It’s very common for people to make New Year's resolutions. They may want to exercise more, go travelling or loose weight. Business owners can make the same sort of resolutions, to help their businesses stay ahead of the game for the coming year. Let’s cut to the chase. Making money matters to your business. Therefore it makes sense to look at your businesses financial health. Here are some questions to ask yourself to see where your business can improve.
What could we do better?
Did you achieve the goals for your business last year? If so, great. If not, ask yourself why. Making goals for this financial year can keep you and your team motivated as your business grows so it’s a great idea to regularly review these to stay on track.
Make a list of your business goals for this financial year. These goals could include sales targets, increased revenue, more staff, or improving existing business relationships. Within these, set some goals you know you can achieve. Work towards them during the year and check your progress each month to remind yourself where you're going, celebrate your progress and make adjustments where needed.
What new tools are available to help us be more efficient?
If you’ve always used traditional Excel spreadsheets or desktop accounting software, you should consider making the move to online accounting. Online accounting makes it easy to access your business accounts anywhere, at any time, on any devise.
Other benefits include reducing your IT costs, powerful encryption and remote backups to protect business information from being lost or stolen, scalability, efficiency and functionality. We can help you find the right accounting software for you and your business and handle the set up too so it will be a very easy process.
Could we do with some help to sort out last year’s accounts before we get them to the accountant?
Your accountants job is to prepare company financial statements, complete tax returns, analysing costs of operations, financial forecasts etc. This isn’t easily completed from a pile of receipts, gathering dust in an old shoe box..
Without the internal resources to sort through last years GST/Tax returns and paperwork, or the time and understanding to do this yourself, it’s a good idea to outsource this to ensure when it reaches your accountant it’s a faster and easier process.
Could we update the payroll process or system?
Are your internal systems, such as online payroll, up-to-date with the latest software? The right software can easily save you time and money. The right payroll system can help with handing out bonuses, paying employees electronically and reviewing employee statuses, taking out the guess work and multiple manual payments or handwritten forms.
Should we upgrade to a new, more automated accounting package?
Traditional Excel spreadsheets or desktop accounting software may have the familiarity factor, but they aren't as efficient, cost effective or scaleable as an automated, cloud based accounting package. Some of the main advantages of using an automated accounting package include:
Do we need more training on Xero/MYOB/Reckon or other apps?
Perhaps your accounting package suits your business perfectly, but you or your team don't know how to use all of it’s features or how they can benefit you. We can give you full training to ensure you are fully utilising your current systems, and suggest improvements where necessary.
If you only make one business-related new financial year's resolution, make it one that counts. Commit to managing your business accounts well and planning your finances thoroughly. If you can stick to this resolution, your business is more than likely to keep growing throughout the coming year. At The Back Office Company, can help you with your accounts leaving you to focus on growing your business. Interested in finding out more about our outsourced bookkeeping services? Contact us for more information!
