Accounting – A Fulcrum to cope with COVID-19
Accounting – A Fulcrum
to cope with COVID-19
The
sudden spurt of the coronavirus worldwide is having an immense impact on the global
economies and businesses in general.
This certainly will result into declining revenues for most
businesses. Hence, it’s crucial for
entrepreneurs to react timely while there’s an opportunity to evade risks.
Napoleon
once quoted – “Every adversity, every
failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater
benefit.”
Apparently,
there are revenue opportunities for certain existing or new goods and services in
the COVID-19 age (e.g. sanitising products or services). While you may not be in a position to
diversify your business instantly for obvious reasons, there is an opportunity
to strengthen it from an operations perspective. So while your business activity declines and
you have more time on hand, one of the important operational aspects that you
could fix is your back office accounting.
So today we enlist some accounting fulcrum points that could help you
steer out of this crisis stronger and better.
Shift to Cloud Accounting
Today
in 2020, smart and young entrepreneurs who are into any small or mid-sized
business are considering shifting their accounting software from desktop or
server based to cloud based ones. There are
number of cloud based accounting platforms available in the industry which
offer full functionality like any desktop or server based software along with a
secure environment. You have the chance
to get rid of your hassles of even maintaining an office software with remote
access. These new age cloud accounting
platforms give user access merely based on their email addresses and their
access levels can be customised based on only what they need to work upon. VPN accesses and remote desktops are done
away with as a result, no software required on any laptop or PCs, only your web
browser (google chrome, firefox, edge etc.) is sufficient. Your accountant can be provided access to
your accounts no matter where he is in the world and data to work upon can be
exchanged over cloud service platforms too.
Work
from home today has emerged as an indispensable option amidst the Covid19
crisis in order to avoid person to person contact. For accountants using desktop software this
is a difficult situation to manage unless they can be in their office. Also, think about your IT staff, do they need
to remain present in office to support your accountants. Using Cloud accounting platforms will enable
your accountant to work from home or you may switch your accounting work to an external
outsource accounting specialists like
GJM &
Co. which will have no impact on your accounting operations but in fact
improve your productivity and cost efficiencies.
Move towards
Automation & a paperless office
One
of the advantages to using cloud-based accounting systems is they can be linked
together in the cloud, thereby eliminating the need for data to travel between systems
via paper mail. Today’s cloud
accounting software, all have electronic interfaces to banking systems. This eliminates the need to reconcile
paper-based banking statements.
Furthermore, these applications all connect seamlessly to other third
party specialised secure applications for vendor or customer management or even
employee payroll and expense management.
These apps utilise artificial intelligence technology to load invoices/bills
and expense receipts from PDFs and photographs. They also allow a company to pay vendors and
employees electronically.
The
third party apps are a great alternate work path and will help minimise exposure to Coronavirus. There is no
paper invoice to be opened, handled, and key punched into a computer. There is no paper-based approval document to
be handled by staff. There is no check
to be written, envelope to be licked, or mail carrier to be in contact
with. However the bigger and more
permanent positive impact is they eliminate work through automation allowing
you and your staff to be more efficient.
Outsource your Accounting
With
your accounting systems in the cloud, outsourcing some or all of your
accounting operations becomes a great way to eliminate costs, decrease risk,
and free up time for you to focus on your business. As accounting software has moved to the
cloud, a whole ecosystem of cloud-based outsourced accounting options have
evolved. Accounting firms like GJM & Co.
are leveraging the same benefits described above to create cloud accounting
services. We are technical experts with
the know-how to keep the cloud systems running smoothly in an integrated
fashion. One such service is cloud
bookkeeping where a provider like us can easily maintain your records remotely at a
fraction of the cost of hiring someone onsite.
Another more complete option is a full cloud accounting solution, where
you’ll not only have basic bookkeeping, but also a full-service team including Virtual
CPAs and CFOs. These resources
not only make sure your business is properly accounted for, but also provide
advice and guidance that is relevant to your industry and your stage of
business growth. You can certainly experience a 50-60% reduction in your accounting employee costs.
Clearly
in light of the coronavirus, an outsourced cloud accounting services has significant
amount of benefits. By their very
nature, these solutions are designed to provide services remotely. With remote access to software and data,
combined with communications through email, text, telephone, and video
conferencing, you will have access to a virtual accounting team like GJM that
is available anytime. Additionally,
because we as providers deploy teams, not individuals, and because they already
leverage a work from anywhere model, our operations have a very low risk of
being impacted by the coronavirus. But beyond current circumstance, there is
another sizeable benefit to adopting a cloud accounting service: Imagine the
freedom to focus on actually running your business, confident that the books
are right, you have instantaneous access to all your financials, and you have a
team of experts behind you to help make sound, logical financial decisions. Contact
us today, so we could help you evaluate choosing your cloud accounting
systems and set up your virtual accounting team.
Focus on making
your Business – Investment ready
Unfortunately
one of the downsides to the coronavirus is a slowing of business in general as
well as a slowing of investment in business.
There is no doubt that volume of transactions and revenues for most
companies are down, and some investors are pulling back or delaying investment
transactions. Raising debt will also be
difficult, particularly for those organizations that need an infusion of
working capital to weather the crisis. These facts are all part of a normal
down business cycle triggered by this outbreak or any other crisis.
However
-- demand for investment might be delayed or stalled, but there is still a
tremendous amount of wealth in the economy looking for growth opportunities,
both equity and debt. As the economy
turns around, there will be great opportunities for a well-run businesses.
Therefore,
now might be a great time to use this break to clean up your business.
- First, make sure your current operations are as
efficient as possible. This action is a
necessary step anyway to maintain profit with decreasing revenue.
- Second, clean up your historical financial data
now. If an investment opportunities
arises, don’t let it slip through your fingers because you need time to clean
up your books.
- Third, connect yourself with experts who understand your industry, your
business, and the investment ecosystem.
Let them focus on the accounting, so you can focus on the life blood of
your business which is marketing, sales, and innovation.
For
any queries, feel free to write to info@gjmco.in or Call us
Thanks & Best
regards,
Knowledge Base team
GJM
& Co.
Chartered
Accountants
Outsource to Outperform
Accounting |
Bookkeeping | Payroll | Taxation | Business Setup
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