Bert and Ernie ** had been in business for several years. The two builders employ staff, apprentices, carpenters, and a whole team of “tradies” and had been placed on Xero by their accountant.
They weren’t happy. They didn’t feel in control of their business or their accounts. Even though they were using an excellent accounting system, they had lost oversight. When it came time to prepare and pay for GST it seemed like they got 1,001 questions thrown at them. Being on-site they did not have the information or the time to respond, and when they got home and dug out the information, the accountants had gone home. GST wasn’t filed on time, so they incurred penalties and interest.
Bert and I were having a casual game of pool and we were chatting about his business. He shared their frustration with me, and asked “Is this normal? It seems to be too hard.”
The simple answer is “no it shouldn’t be that hard”.
Bert and Ernie transferred their business to Ingenii. I found that there were over 500 bank uncoded bank transactions. No wonder they didn’t know what was going on! I soon discovered that Bert was also doing the payroll manually.
Bert and Ernie were shown how to use the mobile Xero app and took to it like ducks to water. It is so much easier to record the transaction as it occurs than try a keep the invoice in a tradies van! Worse if the invoice goes missing – trying to remember what was purchased. I find it hard enough remembering what 3 days ago never mind three weeks ago.
Once I took the time to work with them and they understood the system, and things were brought up to date, it gave them transparency about what was being spent. They dispensed with supplier accounts preferring to use a business credit card. They still get their free credit but the reconciliation hassle is gone.
We moved the team on to Xero payroll saving time and effort all round. This made moving to payday filing easy, an unforeseen benefit but a welcome one! Using other features of Xero together with the process changes means that now Bert and Ernie know where their business is at any point in time. Their taxes are filed on time and they have time to concentrate on growing their business – profitably.
Ingenii listens and understands what is important to each client in order to develop supportive solutions that make it easier for the client to achieve their goals.
** Not the real names, but a true story.
