Finance Tools to Help Small Businesses Get Off the Ground
If you’re a small business owner (but not a trained accountant), you might be worried about keeping on top of your business’s finances. Luckily, there are lots of tools out there to help you keep track of everything and maximise your profits. Here are a handful of the best right now – they’ve each been chosen for their product reviews, awards, efficiency or low-cost.
QuickBooks’ Accounting Software
Have you heard of QuickBooks? QuickBooks has been the market leader for small business software for a number of years now, and they really have revolutionised the way that small businesses operate from a finance and accounting perspective.
There are so many ways that QuickBooks can help you, but one way is through their tax form kits. Their tax form kits include w2 forms, which are a reliable, efficient and easy way for small businesses to keep an accurate oversight on employee wages and salaries – necessary even if you only have one or two people working for you.
This kind of software also makes it really easy to report employee wages and salaries to federal, state and local agencies too. So, it’s well worth investing in QuickBooks product – especially if you don’t want to pay specialists or external accountants to do something you could easily you do yourself. Check out the full review from Advisory HQ: they’ve awarded QuickBooks the number one spot for financial tools for small businesses in 2016-2017.
Mint’s Cash Flow Analysis Template
When it comes to small businesses, cash flow is king. A healthy cash flow means that you’ll be able to pay your rent, your operating expenses, your employees if you have any, and all of your suppliers too. So, you’ll need a tool that helps you keep a handle on your cash flow. You can use free templates from SCORE, as well as a collection of business spreadsheet templates from Google Docs users. However, the best (free!) tool on the market right now is probably Mint.com’s cash flow app.
What’s so good about Mint’s app is that automatically pulls data from all of your linked banks accounts, which means you’ll avoid making errors when calculating a true and current picture of your cash flow. For a small business, the tool is a really good way of keeping a watchful eye on your day to day finances as all you need to do is track your incoming money and outgoing money. This article about the things you can do to manage your cash flow is worth a read too if you need a bit of advice.
Abacus’ Expense Reporting
It’s inevitable that you’ll spend little bits of money here, there and everywhere in relation to your business… a coffee, a train ticket, or lunch with a client for example, all add up to a much bigger expense, and can be forgotten about when you’re doing your accounts.
So, make it easier on yourself by using a reporting tool like Abacus. Abacus’s tool means you don’t have to carry cash – everything is digital, and if one of your business partners or employees pays for something, they can simply use the Abacus app. This instantly reimburses them directly into their bank account, and automatically updates in your accounting software too – including QuickBooks accounting software. This kind of ‘syncing up’ will do away with the need for you to fill out cumbersome paperwork, and ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
Those are just three of many tools your small business can use to keep on top of your finances: keep your eyes peeled for new tools, read reviews and ask trusted business contacts for recommendations if you want to choose from a few more options.
