How accounts software has made accounting a cakewalk for the non-commerce startup guy?
Blame it on the Indian education system or simply a general lack of common sense, but most techies and engineers-turned-entrepreneurs visualize accounting as a major hassle. In their minds, accounting is for those who either have studied or have a remote working knowledge of accounting. If you are a techie startup founder, meaning, a BE or a B.Tech who has founded a startup recently, and finding it challenging to manage without an accountant, we intend to change your thinking with this blog.
A good number of startups in India are founded by engineers or people with technical background. Often the co-founders and core team members too have similar profiles. Most of these think that even at the beginning stage of their business, they need an accountant to help them make daily entries and to keep books in general.
However, in India there’s a bunch of good cloud-based accounting software available that have made the lives of these techies easier. These software have helped startups cut costs, save time and a bunch of useful resources that could be utilized towards business development and marketing.
Here’s how these online accounting software have made accounting a cakewalk for techies:
Basic accounting tasks are easily handled
Most techie entrepreneurs can make do easily with a good online accounting software since it offers basic business functions such as invoicing (both my email and snail mail), finance report generation, sales report generation, income and expense tracking apart from client and vendor management. All you need to do is to categorize your clients and vendors and group and sub-group them wisely.
Accounting software automates easily
Techies are mostly hassled about billing, payments — both incoming and outgoing — and payment reminders. Accounting software automates recurring payments, due-notifications, reminders and invoicing. Just by the click of a button, you can send a message or an email reminder or an invoice and if this is a recurring feature every month, even that can be automated.
Quotes & estimates can be created on the software
Online cloud-based accounting software today helps non-commerce folks to easily create quotes and estimates through customized and pre-made templates. These quotes and estimates for clients can be converted into invoices on the software itself and sent by a click.
Tax preparation can be done too
You may think that you need an accountant for tax preparation at least once a year but we want to tell you that you need an accountant as well as an accounting software for the same. Today’s online accounting software such as Giddh have features such as automatic tax calculations (say state and central GST accrued) and tax reporting. This software can send all the necessary data and files to your tax preparation assistant or an accountant in a click.
Multiple user access enables you to get help
The best accounting software solutions in India give access of the software to multiple users within the organisation. Giddh doesn’t even charge you user-wise so you can subscribe on a monthly fee and add as many users as you like. So in case you are confused about any part of accounting, you can always get help and support from other team members or the customer support system of the software.
Payroll processing is made easy
You may or may not have an HR personnel in place but in the meantime, your accounting software can handle payroll processing of your team. You can enter time sheets, calculate pay, print checks and pay your employees without the legwork just on a cloud-based accounting software.
Helps in making projections
This is especially helpful for startups who constantly need to make income and business projections based on current traction. But entrepreneurs find it harder to make these projections unless they have an overview of profits and losses, financial and turnover reports. Accounting software automatically generates sales and finance reports along with analysis of the finances and month-on-month growth. This, coupled with a little help from a senior or an accountant, can help you make credible business projections.
Apps/tools can be integrated
A major advantage of having a good online accounting software is it can automatically integrate POS systems, e-commerce, ERP, credit card processing, Google apps or CRM. This helps any entrepreneur run his business smoothly without scattering data all over the system.
This is not to say that you will never need an accountant at any stage of your business but that you can make do without one while you are a small business.
If you are a techie startup founder who needs help in understanding online accounting more, feel free to contact us. Online accounting today is designed to help entrepreneurs like you. Take our word for it.