Mobile Accounting? It’s Here, Now

This month we’re taking a break from all the PPP and COVID-19 conversations out there. Now that it’s mid-2020, it may be time to jump on that accounting app bandwagon.. The exciting news is a lot of your accounting tasks can now be done from a phone instead of a computer.

Here are just a few examples:

Banking

One of the biggest time savers of all is mobile banking. Stop trudging to the bank to make deposits or paying the bank to rent a clunky scanner that you have to be sitting at a desktop computer to use. There is a better way! Simply download the bank’s mobile app, login, and look for the Make Deposit function. On the endorsement line of the check write “For Electronic Deposit Only” and endorse it. If you have a lot of checks each month, order a stamp with this information on it from Vista Print. On the phone, enter the amount, then take a picture of the check. Presto! Hit Deposit and the money will be available in no time.

Receipts

Shoeboxes of receipts are a thing of the past. Send receipts to the accountants simply by taking a picture of them and sending them via email, or through a document entry system like Receipt Bank or AutoEntry. Once this is setup to work with the company’s accounting system, it’s a real time-saver. American Express offers a service called Receipt Match which analyzes the pictures uploaded through the app and compares them to recent charges. It’s surprisingly accurate and makes coding expenses much easier. Click Here for more.

Accounting

Wondering how much income the company made last month? Many accounting systems now have app enabled services or even entirely cloud based versions. QuickBooks Online and Xero are cloud based solutions. At Lucrum, our offices use Microsoft remote desktop solutions to have access to everything we need on the go regardless of where we are in the world. Same interface, every time.

Payroll

There’s no need to be tied to the desk on payroll day when the technology exists to submit from a phone. Many payroll systems have apps available as well. Our favorite is Dominion Payroll due to the amazing breadth of the reporting available as well as the customer service. They might not be as app driven/mobile friendly as other more gimmicky sites but wait until you have an issue (and you will) and then you’ll be glad for good old fashioned humans to help you through it.

Add-ons

There’s a mobile app for almost any additional function, such as TSheets for time tracking, Square for taking payments in person, Stripe and PayPal for taking payments online. Are you still recording mileage in a little book stuck in the pocket of your door? Switch to MileIQ for a measly $6 per month and track all your mileage instantly using the GPS on your phone. Left for personal, right for business. What could be easier?

Artificial Intelligence

There are even some apps that allow the user to talk in plain English and get a plain English answer back. These apps are using artificial intelligence which is exploding in the accounting space. It can be easy and useful to be able to ask questions about cash flow or check on KPI’s the company tracks.

If you find yourself on the go more often than not, having constant access to your business accounts and these features will be beneficial. Feel free to reach out to Lucrum if you’d like to find out more or get help moving some of your accounting functions to your mobile phone.