Here's why your business needs cloud accounting
If you’ve ever found yourself dreading book-keeping, losing track of invoices, or feeling like you’re running your business through a fogged-up windscreen, this episode of is for you.
I’ll walk you through why cloud accounting isn’t just another buzzword or a painful admin exercise, but a genuine game-changer for freelancers, small business owners, and anyone who wants to take control of their finances.
I promise the next half ten minutes will be worth your time spent listening.
Timestamped episode summary:
- [00:00:01]—Common fears and misconceptions around cloud accounting.
- [00:00:43]—What cloud accounting actually is .
- [00:01:20]—The real-time benefits.
- [00:02:05]—Why it matters.
- [00:03:28]—Sandra's story.
- [00:04:26]—How cloud accounting helps prevent costly mistakes.
- [00:05:40]—Dashboards and real-time reports.
- [00:06:16]—Myths around difficulty.
- [00:08:19]—Practical steps for making the switch, including software selection, setup, and habits for success.
Give this episode a listen, and you’ll walk away better prepared to turn your finances from a source of stress into a powerful business asset.
Helping you to Plan It, Do It, PROFIT.
Mentioned in this episode:
Training
Training
Find out more about Budgetwhizz
Find out more about Budgetwhizz
Transcript
Welcome to this week's podcast. Now, today, I'm diving into a topic
Speaker:that many business owners, many freelancers either ignore,
Speaker:even fear or avoid until it's too late. And that
Speaker:topic is cloud accounting, otherwise known as digital
Speaker:accounting. Now, before you've grown, before you poke your eyes out, skip ahead,
Speaker:just hang on, because this will be worth your investment in
Speaker:time. Let's crack on.
Speaker:Firstly, let's start with this idea of what actually is cloud accounting.
Speaker:Now, you may have come across the term before cloud accounting. You may even
Speaker:think it means shoving your account into some digital folder
Speaker:using an app instead of spreadsheets. You'd be half right, but
Speaker:you'd also be half wrong and missing the point. Now, cloud
Speaker:accounting is actually using software that actually lives online
Speaker:to manage your business finances in real time. It's not just the
Speaker:accounts. So not just keeping records of what you're spending, but actually
Speaker:invoicing reports, finding out what's going on, connecting to
Speaker:your numbers more closely, the whole shooting match. What does this
Speaker:mean? Well, it means you can log in from your phone, your laptop or tablet.
Speaker:You don't need to be office based. You could be sitting in your garden, sitting
Speaker:on a beach, anytime, anywhere. You get what are called real
Speaker:time updates. It's not guessing what's going on. As long as you've got
Speaker:that data captured, you can actually see in real time where you are
Speaker:financially, how much you're spending, what you're spending it on, on where your
Speaker:money's coming from, what's overdue. You could automate the heavy lifting,
Speaker:the boring stuff, perhaps like chasing your customers if they've not
Speaker:paid their bills on time, sorting out the expenses, even getting
Speaker:those tiresome receipts entered into your accounting system.
Speaker:Now imagine this. You're in a coffee shop. You conclude your meeting with your
Speaker:client, and instead of going back to your office or scribbling your notes on a
Speaker:napkin, you pull out your phone, send them an invoice on the spot,
Speaker:and instantly it's updated your accounts, instantly they've received
Speaker:it. And what that means is you've got a greater chance of actually getting paid
Speaker:promptly and on time. That's cloud accounting for you. And that's just
Speaker:one illustration. What does this actually matter? Well,
Speaker:let me tell you why it's important, because here's the thing. Too many business
Speaker:owners are still stuck in the 90s. Too many business owners, for my
Speaker:liking, are disconnected from their numbers. They see the
Speaker:numbers, the record keeping, as a tedious exercise, which they'll actually do
Speaker:on a annual exercise when they Submit their tax accounts.
