3 Tasks that Automation Makes Easier for Business Owners

05/10/2018 | Alloy Silverstein Cloud Services

There are a finite number of minutes in the day. What else could you add to your daily to-do list if you had more time?

Thanks to apps and today’s technology, there are ways to shorten time spent on mundane tasks that can afford you more time to allocate elsewhere. Do you need more time to network and grow your business? More time to devote to one-on-one client meetings? More time to spend with your family and friends? Automation can help you get there.

Introducing automation to your business may sound scary at first, but once you adjust to the time-saving element, you will wonder why you ever did some processes manually. Join us in the no turning back! Following are three simple tasks to consider automating.

1. The Accounts Payable Process

Multi-tasking business owners have a lot on their plate. Sometimes the due date for a bill or invoice could slip by. However, those late fees can add up quickly and are an unnecessary expense for emerging or growing businesses. Consider bill payment apps such as Bill.com to streamline and automate your billing cycles with just a couple clicks. Not only does this help support more timely payments, but it upgrades the process to be paperless and mobile-friendly. Approve, schedule, pay, and send bills from anywhere at anytime.

2. Bank and Credit Card Reconciliations

Raise your hand if real-time cash flow insights would helpful! No more guessing on your business’s performance or being unsure of what is going out and coming in on a given day. By syncing your bank and credit accounts with your Xero dashboard, the time cut down on reconciliations can be tremendous. Today’s cloud accounting software also simplifies the process with smart suggestions and auto matching, helping you minimize valuable time spent on manual labeling within your bookkeeping and transactions.

3. Travel and Business Expense Reimbursements

As your business grows, so will your workforce. Employees may be out on the road selling, meeting with vendors and customers, or attending conferences. Instead of setting aside time at the end of the month to chase down receipts and manually input business expense and reimbursement data, consider setting your employees up with apps that can simplify and automate this entire process. With an app like MileIQ, an employee’s cell phone can automatically track their time and miles on the road. A clean, electronic, and accurate report is automatically submitted each month.

Bottom Line

Alloy Silverstein’s Cloud Coaches are here to help you with automation — whether you are starting at square one and want to slowly test automating tasks, or if you’re ready for a business process makeover with a custom tech stack. Reach out today to find out what we can recommend.

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