It can be a real headache trying to capture what’s coming in and out of your business whilst keeping track of your cash flow. Vend allows you to automate your inventory process – you can capture information from initial customer contact, through to transaction and shipping and integrate this information seamlessly with your retail management and online accounting software.

You can track sales, revenue and profit by product or staff member and you don’t have to wait until the end of the day or week to access these figures. You can login and retrieve this information in ‘real time’ so you can make changes and improve your processes quickly and easily. Vend can also be used as a Point of Sale system.

AutoEntry: Expanses & Bills

There is a lot of administration around expenses and bills which can often be quite repetitive and time consuming. AutoEntry is a great app which automates data entry by accurately capturing, analysing and posting all your bills, receipts, sales invoices and credit notes into your accounting software.

It will even convert data from scanned images of receipts, invoices, bank and credit card statements into a spreadsheet which can be imported directly into your accounting software. All you need to do is set these documents to enter automatically, either by emailing or by uploading them from your phone or desktop. It will then extract the data and post into the correct place within your accounting software. AutoEntry keeps all your expenses and bills in one place, creating a great online document storage place.

Another great feature is that suppliers can email invoices direct to your Auto Entry account. The app will remember what sections should be categorised and will do this automatically.

We often find that businesses spend a lot of time preparing detailed spreadsheets for budgeting and cash flow forecasting which can involve a lot of data entry, leaving little time for analysis. Futrli, formerly CrunchBoards, syncs with your online accounting package pulling through the requested data, giving you more time for analysis.

You can track your performance by day, week, month or year or you can custom your own period. It also allows you to do scenario planning and has a great business planning function too.

Bank feeds

Bank feeds are a staple part of your online accounting software. We see them as a ‘must have’ as opposed to a ‘nice to have’. The bank feeds idea came from Xero’s design-led approach – their research found that one of the first tasks that a lot of small businesses do each day is check to find out what customers have paid, so they created the bank feed to allow for daily reconciliation.

The banking apps are easy to set up and once you have a bank feed set up, you don’t need to import bank statements to get your transactions into your software. Bank feeds are secure and you can apply for a feed from your bank. Most banks now offer bank feeds but you can check with you bank or via Xero.

Satago: Debt collection

Anyone who runs their own business knows how frustrating it can be chasing late payments. Satago is one of our favourite debt collection add-on as it automates some of the administration around credit control. Satago integrates directly with Xero and automates the process of chasing debtors by setting up pre-set email reminders and payment letters.

You can decide when reminders are issued and who they should be sent to and you can customise email reminders and escalate in tone as invoices become late. Satago lets you keep all your credit control communication in one place, which you can organise by customer. You can then correspond directly through Satago or via your own inbox.

It’s often difficult to know the exact distance you travelled on your business journey. Tripcatcher seamlessly integrates with Xero to help you track your mileage (using Google Maps) and calculate the VAT you can claim on fuel. Tripcatcher also has a GPS tracker, to help you track mileage quickly and accurately.

It’s available for both iOS and Android phones and allows you to track mileage for multiple Tripcatcher accounts, which is important if you have more than one company.