How To Improve Business Finance Management In 2019

How To Improve Business Finance Management In 2019

Article

Article credit: Sage 

January is the ideal time to review your company’s financial situation and to find ways in which you can improve your business finance management over the year and years to come.

In this article, we summarise some of the new year’s resolutions you could set for your company in 2019 so you can improve your prospects. You’ll thank yourself for taking the time to spruce up your company’s finances.

Create a realistic budget

Setting out a practical financial plan for the year ahead will give you a good idea of what the year has in store for your business.

A budget will tell you what state your business is in at the moment and where it will be in the next year, month by month, and with all predictable expenses factored in.

It’s also a good idea to factor the unexpected costs into your budget, although this is understandably difficult to predict.

Look into the different types of forecasting and accounting software available – using it will make the whole process easier for you and could even open up new financial aspects of your business that you hadn’t previously considered.

It’s also a good idea to create multiple forecasts for your business, which show how your finances will be in the best, average and worst-case scenarios. That way you’ll be better prepared to adapt at any point in the year should your finances drastically change in 2019.

Take control of your cash flow

If your business struggles to maintain a healthy cash flow, make 2019 the year to solve that problem.

Perhaps your customers often make late payments – invoice finance could help. It’s a type of lending that pays you based on unpaid invoices.

Top tip: Bear in mind that January is typically the month with the highest number of staff absences, which could affect your cash flow. Make sure you factor that into your overall budget for the year as part of the unexpected costs.

Don’t forget your tax bills

You should plan to put aside money for your tax bills, because that’s one area you can’t cut back on. VAT bills are due every quarter and corporation tax is due once a year.

You’d be surprised how many businesses struggle to make their tax payments. However, are lots of options for businesses who are struggling to pay their tax bill, such as short-term business loans, overdraft finance and other alternative finance solutions that are worth considering.

Regularly check your personal credit

Although your personal and business credit ratings are generally kept separate, you should keep an eye on your personal credit score and make sure it doesn’t dip too low.

If a small business applies for finance, its directors are more likely to be more personally involved in applying for finance and that could mean their personal credit file will be checked in the process.

This is particularly likely if you apply for a loan with a personal guarantee but is also likely to happen for other types of finance.

Keep your accounts up to date

This one is a no-brainer. Up-to-date accounts will benefit you and your business in many ways. It’ll give you a clear view of the state of your business, which will also help inform that all-important budget we mentioned earlier.

It’s also really useful to have your updated accounts ready if you need to apply for business finance. In almost all cases, you’ll need to pass your accounts to a lender if you apply for finance, and having up-to-date accounts will make that whole process quicker and smoother.

Check your funding options

An injection of capital is often what businesses need to propel them to their next stage of growth. That’s why some of these resolutions are focused around applying for business finance.

And sticking to these resolutions will be good for the health of your business in 2019 and beyond.

Final thoughts on business finance management

By taking the time to review your business finances and put good habits in place, you will be setting your business up for a positive 2019.

And while there are no guarantees that everything will be smooth sailing, a bit of preparation could help you go a long way to tackling any challenges that arise over the next 12 months.

Business finance management is an important part of making sure your company is moving in the right direction. Give your finances the attention they need as you bid to keep building your business.

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Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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How To End Your Year With A Big Bang – Tips On Being More Productive

How To End Your Year With A Big Bang – Tips On Being More Productive

Article

Article credit: Sage 

The end of the year seems to have a knack of creeping up on us, even though it’s the same time every year! One minute it’s September and kids are going back to school. The next minute it’s mid-November and Christmas is just weeks away.

All of a sudden, the rush is on – to finish projects, push at targets and get those year-end deliverables over the line – as well as the day to day, the Christmas shopping, and trying to fit all of December’s work into 3 weeks.

How do you end your year with a big bang, without burning yourself out and collapsing in a heap on Christmas day with a pocket full of tissues and a head full of cold?

Here are four ways:

1. Wrap up

Choose one big project you’ve been working on this year (one, not ten!) and set yourself a finish line. Depending on the project, your finish line may be the end of a stage or the entire project.

We live in a world where work never ends. The nature of our work is that there’s always more we can do. Without a finish line, it’s easy to lose momentum, and for the project to creep. That’s why we need to actively create our own finish lines, to define what ‘job done’ looks like and to enjoy that sense of satisfaction that comes with completion.

