Take your business into the future

As we head into the busy summer months, using your time and resources efficiently is a must to ensure your business is running smoothly and your patients are feeling valued and coming back for more.

The rise of cloud-based accounting software and other business applications has been a game changer for business owners. Being able to access real-time information enables informed and timely decision making and having transactions flow directly from your bank removes the need for time consuming data entry, allowing you to spend more hands-on time in your business.

As business advisors, we are more than aware of the time pressures put on small business owners. Planning staff rosters, processing payroll, inventory and planning purchases leaves little time for other important areas like engaging with your patients or keeping your team motivated and productive.

Real time accounting software and other business applications can help streamline your business while making your life a whole lot easier. Here are some key apps to consider, streamlining your entire operation, giving you time to focus on the things you love about your business.

Reporting

Reporting add-on software provides core KPIs and enables benchmarking for your optometry practice in a way that can be easily visualised and understood. Financial information is pulled from your accounting software in real time and presented in a way most meaningful to your practice, customised by you.

Futrli and Spotlight Reporting applications are amongst the favourites. Both apps deliver crucial, need-to-know metrics required to help your practice thrive. Seamlessly integrated with a raft of accounting software, the app allows you to view your business’ financial information in easy to understand reports or dashboards, which can be customised. If you wanted to track how a new product or brand is performing during a ‘trial basis’, done! Want to ensure your stock levels are at the correct level for different stages throughout the year? Easy! Alerts can also be set to notify key people of changes in performance or trends. Recognising each business is different, both Spotlight and Futrli allow you to create your own KPIs and benchmarks. Plus you can break down revenue streams, forecast, budget, calculate gross profit percentages and wages to sales ratios among many other things.

This can help you plan and reduce risk to grow your practice. Giving key staff members access to certain reports can also incentivise them to set and achieve targets for themselves and the company, while also increasing accountability and understanding.

Data Entry

Even though we live in a tech savvy world, there still seems to be a lot of paper. Invoices can quickly pile up, while disgruntled suppliers wait in the wings. A lot of business owners take care of this themselves, when in actual fact it is far more efficient and cost effective to pay someone else to do it. Being the face of your business will pay off far more than sitting in the back-office mulling over accounts payable data entry, especially if this is not your strong suit.

An easy to way to get all your invoices processed quickly is to use a document collection and management software tool, such as Receipt Bank or Hubdoc. Email, take a photo or scan an invoice or receipt into the software and it will do the rest. The technology extracts all relevant data from the document and automatically enters the key components into your chosen accounting software along with the source document electronically attached.

Payroll and staff management

In a busy practice, staff rostering can be a nightmare and dealing with casual employees hired to help over the busy period adds to its complexity. One of the most popular cloud based payroll apps is FlexiTime. Multiple customised templates can be created as a starting point each week and FlexiTime provides you with the option of viewing your rosters in hours as well as dollars which is great for forecasting. The software also has clock-in, clock-out functionality ensuring labour costs are accurate as staff are only paid for the hours they work. And once a payrun has been processed, the information is sent directly to your accounting software to be reconciled – no need for manual data entry. It’s great for employees too as they can apply for leave and view their payslips through the employee portal all from a smartphone.

Point of sale

A reliable point-of-sale (POS) system is vital for the retail side of your practice. A good system can do more than just process transactions, it can track sales, manage inventory, automate ordering and help with pricing and again is all integrated with your accounting software so you can identify where profits are and aren’t being made.

The Vend app is a powerful back-office tool, allowing you to streamline processes and align staff and product supplies with demand. The front end is easy to use and works on any device and, if your business ever needs to operate off site, you can process sales from a tablet offline, which then automatically syncs when you are back online.

All businesses today should be utilising the wide range of information systems business solutions available to them. Using apps such as these outlined above will help you work smarter, not harder in your business. You will thank yourself for them, when you’re finally spending all your Sundays at the beach!

*About the authors: David Pearson is managing partner and Jess Radich is information systems business manager with chartered accountants and business advisors BDO Central (NI). Jess is passionate about ensuring her clients have the right accounting software for their business and the knowledge and skills to maximise their use. For more information, contact Jess at [email protected] or David at [email protected] or visit www.bdo.nz