9 Financial tools that'll save your business time and money

Financial decisions are very crucial for your business to help maximize the profits and lessen the costs. With the task in hand, it's essential to have financial tools that will help minimize manual labor and remove errors. Through the use of the latest financial tools whether cloud-based, integrated in your computer or using online platform it makes your daily tasks easier.

The following financial tools will help entrepreneurs save time and money while trying to scale up their business. Tools that range from accounts payable and receivables monitoring, logistics, budgeting, inventory management, tax preparation and even printing of receipts.

1. Reliable Payment Processor

First and the most important financial tools any business should have is a reliable payment service that will help process payments to vendors, suppliers, employees and all other payables. Banks are the most traditional solution for this, however, with the fast technological advancement, modern solutions like Wise Business becomes a better alternative for global businesses in terms of speed, cost and convenience.

Why?

You lose over $60 or more on a $2000 international transaction using most traditional banks. This is due to high transfer fees and poor exchange rate. The average international transfer fee of American banks is $20 - $40 plus a 4-6 % exchange rate mark-up. The average time transfer speed is 2 - 5 business days. Wise, on the other hand, provides a cheaper money transfer service - transparent fees and no exchange rate mark-ups and could save you over 60% of the overall international transfer cost and the funds get to the destination within 1 - 2 business days. Wise comes with an app that you could use to intiate payments and keep track of them.

2. Accounting Software/Tools

Unless you have patience in dealing with numbers, accounting can be the most boring part of running your own business. From day-to-day invoicing, to tax preparation as required by IRS, it is a lot of work that you may not be able to handle properly without the aid of reliable accounting software. Luckily, the days for traditional spreadsheet accounting are almost over, with the rise of accounting software that helps automate most of the accounting process like invoicing, billing, payroll and many more.

Examples:

Quickbooks - Covers most of the accounting processes for $25 - $150 monthly subscription.¹ It's flexible and easy to use. Xero - A cloud-based small business accounting software with tools for managing invoicing, bank reconciliation, inventory, purchasing, expenses, bookkeeping and more. Costs $9 - $60 a month.

3. Budgeting tools

It’s hard to date on a budget’, it’s the same in business, budgeting is very crucial for its success. Everything you do to your business that involves finances should be properly planned and executed, so you’ll not end up in crumbles on where your money goes. Proper budgeting also involves revenue and expenses tracking so you’ll have a snapshot of your company’s financial health. If your accounting software can do the job for you then it's great, but if you want exclusive budgeting tools, there are software’s that can help simplify your job like Every Dollar 2, You Need a Budget 3 , and PlanGuru 4 which help small businesses in value-adding analysis at a fraction of the cost.

Examples:

Scoro - combines budgeting features with other tools to manage your entire company in one system. You can also manage expenses and resources, use a financial dashboard, and manage project budgets for $26 - $61.³ Centage - is a comprehensive enterprise budgeting software provider that offers different tools called Maestros for budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, etc.

4. Cash Flow Management Tool

Whether it’s an inflow or expense you must have proper tracking of your finances. It is a must to stay informed of the level of your cash balances because it is crucial in decision-making and be prepared in any financial eventuality. Proper cash flow management also helps you monitor expenses whether its reimbursements, supplies, or representations expenses so you’ll not be paying for more than what you need. You can monitor and analyze your cash flow in a simple spreadsheet but if your accounting software has it incorporated in the system then it will make the job a lot easier for you.

Examples:

PlanGuru - integrates with accounting platforms to provide users with both current cash-flow data and forecasting for $99 a month.⁴ Float - gives you an accurate picture of your past, current, and future cash flow so you can plan for the what-ifs, make more informed decisions, and unlock a brighter future for your business. It’s the smarter way to be more proactive with your cash for $65 - $275 a month.

5. Expense Monitoring

Expense monitoring is somehow related to cash flow management but what makes it more complicated is you can’t control unexpected events. So if you want to track your expenses properly you can integrate it with your accounting software, or have an expense reporting tool that will make your life easier.

Examples:

BizXpenseTracker - is your Full Featured app for tracking and reporting Expenses, Mileage and Time. The app costs a one-time fee of $6.99, and some services within the app, like device-to-device syncing or automatic location tracking, cost extra.⁶ Concur Mobile - Designed for small businesses whose employees travel frequently, this free app, available for both iPhone and Android users, allows for fast creation of detailed expense reports.