2. Let go

You, your clients, your industry, are not the same as they were at the beginning of the year. Things change. What projects did you start, that no longer serve you? What goals have changed? What plans have become redundant?

As Louise Smith, the first lady of NASCAR said, “You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk.”

What do you need to let go of? What expectations do you need to release, in order to reach for what’s next with both hands.

3. Take stock

It’s easy to be so focused on what’s still on our to-do list that you forget to take stock of what you have done, what’s gone well and how far you’ve come.

If you’ve come to the end of a crazy year, and there’s still more to do, take a moment to reflect. Celebrate what you have done, what you have achieved, and what you have enjoyed. Write a ‘ta-da’ list, or create a celebrations board in the office. Thank the people who have helped you.

4. Make space

Perhaps it’s a training course you’ve always wanted to do, a conference or retreat you want to attend, a personal project, a bold new business direction or simply space to recharge. Start making that space now, instead of waiting for when you might ‘have time’ as the weeks and months roll by. Once you’ve committed to it, you’ll find the emails, meetings and other jobs have a way of fitting in around them.

And instead of waiting until the New Year to make all those plans for next year? How about making a start now, so you finish the year with excitement for the year ahead?

Over to you. What will you wrap up, let go of, take stock of or make space for, to end the year with a productive bang! Let us know what you decide to do.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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5 Ways To Guarantee Fast Payment Processing For Shoppers At Sale Time

5 Ways To Guarantee Fast Payment Processing For Shoppers At Sale Time

Article

Article credit: Sage 

The busiest shopping period of the year is upon us, which means an influx of shoppers filing into your store and visiting your website – all simultaneously and for longer periods of time.

Is your payment process sturdy enough to get your customers through each sale without longer-than-expected waiting times? And can your payment solution delight your consumers by offering a customer experience beyond their expectations?

Elevating the checkout experience

If you haven’t thought much about what your customers think about your payment process, now is a great time to start considering its efficiency. Businesses that reap the most during seasonal selling peaks are those that pad their payments process with extra layers of support to handle elevated traffic at crucial moments.

Seamus Smith, Sage EVP, Payments and Banking, says: “Retailers can benefit from this seasonal spike in traffic but it’s those that go the extra mile for customers by offering a range of payment options who are set to attract a wider customer base than in previous years.

“To do this, retailers need to ensure slick, frictionless shopping cart check out and payment processes for online shopping. Of course, with an increased array of payment options available, ensuring you have adequate security and fraud protection services is key and also something that quality payment providers can provide.”

In preparation for the ramp-up, this article identifies the five checkpoints within the payment process – both online and in-store – where retailers should channel their resources during busy shopping seasons.

Dealing with queues and payments

Two things you can anticipate when it comes to the holiday shopping season are a need to manage queues and payments pages. That’s right, an in-store consideration is dealing with queues.

And online, when your customers have goods in their shopping cart, the last thing they want is a poor user experience – this can lead to them abandoning carts and your business losing sales. Here’s more on those two points.

In-store: Prep for queue times

While some may appreciate the adrenaline rush of in-store holiday shopping, most customers don’t enjoy waiting in a queue for anything, much less to give you their money.

Sage research shows that long queues could be costing retailers as much as £3,581 per day in lost revenue. And you don’t want your customers to be stuck in queues after they’ve found the sale items they desire.

Online: Simplify your payments page

Today’s payment technology ensures a great user experience (UX) for online shopping from multiple angles to facilitate increased sales and fewer abandoned carts. Functionality such as customisable payments pages allows you to easily make small tweaks that often make a big difference for the customer.

The important thing is to continually test and optimise by navigating your website as if you were a customer attempting to make a purchase, or have someone go through the process for you. And take note of anything that gets in the way of the final sale.

James Gurd, owner of ecommerce consultancy Digital Juggler, suggests the focus should be on getting your customers through the checkout stage as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

He says: “When a user is ready to part with their money, your sole focus should be on getting them through the payment process with minimal friction. Too many checkouts slow users down, or even worse, confuses them.”

5 steps to fast payment processing

Follow these five tips and you’ll delight your customers by offering them a great payments experience. The first two are aimed at in-store shopping and the final three are for online (and if your business offers both in-store and online shopping, all five steps will apply to you).

