The digital age has transformed the way businesses operate – from interacting with customers to financial reporting – and has provided the opportunity to make efficient and effective business decisions.
Business SA sat down with Sam Allert, Managing Director – Australia & NZ of Reckon, a leading provider of accounting solutions to small and medium businesses, to discover the options available to SMEs and how easy it is to streamline operations and reporting.
How have the likes of cloud based accountancy software, e-commerce tools and apps changed the way we do business?
Technology and the internet is revolutionising the way businesses and accounting practices are transacting with one another.
One of the biggest benefits of online accounting software such as
Reckon One is its accessibility. Business owners are able to access their numbers anytime from anywhere, with an internet connection, and do so easily. A great example here is a tradie using Reckon One on their mobile device for tasks like invoicing a client immediately after a job has been completed and on-site.
With the cloud, multiple people can also access the business file at the same time. With traditional desktop accounting software, data is held within one device and must be shared manually. With cloud based accounting software, data can be shared between users and their bookkeepers and accountants more efficiently.
Another benefit is that business owners can now see their current financial position in real-time. Measures like bank balances can be checked at a glance as well as income and expenses which are always up-to-date.
Why do you think these types of tools are so important for SMEs?
For business owners looking to remain agile, the increased mobility afforded to them with online accounting is incredibly beneficial. It means they can work when and where it suits them and increases the speed of doing business.
What role do they play in streamlining operations and delivering better customer service?
We recently announced a partnership with
Reckon One and PayPal, enabling online payments for invoices, which helps small business owners manage cash flow more efficiently. By integrating real-time payments technology, we are able to enhance our platform to help solve a real business problem, and we’re able to do this so efficiently we create substantial time and cost savings in the invoicing and payments process. For customers it’s simple, secure and seamless.
What recent developments in e-commerce and digital financial tools for businesses are you most excited about and why?
Ongoing innovation in document management and portal technology excites us. Our customer growth in this segment continues to accelerate as businesses and accountants see the real value in adopting these solutions. For instance, a restaurant customer using our
SmartVault online document management solution has been able to cut-out 75% of premises paperwork
[1], which represents significant savings in that industry. In addition, the rollout of secure portal technology has presented a major break-through in terms of efficiency savings for accountants and their individual and businesses customers. An accountant using
Virtual Cabinet can now publish a tax return on a client’s secure portal, let them know it is there and request their digital signature and the system will tell them if the client has looked at it and how many times. Accountants using this technology are telling us that documents are being reviewed more quickly by their clients, some are being returned to them within minutes of sending. This is particularly beneficial when deadlines are approaching.
The emergence of Fintech is also really exciting; one development being making lending to small businesses more efficient. In partnership with Prospa, we recently launched
Reckon Loans, an online only lending product for small and medium businesses.
In this new connected economy online lenders are tapping into real-time small business data from accounting solutions such as Reckon One and this is transforming the credit risk analysis process. It is bringing a new level of accuracy and insight to a business’s financial health and small business owners are certainly benefiting from faster and smarter assessment procedures experienced with products such as Reckon Loans.
In contrast, bank legacy systems can be inefficient and the traditional credit assessment methods of requesting financials, bank statements and pay slips to assess a borrower's credit worthiness can fail to provide a picture of the health of the actual business – and lead to a decline rather than an approval.
What are the biggest misconceptions SMEs have about digitising their systems?
One common misconception is that it costs more. For most SMEs moving to the cloud will actually reduce your upfront business costs as all updates, servers, and system administration costs are now managed by the cloud service provider.
Another misconception is thinking that cloud security is risky. The reality on this point is that it is often more safe to store your accounting data in the cloud with automatic backups than storing it locally on your own hardware. It’s also generally safer from fire, flood and other disasters. Reckon One data is hosted on Amazon Web Services, the global leader in cloud infrastructure. Our customer data is stored locally in Australia in highly secure AWS data centres.
Tell us a bit about Reckon and what it can offer SMEs.
Reckon is a future-focused growth technology company, built on a strong and stable business. We have a strongly diversified business across three key markets, with exciting synergies between them and products that service the small business market.
Our Business division provides accounting software to SME’s around the world. Over 600,000+ businesses and customers have used our software including Reckon One, Reckon Accounts Hosted and Reckon Accounts, and we have a partner network of over 6,000+ accountants and bookkeepers. This division also includes our newly released Reckon Loans lending product for small business.
Our Document Management division includes software which is used by over 48,000+ customers, who have shared documents with over 560,000+ users through our online portals. This includes our online SmartVault solution used by SME’s and smaller accounting and bookkeeping practices, and our enterprise Virtual Cabinet solution for medium to larger accounting practices.
Our Practice Management division provides practice management software to professional accounting firms. Over 70 of the leading 100 firms use our
Reckon APS accounting software suite, and 6,000+ accountants, financial planners and lawyers in Australia use our
Reckon Docs online solution to register new companies, trusts and SMSF’s for their SME clients.
What advice do you have for businesses wanting to digitise systems?
Find a technology partner like Reckon to work with that ‘always has your back’ as it’s not only about implementing the best solution. Does your partner have world-class training and support? Do they offer dedicated partner programs? Will they migrate you from other SME accounting solutions for free? Work closely with your chosen technology partner to leverage these resources and ensure your move to cloud accounting is a wise business investment.
To discover more about Reckon, visit their website.
[1] Kristy Hensle, McLoone’s Restaurant