Here’s a story for you: Much like many other small businesses and freelancers out there, you never realized there was anything wrong in using a combination of Word and Excel to manage your invoicing and accounting. Yes, you considered accounting software, but why bother? You already have a fantastic routine going for managing your business. In fact, you’re proud of your meticulous tracking system, invoice naming conventions, folder structure, and even your weekly or monthly financial rituals. The truth is, it’s hard to let go of the familiar. And the familiarity of Word and Excel makes it easy and automatic for many small business owners and freelancers to ignore the pesky signs telling us that it’s the wrong way to manage your small business. Sound familiar? Here are 3 telltale signs that you should let go of your familiar yet unproductive accounting routine and consider accounting software instead: 1. You Sent An Invoice Containing Errors If you’re anything like me, you likely pull up last month’s invoice, hit “save as,” and update the information and voila! You’ve got yourself an invoice. Of course, you have to update the hours and actually do the math to reflect work done this month before the invoice is off to your client. But on some occasions, you receive an email from your client (or their A/P department) and discover that you forgot to rename the invoice number. Or you forgot to update the month. Or worse—you calculated wrong. Now you have to hop back onto your laptop to update the original, check (and double check) everything and send it off once again. It feels like no big deal as you’re doing it, but when it comes down to it, the finer details do matter in accounting. In fact, you’re wasting time that’s completely unnecessary. Instead, try an invoicing solution like Kashoo, which automatically updates invoice dates and numbers for you. You don’t need a calculator either—just let software do the math! 2. You Found Mistakes In Your Financial Reports Excel spreadsheets need to be built from scratch, populated, and updated manually. This leaves far too much gap for mistakes, especially when it comes to your business finances. Because Excel is compartmentalized from the rest of your financial information like invoices and expense receipts, there is a ton of manual reconciliation needed to be done later, so you may as well say goodbye to your happy hour plans. Plus, all that extra manual work increases the potential for errors. With Kashoo, all your financial information—from invoices and expenses to reports like your income statement—are all easily accessible at a glance from your workspace. You can seamlessly send an invoice with a few clicks to checking on your unpaid invoices on the right hand column to make sure that your cash flow is on track. 3. You Realized Just How Much Time You Spend on Invoicing and Accounting Does evening or weekend bookkeeping sound familiar? If you’re carving time during your leisure time for redundant tasks like invoicing and updating your Word and Excel spreadsheets, then accounting software might be just the thing for you. Pumping invoices out during your leisure time means that you’re sending them outside of your 9-5—which also means those wee hours when your clients aren’t working either. In the case that there are issues, you would face an even larger lag time when hearing back from them. Try an accounting tool that makes invoicing simpler. With Kashoo, you can break down these stressful and time-consuming tasks into a series of smaller tasks that you can manage on-the-go. Not only will Kashoo’s accounting software help you realize that you can manage your business and do the work for your clients simultaneously, but you can also save a whole lot of time doing it. Ready to let go of your familiar yet unproductive accounting routine? Give Kashoo’s free 14-day trial a “go” to experience how our accounting software can make your life simpler compared to good ‘ol Word and Excel!