Step 1: Beef up on staff

If you expect a larger crowd than usual, do this so you can checkout and assist customers simultaneously. Customers will still have questions about your products and you’ll want to give them as much attention as you give the ones who are ready to purchase.

With more staff, you can better manage your customers at any stage.

Step 2: Implement integration technology at checkout

To tackle long queues, use payment terminals that leverage the latest mobile technology and are fully integrated to other key business applications such as inventory management. This will ensure the greatest level of stock control that enables you to respond much quicker to demand, and in real time.

At any rate, be sure your employees are adequately trained on how to use your checkout equipment quickly and correctly. It becomes a hinderance in your payment process if no one understands how it works.

Step 3: Create online shortcuts to pay

This makes inputting key information easier. Flag errors as customers go through the payment form instead of waiting until the end and forcing them to scroll to find a mistake. Use credit card type recognition – for example, the 16-digit code on a MasterCard always starts with two digits (in the 51-55 range), while Visa starts with four digits.

Step 4: Always think mobile-friendly

Customers fully expect to be able to seamlessly complete their transaction from their mobile device – anything else could cost you the sale. That said, your payments page should be touch-friendly with little need to zoom in or pinch out.

It’s also a nice touch to make it easy for customers to resume their shopping where they left off in case they’re on the go and need to pick back up later. Offer emailing options to send a link to their shopping cart to themselves.

Step 5: Speed up screen load time

You can do this by reducing the number of elements on each page – experts say that for every one-second download delay, your dropout rate increases from 7-10%.

Bonus step: Don’t forget about security

The holiday season can be a busy season for hackers and card scammers as well as shoppers. Protect your customer data and your company’s reputation by ensuring your payments gateway provider includes real-time analytics as a standard.

Final thoughts on fast payment processing

So, to sum up, keep those queues short by getting more staff involved to help your customers. Use technology at the in-store checkout stage to keep your purchasers pleased.

And online, make sure it’s easy for your customers to pay, consider the fact that people shop with their mobiles as well as on desktops, and check that you have a fast online process too.

And don’t forget about security.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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5 Ways To Save Money For Your Small Business

5 Ways To Save Money For Your Small Business

Article

Article credit: Sage

Running a small business can be financially challenging at times and business owners therefore need to keep their costs low where they can. As a small business owner, you will need to regularly check up on your expenditure to ensure you are not overspending, which will also help you assess where you are able to make cuts to save money.

If you are looking to cut costs for your small business, here are five great money saving ideas, some of which you can implement right away.

1. Outsourcing can help to save money

Outsourcing can be a great way to keep costs low if you need to hire somebody for a specific task. Instead of investing time and money in recruiting a permanent employee, take the opportunity to outsource them for the job at hand.

When you outsource, the cost is variable and will only be from time to time, rather than a fixed and regular cost. Once you have outsourced somebody for a certain task, you can also become acquainted with them, allowing you to outsource them again.

If you need an IT technician, for example, you might pay them on a contract or freelance basis as and when you have projects that need completing. This saves you paying a full-time employee that you do not require to be there on a permanent and ongoing basis.

Networking is a great way to let people know about your business
Networking is a great way to let people know about your business

2. Do your own marketing and promote your business

Another great way to save money if you are starting up is by doing your marketing yourself. When it comes to marketing, more often than not it will cost you more in time than anything else.

A good place to start is with social media, a form of marketing that is largely free to set up and use, and which has a massive user base across a variety of platforms. Make sure you invest time in setting up and growing your various social media profiles, in order to really make the most out of the potential reach that social media offers.

Another low cost idea for marketing is networking, which allows you create contacts and share your business ideas with others in the industry.

3. Use accounting software to stay on top of the numbers

Accounting software can help you cut costs through various means. The first and most obvious way that online accounting software can help you cut costs is by eliminating the use of stationery and equipment.

It can also help save business owners significant amount of time, especially if they are spending hours dealing with their expenses, income and taxes by themselves. Although accounting software may not completely remove the need for an accountant, the services you require of one can be minimised.

If you are thinking about getting accounting software then make sure that your accountant is familiar with it, as they will work with it to look after your finances.

via GIPHY

4. Create a budget and see what you’re spending

Drawing up a budget will not directly cut costs but it will provide a vital insight into business expenses. Creating one can help you highlight your fixed, variable and one-off costs and these can help you see where you can make possible cuts.

