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Software Archives - Nimbus Accounting

Nimbus

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Time to switch Banks?

October 23, 2015 | By |

At Nimbus Accounting we are always reviewing the market for new innovations and solutions to make our client’s lives easier and more efficient. Recently a new bank opened on the high street in Brighton. Metro Bank, which is the first new High Street bank to open in the UK in over 100 years, has entered the market with a clear intention to provide an unparalleled level of service to its customers. You may ask, what is all the fuss about? Well there are several things that Metro Bank do which set it apart from the competition.

As a small business owner, time is the one thing that we all have to manage. Having restrictive opening hours to contend with is something that is very frustrating. Metro Bank is open from 8am to 8pm in the week, 8am to 6pm on Saturday and it is even open on Sundays and Bank Holidays from 11am to 5pm. At last there is a bank that is open when you need them!

From an accounting perspective, the bank has teamed up with Xero to set up direct bank feeds into their accounting software. This shows their commitment to small business. Not only this, they only charge £1 a month per account for the service, which is at least £2 cheaper than the other two main high street banks that have direct feeds. If you have a foreign currency bank account, this will also feed directly into Xero, something that the other banks seem to struggle with.

The good news doesn’t stop there. With the recent news of certain banks overcharging their customers, it is good to know that Metro Bank has competitive charges, offering most services for free if you hold a balance of over £5,000. You also get the manager’s mobile number, so you know that you have peace of mind that a decision maker is on the end of the phone if you need them. It is refreshing that your call is not going through a myriad of automated options before you speak to someone you have never met and knows nothing about you or your business.

To top it all off, when you are putting your feet up for a well-earned holiday, there are no fees to withdraw your money from cash machines in Europe. Not only that, you also get the MasterCard exchange rate, which you can’t beat on the high street. The days of leaving home with your entire spending money for a holiday are over.

We believe that Metro Bank has an offering that the savvy business owner must consider, they have embraced the best bits of traditional banking and added the service that we all require and deserve.

If you would like to discuss how Metro Bank and Xero work together, please give one of our accountants a call. http://www.nimbusaccounting.com/contact-us/

Nimbus

By Nimbus

WorkFlowMax

August 16, 2013 | By |

WorkflowMax is a powerful cloud based solution allowing you to manage enquiries, jobs, create quotes and invoice your clients, all in one place. It’s a brilliant way to monitor all aspects of your business and maximise productivity by posting time to each job. As a job-focused business, WorkflowMax has provided us with a clear and affordable way to manage leads, workflow and deadlines, along with providing an easy way for clients to access and view job progress.

We were apprehensive at first, the thought of transferring all our data into the cloud was slightly daunting, but WorkflowMax has been designed to make the process simple. The software provides many useful video tutorials and webinars to get you going, along with templates allowing a quick and easy setup of multiple clients, jobs and costs. Once these are set up you can mould and personalise WorkflowMax to suit you and your business, creating jobs and billable tasks for each client.  The software then allows you to report on a full range of KPI’s, such as profitability per client and lead conversions.

Not only does the solution provide an efficient way to manage your business but it seamlessly integrates with Xero, meaning your invoices, contacts and payments can move automatically between the two systems. Once you’ve connected your Xero account with WorkflowMax you are able to configure what is transferred and what’s not. The exchange is seamless, you don’t have to download any other software or convert files into a specific format.

If you want a solution that will help you monitor your business then we believe that WorkflowMax could be the answer. At Nimbus Accounting we support both Xero and WorkflowMax, to empower our clients to manage and grow their businesses. If you would like to find out more please contact one of our qualified accountants on 01273 782 742.

Nimbus

By Nimbus

How to streamline you business with Xero, ReceiptBank and DropBox.

November 5, 2012 | By |

Are you the type of business owner that still keeps a bag of receipts? If this sounds familiar, then it is unlikely you are in complete control of your finances.

At Nimbus Accounting we help our clients develop a robust accounting system, which allows them to maintain all the necessary business records.  This not only gives our clients the peace of mind that everything is in order, but delivers the timely financial information to enable them to make informed decisions.

Our solution, that suits the majority of our clients, is a combination of three cloud based products.