Speaker:Now, there's also a legislative imperative which I'm going to talk about in next
Speaker:week's podcast, and that's something called mtd, which is the
Speaker:acronym for Making Tax Digital. More of that towards the end of the
Speaker:podcast. Now, paper receipts, desktop software,
Speaker:spreadsheets, all that stuff serves its purpose. But the
Speaker:future for your efficiency, for your money saving, taking
Speaker:control of your business is in cloud accounting. Now those devices,
Speaker:they do work. We've got many clients who still use
Speaker:paper spreadsheets and that's great, but it's slow, it's
Speaker:risky, and it's the decision making and access to information
Speaker:that is the letdown. Now let's break that down a little bit more. Now,
Speaker:time is money. Literally your time is worth something.
Speaker:That time you're spending on tasks, which you can actually speed
Speaker:up is time that you could be spending out there delivering work, chasing more
Speaker:work, developing your business using cloud tools can literally
Speaker:save you hours every week. Now as an illustration, take
Speaker:Sandra, name has been disguised to hide. She's one of my clients, she's a
Speaker:freelance designer and she got a number of projects going on. Now
Speaker:typically pre cloud accounting should be spending some time either on
Speaker:a Sunday morning, entering receipts, chasing invoices, and
Speaker:groaning of having to do that necessary and essential
Speaker:task of getting her records up to date. Now with cloud accounting,
Speaker:she can auto upload, set up what's called a bank fee from her bank account,
Speaker:so the bank automatically updates. She can send invoices out
Speaker:with a click of a button or the tap of your phone if you prefer.
Speaker:Her records are updated straight away and she's saved on average
Speaker:three or four hours a week. Now, if you think about that, three or four
Speaker:hours times, let's say for argument's sake, £20 an hour
Speaker:over a course of a year, that's a lot of cost and time
Speaker:that it's equated to. And also, by the way, she's getting paid faster.
Speaker:In my experience, when you send out invoices on an
Speaker:electronic basis, you tend to get paid slightly faster.
Speaker:Now, it's not just time, it's also your mental bandwidth and
Speaker:your sanity. Now secondly, mistakes, we all make
Speaker:them. But with cloud accounting, if set up correctly, if
Speaker:trained correctly, you avoid those costly mistakes. If you
Speaker:do something manual, however brilliant you may be, your brain
Speaker:sometimes will let you down and you will make mistakes. And if you've got to
Speaker:correct those mistakes, it makes it very difficult to do. If you've got a manual
Speaker:system, brackets, a spreadsheet with spreadsheets you've got the possibility of
Speaker:dodgy formulas missing out lines and invoices, duplicating information.
Speaker:Cloud systems can flag these issues in real time. You're not
Speaker:walking a financial tightrope with a blindfold. What an image.
Speaker:Thirdly, you can see the big picture and this is a real
Speaker:powerful asset to your business. Imagine driving your car
Speaker:when your windscreen is all frosted over, it's got dirt on there and
Speaker:there's no water in the bottle. Would you drive a car with a
Speaker:frosted windscreen? Unlikely. And if you do, that's very dangerous.
Speaker:Now, running your business is very much like that. Cloud
Speaker:accounting will give you what's called dashboards, reports. You can
Speaker:literally log on and see at a glance how much money is in your bank
Speaker:account, who owes you money, what you owe to your suppliers, what you've
Speaker:spent. If you want to dive deeper to see where that money is going, if
Speaker:configured correctly, the insights you gain will be
Speaker:invaluable. What does that mean? Well, it means you make better decisions, you
Speaker:give some clarity to your thoughts, and there's no panic arising
Speaker:in terms of unexpected costs. Now, you might rightly be saying, but isn't
Speaker:it complicated? Well, that's a bit of a myth. You don't need to be a
Speaker:techie or a numbers nerd to actually get this right. Tools like
Speaker:Xero, which is our personal recommendation, are built for real people.
Speaker:They're not necessarily designed for accountants. Accountants use them.
Speaker:Individuals who aren't financially trained use them as well. Most of them
Speaker:are configured, set up and literally a plug and play. When we
Speaker:set up clients with cloud accounting, we will always train them, induct
Speaker:them, give them an overview of how to operate the systems effectively.
