Streamline Your Business Finances: Tools Every Entrepreneur Should Know About

One of the biggest reasons businesses fail is due to finances. Three areas of finance that I emphasize with my clients are payment processing tools, budgeting tools, and accounting software. These three are important because they help you receive revenue, plan finances, and analyze financial data.

Payment Processing Tools

Imagine bringing your target audience through your sales funnel, converting them to customers, and losing them because your process for paying for the item(s) is too complicated, broken, or even worse, non-existent. I see this all the time when I’m coaching small businesses. I’m given many reasons why this is happening, but no matter what the reason, they are losing out on sales and putting the long-term success of their business at risk.

For millennials, Cash App and Venmo are easy options to receive payments without setting up a business bank account. But there are many issues with only offering these options. I'll go into detail about that in another blog. Two popular small business payment processing alternatives to Cash App and Venmo are PayPal and Square. PayPal and Square are convenient and secure; and they let customers know that you are a professional and credible business.

PayPal is a well-established option that allows businesses to accept payments by credit card, debit card, and PayPal account transfers. Business PayPal accounts come with other benefits including invoicing, setting up recurring payments, and a variety of financial reports.

Square offers features similar to PayPal, but it also includes inventory management which can be a real plus, especially if your business engages in pop-ups, expos, and other events. Square can also track sales and generate reports.

Both PayPal and Square charge transaction fees, but these fees are a small price to pay if the alternative is not having a payment processing system and losing sales altogether.

Budgeting Tools

I'm a big proponent of small and start-up businesses keeping costs low. I love a good Excel spreadsheet. You can easily create one to track your revenue and expenses. Using an Excel spreadsheet is a very manual process, but it gets the job done if you are not at the point in your business where you are ready to invest in a more automated budgeting tool.

When it comes to automated budgeting, You Need A Budget (YNAB) is an option you can explore to help manage your budget. I can be used for personal or business budgets. It allows you to create customized budgets, track expenses, track income, set financial goals, and more. NYIB also offers reporting and analytics that provide insight on spending habits and trends which can help you make better financial decisions.

Accounting Software

QuickBooks allows businesses to manage their finances, track income and expenses, create invoices and reports, and more. QuickBooks can be accessed on your desktop or mobile device which makes it convenient, time saving, and user-friendly. QuickBooks integrates with a variety of other programs and platforms which will make your accounting processes more efficient.

Wave is a free alternative to QuickBooks. It's cloud-based and is a great option for small businesses and freelancers with limited accounting needs. Just like QuickBooks, it offers invoicing, expense tracking, bank account integration and financial reporting. I found one con to Wave. It doesn't integrate with PayPal. You have to download your transaction reports from PayPal and upload them manually into Wave. Otherwise, Wave is a user-friendly platform that's easy to learn.

Xero is another accounting software for small businesses. It's another cloud-based option which offers invoicing, expense management, bank reconciliation, and reporting. Since it is cloud based, you can access it from anywhere as long as you have internet service. Xero also integrates with other programs for efficiency.

These are just a few of the financial tools on the market that you can explore. As with anything related to your business, you will need to research the financial tools you are considering using to determine which are best for you based on your business needs and capabilities. Overall, by incorporating financial tools into your business operations, you can save time, reduce errors, and make more informed financial decisions.