Are you a small business owner struggling with spreadsheets

Constantly trying to meet deadlines for taxes, GST submission and are you juggling Excel worksheets, failing to know who owes you money and who you need to pay?

I have seen many small business owners working with Excel spreadsheets, copying and pasting information from one spreadsheet to another, staying up late just to produce a report. More often than not, ending up stranded and wasting time on tasks that can well be computerised.

Many of us fall into the same trap. And that is partly the reason how my business kept me alive for 15 years, deploying solution after solution, reaching out to business owners who are still struggling with Excel….

Well yes, I was a victim of excel sheets too…

I started off my very own business, providing IT support and solutions to SMEs. Being a new start up, we tend to scrutinise every dollar spent, but overlook productivity. As many businesses, I prioritised sales and marketing and outsourced my accounts.

I diligently updated my own records in Excel but I still had sticky notes, invoices and receipts everywhere. Being an IT provider, it feels as a shame to recall myself reaching out regularly for my cheque books and old school calculator to assess my cash flow position

There were many embarrassing moments when I chased my customer for payment  which were already paid. I made a pact to work out terms with my accounting firm to produce monthly receivables reports to avoid those embarrassing moments. It worked but the charges were high and it was not efficient. Records of payment have to be sent on a regular basis and it all resulted in double work on both sides.

Taking the plunge

The final awakening call came when my company tax reports were due and late for audit submission. My company’s bank records could never be reconciled as information was fragmented. When my sales increased, my focus on the accounts was completely taken away, ending up with fragmented pieces of information all over the place

Eventually I had to face the music. I had to come up with a proper solution. .

After scouting for many off-the shelf solutions, I decided to adopt MYOB accounting software. The software architecture is designed to the needs of an SME, integrating work flow processes such as generating sales quotations and converting them into sales invoices in a click. With its genius architecture, it computes the debits and credits automatically, thus allowing me to print out real time reports, without having the knowledge of accounting at all.

Finally, I was freed from being chained to the desk filling out Excel spreadsheets and my time is now more productive; generating business, driving sales, and all backed with a solid accounting backbone. I sleep better now.