Accounting – A Fulcrum to cope with COVID-19

The sudden spurt of the coronavirus worldwide is having an immense impact on the global economies and businesses in general.  This certainly will result into declining revenues for most businesses.  Hence, it’s crucial for entrepreneurs to react timely while there’s an opportunity to evade risks.

Napoleon once quoted – “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” 

Apparently, there are revenue opportunities for certain existing or new goods and services in the COVID-19 age (e.g. sanitising products or services).  While you may not be in a position to diversify your business instantly for obvious reasons, there is an opportunity to strengthen it from an operations perspective.  So while your business activity declines and you have more time on hand, one of the important operational aspects that you could fix is your back office accounting.  So today we enlist some accounting fulcrum points that could help you steer out of this crisis stronger and better.

Shift to Cloud Accounting
Today in 2020, smart and young entrepreneurs who are into any small or mid-sized business are considering shifting their accounting software from desktop or server based to cloud based ones.  There are number of cloud based accounting platforms available in the industry which offer full functionality like any desktop or server based software along with a secure environment.  

You have the chance to get rid of your hassles of even maintaining an office software with remote access.  These new age cloud accounting platforms give user access merely based on their email addresses and their access levels can be customised based on only what they need to work upon. 

 VPN accesses and remote desktops are done away with as a result, no software required on any laptop or PCs, only your web browser (google chrome, firefox, edge etc.) is sufficient.  Your accountant can be provided access to your accounts no matter where he is in the world and data to work upon can be exchanged over cloud service platforms too.
Work from home today has emerged as an indispensable option amidst the Covid19 crisis in order to avoid person to person contact.  

For accountants using desktop software this is a difficult situation to manage unless they can be in their office.  Also, think about your IT staff, do they need to remain present in office to support your accountants.  Using Cloud accounting platforms will enable your accountant to work from home or you may switch your accounting work to an external outsource accounting specialists like GJM & Co. which will have no impact on your accounting operations but in fact improve your productivity and cost efficiencies.

Move towards Automation & a paperless office

One of the advantages to using cloud-based accounting systems is they can be linked together in the cloud, thereby eliminating the need for data to travel between systems via paper mail.   Today’s cloud accounting software, all have electronic interfaces to banking systems.  

This eliminates the need to reconcile paper-based banking statements.  Furthermore, these applications all connect seamlessly to other third party specialised secure applications for vendor or customer management or even employee payroll and expense management.  These apps utilise artificial intelligence technology to load invoices/bills and expense receipts from PDFs and photographs.   They also allow a company to pay vendors and employees electronically. 
The third party apps are a great alternate work path and will help minimise exposure to Coronavirus.  

There is no paper invoice to be opened, handled, and key punched into a computer.   There is no paper-based approval document to be handled by staff.  There is no check to be written, envelope to be licked, or mail carrier to be in contact with.  However the bigger and more permanent positive impact is they eliminate work through automation allowing you and your staff to be more efficient.

Outsource your Accounting

With your accounting systems in the cloud, outsourcing some or all of your accounting operations becomes a great way to eliminate costs, decrease risk, and free up time for you to focus on your business.   As accounting software has moved to the cloud, a whole ecosystem of cloud-based outsourced accounting options have evolved. 

 Accounting firms like GJM & Co. are leveraging the same benefits described above to create cloud accounting services.  We are technical experts with the know-how to keep the cloud systems running smoothly in an integrated fashion.  One such service is cloud bookkeeping where a provider like us can easily maintain your records remotely at a fraction of the cost of hiring someone onsite.  

Another more complete option is a full cloud accounting solution, where you’ll not only have basic bookkeeping, but also a full-service team including Virtual CPAs and CFOs.  

These resources not only make sure your business is properly accounted for, but also provide advice and guidance that is relevant to your industry and your stage of business growth. You can certainly experience a 50-60% reduction in your accounting employee costs.
Clearly in light of the coronavirus, an outsourced cloud accounting services has significant amount of benefits.   

By their very nature, these solutions are designed to provide services remotely.  With remote access to software and data, combined with communications through email, text, telephone, and video conferencing, you will have access to a virtual accounting team like GJM that is available anytime.  Additionally, because we as providers deploy teams, not individuals, and because they already leverage a work from anywhere model, our operations have a very low risk of being impacted by the coronavirus. But beyond current circumstance, there is another sizeable benefit to adopting a cloud accounting service: Imagine the freedom to focus on actually running your business, confident that the books are right, you have instantaneous access to all your financials, and you have a team of experts behind you to help make sound, logical financial decisions. Contact us today, so we could help you evaluate choosing your cloud accounting systems and set up your virtual accounting team.

Focus on making your Business – Investment ready

Unfortunately one of the downsides to the coronavirus is a slowing of business in general as well as a slowing of investment in business.  There is no doubt that volume of transactions and revenues for most companies are down, and some investors are pulling back or delaying investment transactions.  Raising debt will also be difficult, particularly for those organizations that need an infusion of working capital to weather the crisis. These facts are all part of a normal down business cycle triggered by this outbreak or any other crisis.
However — demand for investment might be delayed or stalled, but there is still a tremendous amount of wealth in the economy looking for growth opportunities, both equity and debt.  As the economy turns around, there will be great opportunities for a well-run businesses.   
Therefore, now might be a great time to use this break to clean up your business.

–    First, make sure your current operations are as efficient as possible.   This action is a necessary step anyway to maintain profit with decreasing revenue. –       

Second, clean up your historical financial data now.  If an investment opportunities arises, don’t let it slip through your fingers because you need time to clean up your books.-   

 Third, connect yourself with experts who understand your industry, your business, and the investment ecosystem.  Let them focus on the accounting, so you can focus on the life blood of your business which is marketing, sales, and innovation.
For any queries, feel free to write to info@gjmco.in or Call us