In a world where technology is forever evolving it’s important that your bookkeeping remains with the times. Your bookkeeping can often be something which gets left to one side, as there is always something more important to do in your business. If you instruct a qualified and licenced bookkeeper like us, you can be confident that your bookkeeping will be the centre of our attention. We use the most up to date software such as Xero to ensure that your financial position is available in real time, from anywhere you have an internet connection.
You’ve decided that Xero is the way forward for your bookkeeping, so how can you ensure that you make the most out of your software?
Enter opening balances
Ensure that you don’t forget to enter your opening balances for your accounts. You need to enter the opening bank balance along with the date, this is how Xero will calculate the correct balance in order for you to reconcile your transactions.
If your business has just started out when you sign up to Xero then this may not be applicable. If you have a pre-existing bank account Xero refers to this as a conversion balance. If you have been using Xero for a while and have opened a new bank account the this would be referred to as the opening balance.
It’s important that the balance and date you enter is correct as Xero uses this to produce statements and reports. If this is wrong then the information generated for statements and reports will be inaccurate.
Check Xero regularly
It’s vital to keep a track of your transactions in Xero and ensure that your bank balance is reconciled in Xero. If you check regularly you will be able to fix any discrepancies as they happen. The longer you leave it the more time consuming it will be to find out what’s gone wrong and where.
When you login to your Xero account the amount of transactions to be reconciled will be displayed on your dashboard. We recommend going in at least one a week to reconcile these transactions.
Become familiar with Xero
Make use of the training on offer in Xero Central. There are lots of training programmes and videos you can watch to help you become more familiar with Xero. Like any software, taking the time to learn about its full potential will save you time in the long run. You can find more information about it here.
Invoice & Email templates
Being able to customise your invoices, statements, purchase order and emails in Xero is a great time saving feature. Make sure you set this up from the outset. You can create multiple templates, for example if clients are on different payment terms you can set up separate templates for them. There is no limitation to the amount of templates you can create, but don’t let it be confusing, keep it simple.
If you find that your bookkeeping is starting to overwhelm you and you can’t reconcile your accounts on at least a weekly basis then it may be time to outsource this task to a professional bookkeeper. If you need any assistance please get in touch.
