Business expense management is a real chore for sole traders, small businesses, and freelancers. You’re already running off your feet trying to manage everything either with a trim team or entirely on your own steam. There are clients to impress and clients to retain, payments to be chased up on, suppliers to be negotiated with, quality checked and managed. And then there’s cash flow.
Claiming tax deductibles is almost always forgone, in favor of more burning issues. And expense management is, well, poor in lots of cases and even entirely lacking in some cases.
So how do you, as a freelancer, sole trader, or mastermind behind a small business, bring your A-game to business expense management?
Well, you could really break your head over it, or hire someone. Or, you could solve the problem quickly, easily, and cost-effectively by shelling out barely GBP 20 per month (with two months free bring a staple with some brands, such as Dext.)
Here’s how you can ace business expense management with the use of software:
Automate business expense data entry and filing
Business expense management software often comes with receipt scanning. This feature – available in the best solutions – is able to extract data from bills, receipts and invoices completely automatically and within seconds. All you have to do is click a photo of the document from your smartphone and upload it. The system gives you a digital data entry with all the key details from the uploaded document. This means that you (and your team if you are not working alone) can easily upload all expenses incurred.
Moreover, all the digital data entries are neatly lined up, sorted, and categorized according to type date, currency, and so on. You can even add rules for the system to begin filing entries to your filing needs.
Simplify and delegate approvals
Approvals of expenses are usually as time-consuming as reporting expenses. In a small business, every expense does matter, but you still might not have several hours to pore over the expenses sent to you for approval. Business expense management software lets you approve expenses at a click.
As soon as you identify trustworthy team members, you can add expense approvers to free up your own time for bigger tasks.
Tax deductibles made easy
Did you know that you can reduce your tax outgo by claiming business expenses as tax deductibles? That’s right, expenses incurred on coffee meetings, stationery, tool top-ups, and transport tariffs should also be submitted as tax deductibles.
With the snap and upload feature of business expense management software, you can snap and upload these invoices as soon as you get them and on the go because you also have access to your invoicing software through an app on your smartphone.
Create full-fledged expense reports on the go
With business expense management software on your smartphone, you can automatically create, populate and complete entire expense reports. The system helps you to create these with templates and by organizing your data in a manner that allows for easy search and easy collation.
Business reports help you to study how your business is progressing from month to month and give you an accurate idea of the financial health of your business.
Additionally, the system – since it has all the information within reach – delivers spontaneous insights to you that can help you better manage your expenses, cut unnecessary costs and improve cash flow, possibly even profitability.
Share financial data with sophistication
If you are an amazing creative genius looking for investors in the idea that you are currently managing as a freelance gig, as a sole trader, or as a small business, you need financial data to impress.
You can easily publish expense reports to your chosen accounting software so as to maintain your books of accounts properly and professionally.
Alternatively, you can share expense reports with potential investors via email using the image sharing feature.
The software also lets you create graphs and charts so as to highlight achievements as desired.
Integrate expense management with accounting
Linking your business bank account to your business expense management software allows for the seamless flow of data from your business bank account to your books. This means that neither you nor your account, or a freelance bookkeeper needs to spend hours manually inputting transactions into your accounting books. This translates not only to save on time and capital that would have been spent on hiring additional resources but also ensures error-free data by eliminating the element of human error.
Business expense management software also notices and merges any duplicate entries and flags up any anomalies in the data for you to fix.
Trials allow for safe and informed migration
All the best business expense management software brands will be happy to prove their mettle by extending a free trial. Check the best expense management software here by clicking on the link.
