Managing a small business can be rewarding. But there are also a lot of responsibilities sometimes that can be overwhelming. One of the biggest concerns of most small business owners is ensuring their finances are in order.
Today, several cloud-based accounting software on the market cater to small businesses needs which is great! Without proper accounting, your business may not be around for very long.
But don’t be too quick to write off a traditional tool like Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for your small business bookkeeping and accounting needs.
The benefits of Excel go beyond cost-effectiveness and versatility. You will save money in the long run by streamlining your operations. And if you sign up for an Excel course for advanced functions, you’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish using a spreadsheet program.
Read on to learn how your small business can utilize Excel for accounting and bookkeeping purposes.
Running your small business requires data and number crunching daily, especially if you want to grow your business and achieve new milestones in sales and revenue.
An Excel spreadsheet is a great way to organize and analyze your data so you can make informed decisions for your business’s future based on facts and figures rather than assumptions or guesses.
An Excel advanced function like PivotTable can make it easier for you to analyze and compare large amounts of data with ease and speed, allowing you to spot trends and patterns quickly and make better business decisions accordingly.
Small businesses can benefit from using Excel spreadsheets to create a budget. If you have employees, you need to set aside funds for them every month – which is easy enough to do using an Excel spreadsheet formula or a data entry template.
Additionally, you can create a spreadsheet template that you can use when calculating sales projections and other influential figures. This information will make it easier to track your profits or losses over time.
You can even compare different price points or marketing campaigns with previous years’ data to see which worked best for your business and what did not.
3. Automate complex bookkeeping tasks and save time
Macros is an excellent Excel advanced function that can help you automate tasks that you regularly perform, such as adding up invoices or tracking payroll hours.
Macros can also help you make calculations, saving you time and reducing errors in the process.
You can also use macros to automate tasks that are difficult to perform manually, such as generating reports based on your financial spreadsheets – which will save you even more time in the long run!
Account reconciliation is another crucial task for every small business because you cannot manage your finances effectively without it.
However, account reconciliation can be a tedious and time-consuming process if you have a lot of transactions to process every month.
Luckily, you can use an Excel spreadsheet o reconcile your accounts. You can use VLOOKUP in Excel to cross-reference multiple accounts to find missing transactions and moderate them accordingly, saving you a lot of time and ensuring accurate financial records.
Many accountants prefer using spreadsheets over traditional tools because it is much easier to manipulate data quickly and efficiently without going through dozens of worksheets every time they need to compile a report for a client.
Small businesses need to generate invoices to get paid on time, so you need a reliable way to do so. Fortunately, you can create an invoice in Excel and send it via email to clients in minutes!
You can create a template that you can repeatedly use to easily insert client details and other relevant information before sending the invoice out for payment.
You can also set up automatic reminders for clients to pay their bills – which can save you from the hassle of following up with clients regularly to ensure payments are made on time.
6. Accounts receivable and accounts payable
The filter function can help you create valuable spreadsheets for managing accounts receivables and payables.
You can set up filters to sort your transactions by date or by category to quickly identify unpaid bills or those that need to be paid soonest – which will make it easier for you to manage cash flow and ensure timely payments from clients or business expenses from suppliers.
Filtering your data can also help prevent you from overlooking important details that could lead to missed payments or other mistakes in your records – which can put you at financial risk if your business experiences a sudden cash flow problem.Â
As you can see, Excel spreadsheets can help small businesses with their accounting needs in various ways.
Spreadsheets are affordable and easy to use, and they are versatile enough to be used for multiple purposes – including budgeting, forecasting, and analyzing data trends.
Plus, taking an Excel course to learn more advanced functions and features can help you do even more – thereby improving your business’s productivity and efficiency in the long run!
