Posted by Link4 Team on 12/04/2018
Bookkeeping has changed dramatically over the past decade and it is continuing to transform rapidly with the increase of automation. We’ve seen the role of a bookkeeper shift with more time being spent analysing data for their clients and less on the data entry itself.
While some areas of a bookkeeper’s job have been made easier with these changes, there are still some pain points. Especially for those bookkeeping for small and medium businesses.
1. Debtor collection days
Unfortunately, Australian companies are the slowest in the world at paying outstanding invoices. One of the biggest problems small businesses face is the impact that late payments have on their cash flow. In fact, 90% of small businesses fail due to poor cash flow.
Small businesses are paying invoices the fastest, but when it comes to receiving payments from their customers, they can be paid more than 1.5 times slower than the Australian average from bigger businesses. This disruption of cash flow can be a major killer for small businesses. More often than not, bookkeepers are tasked with collecting these payments, which can be a very long process.
Reducing debtor recovery days and getting paid faster are core benefits of e-invoicing. Greater transparency in the invoicing process is something that Link4 offers to its users. These are tracking options to see when your invoices have been received, when they have been processed and when a payment has been made. This visibility allows bookkeepers to see the status of their client’s invoices, meaning less time is spent contacting customers for payments and an overall reduction in debtor recovery days.
2. Getting information from clients
One of the biggest pain points for a bookkeeper is collecting and collating information from their clients. Trying to find misplaced invoices and requesting for them to be sent again is never easy for a bookkeeper. There are options available to record data from invoices and store them, but this can still be time-consuming waiting for a third party to complete this for you.
With e-invoicing, all of your invoices are already collated in your Cloud Accounting system. Meaning you already have this information at your fingertips, it is all there you need it. Now that you have more time with this information instead of retrieving it from your clients, you can analyse this data and give your clients an insight into where their money is going, and what their debtor recovery days are and provide solutions and actions to improve upon their operations.
As this role changes, bookkeepers are becoming vital in making these decisions with their clients. They are also giving them the confidence that everything is running smoothly and their books are being taken care of.
Want to streamline the way you invoice? Sign up to Link4 for free now and send 50 invoices a month with our freemium plan.