Business owner's dilemna
Most small businesses face the dilemna of having to take on tasks that they were not trained in because they lack the resources to engage qualified personnel to handle the specific tasks. Thus they need tools that can reduce the time taken to complete some of the routine functions, and give them the much needed time to tackle the not-so-routine tasks.
If you still think that accounting software is meant to be used by the qualified accountants only, read on.
Like all small business owners, you went into business with a dream : to sell your unique product or service, and make a living for you, your family and your employees.
Sooner or later, without realising it, you not only have to be an accountant, you are also a lawyer, a salesperson, an office manager, a shipping clerk, a customer service rep and sometimes a cleaner all rolled in one. You may not be taking on those functions any more, but you started out that way, and you might have to chip in once in a while when your staff member is on leave.
Keeping track of your income and expenses
As your business grows, your record keeping also increases. You have to record your sales, your collections and your payments. In addition, you have to track the amounts owing by your customers, and the amounts owing to your suppliers. If you deal in inventory, you will also need to track the quantity of stock bought, sold and the stock balance. All this places stress on you and your team member's time.If you do not have any integrated program to track your income and expenses, you would most likely use several systems and methods to record the business activities : you might write the invoices manually, or use a word processing program to issue your invoices. You might record the daily sales manually in a hard-cover journal book, or you might use a spreadsheet program to record the sales, and the expenses.
At the end of the month, or during the tax period, you might hand it all to the accountant to help you prepare the 'final accounts'.
As a business owner, if you or your team members spend so much time on the paperwork, where will you find time to build your business?
But doing paperwork is necessary, and going through the trouble to record the income and the expenses on a daily basis will help you find answers like :
- how your business perform - did it give you a profit for the month, quarter, year ?
- do I have enough cash to pay the suppliers and employees
- how much and how long your customers owe you
- how much and how long you owe your suppliers
- how much profit / or loss I made for all my projects
- how much profit did I make on each product I sold
- which customers give me the most sales
- where are my customers coming from - which marketing style works
- what are the total expenses incurred by my salesperson - toll, parking, petrol, entertainment, per month, quarter, yearly?
- and much more
Accounting made easy
MYOB Accounting software simplifies the accounting process for its users. It does all the debits and credits for you from the daily transactions that you enter. In other words, you do your normal stuff, but do so within the MYOB program.
There are 4 main tasks you perform on a daily basis:
- create and print delivery orders and invoice
- create and print purchase order to order services or stocks for your business
- record payment received from your customer, & print official receipts
- record payments made to your supplier and employees, including printing cheques and payment vouchers
You do all the above 4 tasks in MYOB software. As soon as you hit the 'Record' button, you can go ahead and print the accounts. In order words, you don't have to be an accountant to run MYOB.
You use MYOB Accounting software just like you would with the spreadsheet and word processing programs. The added advantage is that this tool not only records, it also summarise and analyse your business transactions and data.
With MYOB Accounting software, you only use one system for all your business activties; and it will give you the answers you are seeking. No duplication of work, and no delay in getting your answers.
In fact, most of our users end up as 'accountants by chance'. The MYOB software will produce the final accounts, with no extra effort required. If you are not trained to read the final accounts, you will need to get your qualified accountant to review, and make yearly adjustments for compliance to accounting standards and tax requirements, but as far as your daily business is concerned, you have gotten a fairly usable set of accounts for making daily business decisions. Imagine the savings in time from not having to re-enter the same information many times over.
Over time, you should learn some basic accounting terminology so that you can understand their meaning and its relevance to you as a business owner.
We believe that every business owner should understand the numbers in their business. This is to enable them to keep a tight control of the business finances. The business health and its survival depends on the owner making the right decision at the right time, based on timely and up-todate numbers. Using an accounting software like MYOB Accounting will get you the needed business analysis at a click of the mouse.
Read more about the easy-to-use features in MYOB Accounting
