scan them one by one into your computer? Isn’t that time consuming? Now there is a quicker way to do it.
With Receipt Bank, you can just snap a photo and upload it to your Receipt Bank account, and within minutes they will process the photo and with their very smart computers, they will also pick up details on your receipt and prepare a draft bill for you, saving you time typing in the bill manually. It can also hook up with your Xero file so the bill will appear in your Xero for reconciliation!
No more printing
Ever wondered if you can ditch your printer and sign directly on the screen? You can now do so via electronic signature software online such as Adobe Sign or docusign. They allow you to sign on your screen once you create a login, or following a secure link sent to you by the person who sends you the document, it allows you to securely view & sign the document. Once the documents are signed, usually the sender will receive a copy automatically and you will receive a copy of (or have access to) the signed documents for future records.
The Aston difference
At Aston we strive to make your life easier, we also understand that every business is unique. Why not speak to us about how we can correctly tailor make your Xero file to best suit your needs? We also provide help in setting up your Receipt Bank account to “talk” to Xero, to save you time so you can focus more on improving your business!
