S1 Ep43: Moving your invoicing to the cloud
Receipts everywhere. Bank statements flying in to your post office box. Bills mounting. And you have no idea where your business stands until after tax time when the accountant gives you the all clear. There is a better way.
\n\n\nThis is Clickstarter, I\u2019m Dante St James. This is episode 43, and Day 9 of my daily series, April Foolproof Your Business.
\n\n\nToday\u2026 It\u2019s time to move your invoicing to the cloud.
\n\n\nThe time of writing your invoices out with a carbon copy book is over. It was actually over 20 years ago. But we won\u2019t squabble over that small detail.
\n\n\nIf your invoicing and payments for invoices are out of control, it\u2019s probably because you\u2019re still trying to do it all manually on paper, or in an Excel spreadsheet. As you\u2019d suspect, accounting and bookkeeping has come a long way in the last 20 years.
\n\n\nYou\u2019ll probably be familiar with programs like Quicken or MYOB. They\u2019ve been around a long time and have tended to dominate the accounts landscape of most established businesses. But they really do feel clunky and over-the-top for the average small business to use.
\n\n\nThis is where the current crop of Cloud Accounts systems come in.
\n\n\nThe top of the pile in terms of popularity is Quickbooks. With over 12 million users worldwide and huge fan base of both businesses and bookkeepers it\u2019s miles ahead of the others. And with a solid 4.5 out of 5 on most review sites, it\u2019s performing well in terms of the opinion of the people who use it most. The biggest pros about it are that it has pretty much everything you\u2019ll ever need in a bookkeeping or accounts system and plenty of pro accountants and bookkeepers know and use it. The cons are that it\u2019s often described as being a little hard to navigate with a design that isn\u2019t very intuitive to move around for those who are used to using the web instead of using software that has been converted to work on the web.
\n\n\nNext on the popularity pile is Accounting by Wave, also known as Wave Apps. It\u2019s simple, free and used mostly by sole traders and home business users. Probably because it\u2019s free. I personally have an issue with using a free app to handle my money because it just feels like your money handling is the one thing you should probably not be skimping on when it comes to cost and quality. That said, it\u2019s got close to 9 million worldwide users and does a stellar job of handling your invoices, receipts, and gives handy notifications when things are read, paid or completed. But it is limited. If you want to process payments or do payroll on it, you\u2019ll need to pay.
\n\n\nThen there is Xero. Spelt with an X. I get a bit funny about Xero because I am instantly suspicious about any system that higher level users rave about, but whom lower level users complain about not being able to get decent support with. The way that Xero grows is by Accountants and Bookkeepers selling it to their clients. So it\u2019s a little like network marketing. Or affiliate marketing. No that there\u2019s anything wrong with that. I\u2019d be nastier about it, but honestly, it\u2019s not bad at all. It\u2019s easier to use than Quickbooks. It\u2019s more fully-featured than Wave and has integrations with almost everything. It\u2019s a seriously good accounting package, handles payroll, handles payment processing, and has around 1.2 million customers. But it seems to rate overall way less than Quickbooks. Average ratings run from 75 to 80 out of 100 on most review sites, where Quickbooks rates over 90% on just about all of them. And while Quickbooks users don\u2019t usually have anything bad to say about Xero, Xero users seem to be quick to badmouth Quickbooks. I\u2019ve looked at both, I\u2019m all\u2026 meh\u2026 it does invoices. And they both do solid jobs. Price wise they are similar, so I\u2019m not sure why the hate on either of them. They\u2019re both great products. I\u2019m just not a fan of having my accountant or bookkeeper selling me software.
\n\n\nMy favourite of the lot of them is Freshbooks. To me, it\u2019s easy, has plenty of power and does the job. That said, I\u2019m about to outgrow it as I move in to a need for payroll. So while it\u2019s cloud accounting, it\u2019s not really an accounting system. It\u2019s more a quoting, invoicing and business financial info system. It has great dashboards, plugs in to your bank, lets you know how you\u2019re going in your business and allows you to add easy credit card payments to your invoices, which clients tend to like. I like it. It\u2019s easy. It\u2019s simple. And for a sole trader it\u2019s great. But once you move to needing payroll or moving to create a company, you\u2019re going to outgrow it. Like I am just doing myself now.
\n\n\nOverall, when it comes to your invoicing and accounts system, consider the following:
\n\n\n- \n
- Will your accountant or bookkeeper be able to work with it? \n
- Will it grow with you or will you have to start over with a new system soon? \n
- If you\u2019re ok with paying for your system, then how much do you consider too much? \n
- Does it have decent support\u2026 and it is able to be used on phones and iPads - not just on the big office computer. \n
Got a topic this month to cover in these shorter, daily versions of the podcast? Email darwin@clickstarter.com.au or drop a message via facebook.com/clickstarter
\n\n\nI\u2019ll catch you tomorrow as we continue to help your small business to get known, get found and stay known.