Sometimes in life the prospect of making a change can seem bigger than the benefits that will follow. Like getting out of a comfortable bed for a glass of water, sorting out car insurance renewals, or switching to a more effective cloud accounting software. The advantages are obvious but… it’s just too much like hard work, right?
While there’s not much we can do to help with the first two (though taking a drink to bed might help), here at Pandle we are passionate about providing bookkeeping software that’s as stress-free as possible. Which is why we put our heads together to create our new Opening Balances Assistant. Ta-da! Theatrical flourishes all round.
Simpler set-up for new Pandle users
Those who are new to Pandle, but not new to business, need to enter Opening Balances when moving their bookkeeping on to Pandle. This is essential, enabling users to pick up where they left off, with minimal interruption.
To reduce the chances of any confusion during the switchover from a previous system, our interactive Opening Balances Assistant will guide users through the best way of entering their opening balances in Pandle. It means less stress for our users, as well as for their accountants.
Accessing the Opening Balances Assistant
So that accessing the Opening Balances Assistant is as simple as possible, it can be found either on our website, or via the Opening Balances Wizard within Pandle itself, like the screenshot below:
Using the Opening Balances Assistant
The Opening Balances Assistant asks users a series of questions in order to provide this tailored guidance, based on each users’ business circumstances.
It means that users won’t have to scroll through advice that isn’t relevant to them, or risk being confused by guidance which doesn’t apply to their business.
Once all of the on-screen questions are answered using the dropdown menus, the Opening Balances Assistant will explain exactly what the user needs to do to get started.
There’s even a prompt to open their Pandle account in order to complete the process.
If users aren’t quite ready, they can simply enter their Opening Balances at a later date by selecting the ‘Tools’ tab in Pandle, and then ‘Opening Balance Wizard’. Like a refreshing glass of bookkeeping simplicity after getting out of a comfortable bed.
When is the best time to start using Pandle?
Anyone can begin using Pandle at any time, but users switching over to Pandle from other systems might find certain dates easier, depending on how the business operates.
It’s usually simpler to make the switch to Pandle at the start of a new financial year, which is often the start of the tax year for sole traders, or the day after year end for limited companies.
Having all of the bookkeeping in the same place makes things much more straightforward when it’s time to prepare the end of year accounts or tax returns.
We always advise VAT registered businesses to wait until the beginning of a new VAT quarter before getting started with Pandle. Even with the help of an accountant, checking that the first VAT submission is correct can be complicated when it’s based on fragmented bookkeeping records, across two different systems. Here at Pandle, we just like to keep things simple.
Learn more about switching to Pandle cloud accounting, and we’ll help you get settled in.