You will need to regularly revisit the document to ensure it’s up to date, making sure saving money for your business is a priority. As you highlight your expenditure, you will have a visual of all the costs that are incurred by your business. For example, it might enable you to notice that you spend a lot on paper, which may mean you need to try to go paperless as a business.

5. Be energy conscious 

There are multiple benefits of being energy conscious, from taking care of the planet and being responsible to saving money for your business. This isn’t to say you have to make huge changes such as installing solar panels, which can be quite expensive (although over the long term, you would make your money back from doing this).

However, you can implement small changes such as checking all your desktop computers are switched off at the end of the day and making sure lights are not left on unnecessarily. Let the natural light in and make the most of it, or install sensors to make sure lights are only on when there are people present in the room.

You can make it a part of your workplace culture to promote being energy conscious, encouraging employees to participate and do their bit to help your business save money.

These are some of the easiest ways to save money and ensure your expenditure doesn’t get out of control. If you are struggling financially, then try implementing some of these ideas to see how small changes can actually make a huge difference to your business.

A free guide to managing your cash flow

Our guide is packed with expert advice to help you stay on top of your cash flow.

Get your free guide

Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market.

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Startup Stories – A Free Guide With Advice On Running A Business

Startup Stories – A Free Guide With Advice On Running A Business

Article

Article credit: Sage

Starting and running a business can be an exhilarating experience. Leaving the world of employment behind so you can take control of your destiny by leading your own company is something that can be very rewarding.

But with those rewards come challenges that you’ll have to face. From coming up with an idea and putting it into action to finding funding for your business, managing inventory and building a team, there are plenty of things you might be new to.

However, that’s part of the fun of it right? Diving in, getting your hands dirty and learning a lot about yourself and your business as you seek to pursue your dreams.

In Startup Stories, a group of business owners have shared details on just that – revealing what they’ve done to get where they are today.

In this ebook, you’ll read about their challenges, how they’ve overcome them and what you can learn from their experiences.

Startup Stories features insights from these businesses:

Moneycado founder Oliver Mitchell reveals how he came up with the idea for his crossover fintech and travel company with the help of his blog.

Matt Dyson, a co-founder of hardware startup Rockit, reveals how he and his team turned to grants and crowdfunding to finance their business – and are getting babies to sleep without parents having to rock them in their buggies.

MPB.com founder Matt Barker reveals how he built his team to deliver on the increasing demand for his professional photography and film-making equipment platform.

Sarah Welsh, the co-founder of condom company Hanx, talks about the challenges of finding the right manufacturer for their business.

Strong Roots founder Samuel Dennigan highlights how his business is using technology to manage inventory and the supply chain for his frozen food company.

So enjoy the insights from the business owners, take the lessons they’ve learned on board and use their tips to get your business moving. And if you’re yet to take the plunge and start your own company, get inspired by their lessons and let them drive you forward.

Download your free copy of Startup Stories

Here’s an excerpt from the ebook.

Moneycado on coming up with a business idea

If you’re at the start of your entrepreneurial journey, the first challenge you’ll face is coming up with a business idea.

For some people, the light bulb will go off immediately and the ideas will be flowing. For others, this can be a tricky affair.

Coming up with an idea is important – but it’s worth remembering it’s the execution of the idea that is vital if you’re going to succeed.

So how do you get the inspiration for a business idea that can help you achieve your goals? There are numerous ways of finding the way to your idea but for the founder of Moneycado, it was down to talking to people.

Oliver Mitchell’s idea for his crossover fintech and travel company came to fruition thanks to his strong community focus. Moneycado’s mission is to encourage millennials to save for their dream holiday. But it’s much more than just your run-of-the mill savings product.

Moneycado uses gamification and incentives in the form of offering gifts when you reach a milestone.

Such gifts could include a holiday treat but savers might also unlock a “credit boost” to purchase an expensive flight at an early bird rate, despite not yet having the cash. In other words, Moneycado will also be selling credit products.

Oliver says: “I started without an idea and without a team. I just started talking to people about the general area of finance – about what they’re used to today, what the problems were, what they felt about it and so on.”

Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market.

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