Accounting Frontier Blog

A core bookkeeping automation tool is a document collection / bill entry software.  This type of software is incredibly helpful and serves several important functions.  First, it acts as a central document collection hub for your business.  Employees can upload bills and receipts directly to the application via email or by taking a picture of the bill or receipt on their mobile phone. In addition, anyone outside your organization can upload bills by sending a pdf attachment from an email.  This effectively decentralizes the entry of bill data by getting it into your document hub from multiple sources.  The second function of this type of software is it reads the scanned copy of the bill and pulls important data from the document such as vendor name, invoice date, due date, invoice number, and amount and then enters the data into fields for your review.  After quickly reviewing the data, you publish both the bill data to your accounting software and a pdf copy of the actual invoice to the transaction in your accounting software.  You can set it up so that no bill goes into your system without your review or have bills automatically enter the system once they are uploaded after you become more comfortable with how it works. The software also remembers previous entries so if you use a vendor frequently, it will pull all the data from the current bill and then remember the general ledger account you assigned to that vendor previously. 

Like time tracking, payroll processing is often a tedious and disliked process.  It’s an important part of any business though and there are ways to reduce the administrative hours involved in payroll, all while providing a better experience for your employees.  A beneficial strategy of bookkeeping automation is to decentralize the entry of data to your employees.  Payroll is no different.  Many payroll softwares offer the ability for employees to fill out W4s, personal bank account info, state filings, I9s, and upload documents securely from their own user account.  The entered data can be reviewed for accuracy by HR and your accounting department before you start paying your employees.  Many payroll systems offer self-service options to employees so they can retrieve pay stubs, change bank info, change withholdings, request time off and download year-end tax statements like a W-2.  Training employees to be self-sufficient will help save you a lot of administrative time.  With better onboarding processes and employee self-service options, you will ensure a more seamless payroll system that better serves you and your employees all at the same time.    

Bookkeeping automation facilitates a structure in which financial management, controls, and oversight are centralized, but the data entry is decentralized.  In our wagon wheel example, the applications on the edge of the wagon wheel serve as entry points for your data.  Users are granted access to each application based on their needs in that function and they submit data (i.e. expense reports, purchase orders, or timesheets) which then funnel to approval checkpoints and into accounting software (such as Xero or QuickBooks Online). 

By pushing data entry down to the person who initiated the accounting transaction, you accomplish a few important things. 

Most people are familiar with the online bill pay feature included with their bank, but did you know there are bill payment platforms specially designed for small businesses?  These systems not only print and mail checks for you, but they can do direct electronic payments with your vendors as well. The banking profile of the vendor can be managed by the vendor without you ever being involved with it. Wires, domestic and international, can all be handled within this system. And perhaps the best feature is the interaction with the bill payment system and your accounting system. Bills automatically sync between both systems for a seamless experience. This drastically reduces the amount of time for data entry. In this article, we’re going to discuss why you should consider moving away from hand-written checks and move toward a bill payment platform.

When should you consider outsourcing your bookkeeping? What are the benefits of outsourcing? In today’s post, we’re going to share some bookkeeping warning signs and then discuss the benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeping.

Most businesses rely on credit cards to make daily purchases in their company. From inventory to supplies, materials and advertising, almost every purchase makes it on the company credit card. It’s a convenience most people rely on, but it has its challenges as an organization grows. It can be tedious to keep up with all the transactions, but this is vital for the owner to have accurate and up-to-date financial reports.

The other challenge is oversight with the team. There are four areas that should be considered for your credit card policy.

Time tracking is an integral part of many businesses but it’s often a tedious and disliked part.  Despite this, time tracking is highly important on both the revenue side and the expense side. 

In its simplest terms, a budget is a realistic estimate of future revenues and expenses. This is an important exercise for a business to do at least annually just prior to the new year. Budgets should include your normal operating revenues and expenses, but also factor in capital improvements, staff additions, infrastructure investments (like software or equipment), and other long-term purchases. A great budget allows the team to plan future expenditures that align with the mission and vision of the organization.

Now that you have a company credit card, it’s time to implement a system to oversee it. The two big players in the industry are Abacus and Expensify, and both would meet the needs of most businesses. These accounting applications are designed to solve three problems: (1) data entry and efficiency, (2) recordkeeping, and (3) oversight.

So you’ve made the decision to move from a desktop accounting application to the cloud. The next question is, which vendor will you choose? There are many worthy choices out there that will serve most businesses. However, we’re looking for the most optimized solution and there are certain factors that need to be considered. QuickBooks Online is the most widely used and recognized player in the industry.

Our firm reviewed QuickBooks Online and Xero, another major player in the could accounting space.  After reviewing both QuickBooks Online and Xero, we settled on Xero for these four reasons.