The three main areas of focus for SMEs this year

Friday 8th January 2016 marks the second, global, annual #MicroBizMattersDay – a campaign which encourages people to do something to make life better for micro enterprises (0-9 employees).

Statistics from The Federation of Small Business (FBS), which is the UK’s largest campaigning pressure group promoting and protecting the interest of the self-employed and small business owners, show that in 2015 small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses. As a result, the total employment in SMEs was 15.6 million and the combined annual turnover was £1.8 trillion!

It’s evident that SMEs and micro businesses create most new jobs, most innovation and most support to their communities. The aim of the second #MicroBizMattersDay therefore is to enable more micro enterprises to survive and thrive in 2016.

The three main areas of focus this year are customers, cash flow and confidence. In this blog we’ve addresses these key areas in relation to accounting software (our speciality) and highlighted how your small business will benefit from an accounts system.

Improve your cash flow

Accounting systems, such as Sage 50 and Sage 200 Standard Online, are ideal for sole traders, start-ups and small businesses. Amongst the many benefits, they give you greater control of your business as it becomes more complex. They allow you to keep track of sales, expenses and profit, and quickly analyse business performance with a range of reports.

Sage 200 Standard Online gives you the ability to understand the financial position of your company quickly and easily with a three-tiered nominal structure. It gives you greater flexibility and control with the ability to operate open and closed period accounting. Furthermore, it allows you to analyse by cost centre and departments to produce profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow reporting.

Manage your customers

Small business accounting software gives you everything you need to manage customers, suppliers, products and services and create customisable quotes and invoices.

Sage 200 Standard Online comes with the Commercials module as standard, which allows you to respond efficiently to customer demands by having a complete view of the stock held in your business.

Depending on the size of your business and your requirements, Sage also offer a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module which gives you ultimate control over managing your customers. Sage CRM gives everyone in your business access to customer information, including financial, commercial and communications, in order to maintain consistency when it comes to effective customer service. This allows employees to quickly and effectively respond to customer enquiries and ensures nothing gets lost or goes amiss.

Have more confidence

Running a business involves the management of many systems, people and processes and it can be difficult to monitor everything. Sage 200 is a business wide software solution that manages your finances, customers and business insight in one single solution. By providing rigor, control and accountability in one system, Sage 200 dramatically reduces the risk of something falling between the cracks, thus giving you peace of mind and confidence in your business.

Another benefit of Sage 200 is that it comes with powerful reporting tools which give you instant insight into the performance of your business, so you’re always informed and can have confidence in your decisions.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how accounting software can benefit your business, contact us on 0191 500 8150 or email info@monpellier.co.uk. One of our friendly Business Software Consultants will be able to answer any of your questions or book you on to a free demo.