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It’s that time of the month again, time to tip out that old shoebox full of the countless number of till slips and invoices that you have studiously collated over the month. Time to capture it all into that  massive spreadsheet with 10 tabs that took you days to create, and countless more hours to edit link format and maintain. After that, it’s time to find and capture all the invoices and credit notes that you manually created and manually sent out during the month – and then reconcile it to your monthly bank statement – MANUALLY!!!  Finally, hunt down those slips that you don’t have, to account for the bank statement lines that you cannot reconcile. Also – why is this debit order going off your account this month – didn’t you cancel it two months ago? If only you knew sooner.  

Sound remotely familiar? As a small business owner, you have better things to do with your time! Doing your bookkeeping in a spreadsheet is a waste of time, and just absurd, considering the tolls available – it’s time to get off that spreadsheet and onto an accounting system. Believe me, you will thank yourself for doing it.  

Spreadsheet software is undeniably incredible!! The amount of information that can be created or interrogated using spreadsheets is only limited by a user’s skill, imagination or data. The problem is, even if you are advanced spreadsheet user, bookkeeping in a spreadsheet can become challenging. 

Pro’s:  

• Its free (and even that is debatable considering the time you will spend on it) 
• Easy to capture data 
• Create graphs and reports 

Con’s: 

• Time consuming 
• Manual data entry 
• Error prone and difficult to spot errors 
• Clunky and ugly 
• Possible courses needed to understand how to use spreadsheet software 
• Lack of scalability 
• Multiple formulas that change over time, and then create confusion 

Its time to step into the new age of bookkeeping and accounting for your small business, with tools like Xero, QuickBooks online and FreshBooks (to name a few). All these software companies have made accounting for small businesses inexpensive, easy to use and access, by automating as much as of the accounting process as possible, and  continually developing faster and better solutions! 

Here are some of the features (there are so many more) that will benefit you and your company when shifting from spreadsheets to a cloud accounting tool:  

• Automated bank feeds – your accounting system securely connects to your bank account and updates with new transactions. Reconcile in seconds. Quick, clean effective! 
• Connectivity from anywhere – Invoice on the move, capture supplier invoices anywhere, run your business on the move.  
•  Schedule your payments and manage your cash flow 
• Inexpensive and beautiful accounting 
• No need to chase up on your debtors, with automatic reminders 
• Track your inventory 
• Attach documents to transactions 
• Accurate double entry bookkeeping 
• Easy Vat reconciliations 
• Easy collaboration with your accountant 

If you are a small business owner and what to get off that spreadsheet, and benefit from the features above, and so much more – give  118Accounting a call and we will help you switch!