Financial literacy is important for everyone but it’s essential if you’re in business.
Most businesses fail due to lack of cash, not profits
One definition of financial literacy is “The ability to make informed judgements and decisions regarding the use and management of money”.
For business, it is understanding where your money is coming from and where it is going. It’s also knowing how to use this information to make informed decisions, resulting in better outcomes.
So, it’s crucial you understand your cash flow and keep an eye on it every day.
Our purpose at Xero is to help make life better for people in business. So I want to highlight three tips for new business owners.
Bank reconciliation
A bank reconciliation ensures all your bank transactions are recorded and categorised in your business’ accounting system.
If performed daily, or at least weekly, you’ll have an accurate and timely view of your cash position. It also tells you how your money is being earned and spent.
You can quickly gauge whether you can afford to pay your bills and employees. You can also produce financial reports to see what products and services are most profitable as well as what expenses need to be reigned in.
Budgeting
Set yourself financial goals for the business and write them down. Once you understand the ins and outs of your business, you can use this as a basis to build your budget.
You can compare your actuals with your budget to help stay on track, and also make adjustments if your circumstances change. For example, you could shop around at different suppliers to see who has deals or offer discounts to cut down on costs.
It’s a useful tool to keep your business moving forward and help with making informed decisions. – Read more
Remember, when people used to carry USBs, hard drives, and CDs to store their data? Well, that era is gone now.
Cloud-based services have changed the way businesses function. Cloud computing capitalizes on a single IT infrastructure shared across all departments in an organization. Cloud computing enables managers and their teams to manage challenging tasks and workload efficiently and faster from anywhere they are located through any device they are using, decreasing their capital and computing costs.
The on-demand flexibility, security, cost-reductions, increased efficiency, and improved IT functions are some of the many reasons why businesses are flocking toward cloud-based services.
All cloud-based services are designed to provide businesses with a remote shared infrastructure, which is monitored, and managed by the cloud service providers. But if you’re planning to boost your business growth with cloud computing, you must be aware of its different types and the applications and benefits of each type.
Ahead, we’ve rounded up the three most commonly adopted types of cloud computing to help you make an informed decision.
IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service is the most versatile of all the cloud services. It offers a business with a full-fledged virtual infrastructure managed over a reliable internet connection. An IaaS cloud service provider is responsible for infrastructure’s hardware management, such as the data storage space, servers, and others in a data center. But they enable users or businesses to personalize those resources according to their unique needs.
With Infrastructure as a Service, the user can buy, implement, configure, and run any software they require. Companies that follow highly scalable business models only invest in the infrastructure they need. This allows them to scale their cloud requirements without the additional cost of capital to build an on-premises infrastructure.
It’s particularly ideal for small businesses and entrepreneurs who don’t have enough finances to invest in new hardware. It also takes the burden of handling computing or ERP infrastructure away from the organization’s IT department. Since the infrastructure as a Service model automatically updates itself with advanced with new software, it’s more convenient to install and run new applications and programs. IaaS offers advanced cybersecurity solutions and disaster recovery for enhanced reliability. – Read more
Small businesses play one of the very essential roles in the US economy. They drive the job sectors, business innovation, and competition in the market. A recent report from SBA.gov has suggested that small businesses contribute 44% of US GDP.
Accounting plays a major part and helps these businesses to stay in the cut-throat competition. Managing it can prove crucial in the long run and will be instrumental in shaping the enterprises’ revenue and growth. However, accounting management is majorly based on the type of software that small and medium based enterprises use and implement in their daily work ethic.
QuickBooks is one of the popular accounting software that small and medium enterprises use to manage their accounting activities and can be installed on office desktops. However, the local IT setup poses some restrictions on the accountants.
A better alternative is QuickBooks Desktop hosting. It is defined as the installation of QuickBooks versions by cloud service providers on their public or managed servers. It enables businesses to get access to any installed version of QuickBooks quite easily through any internet-connected device.
So, here are some benefits of QuickBooks desktop hosting for small businesses –
1. Reduced Operational and Upfront Costs
Using hardware resources to work on QuickBooks Desktop and store data files can put the financial planning of a small and medium business in jeopardy. Businesses may have to cut their budgets for core processes in order to accommodate the finances for hardware resources.
Opting for a cloud provider to host QuickBooks can be of significant advantage for small and medium businesses as the cloud provider installs your QuickBooks in their cloud environment. The provider also takes care of everything, from server maintenance to running costs. Also, with the pay-as-you-go model, the businesses have to pay only for the resources that they are using.
When any version of QuickBooks Desktop like Enterprise, Pro, Payroll, or Premier is hosted on the cloud, it facilitates easy document sharing, both among the employees and their clients. This brings both the business and the employees on the same page and minimizes confusion among them by ensuring that there are no multiple versions of the same files.
It even helps businesses maintain a healthy relationship with their clients, and bring in an energetic work culture for its employees.
3. Data Security
With cybercrimes like ransomware, data breaches, malware, and phishing on the rise in recent years, small and medium businesses need impeccable security to maintain and safeguard their data from such problems. Hosting the QuickBooks Desktop on the cloud provides a business with the required security.
As the cloud service providers deploy enhanced security measures like two-factor authentication, data encryption, Intrusion Detection and Prevention, user access control on their cloud, it majorly keeps data breaches, hackers, and cyber threats at a safe distance.
4. Remote Accessibility
Desktop-installed accounting software can keep employees restricted to their systems. Even a lot of effort cannot increase business productivity, limiting the chances of growth. When a version of QuickBooks Desktop is hosted on the cloud, the user can easily access the data files from any location, with just an internet-connected device like tablets, personal laptops, or even mobile phones.
It ensures that the user does not need to be in the office while accessing the data files in case of emergency work and implement changes in files irrespective of the location he/she is currently in.
5.Third-Party Integrations
When a version of QuickBooks Desktop is hosted on the cloud, third-party integrations can be easily implemented. Software like TSheets or Bill.com that are not part of QuickBooks can be seamlessly integrated when hosted on the cloud.
Thus, the cloud solution providers help a small and medium enterprise to scale up both their accounting process and business in tandem.
6. Disaster Recovery
A major disadvantage of using local on-premise resources for QuickBooks is that in case of a disaster, the data loss is inevitable. But, when the same QuickBooks is hosted on the cloud, that data is safe from any human-made or natural disaster.
The cloud service providers provide an automated backup of the data in multiple data center locations. It ensures that the data, if lost, can be easily retrieved through this backup, and even in the case of a disaster, the functionality of QuickBooks Desktop is not hampered at all.
7. Accounting Made Easy
If the accountants working in a small and medium enterprise are habitual with the user interface of QuickBooks, then hosting it will not affect their productivity at all as the user interface remains the same.
In addition to it, QuickBooks desktop hosting facilitates a paperless accounting environment where all the data files are stored digitally. Specific work like sales tax filing, electronic tax return filing, and inventory management can be done easily without the unwanted use of papers. It actually saves expenses and also helps the firm to reduce its carbon footprint on the environment.
Final Note
Opting for QuickBooks Desktop Hosting solution can help these businesses be one step ahead of their competitors. QuickBooks desktop hosting solutions can provide enhanced features to take a bigger and better look at their companies, helping them to evolve financially, personally, and geographically.
