At Gorilla Accounting, we understand that no two businesses are the same. Whether you’re a contractor, a limited company or a freelancer, your day-to-day workload can be varied and extremely busy, meaning you need an accountant who understands you and your business and financial needs.
Our team of experts aim to get to know your business inside and out, meaning you can concentrate on what you do best, whilst we focus on the financial side of things. We even offer a client service guarantee, so you know that if anything pops up unexpectedly or you need to urgently get in touch with your accountant, we can guarantee you’ll hear back from us if you’ve contacted before 3pm.
We offer an inclusive package to all our clients, no matter what industry you work in or the turnover you make, so you know exactly where you stand month on month. Included in this package is full access to FreeAgent at no extra cost.
FreeAgent is an online bookkeeping software which is trusted by thousands of freelancers and contractors. It allows you to run your business from anywhere and is a market-leading offering. But what does it do and how can it help you?
What Is Online Accounting Software?
In simple terms online Accounting Software is a cloud-based solution that’s used by business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers to digitally record, interpret and analyse financial transactions and information. There’s lots more to it than that, however, so let’s get into the reasons why you should use it and the main benefits for you, your business, and your accountant.
Why Might You Need It?
Your Business Has Grown
Spreadsheets can be a lifesaver when your business is in its infancy – they can be a useful tool to help plan out your finances and budgets. But as time passes, your business ramps up and you get much busier, things can get out of control.
You might find that even simpler tasks such as cash flow projections or invoicing can be laborious and error prone as you wrestle with multiple spreadsheet tabs, formulas, and paperwork.
You’re Wasting Too Much Time On Admin
As a contractor, freelancer, sole trader or small business owner, you will understand more than most that time is precious. The last thing you want to be doing is battling with accounts and financial data instead of focusing on running your business.
There are many daily admin tasks that can be a huge drain on your time including sending estimates, logging expenses or chasing payments. As a small business owner, it’s impossible to avoid juggling multiple tasks and dealing with conflicting priorities. The last thing you need is to be getting bogged down in admin tasks when you need to focus on your day to day and growing your business.
You Need Fast Access To Financial Information
As your business scales over time, you will have to deal with an increasing amount of financial data. Using spreadsheets to manage this data can become very problematic.
You will struggle to access financial information immediately, or sometimes even quickly. You might have to create a new formula to analyse your data, and if you haven’t updated the spreadsheet in real time, the insights will not be based on up-to-date numbers and as such could be inaccurate.
This could cause a delay in making key business decisions; sometimes you need to act fast or an opportunity could pass you by. Or even worse, an incorrect decision could be made that has a negative impact on your business.
You Don’t Have A Proper Accounting System Or Lack Accounting Skills
As a small business owner, consultant, locum or contractor, you will be an expert in your particular field. Dealing with your accounting and bookkeeping, however, is more than likely not a task that you’d be comfortable with, especially on top of the day-to-day grind.
Trying to manage your own accounts can lead to various problems including cash flow issues, late submissions to HMRC or incorrectly invoicing customers. The lack of a proper accounting system can exacerbate these problems.
As the UK’s top rated contractor accountants, Gorilla Accounting can crunch the numbers for you while you focus on your work.
What Are The Key Benefits Of Accounting Software?
If you’re not already using dedicated accounting software for your business, making the switch is a no-brainer. Here’s why.
Efficient Billing & Invoicing
Accounting software has inbuilt features that make invoicing a simple task. The key here is automation and that is a big time-saver. Accounting software allows you to track all unpaid invoices which will eradicate accidental missed payments. Automated payment reminders can be configured against due dates or expected payment dates and they will be automatically sent to your customers.
This means you can easily remind your customers to pay on time and keep the cash coming in and avoid any backlogs. Recurring profiles can also be set up for repeat customers with automated invoicing each time they place an order.
Effective and accurate management of your invoicing and billing is essential to keep revenue coming into your business consistently. Paper-based invoicing is error prone as it makes it difficult to track invoices and chase customers for pending or overdue payments. It’s also very time-consuming, especially if you have recurring customers and you have to manually create a paper invoice every time they transact with you. In truth, paper invoicing is outdated.
Easy Online Payments
Once your client has received their invoice, there needs to be a simple, quick and secure way for them to pay you. Accounting software offers easy integration with many online payment gateways which provide your clients with a convenient way to settle up. Various payment methods are supported including debit and credit cards, bank transfers or PayPal.
If you trade internationally, online payment gateways integrated with your accounting software can support multiple currencies. You can even take payment in your customer’s currency but do your accounting in GBP so there’s no need to manually calculate against the exchange rate.
Payments made are recorded under their respective invoices in your accounting software, making it easy to keep track of things.
Accurate Expense Tracking
Accurate tracking of your expenses is crucial for keeping a handle on your businesses’ cash flow. Accounting software makes this easy by allowing you to scan and upload expense receipts. This is another step towards eradicating paper and it takes away the risk of any receipts being lost as they are stored digitally. Expenses can be categorised which is useful to give insight into what you’re spending your outgoings on.
Reconciliation With Your Bank
Bank reconciliation is key for accurate business accounting. Accounting software makes it easy by connecting to your bank account so bank feeds can be imported automatically. Custom rules and criteria can be easily configured to automatically match and categorise the imported bank transactions. Once the transactions are categorised and matched, they just need to be verified and confirmed, then reconciliation is complete.
Simple Time Tracking
Accounting software includes timesheet functionality so you can log how much time you’ve spent on particular tasks or projects and invoice customers accordingly. This reduces the risk of you under or over-billing and helps you charge them accurately. It can also help improve your budgeting accuracy by allowing you to compare the hours you actually worked against the budgeted hours using inbuilt reports.
Insightful Reports
The three main financial statements that you must keep on top of as a business owner are your balance sheet, your profit & loss statement and your cash flow. Accounting software enables you to quickly and easily generate balance sheet reports and profit & loss statements. This gives you a full understanding of the financial health of your business in real-time.
These financial reports enable you to make informed decisions based on accurate, current data. Cash flow forecasts allow you to confidently predict what’s around the corner and inbuilt alerts can warn you if any cash flow issues are imminent.
Effective reporting enables you to understand what trends and patterns are affecting your business. Accounting software generates these reports automatically giving you the key insights you need without taking up any of your time calculating and reporting manually.
Why FreeAgent?
Award-winning FreeAgent is widely considered to be the industry standard when it comes to accounting software. It’s designed specifically for contractors, freelancers and small business owners like you.
FreeAgent is feature-packed with a wealth of automated functions, including all the ones mentioned above, that will help you work more accurately and save you heaps of time. Here are some of the key ones:
Dashbord
FreeAgent’s customisable dashboard brings together key information including cash flow, a profit & loss snapshot, tax timeline as well as recent invoices, bills and expenses. This allows you to see at a glance how your business is performing in real-time.
Mobile App
FreeAgent’s mobile app gives you powerful functionality in the palm of your hand so you can handle business while on the go. The app allows you to track your time, manage your invoicing and payments, reconcile bank transactions, log expenses and much more, all on your mobile device.
Powerful Tax Functionality
FreeAgent will generate your VAT returns automatically then allow you to directly submit them electronically to HMRC with a single click. It also makes self-assessment a breeze as it calculates your self-assessment liability and prepares your tax return automatically while you work. Making Tax Digital is also taken care of as FreeAgent is fully MTD compliant.
Gorilla Accounting & FreeAgent
Gorilla Accounting are FreeAgent Platinum Partners and are proud to provide full FreeAgent access to all our clients included in your monthly fee. Call us today on 0330 107 9678 or request a call back to discuss how we can help you.
