Time is money. Hence, businesses are required to ensure that they value time as much as they value money. One of the primary objectives of most enterprises is to maximize profits – signifying that with higher profit goals, they must save crucial business hours that would otherwise be wasted. The Japanese concept of Lean Production calls for eliminating waste or ‘muda’. This waste can take various forms; one of which is unnecessary time taken to execute a certain task. Lean principles dictate that lead time can be reduced by avoiding re-works. The task performed must be done to perfection in the first attempt so that no re-work is necessary. The more re-work a task demands, the higher the wastage, the lower the efficiency. It is, therefore, essential for businesses to save crucial business hours and implement lean production within their organization to inseminate an efficient work environment.
Rather than manual tasking, businesses can salvage time through implementation of accounting software – ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Using accounting software enables various benefits that can effectively save crucial business hours that would otherwise be wasted.
Accounts Preparation
With the aid of an accounting software, such as QuickBooks, most of the account creation process can now be automated using the inbuilt analysis tools and templates. Rather than the manual creation of ledgers and financial statements in Excel, it is easier and time-saving to instead use an accounting software that includes the relevant templates. Bookkeeping was initially automated to avoid human error, but an automation such as this brings other laudable benefits along with it. Now, you don’t only eliminate error, you get to save time and any and all cost involved.
Invoicing and Payments
Accounting software allows for automated invoice creation and updating. Moreover, payments can be processed in time for both the vendors and customers from within, systematically. Creating invoices can be a tedious task owing to its repetitive nature. This repetition may effectively be reduced through automatic invoice generation for the various vendors. Payment runs will highlight the accounts that require payment. The system will automatically make changes to these respective accounts without the need to manually post a debit and credit entry within the innumerable accounts of the General Ledger. Automated invoicing and payments is yet another way to cut down on crucial business hours that may now be allocated elsewhere.
Report Generation and Distribution
Accounting software may be configured such that daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports can be processed and prepared at preset time intervals. Moreover, the accounts can be integrated in order to feed relevant data into the reports. So, for instance, the daily time-in procedure of each employee will transfer data into their weekly attendance report. This will save time in preparing the weekly and monthly attendance sheet of each employee. In addition to real-time reporting, these reports can also be distributed by integrating the email system with the accounting software being used. This allows for timely reports being sent to all authorized recipients. If this had to be managed manually, imagine the time it would consume.
Inventory Management – Restocking
Stock-outs can be a nightmare for many businesses, especially ones that have a well-established repute in the market. For other, lesser-known ones, turning down customers for ‘out-of-stock’ products can be detrimental and may eventually lead to a diminishing customer base. To avoid stock falling below the safety margin or the Economic Order Point (EOC), automated refurbishment can be actualized through an accounting software. In addition to avoiding stock-outs, crucial business hours can be redeemed. This may as well be used by the business to set itself apart from its competitors. Stock-outs give a very poor first impression to all potential customers.
Conclusion
An accounting software such as Xero or QuickBooks can be used to save crucial business hours. Every second that you save may be utilized in performing other more productive duties, thereby reducing wastage and fostering efficiency. Moreover, resource allocation can be largely improved upon using accounting software. The redundant resource is an expense in itself.
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