At Hive, we’re always looking for interesting and useful ways to innovate. Firm believers in never standing still, we’ve adopted new technologies that help us to provide a better and more efficient service to our clients.

As early advocates of Xero, we’ve spoken a lot about the efficiencies and opportunities it provides us with. Alongside this, we’ve recently adopted another new software called Glasscubes. This fantastic tool makes it easier for our clients to gather and transfer information to us – avoiding the hassle of sending multiple emails with attachments. In Glasscubes, you can also view a handy list of what’s needed and get reminders if you’ve missed anything. Best of all, there’s a chat function built in, so there’s always someone waiting to help if you need it.

In recent months, we’ve also launched our Associates’ Club. This is a dedicated service especially for associates, and it’s something we’re really excited about. Having worked with associates for a long time, we realised that many were missing opportunities to get more from their business. Making the change from self-employment to a limited company creates a huge amount of potential, but only if it’s properly harnessed. The Associates’ Club is our answer to this, combining a learning portal, training videos, and fast-tracked support from the Hive team.

As great as software is, it’s important to remember that these things are only ever tools – not a ready-made solution. They will always be most helpful to you when there’s also a human to leverage the value.

For instance, I’ve previously been asked: ‘If I do my bookkeeping on Xero, do I still need an accountant?’ I can understand this; it’s an easy assumption to make from the way Xero markets itself and the fact that you can literally run a set of “Accounts” using the reporting function of the software. However, Xero is fundamentally a data entry tool. It still needs someone with the relevant training and expertise to apply accounting standards and ever-changing tax law to the data, to be sure it’s presented in a way that is compliant.

But my role as your accountant isn’t just to tick the right boxes. Of course, I’ll always ensure you’re filing tip-top Statutory Accounts and Tax Returns, but I’m also here to identify things you could be doing better and to highlight opportunities for financial gain based on your unique circumstances. This is the kind of insight that a tool simply can’t replicate. Software in isolation can give you a marginal gain, but you also need to make sure the supporting systems and applications fully leverage the benefits.

This expertise-led approach is what makes Hive such a useful partner. In a recent move, we’ve created dedicated departments for key elements of our accountancy service. Our Inbound team is here to help clients use Xero to the utmost. This human element means we can provide training and offer help with any issues, which allows us to ensure accurate real-time information. Having this to hand is vital for a whole range of reasons that we consider to be our true “job”, from getting the best price when you sell your business, to tax planning that could save you thousands each year.

So, whether it’s your KPI reporting system, associate pay calculations, or collating the staff hours every month, you might like to ask yourself: has this process been leveraged? There are likely to be software, tools, or technology that will help to speed up the processes, but is there more than that? It could be that there are altogether better ways to do things – and for this, you need an expert team.

We’re different from other accountants because we have a full in-house team, with specialisms across all areas of the dental industry. If you work with us, we can tick the essential boxes and see to your accounts – but we can also advise on how to improve your sales journey, how to build your brand, and how to save huge amounts on tax. So, if you’d like to find out more about working with Hive, do get in touch.