The business of accounting has been taking great strides in going digital. With cloud accounting, working with small and large businesses has never been easier. However, this seems to be a market dominated by a chosen few apps, namely Xero. If you wish to take the plunge into the fray, you’re possibly going to face an uphill battle. That is why we’ve come up with a few pieces of advice that just might come in handy.
Apps That Do All the Legwork
In an interview with Digitalfirst.com, Rich Preece mentions that it has become customary for accountants to ask their clients to buy an app or two in addition to their services. These apps help gather important budgeting data that was once overwhelming legwork for the accounting firm.
However, business owners are pushing back, due to the complexity of the software. They usually rather leave the legwork to the accounting, but with a pay raise. Developing an app that would be easy to understand and follow for a layman would actually help accountants. It would leave the legwork to the business owners, while they focus on the big picture.
Apps That Make Payroll Integration Easy
With each payroll, there are certain deductions and bonuses that need to be accounted for. What you can do to help ease this process is to offer software that keeps all the employees’ payroll information on a single platform. Then, you can automate the monthly payments and deductions that follow, such as health, benefits, bonuses, taxes, etc. Each employee can access the data over an app and oversee their finances and benefits, which can make an accountant’s work a whole lot more manageable.
While on the topic of integration, make sure to integrate your app with other bigger platforms. Many accounting experts have expressed how important integration is to them. It makes their apps interchangeable and larger tasks much easier if they are allowed to import data from one place to another.
Apps for Meetings
More often than not, accountants are faced with, difficult meetings. They not only have to discuss complex matters in as simple language as possible, but they also try to present it in an easily understandable way. One thing you as a developer can focus on is creating an app that allows them to create visual reports. They need a tool for creating impactful graphs and charts, in order to clearly present strategic plans, forecasts, budget cuts, goals, and more. This kind of app would also be useful for CFOs who need to show their findings to CEOs and investors.
Apps for Business Strategy
Before a small business can find investors, they need to create a business strategy, or a plan. Being the company roadmap, it needs to show the investors how the CEO intends to use their money to make the company develop and grow. This is usually where accountants come into play, as they can build financial plans based on market demands and CEOs’ expectations.
Keeping this in mind, you can build an app that would automate this process, and make it quicker. If it can calculate potential profit and loss over a certain timeframe, make budgeting easier, and make forecasts, it would be indispensable. Additionally, making it small-business friendly for new accountants and laymen is always a plus.
Invoice Apps
More than anything, apps that deal with invoices and online payments have become more popular. An easy-to-use app for crafting invoices would be certain to draw the attention of businesses, especially those in creative fields that have to justify their hourly billing when sending invoices to clients. The option to track invoice and payment status would greatly reduce the number of “the payment is in the mail” situations, while keeping both the company and the client accountable to holding up their end of the deal.
On User-Friendliness
Going back to the interview from the beginning, one key thing Preece mentioned was the unwillingness of many accountants to go digital. A lot of the negativity seems to stem from the necessity to train people in every new app they want to start using. This is a useful consideration for whichever app you choose to develop, because no matter how useful, it won’t sell if it is not easy to pick up and train others to use.
Consider simplifying the user interface, or the design itself. Do some research and see what accountants find frustrating with other apps, and make sure not to repeat those mistakes.
To sum up
Despite what some may think, web developers have a lot to offer to the accounting world. Seeing how businesses are going digital, accounting firms and experts are following suit. They must if they want to survive in the market. And that is why numerous accounting desktop programs and apps alike are still in their beginnings, struggling to offer the best product out there. Accountants need all the help they can get: with invoices, client communication, scheduling, making financial forecasts and business plans. They need what only web developers can offer – an easier way to turn plentiful raw data into useful results they can analyse and pass on.
Top comments (0)