What’s in Our Toolbox – the software tools you need to run your business

We're online accountants, we live and breathe the cloud and we've put together a toolbox of online software that we have hand-picked, road-tested and approved, because we know these tools will help you run your business better. These tools will not only save you time but will most likely increase the amount of expenses that you can claim, resulting in a lower tax bill.  Best of all, you get all of these included at every level of our Business Partnering Programme.

The first of these is Xero: Why Xero?  Because we know our customers love it – it’s easy to use, intuitive and makes dealing with your accounts a pleasure rather than a chore.  As all your information is held securely in the cloud it also means that everything happens in real time and we can work closely with you, whether we’re in the same room or on the end of the telephone. What's more, we love Xero so much we're completely monogamous: we've been in a long-term, committed relationship with Xero for over three years and in that time we haven't so much as looked at another accounting system, not like that.  So we know it inside and out, what makes it tick, what it's looking for and what it needs. For more information about how cool Xero is and what it does, have a look at our Xero partner page.

Next we know you’re very busy, you know, running your business and don’t always have time to keep perfect records, but we really, really want your paperwork to be correct – so that all your invoices get paid (keeping your suppliers happy) and also making sure your receipts are recorded and not languishing in coat pockets, back of wallets or shoved into shoeboxes, never to see the light of day again.  It has been suggested that an average business will lose around £1000 a year of cash receipts in a year, that's £200 of Corporation tax that is being paid each year that could have been saved if only those receipts had been captured.  This makes us sad.

That’s why we give all our customers a nifty app called Receipt Bank (a Xero Add-On Award Winner 2013), we know it will make your life better.  Using your smartphone’s camera you take a picture of the invoice or receipt and hit a button.  The document is uploaded and the key data is extracted: Item type - e.g. receipt, invoice, credit note, Date, Supplier, Invoice Number, Currency, Total, VAT, Payment method - e.g. credit card ending 1234.  You check it and submit it to Xero and BOOM, that’s your paperwork done and recorded.  Receipt Bank and Xero keep a copy of the picture so you can always refer back to individual receipts or invoices. This isn’t all for your own good, it makes our job easier and more pleasurable as well when we have all the information in one place: everyone’s a winner. 

Next, mileage.  You can claim for it if you record it, (you always record it, don’t you?)  We give you an app called Vezma which uses your phone, GPS and the cloud to record every business journey you make and, most importantly, help you claim for it.  It takes minutes to set up and we know you don’t go anywhere without your phone so you’ll never miss a mileage claim again.  Here at TMT Accounting, we’ve hooked our Android phones to our Bluetooth hands free kit so that it starts the Vezma app recording as soon as it connects to the hands free kit. (We then remove the trips that aren't business trips with one click.)

Vezma shows each journey in the cloud and a neat map showing you the starting point and end point. You can even tag places, so that when you are within 500 feet of that place it automatically knows where you are. Making sure that you have proper mileage records in your business records is key to being able to answer HMRC records checks. Vezma keeps you compliant and will ultimately help save you Income/Corporation tax.

Finally, if you’re drawing a salary yourself or if you have employees you need to pay them.  We offer a simple web-based payroll solution called MyPAYE that allows you to log on via our website.  We set it up for you and show you how to use it so you all have to do is enter your salary or hours and let it run your payroll, create payslips and file your real-time information (RTI).  It does all those tricky PAYE tax and National Insurance calculations for you. No longer do you have to look up those nasty NI tables, plus it puts your payroll information directly into Xero. 

So there you go: four bits of cloud accounting kit to make your life easier, accessible from anywhere, they'll keep your business running smoothly and help you keep on top of your paperwork.  Toolbox closed.