Often, it’s the most common mistakes that continue to trip us up when we’re doing our accounts. These everyday problems are the ones that cause small business owners and freelancers to struggle managing their accounts, even when there are simple solutions.

Avoid juggling your growing business and your accounts by leaving the spreadsheets and using the cloud. The effect will mean easier management of your accounts and plenty of time saved.

Unorganised accounts

For some, keeping receipts in chronological order, neatly filed and ready for your accountant isn’t a priority. Often, the scenario is a box of old and forgotten about documents that pile up until you get around to giving your accountant a call. And once you do manage to speak to your accountant, there can be such a build-up that it takes days to sort through and manage the documents.

With the cloud, this can easily be avoided and your time can be saved. An online cloud accounting solution will help you keep on top of invoices, receipts and your bookkeeping, so it only takes a couple of minutes to manage them in small timeframes, rather than all in one go.

Data loss

One of the biggest fears when switching to the cloud is that there will be less security and that your data may become lost. However, if you’re currently storing all your information on one server, the risk could be even higher.

Rather than having to constantly back up your many different versions constantly, the cloud gives you the freedom to sign into an account and access your data from any device. The cloud operates from remote data centres, which are practised in keeping your data safe.

So it’s time to stop carrying around five pen drives and start keeping your accounts in the cloud so you don’t lose any of your hard work.

Inaccuracies

Submitting a Self Assessment return can be a stressful process – even more so if the deadline’s creeping up on you.

The pressure and stress can cause many submitting their Self Assessment to leave out information, calculate incorrectly and even miss entire sections of forms (it happens!).

Cloud accounting is a great way for you to be able to avoid inaccuracies that may occur in these important tax documents. Automated processes and timesaving techniques mean you do minimal work, so you’ll be less likely to receive a fine from HMRC for submitting an error-riddled return.

Time wasting

Keeping on top of your accounts should be at the front of every business owner’s mind, but the reality is that such a time consuming process can take a backseat while more pressing concerns are dealt with.

The cloud can help you cut out the most time-consuming parts of accounting by speeding up processes and automating calculations – so you can put the calculator away and trust your cloud system to do the work for you.

Calculating tax and VAT

When it comes to keeping money aside for tax, it can mean a lot of evenings sat at the table with paperwork and a calculator.

Unfortunately, human error can mean miscalculations occur, and when it come to Self Assessment season, a miscalculation could mean you don’t have enough money to cover you for the rest of the month.

Many cloud systems have tax calculators installed which can help you figure out how much tax you should be paying and help you become as tax efficient as you can – another reason why the cloud can help you overcome a common accounting issue.

Are you having accounting issues and want to talk to someone about switching to the cloud? Get in touch with the Pandle team on 0203 290 8222!