The paper-free accountant is now here! Online services have fundamentally changed the landscape of how businesses interact with their accountants.
Here’s how to get a paper-free accountant: –
Document Management
Many documents arrive electronically these days, so businesses are on the way to being paper-free already.A document scanner, a multi-function printer or a smartphone can take photos of documents that do not arrive electronically allowing all source documents to be digital.
At Broadwing Accountancy, we work with a number or clients who use Dropbox, Google Drive and other, similar, online file storage services. All documents such as sales invoices, suppliers’ bills, bank statements etc. are saved into folders where other members of the team can access and share them with us.
This process allows us to open the documents, do the accounting and then save them in a “Dealt with” folder so both we and the client know we have dealt with the document and new documents are easily identifiable.
Nothing is printed out and nothing needs to be physically filed.
Adobe Sign is also used allowing clients to electronically sign their accounts, tax returns and other important documents, and can be performed on all devices – smartphones, tablets or laptops. Once signed the clients receives an electronic copy of the signed document for their record. This removes the need to rely on physically printing and posting documents for signing, saving money, time and reducing our carbon footprint.
It is vitally important that the business has a full and reliable back up of these documents, just in case the primary source is lost or damaged.
It is worth looking at the HMRC’s guide on record keeping. The “HMRC recommend you keep all the original documents you receive. This does not mean you need to keep them on paper.”
Accounting Software and the Paper-Free Accountant
Cloud Accounting Services have been introduced over the last few years, but what are the advantages and disadvantages?
What are the advantages?
- You and your accountant can both work on and access the data and financial reports anytime and anywhere
- You can be in a PC or a Mac environment and still use the software
- The client is best placed to raise sales invoices and raising them in the online accounting system does the accounting at the same time, improving credit control and saving time and money
- Apps are being developed for online packages all the time which help to integrate tasks and processes
What are the disadvantages?
- Pricing is a continuous subscription model whereas the desktop version can be an outright purchase which is likely to be cheaper in the medium term
- With desktop software, you can take and restore a backup which means you can safely test a new process or an upload of data and if you make errors you can always restore your back up and start again
- The software may not be a good fit for your business, then these arrangements can be difficult to disentangle
The choice of accounting software and online document management do not determine each other. You can do either, neither or both at the same time.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
There is a different solution other than online accounting software –Microsoft Azure platform. A Platform as a Service solution.The software and data from a server is moved to the Azure platform and all work is performed online in the cloud using the same software.
This is a different approach but still not a piece of paper in sight!
Are you making the most of the digital age to save time, reduce costs, reduce the amount of space you need and allow your business to run more flexibly?
If you’re not then you should be…just don’t start from a blank sheet of paper!
If you would like Broadwing Accountancy to help you this year or find out how we could benefit you and your company, contact Brian Munjanja on 01604 328328, or email your questions to [email protected].
