Financial Tools
Start to streamline your financial management process so you can get back to your real job,
Keeping up with the financial side of owning a small business can feel like a never-ending job. From invoices to expenses to day-to-day accounting and dealing with the IRS, it’s a wonder that entrepreneurs ever find the time to deal with actually producing goods or providing services.
Fortunately, technology has brought about a multitude of tools to save small business owners time and headaches on daily financial tasks.
From expense management software to inventory tracking, these business tools may help keep your company's finances organized.
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1. Accounting Software
2. Expense Tracking
3. Budgeting Tools
4. Payroll Management
5. Easy Billing
1. Accounting Software
While certain accounting software platforms have been considered top-of-the-line for many years, now newer software options are also becoming more popular. Before choosing accounting software for your company, look for features important to your business. They might include cloud-based entries, integration with your POS software or the ability to easily send information to your tax preparer.
2. Expense Tracking
When my employees are on the go, they often have different expenses that will need to be reimbursed—meals and mileage, for example. Monitoring such expenses is part of some accounting software, but not all, so look for a program that integrates with your accounting software if the feature isn't already present. Also, be sure you're not paying for more than you need. Some expense management software is more robust than a typical small-to-mid-size business requires.
3. Budgeting Tools
One of the crucial ways a business can be successful is to maintain careful budgeting. Knowing what money is coming in and going out makes it easier to manage your cash flow and plan for upcoming months. Generally, I use reports from my company's accounting software to make sure inflows and outflows are on track.
4. Payroll Management
A lot goes into managing a company's payroll, and making errors in this area is expensive. Once my company started to grow, I knew I couldn't handle my own payroll anymore. In my experience, the best payroll solutions for small-to-mid-size businesses are those that scale as your business grows and that integrate with your accounting software. If you work with both freelancers and W2 employees, you'll also want to ensure that the solution makes working with both easy.
5. Easy Billing
Waiting for your vendors to pay their bills can make your business struggle. For some big suppliers, paying late is standard business practice and you may not be able to do anything about it other than to work with another company. But for other businesses, having quick and easy billing and payment options may be simpler.