Speaker:You can connect your bank, you can upload receipts with a photograph. And
Speaker:we've got clients who hate paperwork, can't think why, and they've got their
Speaker:phones. We can set things up, they can take a picture and that's it, job
Speaker:done. They can throw that piece of paper away and that information is now
Speaker:in their accounting system. You can configure your systems to remind you when
Speaker:invoices are overdue. It's like having on tap a digital finance
Speaker:assistant that doesn't complain or takes a holiday. But you still
Speaker:may not be convinced, you still may see it as a cost and as opposed
Speaker:to an investment. Well, let me talk you through some of the costs involved if
Speaker:you do decide to avoid it. And let's imagine a worst case
Speaker:scenario. Work has been really hectic, funny life,
Speaker:things going on have been such that you've neglected to keep on top of your
Speaker:accounts, to keep on top of your records and your books. You don't know who
Speaker:owes you money. You don't know who you owe money to. You've got work coming
Speaker:up, but you don't actually know where you stand, what you've been spending, how
Speaker:much to charge. You don't know if you can actually afford it. Invoicing has
Speaker:been delayed. You haven't got those invoices out to customers. You've got bills
Speaker:outstanding but you've not been able to chase them up. You spend more money than
Speaker:you realize that you've got. You've got a tax bill coming around the corner. You
Speaker:can see where I'm going with this one. This is effectively getting in the way
Speaker:of your business. It's silent financial sabotage. But it
Speaker:is avoidable with the right system, with the right mindset, and
Speaker:obviously with the right people helping you. Now it's a understandable
Speaker:thought you might be thinking, hang on, I've got to change from one system to
Speaker:another. That's going to be a lot of hassle, a lot of activation. But it
Speaker:doesn't have to be. Here's a brief outline of what I would suggest. Number
Speaker:one, select your software again on a Hands up here
Speaker:on a personal recommendation. Xero would be my tool of choice.
Speaker:We are a Xero Platinum Partner, by the way, fol and we are able
Speaker:to provide zero systems and set things up for clients and we
Speaker:manage to pass on the discounts that we get. Familiarize yourself.
Speaker:Understand the system. Remember, you don't have to be an expert accountant
Speaker:here, but you need to have an understanding about how to navigate the system. Get
Speaker:your bank account. Get it set up correctly from the beginning. No more entering
Speaker:in bank transactions. The systems can be configured
Speaker:automatically. Get yourself a simple workflow. So focus on getting
Speaker:those invoices out to clients, recording those expenses, and do
Speaker:it, say, once a week. 30 minutes a week is better than several
Speaker:hours buried under paper or digital otherwise. And stick to
Speaker:it. Consistency. Small regular habits like brushing your teeth.
Speaker:Beat those big panic sessions. If you still need more, drop us a
Speaker:line. We have a link to a free digital guide on
Speaker:cloud accounting. And remember, cloud accounting isn't about going digital just
Speaker:for the sake of it. It's about taking control, saving time and making
Speaker:better decisions. Keeping your business lean, profitable and ready to grow.
Speaker:Now, I did say at the beginning of the podcast, there's a legislative imperative
Speaker:as well. Now from April 2026, which I'm going to be
Speaker:talking about in more detail in next week's podcast. We have something
Speaker:called Making Tax Digital, and that is where HMRC
Speaker:are compelling small businesses and landlords to submit their
Speaker:accounts on a quarterly basis. And to do that, you need
Speaker:digital accounting at your side. So apart from all the
Speaker:favorable business reasons for doing it, you've also got a potential
Speaker:legislative and a compunction reason to do it. The sooner you get familiar with
Speaker:it, the less hassle and aggravation you're going to have. Now, folks, if
Speaker:you found this episode useful, if you found it of value,
Speaker:then I'd love it if you not only subscribe to the show, but share it
Speaker:with someone who you feel can benefit from it as well. Remember,
Speaker:plan it, do it, and profit.
