Business admin can easily slip to the bottom of the priority list for most of us, especially in the summer months when you want to spend the longer hours of daylight doing an extra job or even having an evening off in the garden.
Fortunately, there are lots of tools and apps that can help you get through your paperwork more quickly and efficiently so you can spend more time doing other things.
FINANCE MANAGEMENT
Using an accountant can land you with a hefty bill so it’s sometimes easy to think that you can just do it yourself. But when you get around to it, where do you start?
Introducing QuickBooks, a service that can be used for invoicing, VAT and payroll. For as little as £12 per month, the software can create employee payslips, send real-time info to HMRC, and it’s all in a mobile app that you can use to capture receipts, run reports and even better, automatically chase late payments. According to Quickbooks, it can help you save around 8 hours a month managing your accounts – we’ll let you decide what to do with the extra day!
If you don’t want to shell out for software, there’s also free options like Wave Accounting that just do things like expenses and invoicing. For other financial apps and software options, check out Simply Business’ latest roundup.
QUOTING AND PLANNING
You may think project management is only necessary for larger scale jobs and companies, but at the end of the day, all projects have different stages, lots of moving parts, a deadline to meet and most importantly, clients to keep happy.
Build Aviator, available at Jewson, is a suite of services that covers everything from full estimating, to SAP and acoustic testing. Using just the project drawings, Build Aviator can produce SAP approved designs, a bill of materials and quantity take offs.
To help save you extra time and hassle, the team at Build Aviator have worked with Local Authority Building Control (LABC) to match its Registered Construction Details (RCDs) with the products you need, giving you a smoother route to Building Control sign-off.
Build Aviator is available at Jewson and you can also buy a copy of the estimating software for your own use, meaning you can do your quotes from the comfort of your own sofa or garden chair.
PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS
Advertising in your local paper or printing and posting leaflets through letterboxes can be effective but by getting savvy with social media you can be a lot more targeted and say a lot more about your business.
Social channels, specifically Facebook are a great way to connect with your customers. By creating a business page, you can showcase your business details, location, encourage customers to upload reviews, share pictures of finished jobs and even use advertising functions to reach new customers.
For more tips on making social media work for you, here’s something we made earlier.
Already digital first? We’d love to hear how, head to our Facebook page and drop us a message!
