TUTORIAL How to go clutter free: insight into

How to go clutter-free: Insight into technology, process and people change

Paul Struckman, Founder and Director,

Balanced Chartered Accounting

Paul has one motivation – to improve the lives of people in business. With years of experience in his field, including KPMG and a publicly listed company, Paul saw the opportunity to build a client driven accounting practice, with no bureaucracy or baggage; just great use of technology, expert advice from his team and close knit client relationships. He prides himself in having a working knowledge with a raft of Xero Add-Ons which, if used appropriately, can improve business profitability and save the most precious resource of all, time.

Digital transformation is

largely associated with technology change. Indeed, more often than not, the key stumbling stone on the path to efficiency is legacy technology that dictates the way people work rather than flexibly support new ways the business strives to evolve.

Especially in accounting, lots of practices are locked into paper systems where collecting relevant data is a job of its own. It takes forever to find and collate pieces of information in order to prepare a reliable basis for time-critical finance decisions.

At the same time, even with a successful technology upgrade and all stakeholders willing to move forward, the digital drive is hindered by an even bigger challenge: mind-set change.

Clutter-full and Reactive Accounting

One of the recurring challenges in SMB accounting are paper trails. Paper is used for processing payments as well as performing authorisation and obtaining business approvals.

Paper systems are extremely tedious, with the institutional knowledge residing in people’s minds and the key finance data scattered across multiple paper copies in an unusable format. Maintaining the paper trail becomes a full-time job just for the sake of it.

Processing paper is costly in terms of time and effort. What’s more, it inevitably leads to the breakdown of critical processes, causing a delay or even complete oversight of business and finance authorisation for documents.

Paper-led accounting becomes fully reactional, with key authorisation decisions made only after the money may have left the bank. Such schemas are extremely risky and financially inefficient.

Technology Change: Cloud + Decision Control

Starting point is the introduction of a modern cloud-based accounting platform such as Xero. Xero provides for data digitisation and centralisation, and enables quick and easy access to financial data. It is a perfect solution for establishing a secure environment for remotely operating teams in need of efficient collaboration and the ability to work on the go.

Complementing the accounting

Paper-led accounting becomes fully reactive, with key authorisation decisions made only after the money may have left the bank. Such schemas are extremely risky and financially inefficient.

platform with a decision control system is the next step on the road to success. A decision control system in the form of an approval workflow solution will automate the approval decision routing, run team that have a firm stand on work with them. This will indeed

reports, send notifications, and handle approval exceptions.

People and Process Change

Overcoming legacy practices bears an even greater challenge though: changing people’s attitude and

Accounting

processes.

There are several aspects to a right processes are in place, will

successful change management. One is applying best practices from similar types of organisations and business scenarios to speed up process adaptation.

Of course, it’s essential to get all stakeholders on board as early active engagement throughout the project.

A safe and proven implementation strategy is to start rolling out new

processes in a single department and then expand to all processes across the organisation once positive results are yielded and benefits are confirmed.

Finally, find the most changeresistant members in the client’s the old paper-led ways and start accelerate the whole change management process.

Clutter-free and Proactive

The great thing about going clutterfree is that the benefit is immediate. Changes brought on by an innovative technology can literally happen overnight and, given the as possible and to maintain their

skyrocket the individual and team productivity.

At the same time, optimising the underlying business processes facilitates long-term agility and enables organisations to differentiate themselves among

Clutter-free and proactive accounting. Fully digital processes. Timely approvals. Authorisation strictly in line with corporate and audit requirements.

competitors and scale. And as a final point, process improvement reduces financial risks – which is always a good thing.

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5 reasons why you should build up your app-etite for software

@arthurproperty

Dan Allan was Arthur Online’s first ever graduate recruit. Now, he’s a seasoned PropTech enthusiast and author. In his time at Arthur, he was been involved in nearly every aspect of the business.

The software revolution has no end in sight; hundreds of new apps are released every day onto the App and Play stores, each fighting for position. A few years ago, Arthur Online was one of them. Now Arthur’s Dan Allan explains why it’s important that you ensure your clients aren’t just using one software but are excited to use as many as possible...

Software is used by everyone

for almost everything, from entertaining your children to making millions by investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However, there are still those that are reluctant to fully embrace the software revolution. You won’t hear them ask Alexa to play their favourite songs or telling Siri to set a timer for 15 minutes. Instead, they will continue to use the methods they have always used.

Now, this isn’t to say what they are doing is wrong. But, it is to say that there are probably much better ways of doing it. Cloud software, like those you see on the Xero marketplace, are the now and the future. It is important that you don’t get left behind.

1) This is the way the world is going

In recent years, there has been a shift in how software companies interact. Developers are no longer trying to create something that can do everything. Instead, they are looking to do what they do at the highest level possible, focussing on achieving greatness in their particular field, rather than trying to spread themselves across several different fields and mastering none.

Concentrating on one thing has paved the way for integrations; software’s talking to each other, like gossiping friends in the street passing information between each other. Companies recognise that by banding together, they can provide a superior solution to clients compared to a software that tries to do it all. This is why the old guard are slipping behind, or rapidly trying to catch up to, the new kids.

Xero and Arthur integrated with each other because both companies realised that they would never do what the other did. Xero would never be a property management software and Arthur would never be a full accounting package. But, obviously, both software’s didn’t stop there and both can now integrate with hundreds of different partners.

2) It gives them more options

By choosing to use multiple different software’s that integrate with each other, the amount of choice you have suddenly becomes exponentially bigger. You’re not limited to the two or three different packages that can do everything you want. Instead lots of different software’s can be used to help the business run and all talk to each other, thus removing the need for double entry. For example, a client of Arthur’s has recently extended their integration beyond our system. They now use: Arthur, Xero, GoCardless, Receipt Bank, Google Calendar and even integrate with Experian. All the different software’s are specifically designed to be at the top of their game in particular areas, meaning they can provide a quality service.

Readers beware: too many software’s can be a bad thing!

3) It will make your life easier

The Xero marketplace has over 600 different apps on it. Why not make use of them? By promoting the use of these different apps, the life of accountants and bookkeepers becomes much easier. All the information is tipped into one place for you to easily access. Furthermore, by setting up rules, you can choose where this information appears. Don’t forget that there is much less of a chance of you having to try and chase them up on things!

Software is designed to make a person’s life easier or to do something the person is incapable of mostly). By choosing to use software, your clients life should become infinitely easier. No longer will they have to do things like remember to file their receipts in a certain drawer, or ensure they send this email or raise that invoice. Instead, the software will do it for them or remind them to do it.

4) It will make you flexible

By using several different integrated software’s, you’re suddenly very flexible. If you add an rea to your business, you can easily pick a new software to help you that will work with your current selection. Alternatively, if you decide you don’t need one of them, then you can stop using one whilst are very expensive. Because the company has to spend so much

maintaining the rest of your apps.

6) Stickiness (bonus feature)

One of the problems with the all-in-one solutions is that they

money trying to develop each area to a decent level, their software is very expensive compared to those that focus on just one area. Furthermore, it is very rigid. Even when using several different software’s, the price of cloud software is often far below that of the old static systems.

5) It will save you money

For Xero accountants and bookkeepers, encouraging your clients to use more software’s and teaching them how to use them will provide more stickiness for your business. By introducing them to something that will improve their life (as well as yours) you are providing an added service that will reflect well on you.

Arthur and Xero offer a scalable solution for property management and accounting. Both companies, are leading their field in terms of integrations with other software and integrated software is the future.