A brief introduction to cloud accounting and xero cloud accounting software.

1. What is cloud accounting?
Cloud accounting is the way forward for many small businesses. Tax Smart Group and many
other accountants are choosing Xero over Sage to manage their clients better. Notice I said
‘accountants’ not businesses. It is a well-known fact that as small businesses we will
ultimately choose the accountant first then adopt their solution to manage our business, but
this is like picking a pair of shoes without checking the size and then trying to squeeze your
foot into the shoe. It just does not work.
Let me explain, you made the biggest decision of your life to become a solopreneur (yes it’s
official) and then you decided that you need an accountant to do the compliance and give you
advise. So you ask Mr Google or your newly found Tech Buddy and ended up with a great
accountant until he sends you an excel spreadsheet to enter all your transactions. Sound
familiar? Well this is how most accountants operate. In fact this is 90% of accountants today.
So the chances of you having such a situation is 9 out of 10.
Lets discuss why this happens?
Historically all accountants were brought up using sage, or iris to manage client’s records,
this is a server based solution designed purely for accountants and this means that they
cannot give you any access to what they do. Therefore they have to ask you to do all your
accounts in excel and provide it to them so that they can produce your business accounts for
HMRC and Companies House.
Make sense?
So the downside is that most accountants interact with their clients 1 to 5 times a year at the
most. They then charge anything from £600 up to £2000 for simply taking your figures and
transferring them into their accounting software and submitting them to HMRC and
Companies House.
So what are the alternatives?
Xero is beautiful cloud accounting software that is the UK’s No.1 cloud accounting solution
and has over 600,000 users worldwide. Xero has disrupted the accounting space and taken
the control of accounting from the accountant and given it to the small business owner. Xero
gives business owners the power of management accounts like the big companies at a
fraction of the cost.
So why don’t all accountants use Xero?
Xero is simple to use but still requires a whole different skillset and the firm will require a
change in the workflow. Xero certified staff are required to provide frontline support not
just accounting support. This is all too much for most accountants and the main reason why
we are now seeing accountancy firms like Tax Smart Group who have built their business
model around Xero and supporting their clients with the 400+ software integrations that
Xero has to offer.
If you feel that Xero is better suited to your business and you need monthly management
accounts then feel free to say hello to us on hello@taxsmartgroup.co.uk or call us directly on
0330 80 80 840.