Construction and trades business owners understand the ever-increasing importance of optimizing accounting workflow. But those who purposefully choose a career path in trades are well aware of their strengths and what peaks their interests. Hands-on work and preference of tools and machines over books and data are often common grounds for those working in trades. Whether you’ve chosen to start a business as a builder, carpenter, electrician, or other types of hands-on work, at the end of the day you can’t ignore accounting. It will catch up to you. So, your best bet is to face accounting in the eye—and look around for simple digital tools that can help optimize your accounting workflow in the easiest way possible. Luckily for you, there are a number of accounting and bookkeeping software available for construction & trades businesses. You just have to look! What is accounting workflow? Before we start, what exactly is “workflow,” and how does it relate to accounting? Definition of Workflow: the sequence of industrial, administrative, or other systematic processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion using resources. In short, workflow is simply defining what you do, setting up resources in such a way that others too can do the same thing in the same way repeatedly. In the accounting world, these repeatable systems and administrative processes are necessary because numbers don’t lie. Lack of workflow can have costly consequences with the IRS or CRA if they aren’t established early on in your construction & trades business. Imagine waking up to a tax deadline missed, getting flagged by the CRA on a tax return with missing receipts to back up your claim, or having the one employee who knows how to manage your books to leave your business. All of these issues are highly consequential if the accounting workflow has not been set up in advance. Don’t fret though. There are digital tools available to help establish and optimize your accounting workflow. Here are some ways that accounting software can help: 1. Real-time data that’s actually accurate Acquiring real-time, accurate data is critical to any accounting system. Business owners in the construction & trades industry, like any other small business, need a surefire system that collects real-time and most importantly, accurate data that reflects their business. If looking at an excel spreadsheet of numbers after a day at work isn’t your ideal Friday night, then consider adopting accounting software to streamline your accounting workflow. Why TrulySmall Accounting? By choosing TrulySmall Accounting to manage your books, all it takes is 5 minutes or less to set up your account, get your transactions categorized, and reports and insights ready. You’ll instantly be able to see all of your critical financial reports as well as real-time data in your dashboard. 2. It learns your construction business Machine learning is no longer fiction—it’s here. With so many accounting software products available, construction & trades businesses should focus on a product that provides the best business solution: a solution that’s tailored to their needs. Here are some of the benefits that accounting software (that uses machine learning) can have on your construction & trades business: Automate repetitive and predictable tasks: Machine learning can be a powerful tool when used for specific accounting tasks that are repetitive and predictable. For example, invoicing can be simplified by matching paid transactions to invoices, auditing can be streamlined to remove errors, and bank reconciliations can be automated along with its corresponding categories. Use of optical character recognition (OCR): Accounting software that adopts OCR can deliver much more streamlined and accurate reconciliation—in real-time. Instead of the slow process of uploading receipt attachments for each transaction, Kashoo can improve your accounting workflow by matching receipts for you. Simply drop an image of a receipt in the Smart Inbox and you’re good to go! 3. It helps you save costs Business owners want an easy way to get a glimpse into their business. How much did I spend on vehicle expenses alone last month? How do those numbers compare to my income? If I signed on a new building client last quarter, is there a way to see if they’re actually a good client and time commitment? Where should I allocate my efforts for next month to see the highest return? At the bottom line, all of these considerations are to help save costs and increase profit. The best way for construction & trades businesses to do this is use accounting software. Once you connect your business bank accounts to TrulySmall accounting, you can easily navigate to “Dashboard” where the software extracts the latest financial data into easy to understand graphs and charts. Instead of wasting hours analyzing a spreadsheet that might hold error-filled numbers, accounting software that can easily display business-critical numbers like net income and top expenses (i.e. rent, supplies) are the type of information that you really need to know. Work Smart, Not Hard. As you can see, the whole point of accounting software is to improve and optimize your accounting workflow. New features like automatic reconciliation and smart invoicing are only the beginning when machine learning is involved. Especially when your days are filled with running your construction & trades business, an option that can save you a tremendous amount of time is key. Try TrulySmall Accounting’s 14-day free trial today to discover exactly how our Smart Inbox is thoughtfully designed to help you work smart, not hard.
