We have all heard about apps, those things we download on our phones to play games, post on social media and can even help us to organise our lives. Did you know that apps can now help you manage and grow your small business? Over the past couple of years, hundreds of apps have been developed and released on the Xero marketplace alone.
One of the main advantages of cloud accounting is its ability to integrate with these apps to provide an enhanced accounting experience.
Why should your business use apps with Xero?
- Save time with apps such as Receipt Bank
- Increases the accuracy and reliability of data
- Help grow your business
All these factors interlink. If you have more time, you can either take on more work or attend events and courses to help develop your business. If you have up-to-date, accurate financial information readily available, you can make better business decisions and help your company grow. Xero connected apps can automate those tedious tasks, giving you more time to focus on growing your small business.
What apps should your business use?
This is a very difficult question because the answer will not be the same for every business. Every business will have different pain points and goals depending on size, industry, location, customers and more. It’s important to establish what problems you want to solve, or which process you want to make more efficient before you jump in and sign up to any apps.
We can recommend the best apps for you, depending on your business and circumstances. We currently work with lots of apps including:
- ReceiptBank
- ApprovalMax
- Float
- iZettle
- Satago
- GoCardless
We are not limited to these apps and if we feel as though another app my help your business, we can look into providing this for you.
Apps for a retail business
For example, a retail company may use a point of sales app such as Vend to accurately record their sales, a staff management app such as Deputy to manage timesheets and reduce time spent doing payroll and use Xero for accounting. All three of these applications automatically swap information with each other without the need to manually input the data. This interconnected system means the retailer only needs to enter information into one of these apps for it to appear everywhere – saving time.
Vend will update Xero automatically with daily sales breakdowns and Deputy will post the time cost to certain departments. This gives the company the ability to produce reports from Xero and gain a better idea of where it is financially and allows them to react to changes immediately and therefore make better decisions on a daily basis.
Apps for a construction company
The same collection of apps used by the retail business will not work for a construction company as they will require a detailed project management system instead of Vend and Deputy.
It is also not a ‘one size fits all’ idea for each industry either. Each individual company will require a different combination of applications based on their business needs and the problems they want to solve.
There are over 700 apps on the Xero marketplace. Apps ranging from cash flow forecasting to project management and simple data input automation. It is time to start utilising these apps to not only make your life easier and free up your time but to also help your company grow by giving you a better insight into your company’s finances.
Interested in how Xero apps can help your business?
We would be delighted to help set you up on Xero cloud accounting software and recommend any connected apps for your specific business needs. Please contact Harry Hale on hhale@ellacotts.co.uk or 01295 250401 or fill out our contact form for more information on how we can help your business.
Read more in our cloud accounting blog.
