8 TIME & MONEY SAVING TECHNOLOGY TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

In managing your small business, you're always looking for ways to boost efficiency, reduce costs, increase profitability and improve performance. The right software solutions can allow you to do all of that and more.

At Supporting Strategies, we often steer clients toward software and other technology solutions that help them run their business better. Here are eight examples. 

1) QuickBooks Online

Remember the huge improvement you gained in efficiency by switching from paper-based bookkeeping to QuickBooks for your desktop? (And if you're still using paper-based bookkeeping, we really need to talk.) Well, as Georgean Schmidt, Managing Director of Supporting Strategies | Central Ohio, noted in a recent blog, the upgrade from the desktop version of QuickBooks to QuickBooks Online (QBO) can be just as dramatic.

With QBO, you can work from any device at any time and give instant access to your bookkeeping services provider. As Financial Operations Manager Angel Mazariegos explained, you can also use QBO to automate collection of recurring credit card payments. Plus, you can get automatic software updates online. So, what are you waiting for?

2) Hubdoc

While technology can streamline many bookkeeping procedures, no system is foolproof or self-sustaining. But Hubdoc comes close. Hubdoc makes it much easier for small businesses and their outsourced bookkeeping services providers to share source documents — which are, as Financial Operations Associate Melody Gibbons noted, "the only way for you to prove that your numbers are what you say they are."

Hubdoc's "autofetch" feature automatically uploads many source docs to the cloud, relieving the client of the burden of having to remember to send them (and the bookkeeper of having to ask). Hubdoc also has an app that allows clients to document off-the-grid docs like paper receipts by simply snapping a photo.

3) Concur and 4) Tallie

There are many other programs that can help small business document expenses. "By spending a little time to set up a system for tracking your expenses," Financial Operations Associate Kimberly Lockett wrote, "you will better be able to monitor the financial health of your business and be well prepared for tax time."

Concur, for example, integrates receipts that business owners scan themselves with e-receipts provided by airlines, hotels and so forth. It also has a provision for employers to preapprove (or deny) expenses. If you or your employees spend a lot of time behind the wheel, Tallie not only helps keep tabs on mileage but also sends employees alerts if they neglect to submit expenses within a specific timeframe.

5) TransferMate

Even if your business faces a particular challenge, such as dealing with multiple foreign currencies or processing international payments, chances are you can find a software solution to help you. Take TransferMate, which syncs with your accounting software to allow you to upload overseas payments. But keep in mind this advice from Financial Operations Associate Lauren Wilson: "Every company is different, so a solution that can vastly improve efficiency for one company may be of little use to another."

As Steve Schultz, Vice President of Franchise Development, recently wrote, there are many possible solutions out there that could suit the specific needs of your small business, from 6) TSheets to 7) Bill.com to 8) ADP RUN.

Supporting Strategies' extensive in-house network helps match your small business with the technology solution it needs to compete in the big leagues.

Anyone who runs a business appreciates the importance of good financial information. But acting as a controller — or handling bookkeeping and other critical back-office functions — can distract you and your overburdened staff from your core competency. And that can really hurt your business’ prospects for success. It’s no wonder that over 70% of small businesses choose to outsource at least one back office function.*