If you’ve ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through your social media accounts, or browsing online shops without any particular plan to buy anything, you might think that today’s technology takes up more of your time than it saves. 

But despite all those seemingly wasted hours spent online, research shows that modern technology is actually saving the average person around two weeks every year on everyday tasks like shopping and banking.

It makes sense, then, that you would put that time-saving software to use in your business, and digitise tasks like accounting and bookkeeping.

What are your options?

What’s available to you might depend on what your accountant offers – some accountants will only work with one software provider, for example, which may limit your choices.

Here are a few of the ways you can manage your accounts digitally.

File sharing

As the most basic digital option, this could be appropriate for someone who just needs their paperwork organising, and doesn’t need a lot of input on their accounts.

With this method, you save all of your records and receipts to an indexed folder, and send that information to your accountant throughout the year through a secure file sharing system.

Your accountant then takes care of your bookkeeping, and returns the completed paperwork to you. 

Desktop software

Usually, you’ll need to purchase a license for this kind of outdated software and install it on your computer. You then enter your accounting data into the system manually, so the software can process it. 

With desktop systems, it’s up to you to back up your information, and you may need to install updates as they’re released. You can only access your data on the device you saved it on, unless you export and transfer it by email or USB stick.

Desktop accounting software has been around for a long time, and many people are used to this way of managing their accounts. 

But it’s now fairly outdated compared to online options, especially with the rollout of Making Tax Digital requiring some amount of online connectivity to transfer data to HMRC.

Cloud accounting software 

If you need a more sophisticated way of managing your accounts, setting up cloud accounting software is your best option.

The cloud, for those who aren’t familiar with the term, is a way of storing information on remote servers, rather than on your own device.  

In practice, that means you can access your account from anywhere with an internet connection, using your computer, phone, or tablet. 

The software’s data is updated in real-time, and you can efficiently carry out a variety of tasks, including tracking expenses, creating tailored sales invoices and estimates, creating management reports and graphs and carrying out VAT calculations and online filing.

Your Knight and Company account manager will also have access to your account, and can give you live support and advice as and when you need it.

This is perfect for busy business owners who want an at-a-glance overview of their finances, as well as insights to help them make important decisions.

We can help

At Knight & Co, we know that every business has different requirements, so we believe it’s important to offer our clients a range of software – and we’re willing to adapt to the kind of service they need.

We’re partnered with four main software providers: Kashflow, FreeAgent, QuickBooks and Sage. That gives us the flexibility to offer our clients the package that best suits them, along with training and additional support.

Talk to us about how we can help with digital accounting.