Time to see accounting software as a growth driver

Small businesses must know — any software that frees up time is actually helpful in generating revenue. This is particularly applicable for online accounting software which is designed in order to manage your finances.

So what’s the obstacle here? It pains us to see a lot of small and medium businesses using our accounting software Giddh without fully experiencing its benefits. And when we reach out to them in order to demonstrate its very many characteristics, we realize that the reason is they don’t really see accounting software as a growth driver.

This blog post is for the hundreds of SMEs and startups in India that have switched to online accounting software but are yet to experience it in its totality.

The productive v/s administrative factor

SMEs must realize that even though for say three consecutive months, they have been mechanically viewing sales and purchase reports and found no new insight, doesn’t mean this is an unproductive exercise. After three months of similar good reports has a message: you are consistently doing good, you have your process in place. Now identify people who have freed up their time due to this automation- can they be put to a more productive task? Does consistency also mean complacency or status quo? When your administrative tasks are automated, you and your some of your employees must have enough time for taking initiatives, experimenting, try new processes and so on.

The practice of analysis

If online accounting software isn’t compelling you to put all the analytics together and take action, you probably should re-consider even using it. Accounting software like Giddh would not only generate sales or purchase reports but would also give you an overview of your finances. Imagine if you use this analysis and compare it with your sales and revenue analysis, you will be able to see exactly what to do next. Giddh goes on to even simplifying these reports that can be read in the form of graphs, just in case you need to send a presentation to a potential investor.

Forecasting leads to growth

We recently had run a series of the importance of forecasting where we talked about how SMEs can use online accounting software to take growth-based decisions. Since the accounting software shows you a pattern of your invoices, bills, due payments, you are in a position to forecast your revenues and expenses. How will you make growth plans unless you see how you are doing currently? How much cash flow you have? Which clients typically delay your payments? How many invoices are needed every month? These small details go a long way in creating a pattern of your business. Based on this, you are able to make realistic growth forecasts which when acted upon, lead to actual growth.

You must learn to view repetitive tasks as a scope for automation, and automation as a way to free up time for more productive tasks. But do you see your accounting software as a tool for both automation and growth? Unless you do, you are using an online tool but your mindset may still be stuck in the old offline world. Time to snap out of it.