Description
Some people learn about integrations because they use online accounting software like Xero, MYOB Essentials and QuickBooks Online but most integrations are also stand alone software programs that provide a very specific purpose.
Cloud Accounting software is often the central software used by businesses every day to perform financial aspects of the business and Xero in particular made a concerted effort to promote the many integrations that their clients could use.
In our online training courses we explore the common Integrations that are aimed at helping automate the bookkeeping process and save accounts staff and business owners a lot of time.
Expense Tracking & Receipt Scanning
Data Entry is one of the most time consuming tasks for junior level bookkeepers and it is the cause of:
- errors and omissions if performed late or not at all by small business owners.
- low productivity because it take a lot of time
- lack of evidence to substantiate business expense receipts
Most catch up work is based on data entry for past transactions and then matching those transactions to a category in the Chart of Accounts.
Hubdoc (owned by Xero)
Hubdoc is a Canadian company that competed against Receipt Bank (now Dext) and AutoEntry in the receipt scanning and transaction coding market. Xero has included fundamental Hubdoc features in their Xero Accounting software.
MYOB In tray
Unlike Xero, MYOB have written the functionality to scan receipts and keep them as part of your accounting file within their software, just like the good old days.
Dext (ReceiptBank)
Dext is one of the most established software providers for receipt scanning, storage and data retrieval. In our consultation with bookkeepers and BAS agents as well as our support team this software appears to be the easiest to use and is the most accurate of the software available.
Rosters/Scheduling Staff & Time & Attendance
Managing shifts and rosters is a time and resource management task that can easily turn into a nightmare if staff are sick or away and you have a high workload. Most business owners and managers have extra staff that they can call in if needed but scheduling the roster is just the beginning. There’s shift swapping, sick days and holidays that need to be managed.
With cloud based services and smartphone apps that anyone can use more of these tasks can be performed online and even by the staff themselves.
Once a roster for all the shifts has been created your staff must turn up, clock in and then clock out when they are finished. This either needs to be managed by someone or can be performed with the help of Time and Attendance software – just like a bundy clock or Punch Clock.
With the use of cloud-based software and apps this task is quicker and easier and much more accurate and that means that staff wages are quicker and easier to manage.
Cloud services that can help with this include:
- Deputy
- Planday
- Keypay,
- TSheets, and
- ADI Insights
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM’s are very important software programs for companies because it helps them manage their marketing, sales and account management functions. These programs help companies nurture prospects, provide good customer service to customers and forecast future income.
When you delve into how a business finds customers you begin to understand how important CRM programs are. As soon as a business receives a lead that person is in the sales and marketing pipeline and the CRM helps the sales staff build trust with the buyer to get them to make a purchase.
CRM’s keep a record of all correspondence and marketing messages which have been sent to a person and enables sales people to get them from the lead side of the pipeline to the customer side. Once they are a customer a good CRM also helps sales people manage the ongoing client relationship for the ongoing sale of products and services.
Some CRM’s we cover include:
- BatchBook
- HubSpot
- Zoho CRM
- FreshSales
Point of Sale (POS)
Point of Sale software enables a customer to swipe their card to make a purchase. This can be something very simple using a smartphone and a card reader from a payment provider like PayPal or Square or a complex system used in cafe’s a restaurants like Lightspeed.
Point of Sale Systems can themselves be integrated with inventory and stock management systems to automatically deduct products from inventory levels so business owners have live and up to the minute stock information.
Point of Sale Systems include:
- Square
- Vend
- Lightspeed
Payments
A decade ago most businesses used their bank merchant services to receive payments via Credit Cards, EFTPOS and Debit Cards and it often included expensive monthly fees, transaction fees and bulky hardware.
The ability to receive credit card payments is now critical for all businesses includes professional and trades services providers. Luckily some innovative technology companies have reduced the costs massively and increased the flexibility.
Most of these apps can be used as stand alone apps and even provide basic accounting functions like quoting and invoicing.
Popular Payment integrations include:
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Square
Project Management Apps
Building and Construction companies and some trades organisations provide products, services and project management to their clients. These projects are often complicated, require teams of people at dedicated times and to reach certain milestones.
Project Management Software pulls all aspects of a job together and includes the ability to cost each milestone to ensure it is profitable.
Popular Project Management Integrations include:
- WorkflowMax
- Zoho Projects
- Fergus
- ProWorkFlow
Debtor and Accounts Receivable Apps
In the true nature of innovation these companies recognise the time, effort and emotion involved in contact customers to receive payment for outstanding invoices. When these tasks are performed by a person it can get frustrating because the customer doesn’t answer their phone, makes excuses or says they simply can’t afford it.
An unemotional system and procedure becomes even more important where a business has clients with ongoing work because you have to balance the sales and marketing team who want to sell more products and services and the accounts department who want to get paid.
Popular Debtor Management Integrations include:
- ezyCollect
- Chaser
- Debtor Daddy
- QuickFee
Included for FREE with these
This course is now available with
Looking for Combination Courses where you can learn MYOB, Xero and QuickBooks?
Find them here as part of our Bookkeeping Academy.
