As a small business owner, admin, accounting and bookkeeping can be expensive, overwhelming, daunting and time consuming. Businesses in Australia are estimated to spend $31.1. billion and 4.9% of their time on admin and accounting tasks (source). It doesn’t have to be that way though. Cloud accounting software like MYOB, Xero and Quickbooks have a range of automations that mean you will spend less time doing and more time enjoying.

1. Bank feed

Cloud accounting systems allow you to automate your bank feed, automatically pulling across transactions from your bank accounts the following day. You can automate your bank feeds for banks accounts, credit cards and even some rural supply accounts. This means no more manual entry of transactions and a simplified process.

2. Create recurring invoices

Some cloud accounting systems allow you to create recurring invoices for customers that are on a regular package or payment. Recurring invoices save you time by automatically creating invoices on a particular date each month or quarter.

3. Receipt management

Receipt management is a life changing automation for many small business owners. Receipt management systems like HubDoc, ReceiptBank and MYOB Capture allow you to take a photo of your receipt, automatically upload it into your cloud accounting software for storage and easily link the receipt to the bank transaction. It saves you a lot of fuss, and when you’re done you can throw your receipt away knowing it is backed up to the cloud and compliant with tax regulations.

4. Invoice reminders and outstanding debtors

One of our favourite features of cloud accounting systems is automatic invoice reminders. In MYOB and Xero you can easily set up reminder rules and a friendly reminder email with no further time required. You can see a full list of outstanding debtors in the app or on your computer allowing you to understand your outstanding debtors list in real time.

5. Integrate timesheets

Timesheets and payroll can be fiddly and time consuming. By integrating timesheets with your cloud accounting software you can automatically upload timesheets for checks without the need to manually enter team hours. In our experience the automatic upload of timesheets reduces the likelihood of human error, saving you from potentially expensive mistakes.

6. Rostering system integration

Utilising a system such as Deputy for rostering and shift management is helpful for businesses to accurately track staff and their entitlements. By integrating and automating these systems with your cloud accounting software you can further reduce manual data entry, including associated time and mistakes.

7. Create bank rules

Creating bank rules or rules in your bank feed will allow you to automatically allocate regular payments to the same cost account each time. If you regularly shop at a particular store for supplies your cloud accounting system can recognise those transactions and automatically allocate them to cost of sales or office supplies for example. This can be a great time saver as your business and transaction volume increases and your business grows.

8. Calculate and pay superannuation

Superannuation calculations and payments used to be a nightmare process; cloud accounting systems now make the process much simpler with automatic calculations and simple payment processes. The system will calculate the superannuation payable and allow you to simply check and pay. We love the accuracy, simplicity and speed of the superannuation processes in the cloud accounting systems we use. You no longer have to visit multiple websites, make calculations manually and then send the money, your cloud accounting system should be able to take care of the whole process for you.

9. Single Touch Payroll integration

Single Touch Payroll or STP is another great automation available in cloud accounting systems. While it is now legally required for most businesses, cloud accounting makes it simple. Each time you finalise a payrun to employees you hit the finalise button and the data is automatically sent off to the ATO (Australian Tax Office). This removes the need for group certificates at tax time and keeps you on top of tax payments including payroll tax. For micro businesses that aren’t legally required to submit via STP I still encourage its use as it reduces manual work producing and lodging payment summaries.

10. Create reports automatically

Want to analyse your profit and loss on a monthly basis? Want to understand your debtor and creditor situation each week? Cloud accounting systems can automatically produce reports to help you understand and analyse your business. If you utilise items in your system you can even run regular reports to see which products or services are contributing to your bottom line, the number of items sold and the popularity of a particular item.

11. Snapshot reports

Snapshot reports are exclusive to Xero but are a great automation tool to help you to analyse and understand your business. These automatically generated reports include key business performance measures including profit or loss, income, expenses and gross profit margin. (see an example here)

12. GST allocations

GST can be a nightmare to administer for growing businesses. Your cloud accounting system can automatically allocate GST from each transaction meaning you don’t have to! The system can analyse where GST treatment is required and allocate accordingly. The best part about GST allocation is that it saves you money at tax time as there is less work required by your accountant.

13. Budget vs actual in real time

Cloud accounting systems have come a long way, with new features being added all the time. Most cloud accounting systems now allow you to upload (or create) your budget allowing you to compare budget vs actual in real time. This feature helps our clients to keep track of their monthly targets, understand where they are falling behind (or doing well) and stay focused on their financial goals.

By implementing these 13 automation options within your cloud accounting software you will save yourself time, money and gain a more accurate view and understanding of your business.

Are you wasting precious time? We can help, give us a call on 0492 943 757.