Spreadsheets may suffice for accounting at the onset of your produce business. But staying on top of your finances using only spreadsheets can be challenging as the volume of daily orders to be fulfilled increases.
Unless you update these spreadsheets now and then, analyze them and draw out insights regularly, it’s near-impossible to have an accurate picture of how your business is performing.
A financing software introduces ease into your produce business by providing you with clear summaries of your expenses, cost of individual lots, and total revenue at a glance. In addition, an efficient Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution like Silo automatically syncs data from your inventory, sales, accounting, and reports units in real-time.
There are many reasons you should integrate financing software into your produce business’ workflow. Here are some of the most essential:
Produce business insights in real-time
Producing insights from your data and acting on these insights is one of the best things you could do for your produce business. So what better way to get these insights than via financing software?
You can tell who your biggest spending customers are, what your best-selling products are, and which products bring in the most negligible revenue through financing software. This helps you know what clients to focus on, where to increase your marketing efforts, what products you should stock more, and which ones you should stock less.
By studying the trends over the months, you can also tell when certain types of produce are highest in demand. With this, you know what perishables to focus on as the seasons go by.
You get all key performance indicators—from multiple data sources on your system—in one dashboard.
Generates reports in a flash
A few produce businesses depend on weekly reports to make financial decisions and projections for the coming weeks and months. However, with the number of tools and features in many financing software solutions, developing these financial reports takes significantly less time.
You can balance sheets, create ledgers, and develop reports in no time at all. It saves you a lot of time that your accounting personnel can double-check their work for any possible errors. Forty-three per cent of businesses cite increased functionality as their motivation for getting financing software.
Invoicing and billing
Invoicing and billing are two main parts of any produce business. Bill a customer twice, and you risk losing them, don’t bill them, and you risk a loss.
As your business expands, it becomes increasingly challenging to track invoices. A financing software will not only help you track these invoices but automatically remind customers of pending payments.
With some of these financial solutions, you can create recurring profiles for repeat customers and set up reminders based on the invoice due date. It’s also easier to track all unpaid invoices with this optimized financial solution.
Improved compliance
Compliance is a big deal in the produce industry. Compliance with tax remission is, in fact, as substantial as compliance in food hygiene and storage practices.
Sometimes, it can be a little challenging to stay on top of changes in tax codes and accounting standards. Unfortunately, the story can be the same even if you hire an accountant.
A financing software can help you maintain compliance with the relevant standards by updating you with real-time changes in these codes and standards.
Secure accounting
Your finances are not as safe in ledger books, nor are they secure on spreadsheets. These security nuances are eliminated when financing software is brought into the discussion. They are designed not to allow third parties or unauthorized personnel to read or write access to your business accounts. Customers can also pay directly and digitally from their invoices.
Factors to consider before choosing a financing software
Easy integration
Even the world’s most powerful financing software is of no use to you if it cannot be easily integrated with your payroll applications and sales platforms. By choosing a compatible financial solution with your existing financial system, you save yourself the stress of overhauling your entire system.
Cloud-based system
Cloud-based financial solutions are accessible from any internet-enabled device. This makes it easy to monitor your business finances on the go.
You also want to ensure your data is backed up to the cloud. You can still retrieve your files even if you are affected by a malware attack or lose some critical financial data. Statistics show that using cloud-based financing software can reduce IT labor costs by 50%.
Industry-specific functionality
A general financing software won’t cut it. Get financing software custom-made for the produce industry instead. They are designed to accommodate certain peculiarities of the produce business.
Customer support
Customer support is one significant consideration when choosing between Software A and B. You don’t want to be left stranded when you have a question or concern. You may also need some training when you first begin to use the financial software.
It’s therefore essential that you choose a brand whose support is available when you need it most.
