Cloud Based Accountancy Software

A brief look at the different types of software that we use as a modern accounting firm.

XERO

Xero is a cloud based accountancy software. It helps you to keep on top of your daily bookkeeping tasks as well as submitting VAT Returns and minimises the need for keeping several different running excel spreadsheets. Xero also connects to a bunch of apps to help speed up and automate the accountancy process. Have you ever sat there after a busy shift trying to check through Z reads and count them all up before typing everything out onto a spreadsheet? Well, there is an integration for that!

SYFT

Syft, for us, is the ultimate reporting software. It integrates with and pulls information from Xero to help us plan and budget accurately. It aids with forecasting, benchmarking against other businesses in the same industry as yours and allows us to consolidate different entities into a single group. The reports that it helps us to generate are customisable and easy to read.

We only use Syft for something called Management Accounts.

Management Accounts (mainly) consist of monthly reporting and future planning and rely heavily on foresight and educated guesswork. It allows us to compare actual results with the budgets that we’ve planned together at the beginning of the year so that you can track progress and identify areas within the business that need support.

DEXT PREPARE

Hubdoc, Dext, and AutoEntry are all ‘data capture’ apps. You upload your suppliers’ bills and invoices (or even your own if you use an external invoicing software) and the software essentially pulls all of the data from it- invoice number, supplier name, VAT rate and amount, due date and total invoice value.

After a while they start to ‘learn’ about each of your suppliers and they will try to populate a lot of the tax information along with the account code that you normally assign that particular supplier to.

DEXT

Dext Precision helps to identify errors within Xero (like if you’ve put a different tax rate on a transaction or assigned a bill to a different account than you usually would).

Dext Precision helps us to keep our eye on the ball and helps to provide an assurance that if we make a mistake (we’re only human), we’ll be able to find it.
Dext Precision also provides a complete overview and snapshot of the business i.e. your turnover each month, how many transactions there were in the bank account, how many bills you’ve entered into Xero and how many invoices you’ve sent out from Xero too.It sounds like overkill, but Dext Precision also links up with GoProposal, so it helps us to price fairly and transparently by using the information already contained within your Xero account.

GO PROPOSAL

GoProposal ties in with our stance on transparency- we build a proposal in front of new clients (either face-to-face or via Zoom) showing them exactly what we charge on a monthly basis for each task that we carry out. It helps our clients stay in control of their own fees- they’re able to build the package that suits them best and that’s what we’ll charge for- exactly what they need.