This week at the National Franchise Convention on the Gold Coast, we were fortunate enough to facilitate a session with a group of franchisor, financial advisors and business owners and thought, it was worth sharing some of the insights, challenges and tips business owners are facing with their record keeping.

Here’s is a quick summary of the challenges that was shared this morning:

• Most business owners are untrained in financial management when they first start out.
• A lack of time to focus on their record keeping or the time it takes each week to administer their books, distracting them away from more important parts of their business.
• Too many systems and spreadsheets that do not talk to each other, causing double data entry and the potential for more mistakes.
• Multiple people in the process – accounts people, bookkeepers and accountants, sometime replicating what each are doing.
• No real time financial performance reporting to be able to make informed decisions.

Here’s are few tips we shared with the group that could improve your record keeping:

• Find ways to automate your data flow. Chat to your IT provider or accounting software provider about how information can be imported or integrated into your accounting software to remove the need to enter data manually.
• Outsource the tasks your not good at. If you not a bookkeeper, why waste precise time and energy performing tasks like entering expenses, bank reconciliations and preparing your BAS. Find someone who knows what they are doing and focus on your own strengths.
• Find an accounting solution that’s in then cloud. There are many choices to choose from, so do you research. Make sure it is a solution that is right for your type of business and not something your advisor suggests that makes their life easier! 
• Real time record keeping. There is no better business data than access to live data. There's not much point looking at financial management reports 30 days after the fact or at least not much you can do to change the outcomes.

Remember, there’s more to accounting software than the actual software itself.