Open up your laptop, and a in a few little clicks you’re sat facing a lovely pristine spreadsheet. Here, at your fingertips, is a free tool which is just asking to be used for all of your bookkeeping, yes? Well, you could do. You certainly wouldn’t be alone. Many business owners use spreadsheets and they do an ok job – if you stay on top of them.

However, just because a screwdriver does the job of turning a screw, isn’t it easier to use an electric one? That’s the difference between a bog-standard spreadsheet and some decent bookkeeping software. With the first, it’ll do the job but it takes a fair amount of effort. The second makes the job a breeze.

Let’s take a more detailed look at why spreadsheets just don’t quite cut the mustard for modern bookkeeping.

Who’s doing all the work here?

Your number one problem with spreadsheets is that it’s only as good as you are. And whilst you are no doubt excellent, the pressures on a business owner, especially a newbie, are immense. Bookkeeping involves multiple repeated tasks. It doesn’t take much for a finger to slip in a rush and add an extra 0 by mistake.

With a spreadsheet you also have to devote a fair amount of time to setting it up and tweaking it to get it to work perfectly for you – even if you use a template – and that’s time consuming when you have other tasks demanding your attention.

You’ll be going back, forth, here, there and everywhere

Spreadsheets are the modern equivalent of a ledger book. And that’s where they stop. A spreadsheet can’t create your invoices, and you’ll be going back and forth to get the right info, and then you’ll have to head over to your inbox to email them too.

You’ll need to become a ninja at copy and paste, which is of course possible, but you could just have some software do all of that for you. It comes down to time and accuracy again.

Who’s talking to who

Then there’s the problem of transparency, accuracy, and who needs to see what. Some people need to see the lot (your accountant for example), some you may only want to have certain access. Then there’s the fact that your bank is a veritable source of business tracking information, but it doesn’t talk to your spreadsheet.

The result is going to be that your accountant bills you a hefty sum for his wasted time doing some unnecessary legwork, and you become the gatekeeper through which every Tom, Dick and Harry accesses their relevant info. Cloud-based bookkeeping software such as Pandle on the other hand allows you to set relevant access to relevant parties without you having to get involved.

This means, that unlike document sharing, the books are always up to date in real time, not obsolete the minute someone else gets their mitts on it.

The problem of access

In the same way that spreadsheets aren’t great for sharing, accurately, between multiple people, they aren’t great at being accessed by you either. Few business owners spend every second of every day sat at their desk just waiting to make a bookkeeping entry.

Yet bookkeeping depends on regular record-keeping, and is much easier if done on the go. Cloud-based bookkeeping software, on the other hand, is there when you need it, on whichever device you happen to have to hand.

So what are you waiting for? Pandle is free and ready when you are! Sign up here.