Accountancy has been moving through a tech revolution for a while now, but things have particularly picked up pace in the last 10 years or so, with the introduction of a little software called Xero. Launched in the UK in 2008, Xero has grown to be the market leader of cloud based accounting software, and over it’s expansion it’s built up an impressive catalogue of app add-ons designed to make both your life, and the life of your accountant, easier than ever before.

Long gone are the days of delivering archive boxes filled with ring bound folders to your accountant and tracking every last expense in a big red cashbook (a shudder may have just passed over your body if you remember these!). There’s now a plethora of apps to do everything from scanning and posting your invoices, digitising your petty cash tracking and getting paid automatically by your patients.

Here at Hive, we’ve trialled all kinds of add-ons over the years. We’ve listed some of our favourites below that you can implement into your practice’s financial process.

Xero

I won’t’ spend too much time on this one, we’ve explained time and time again why Xero is what you absolutely need to be using, but I’m still shocked at how many practices we see that aren’t using a system such as Xero yet!

If you aren’t tracking your finances in real-time using Xero, you’re falling behind your competitors. Get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help get you set up. You’ll need an account before you can take advantage of all the wonderful benefits below.

HubDoc

Are you tired of your accountant asking you for a specific invoice when they’re doing your accounts, wondering which box you may have stored that in? Find that you or your team are spending countless hours tracking all your lab and supplier invoices when they come in to know what you have to pay? Stress no longer – HubDoc is here to solve your woes.

In its simplest form, HubDoc is a document management system. You or your team can scan all those paper invoices as they come in and get them automatically posted up to Xero for you. You can even get your suppliers to email a personalised HubDoc email for your practice and the system will then scan and save any invoices attached to that email, no scanning time involved.

Copies of your invoices are then all saved and stored securely in Xero, which you and your accountant can see at any time.

Pleo
Not long ago I wrote a blog about how to bring your petty cash tracking into the 21st century but this seems to be an improvement that’s under utilised by most practices.

If you have staff members buying supplies for your practice, get rid of that little metal tin now and provide your staff with prepaid petty cash cards that link straight up with your Xero account.

GoCardless

GoCardless is a brilliant way to automate getting paid by your patients. Granted, most of your cash collection will be done using your card machine at the desk, but do you run your own plan scheme for example? Or are there some treatment types where you offer payments in instalments?

With GoCardless, you can set up direct debit plans with your patients to take the stress and admin time out of ensuring that you’re remembering to collect that second instalment as payments are set up automatically for you.

GoCardless also links with Xero, so if you send invoices to your patients for work such as this, Xero can send these invoices for you and set up a GoCardless payment at the same time.

If you want to hear more about how to streamline and improve your practices finance function, please get in touch today.