6. Payroll Management Tool

Payroll is prone to errors, and a mistake in this process can cause you financial liabilities. So if you want to streamline your payroll process and eliminate errors make sure there's payroll accounting software on your computer. It will help you manage payroll effectively and avoid costly inefficiencies, plus it will make sure your employees are happy.

Examples:

ADP’s human capital management software - allows businesses to improve the calculation of hours worked for each employee. It makes time tracking easier and has self-service tools for employees to use. Paychex - is more exclusively focused on payroll processing and benefits administration (although they do offer an enterprise edition with added features).

7. Swift Billing

The long days of waiting for receivables can impact your business, so you should also level up your game, you need to have a quick and smooth billing process. It’s one of the most important financial tools you must have for your business the quicker the billing process the quicker the payment inflow into your business. Use digital software that is integrated with your accounting process and automatically generates billing for each transaction, it will improve your customer’s experience and avoid the habit of some vendors who pay late. You can also partner with some online third-party payments app that will make the tasks easier for you especially in collecting payments from your vendors.

Examples:

Chargebee- Chargebee integrates with leading payment gateways around the world to let you automate payment collection, invoicing, email notifications, and customer management.⁷ Tipalti - (Perfect for businesses with 20+ employees) streamlines all AP processes including payee onboarding, W9 / W8 tax form collection and validation, electronic invoice collection and many more.⁷

8. Inventory Management

Avoiding loss due to spoilage and overstocking is one of the challenges that a business has to endure, so it is important to have a proper inventory management tool that will fit your needs. There are software solutions that are readily available for small business, and it is integrated in POS that help monitor the level of inventory, monitor shelf-life and even track its movement. In addition to tracking its movement, these tools can also generate sales report, set-up automatic low inventory alerts, and manage order and logistical support that gives your business a competitive advantage.

Examples:

Cin7 - provides in-house experts to guide you through the setup process, plus plenty of webinars, tutorials, and extensive guides. After that, you’ll have a dedicated account manager at your disposal. Ordoro - A single ecommerce app for managing shipping, inventory, and everything in between. Access cost-effective rates, print labels, and sync your inventory.

If you're looking for an affordable way to manage your inventory, check out our free inventory templates.

9.Tax Preparation

It’s beneficial to a company if you have your own tax preparation software that works well with your other financial system. Tax preparation is crucial and can be costly, so to avoid late charges and discrepancies you can use these tools to help your filing experience more simple. Some accounting software has tax preparation features but it does not cover all the processes of the job, so it became more tasky. It is easy to find financial tools online but you have to make sure that it will fit your needs, besides you don’t want to pay something that is not worth your money. With the help of these tools, it revolutionizes the way of doing business and transforms businesses into something more global.

Examples:

TurboTax Deluxe - offers thorough explorations of tax forms and schedules and an outstanding user experience to new and returning taxpayers. Its tax interview and help system are both improved this year.⁸ H&R Block Deluxe - is a comprehensive, easy-to-use tax service that helps e-filers claim relevant income, deductions, and credits. It's an excellent choice for simple and complex returns, both in terms of its user experience and help options.⁸

A smart and modern way to bill pay

Most of the tools we mentioned in this article supports several features that are crucial for your business. For example, Xero integrates with Wiseto process payments. What makes this partnership special is that you can manage all the accounting side of the business and process payments at the same time - faster and cheaper compared to banks. Most accounting tools only support banks for integration which makes it more expensive to receive and send payments especially international ones.

For instance, 10 transfers of $2000 each to EUR using an accounting software with bank integrations can incur $484.32 on bank fees alone plus a monthly subscription of $40. With Wise and Xero, you spend $154.10 on conversion fee plus $60 monthly subscription charge for Xero which is a total of 214.10 which is way cheaper.

Set up you Wise account today, and start saving time and money!

Sources:

1. Quickbooks pricing page
2. Xero pricing page
3. Scoro pricing page
4. PlanGuru pricing page
5. Floatapp pricing page
6. Apple app store
7. Capterra.com blog post
8. pcmag.com article