Cloud accounting – isn’t that old news now?
Over the past few years, the shift towards practices now maintaining their financials on a cloud-based accounting platform has been evident, with many accountants demonstrating the significant benefits to be achieved by the efficiencies of practices automating their basic bookkeeping processes.
The ability to produce regular detailed reports to deliver key financial indicators of the practice has meant principals have meaningful real-time financials that can help them assess and benchmark their practice’s performance. With technology in both the dental and cloud accounting sectors advancing at a faster pace now than ever before, what further benefits can cloud accounting hold?
Some of the major cloud accounting platforms have the advantage of a large number of application add-ons that fully integrate with their software to offer different types of functionality.
So what kind of application add-ons might a dental practice that uses cloud accounting software choose to make their bookkeeping even more efficient? If you are using spreadsheets to keep track of surgery stock, there are inventory application add-ons that link directly with the cloud accounting software to automate that process. For the processing of supplier invoices and receipts, there is an app that automatically converts that data, uploading to the cloud accounting software. Staff timesheet recording apps can link directly to your payroll function. These apps can save more time, removing the risk of errors in a manual process.
Cashflow is key, so look to implement a cashflow forecasting app that uses the financial information to allow you to keep an eye on future peaks and troughs within the practice.
By having advisors that also have dedicated in-house cloud accounting specialists, who have developed strong relationships with the cloud accounting and application developers, is key to keeping one step ahead with the technology advances.
Mairi MacIver, Accounting Services Senior Manager at Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP
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