The Importance of Good Accounting Data

Good quality, clean accounting data is the most important data in your business.  What you put into your accounting system will determine what comes out of your accounting system.  And if you put crap in, you’ll get crap out. 

By getting ‘crap’ out, we mean the information that you’ll use in your business to make decisions. 

You should use your accounting information to decide on the best course of action so you can achieve your business goals.  Or, you may just use it so you know what cash is coming in and out of the business, both now and in the future. 

There’s a reason we call our ‘clean up’ services ‘rescue services’ – because that’s what we’re doing when we clean up accounting data for businesses.  

If your accounting data is in a mess, it’s likely to be causing you a world of problems.  Here’s just a few problems you’re likely to be experiencing:

Overpaying VAT and Tax

You could be overpaying VAT or tax in your business. 

We often see people overpaying VAT or tax due to poor accounting data. 

Of course, we sometimes see the opposite too, underpaying.  But we see far more people paying VAT or tax unnecessarily as a result of poor data. 

Poor cash collection

If your accounting data is a mess, it’s likely you’ve missed a customer or two paying you money you’re owed.  

Some businesses genuinely won’t pay an invoice until payment has been chased at least once.  

If you’re having to wade through data to find what has and hasn’t been paid, you’re doing yourself, your cash flow and your business a disservice.  And you’re giving extra credit terms to your customers. 

Scrambling to pay suppliers

Missing payments due to suppliers is a common issue with poor accounting data.  

You don’t realise an invoice needs to be paid until the supplier is chasing for the cash from you.  

This puts you on the back foot, and leaves you scrambling around to pay for things you hadn’t quite planned for.

Difficulty with cash flow

Overpaying taxes, not collecting cash from customers and not realising supplier invoices are there to be paid will lead to poor cash flow in your business. 

Cash is King in any business, therefore having clear visibility of cash coming in and going out is super important for your business. 

Poor accounting data can have the exact opposite affect for you though, leading to poor cash flow and difficulty for your business. 

Poor decision making

You should be using your accounting information to make positive decisions in your business, and to drive you forwards towards your goals.  

If you don’t have the right information to support you on the way though, you’ll be either making bad decisions or not making any decisions at all. 

This can all lead to really poor performance of your business, and you not achieving your goals at all.  In some instances, poor accounting data can put a business out of business.

Stress

Whether you’re experiencing all of these issues, or just one or two, it will be causing you stress. 

This could be stress from cash flow, stress operating your business, stress paying your own bills, or just stress in general. 

And it’s totally unnecessary!  There are people out there that can help you with your business’s accounting information, to ensure its accurate and giving you all the information you need. 

We’re one of those folks that can help! 

So, whatever the degree of accounting data issues, if you’re struggling and need some help, get in touch with us!