New Clay Shaw Butler 'Looking after business' column

Here is the new Clay Shaw Butler 'Looking after business' column from the pages of the Carmarthen Journal -

By Ann Thomas, leading Consultant at West Wales Chartered Accountants and Business Consultants Clay Shaw Butler
The current difficult economic climate is a challenge for any business in West Wales.
Timely, accurate information is vital so that you know where you stand on a day-to-day basis. Accounting software such as Sage can help you achieve this efficiently and add a number of benefits to your basic book keeping function.
Bank account – most businesses have internet banking, but can you calculate your outstanding items quickly using your current system? Sage has a bank reconciliation facility where you can see how much your actual bank balance is after outstanding items and what these items are. There is also a facility to link your system to your internet banking where Sage can then also automatically reconcile items.
Customers –by using a system such as Sage, a click of the mouse can give you a full detailed list of your invoices for any period and will also give you a fully up-to-date debtors listing to improve your credit control function.
Suppliers – getting the money in on time is only part of managing your working capital. You also need to monitor the money going out. Sage can keep your supplier ledger fully up-to-date and you will know exactly how much you owe each supplier at any point in time, while ensuring any discrepancies between your records and the suppliers are sorted immediately.
The basic book keeping functions in Sage will improve your management information and you can produce periodic management accounts to help monitor profitability and results. You do not have to wait for your accountant to prepare your accounts for you before you know how your business is performing! Plus with the system fully integrated with Excel and Outlook, Sage offers an abundance of reporting and diary tasks, not to mention electronic ordering, invoicing and payments.