3 Life changing software tools your business needs
If you’re like me, you’re the sort of professional who gets great satisfaction from discovering something new that turns an everyday nuisance or overly complicated task into something far easier and less time-consuming.
The great thing about living and working in 2022 is that these tasks are equally faced by other people every day, and as a result, some very clever businesses have created apps and software tools your business needs that tackle these tasks head-on.
In this blog, we take a look at 3 software tools that we implemented within our business over the last year that have transformed not only our business but our clients, too.
1. AutoEntry
AutoEntry is one of those software tools your business needs. AutoEntry is an automation tool that accurately captures data on company receipts and invoices using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. Using artificial intelligence, data from these items can be extracted by taking a photo using the mobile app or scanned individually, removing the risk of human error.
You may be more familiar with its rival, Receipt Bank. Like Receipt Bank, AutoEntry integrates with the cloud accounting software of your choice, including popular platforms Xero, Quickbooks, Sage One, Freeagent and Kashflow.
AutoEntry mobile app. Simply take a picture of your receipt or invoice. Data is linked to your accounting software, and any duplications are rejected.
The main notable difference between the two is the costs to use AutoEntry are based per item using “credits”, whereas Receipt Bank’s price plans are based on the number of items processed each month with different thresholds. One of the great things about AutoEntry’s pricing plans is any unused credits automatically roll over and are not wasted, providing a more flexible solution depending on the data demands of your business from one month to the next.
As accountants, AutoEntry, as you can imagine, is a key part of our business and the service we deliver to our clients. It’s one of the software tools your business needs to streamline operations. In the last few months alone, we have uploaded over 12,000 receipts and invoices, saving a huge amount of time in the process and costs to our business – savings we can pass on to our clients.
As you can imagine, if data from receipts and invoices were inserted manually, the chances of some errors happening with 12,000 items are high. These small errors can have a huge knock-on effect. If data is incorrect, when a management accountant or financial accountant starts to put together their reports, the information is worthless. Using AutoEntry is not only more accurate but also far more cost-effective.
2. Fathom
Smart businesses use analytics and metrics to make informed business decisions. Fathom is one of those software tools your business needs to delve deeper into its performance metrics – our clients absolutely love it.
Fathom is a management reporting and financial analysis tool that helps business owners and stakeholders make sense of business data in order to identify areas to improve business performance. It seamlessly integrates with either Xero or Quickbooks, or you can import data via Excel spreadsheets.
One of the things we really like about Fathom is the ability for financial information and non-financial results to sit side-by-side. You might want to find out the number of customer visits to your store or the average spend per customer. Whatever the most important KPIs for your business are, they’re all trackable with Fathom.
The reason our clients really appreciate this side of Fathom is it provides deeper insights into their business – information you can’t just get out of an accounting system. However, in the same management report, your business’s profitability, cash flow, and trend analysis are all at hand, too, in a beautiful, engaging and easily understandable format.
A sample report from Fathom showing revenue analysis for a fictional letting agent.
Fathom monthly summary management information.
As well as creating your own KPIs, Fathom can be used to create bespoke benchmarks. We use this part of Fathom for a franchise group to compare franchisees, identifying under- and over-performers, as well as strengths and weaknesses in relation to one another. Fathom is a great piece of kit for franchises or companies looking to group related companies together and create consolidated reports.
Terry Pratchett once said, “If you do not know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are, and if you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you’re going. And if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going wrong.” Fathom helps you to understand your past, where you are as a business, and where you want to go – and stop you from making wrong decisions.
3. BrightHR
Managing staff in a business, rotas, shifts, sicknesses and holidays in the past has typically meant completing a paper form to be signed off by a manager, emails being thrown back and forth and a lot of unnecessary bother in the process.
BrightHR helps businesses manage their staff in a more productive way, a one-stop hub to organise, monitor and manage your company’s employee records. All data is stored securely in the cloud and can be accessed on the go using their mobile app.
The BrightHR dashboard.
It’s an extremely intuitive piece of software for our directors and staff to navigate, making it one of the software tools your business needs for efficient staff management. You can approve holidays for staff at the click of a button, and it will flag any annual leave that conflicts with another member of staff.
With a paper-based solution in a busy office environment and a growing team, the issue can sometimes be putting time aside time to plan work and life. Being paperless, BrightHR is a good fit for us and is aligned with our core values.
Bright HR is part of the Peninsula Group, and as an additional service through a telephone helpline, your business can access employment law professionals should you encounter any employment issues. Equally, employees can access their Employee Assistance Programme through the mobile app as a measure to improve staff well-being and reduce absenteeism.
Conclusion
The journey of transforming your business operations can often seem daunting, yet with the right tools and expert guidance, it becomes an exciting venture towards efficiency and growth. At MNE Accounting, we’ve not only mastered these life-changing software tools – AutoEntry, Fathom, and BrightHR – but we’ve also integrated them seamlessly into our services to enhance your business performance.
Our hands-on experience and deep understanding of these tools mean we’re uniquely positioned to tailor their capabilities to your specific needs. Whether it’s streamlining data entry, gaining insightful analytics, or managing staff more effectively, our team is dedicated to elevating your business to new heights. Don’t let the potential of these tools remain untapped. Contact us today, and let’s embark on a journey to transform your business together. How can we assist you in taking the first step towards this transformation?
