Why connecting bookkeeping and operations is a game changer for SMBs

Running a small business is challenging, and maintaining your cash flow is essential for success. Accurate bookkeeping provides a clear view of your financial health, while efficient management of operations helps control where your money is spent. Both are essential for sustaining and growing your business.

By integrating these two areas of your business, you’ll not only gain a better financial picture but also create opportunities to better allocate resources, streamline workflows, and increase productivity.

At Dext, we provide bookkeeping automation for businesses just like yours. So, we understand the challenge of managing siloed operations. In this article, we’ll discuss integration-based solutions and explore how these can be game-changers for small-to-medium-sized businesses.

The importance of streamlined financial processes

A huge part of financial management is streamlining the process itself. This is critical to minimise task duplication and errors, and ensure that you have up-to-date information. To illustrate how a single crucial cog in the financial process can be streamlined, let’s look at receipt capture.

Problem: Task duplication and errors

Manually entering physical receipts after the fact — especially when rushing to meet a filing deadline — can lead to a range of issues. Receipts may get lost, resulting in gaps in your records, and data entry mistakes are all too common with manual entry. What’s more, if you’re using multiple systems, there’s also a real risk that the same receipt could be entered more than once, further complicating your financial picture and wasting valuable time.

Solution: Automation

By automating an everyday small-business task like receipt management, you'll reduce task duplication and errors, saving a huge amount of time and effort. According to a survey by Ernst & Young, companies that implement automated reconciliation can reduce the time spent on this process by up to 80%. Automated receipt capture also means the data is automatically extracted, stored, and categorised. So, by taking a time-consuming, manual job and turning it into a quick and easy task, you can streamline an integral part of your financial process.

Why automation is a game changer for your SME business:

• Reduces duplication and errors that come with manual tasks
• Frees up time for your team to focus on other important projects
• Allows you to keep better track of expenses, spending, and cash flow, providing a better overall picture of your business finances

Bookkeeping automation tools like Dext, allow employees to scan receipts and invoices with their phones for automatic data extraction. Everything is automatically digitised, categorised, and entered into your accounting software, providing a better financial picture.

Using real-time financial insights for better strategic planning

Having access to financial data is a crucial element of proper financial management. According to Deloitte, businesses that utilise real-time financial insights are three times more likely to make effective strategic decisions compared to those that rely on historical data alone. Let’s look at how something like proper inventory management can give business owners better financial data insight.

Problem: Limited financial data

For small and medium-sized businesses, access to real-time financial data is critical to staying agile and making informed decisions. However, when financial data is not captured in real time — whether from general business expenses, sundry expenses, ad hoc purchases, or inventory — it can lead to inaccuracies, missed insights, and an incomplete financial picture.

Without up-to-date information, discrepancies may arise, and opportunities for better resource allocation or cost control can be lost. This lack of clarity extends beyond inventory management to any type of business spending, making strategic planning more difficult.

Solution: Platform integration

By integrating a bookkeeping tool that offers real-time receipt capture and automatic categorisation, businesses can ensure that all types of expenses, from everyday operational costs to less frequent, ad hoc purchases, are accurately tracked. This provides a clearer, up-to-date view of business spending. It’s then critical that this tool integrates with your accounting software to ensure accurate and timely reporting.

For e-commerce businesses, it can be particularly powerful to invest in bookkeeping tools that can integrate directly with a platform like Shopify to easily track what stock you have on hand and what you need to replenish or discontinue. This also means you’re able to sync information like sales data, inventory, and expenses in real time.

Why platform integration is a game changer for your SME business:

• Centralises and automates operations, helping to streamline workflows
• Enhances efficiency, allowing for greater productivity and faster business scaling
• Provides real-time financial data to make better strategic decisions for your business

Part of Dext’s unique offering is that it lets you easily upload and track sundry expenses and integrates seamlessly with every major accounting software such as Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage. It also pairs with e-commerce platforms like PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe, making workflows more seamless and giving you access to valuable financial data.

The relief of tax compliance and simple reporting

A well-structured financial process ensures compliance with tax laws, regulations, and internal policies. By adopting an automated financial system, you can provide audit trails and secure data storage, reducing the risk of fraud or errors. Let’s take a closer look at what efficient tax compliance could mean for your business.

Problem: Difficulty managing tax compliance and reporting

Approximately 60% of small business owners report feeling stressed about tax compliance, with many citing it as one of their top concerns. This is exacerbated by limited transparency in bookkeeping, leading to inefficient calculations and a lack of confidence in the accuracy of your tax submissions. Whenever there's a change or update, changes have to be made manually across your departments and processes. Plus, updates and new regulations can be missed, which can result in penalties and fines.

Solution: Automated tax compliance tools

Bookkeeping systems that automatically collect and organise financial information, make things much easier when it comes to reporting and tax compliance. With reliable processes in place, you’ll experience less angst during tax season, knowing that your filings are accurate and up to date when it comes to annual submissions. By investing in these tools, you’ll minimise the time and effort required to gather, organise, and submit financial documents. And, the peace of mind this provides, allows business owners and finance teams to focus on growth instead of worrying about compliance issues.

Why tax compliance tools are a game changer for your SME business:

• Helps you stay compliant with local tax regulations, avoiding fines and legal issues
• Reduces manual tasks, freeing up resources to focus on core business activities
• Ensures important tax-related data is easily accessible and accurate

Dext automatically organises your expenses, making them ready for submission with ease. This reduces hassle and minimises errors, giving you confidence in the accuracy of your data.

Integration reduces human error and frees up time for long-term planning

According to a study conducted by Teneo, small businesses that incorporate more technology platforms into their operations are also more likely to see growth in their sales, profits, and employment.

As a small business owner, you know that the right technology and tools can simplify and improve things. But, by integrating your company’s tech with your accounting solutions, you can completely transform the way your business operates.

By reducing manual work and errors, integration gives you and your team the additional bandwidth to dedicate resources to areas like forecasting, industry insight, and business expansion rather than time-consuming operational fixes.

Ready to lighten your load by automating repetitive tasks, staying compliant with tax laws, and gaining access to accurate real-time financial data? Businesses around the world are thriving with Dext, and yours can too.

It’s time to stop juggling and enjoy the advantages of streamlined workflows and effective financial management. Start a free trial today!