We recommend Xero as your core financial management tool.  We believe it is so important that we include it at no extra cost in our fixed fee packages. Xero is an online accounting solution that will take care of your invoicing and account for all your business transactions.  Xero can download your bank transactions every evening, which allows you to keep track your financial position and performance. We have previously written about the many benefits of Xero, if you would like to find out more about what the software has to offer please follow this link – http://www.nimbusaccounting.com/why-we-recommend-xero-online-accounting-software-to-enhance-the-accountantclient-relationship/

Xero will handle all the transactions that go through the bank, but in order to digitise your purchase invoices, you will need to consider the services of ReceiptBank. ReceiptBank is, as the name suggests, a storage service that keeps all your receipts in one place.  More importantly, rather than you manually entering the details into Xero, ReceiptBank completes this for you, giving you more time to focus on growing your business. The company has developed an app which allows you to take a photo of a receipt and within 48 hours it will appear in Xero. You can also forward electronic receipts by email or put them in the post, so all formats are covered. Whichever method you use, all your receipts will be uploaded to the cloud, providing you with access to the original paperwork at all times.

Once you have Xero and Receipt Bank working in harmony, the final piece of cloud software you need is online file storage. There are an increasing number to choose from, one of the biggest and early entrants into this arena is DropBox. It offers you an initial 2GB of storage, which is sufficient to get you started. The facility enables you to save everything in the cloud and sync all your files on every device you use, giving you access to all your important documents wherever you are. You can even share specific folders with other users, such as your accountant, allowing those larger files that are to big to email to be easily shared.

Nimbus accounting can guide you through setting up your business to embrace cloud technology. We provide all the advice and support you require through our team of qualified accountants, who specialise in assisting entrepreneurs grow and manage their businesses.

If you want to know more about how we can help you, please call us on 01273 782 742 for a chat. 

Nimbus

By Nimbus

Software Review – Sage One

September 4, 2012 | By |

We recently had an online demonstration of Sage One, which is the first cloud product the company has launched. They offer two versions, Cashbook and Accounts, which are priced at £5 and £10 per month (+VAT) respectively. Sage claims to have between 5,000 and 10,000 users of Sage One.  There must be something that appeals to these customers, we wanted to see for ourselves what it was.

Our first impressions were very good. The interface is very well designed and Sage has clearly listened to their customers.  There is 24/7 telephone support,  all the traditional Line 50 accounting terminology has been translated into plain English and the nominal codes are hidden from view.  Accountants need not fear as all that remains in the Accountant Edition.   

Sage One Cashbook, as the name implies, records cash entries.  That is pretty much the limit of the software. This version can’t raise invoices or monitor anyone that may owe you money – it is no good for anything other than a cash business.  The transactions you record will replicate your bank and petty cash accounts, but you have to manually enter every transaction. Once this is done you need to check all your transactions against the actual bank statement, another manual check. In terms of reports, there is One. It will generate a Profit & Loss report (on a cash basis) and that is it.

Sage One Accounts is identical in look and feel to Cashbook, but has more features.  It has the ability to issue sales invoices and record your purchases. If you keep your bank reconciled, it will be able to produce statements for both. There are only four invoice templates, so be prepared to change your current layout if it doesn’t fit the mould. The software can also submit your VAT returns directly from the software. It has only five reports – Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Debtors, Creditors and Trial Balance. 

It is clear that the cloud will strengthen the accountant / client relationship by being able to collaborate on a real-time basis. But the question is, has Sage delivered a product that is better than the competition?  The Nimbus Accounting view is no. In this day of live bank feeds and CSV uploads, offered by other cloud based software such as Xero and FreeAgent, it is surprising that Sage still make you repeat the work your bank has already done on your behalf.  So for this reason, Nimbus Accounting do not recommend Sage One.  We believe Xero offers a much more powerful solution for a small to medium sized business and FreeAgent is a better fit for a freelance consultant.  Both place the bank account at the heart of the software and have the ability to automatically download bank transactions each night.  With live data in your software, producing your accounts can’t get any easier.

If you are based in the Brighton & Hove or Sussex area and want to discuss how your business can benefit from integrating the cloud, please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01273 782 742.  Nimbus Accounting staff are all qualified accountants and have a specialist knowledge of SME accounting and taxation.