The 3 Admin Mistakes Every Business Makes (and how to avoid them)

In a small business, the list of processes you need to create and perfect are endless.

From the foundational - ensuring you get paid on time and provide a great service - to the things that you did not get into business for. The stocking up the coffee machine and office fridge with milk, buying updated business cards and tweeting from your company account. It all adds up, right?

And that’s not to mention the dreaded p-word: the paperwork stowed away in the office, covering your desk and squashed down the side of the sofa.

Earlier this year, we explored the biggest pain-points for small business owners. From this research, here are the top 3 admin mistakes almost every business makes, and how to avoid them.

1. HAVING NO PROCESS OF STORING OR SENDING RECEIPTS AND INVOICES.

Is yours a business on the move? If you often travel for business, you may be picking up stacks of receipts on the way. These can get lost, damaged or forgotten. Yet, if you and your team keep them, where do they end up? Stuffed inside a wallet, or lost at the bottom of a suitcase?

Our research shows this is one of the most significant problems for business owners. If you have a small team and limited resources, you may not be able to have someone dedicated to managing receipts and reimbursing staff on time. And this may be costing you money. According to recent Intuit research, businesses under-represent expenses by as much as 22% on average due to a lack of an easy way to track them.

2. NOT HAVING ALL YOUR DATA IN ONE PLACE.

When you’re running your own business, tax returns will be on your agenda at least once a year. Having all your financial data in one place is crucial to know things. First, how much tax you need to pay at the year-end, and second, whether your business is liable for a tax refund. With this information on-hand, you can create more data-driven decisions.

There is also a worldwide shift towards having real-time data. For instance in the UK, tax is changing with the introduction of Making Tax Digital. The new legislation will come into effect for the UK in April 2019. It will affect businesses with more than 85k in annual taxable revenue, and turn tax into a quarterly responsibility. More regular reporting aims to give businesses a much better sense of their finances, throughout the year.

3. SPENDING HOURS MOVING DATA FROM RECEIPTS AND INVOICES INTO A SPREADSHEET.

Before the days of automation, paperwork meant sitting at the kitchen table, spending whole weekends and evenings sorting through files and folders.

Now, there’s another way. Instead of entering data by hand, turn invoices and receipts into reconcilable data. With Dext Prepare, there are lots of ways you can capture data on the move.

• Take a photo of a receipt directly within the Dext Prepare app;
• Scan in your documents and move them to Dext Prepare using drag and drop;
• Send documents to a dedicated Dext Prepare email address.

The data from your documents will then be stored and backed up on the cloud. That means no more lost receipts. And no more sorting through folders to find basic information.

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