Spend more time doing the work you actually like to do, and less of the tedious administrative tasks that many small business owners end up taking on.
If you're a small business owner, you know how tedious and time-consuming administrative tasks can be. Fortunately, with advances in technology, you can now spend more time doing the work you actually enjoy and less on administrative tasks.
Thanks to tools like AI-powered automation and virtual assistant services, small business owners can easily outsource these tedious tasks and free up more time to focus on the things that matter most.
Here are our 6 best time and money saving tips for you and your business:
1. Assess your app stack
Email isn’t going anywhere, but the traditional system is being overhauled.
When it comes to emailing your employees, working together as a team has never been easier with the help of apps like Slack and Zapier.
Slack allows teams to communicate in real-time, eliminating the need for long threads of back-and-forth emails. And when it comes to customer and client emails, Zapier can be used to automate mundane tasks like creating email rules or setting up automated messages.
Gmail’s rules can filter and prioritize emails as well, and can integrate into many CRM’s and to-do list apps, working like your own personal assistant.
Monday.com and Zoho are two more powerful apps that have transformed the way businesses manage their day-to-day operations. They offer a wide range of features, including task management, calendar sync, automated workflows, and more.
With these tools, businesses can easily streamline their workflow and reduce time spent on mundane computer tasks.
2. Revamp your Accounts Receivable
If your invoicing is taking up too much valuable time, you need to assess your systems. Instead of spending countless hours posting invoices and deposits, take advantage of recurring and automated transactions or even a third party app to handle integration to platforms you already use to handle customers and jobs.
In QuickBooks Online, you can also send friendly automated reminders for payment, which is proven to help you collect faster. And when your customers are ready to pay, they can do so right from your invoice, online. The fees are competitive and reasonable - but if you're still not sure, we can help pull the important reports that will allow you to do a cost-benefit analysis on accepting card payments.
Pro tip: Use payment terms (i.e. 2% net 30) with your customers to increase cash flow (and on the flip side, take advantage of supplier payment terms to save. A little bit adds up every time!).
3. Automate your salaried employees’ payroll with QuickBooks
QuickBooks is making it easier than ever for salaried employees to get paid on time. With its automated payroll system, employers can have the software automatically (and accurately!) calculate employee paychecks, accumulate vacation days, and prepare taxes and deductions for remittance.
If you’ve got salaried employees, there’s no reason you can’t take advantage of QuickBooks’ Auto-Payroll feature. An app like Wagepoint can also do auto-payroll and file & pay your PD7A source deductions. And Simcoe Office Solutions can set you up fast - your next payroll (and remittance) could be completed without lifting a finger!
4. Use QuickBooks Time to simplify payroll for your hourly employees
QuickBooks Time is a powerful time tracking tool designed to help businesses of all sizes manage their hourly employees. It’s come a long way from its days as TSheets, and now its truly ready to take on the huge task of time tracking, and seamlessly integrate that into your company’s payroll.
QuickBooks Time will become your new payroll manager! With its intuitive interface, it can quickly and accurately calculate employee hours in real-time and easily export payroll data to your QuickBooks Online file. Just review and approve timesheets, make changes as needed, and then run payroll using those hours.
And thanks to the software’s Geofencing feature, businesses can now easily minimize employee time theft and ensure accuracy in their payroll records. This technology uses location-based tracking to confirm that employees are actually at the workplace when they clock in and out, enabling employers to save time and money, as well as offer peace of mind.
Save time and energy with QuickBooks Time, the perfect choice for running payroll for your hourly employees.
5. Outsource help when needed
There comes a time in every small business owner’s career when they must begin to delegate tasks. As you find success in your business, you simply can’t be bogged down with the increasing workload of administrative tasks.
This is when you must make the jump from the one-man-show, to the CEO (or whatever title you choose!). It can be nerve wracking to find someone to take on the workload - but if you can utilize a quality candidate service (for example ZipRecruiter, or even a private staffing agency), you will finally be able to grow your business how you want to.
Websites like Upwork can handle one off administrative tasks, but eventually as you scale you may want to look at having a part-time to full-time subcontractor or employee. Both have benefits and drawbacks tax-wise, but will inevitably grow your business.
Having a team becomes an invaluable asset and gives you the opportunity to change the lives of others, whilst simultaneously inviting different perspectives that your business needs in order to scale.
6. Get help with your books
On that note, many small businesses struggle to produce accurate books and so fail to get accurate cash flow forecasting. Many don’t foresee cash and budgeting issues, and fall victim to the statistic: 20% of businesses fail in their first year and around 60% will go bust within their first three years.
Accurate books can allow you to budget properly, foresee cash issues, and are usually necessary for securing loans and investments.
Getting help from an expert can save you huge coin on taxes, and you end up with solid financial advice on securing your revenue and getting money back on your expenses.
Simcoe Office Solutions can help. We offer one time clean-up services, with the option of annual, quarterly, or monthly bookkeeping service to get you up and running.
When you’re ready, we also offer training so that you can stay on top of your books.
Contact us today to get started!