If you’re running a retail shop or thinking of starting up in the retailing space, you should be looking at cloud accounting to make your business life easier and more efficient. The benefits are inescapable, to the point of being almost necessary.
Cloud accounting solutions can do far more for your business than just running the books. Namely, if you set up a well-integrated system with other essential business tools like point of sale (POS), you’ll have a powerful centralised control panel from which you can run your retail store with ease.
And with cloud accounting, you can manage it all on the run from your phone or tablet. Work smarter, not harder!
1) Automate your books to maximise efficiency
Yes, of course, one of the primary functions of a cloud accounting solution… is accounting and bookkeeping. Every business in the country needs to handle bookkeeping, and the best way to do that is by embracing simple and affordable cloud accounting software.
In terms of doing your books, basic accounting solutions can handle:
- expenses
- income
- cash flow
- sales
- bank account reconciliation
- GST
- taxes and EOFY
- financial reports
- budgets and forecasting.
But that’s just the start, in the same software solution you can also handle payroll, invoicing, budgeting, and much more to boot.
2) Integrate with your POS solution for seamless sales management
Almost every retail store on the planet needs some sort of POS system in place. (Unless you’re only accepting cash in a shoebox and manually writing down your sales – you’ll have some variety of POS.)
The potential inclusions of a POS system are:
- cash drawers or tills
- receipt printers
- EFTPOS terminals or ‘tap and go’ dongles
- barcode scanners
- tablets or computers.
When you decide on the specific POS set up to suit your business, you can then integrate it with your accounting software. This means you can automatically record sales made through your POS to be on top of your cash flow and profits. You can also integrate with inventory, so your stock count is always accurate.
3) Track your team’s time and expenses
It’s incredibly important for most retail businesses to record time sheets and expenses. To keep track of your employee’s time, you can easily enter in your staff’s hours and record any additional expenses they may incur in the performance of their role.
4) Accurate and compliant payroll and STP
Of course, one of the major responsibilities of a retail store owner will be paying staff. Instead of messing around with separate systems, to keep things tight and centralised, simply use the payroll module of a good quality accounting software solution.
With single touch payroll (STP) now mandatory in Australia, small business owners with staff will need some form of payroll software regardless – (might as well keep it under one roof with the benefit of automated data sharing.)
With payroll inbuilt in your cloud accounting software, you can manage:
- payruns
- payslips
- STP compliance
- leave and allowances
- superannuation
5) Better invoicing and management of accounts payable and receivable
As a retail business owner, it’s hard to find the time to either send invoices or pay them.
With decent accounting software, however, you can either fire off invoices from your mobile device or if you have bills to pay, you can view and manage these invoices from anywhere. (This allows you to do business, monitor expenses, and keep up to date on the health of your store…)
6) Simple bank reconciliation
Bank reconciliation is at the heart of good bookkeeping management. You will always need the ability to match what’s in your bank with what’s on your books.
Most accounting software will offer this feature to enable you to, you can automatically import your banking and credit card transactions for simple bank reconciliation. This will assist you in keeping track of your revenue and expenses, while ensuring your books are accurate and ready for your accountant come tax time.
7) Keep track of cash flow
Monitor the flow of cash in and out of your retail business with Reckon Insights financial reporting software. Reckon Insights provides financial reporting across profitability, cash flow, accounts receivables, customers, and many more key performance indicators.
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