"You're always one choice away from changing your life."

Mac Anderson

Today we start this blog, and I couldn't be more excited! This blog will be a source of education, information and inspiration for small business owners everywhere who feel overwhelmed by business finances and could use some help. Bookmark this page, or better yet subscribe to get notified when new information is published here!

What this Blog is About

This blog is written for small business owners who might find themselves asking these questions:

• How much money did I make last month?
• How can I stop spending so much time on administrative tasks?
• How can I start working ON my business instead of IN my business?
• Am I meeting my goals?
• Do I have to work this hard forever?
• When do I get to experience the benefits of business ownership?

Here at Simplified Partners, we bring you financial education along with the best tips on processes and systems to build into your business to truly succeed. For too long, business finance has been left to CPAs and tax attorneys to understand, but as a small business owner we need to have a better understanding of business finance and business operations in order to run efficiently and meet our goals.

Tip #1 - How to Select an Accounting Software

Between QuickBooks Online, Sage, FreshBooks, Zoho Books and Xero, how do you choose an accounting software? How do you find one that's easy to set up and helps you keep up with your orders, sales and bills?

Here are some tips and also our recommendation on an accounting software:

Choose an Accounting Software that is Easy to Setup

An accounting software shouldn't take you hours to set up and get started using it! The best systems have a step-by-step tutorial that you can follow that once completed should:

• Have your business bank accounts set up to pull transactions automatically
• Have your business credit cards set up to pull transactions automatically
• Have the income categories set up properly
• Have the items (Product/Service) list set up properly

This process should take you no longer than 30 minutes to set up initially

Choose an Accounting Software that is Widely Supported

Many business owners don't think too much about this, but it is VERY important! Make sure there is a large community of people available to help support you should you choose to outsource your bookkeeping and accounting work. Some accounting platforms are supported more than others, and some accounting platforms are more geared towards personal finance than business finance, so ensure you pick an option where getting help isn't a monumental task.

Our Recommendation

We support and highly recommend QuickBooks Online as our accounting system of choice. With QuickBooks, you will find easy set up, lots of advisors (called ProAdvisors) that are available to assist, and their app integrates with many of the other apps you are already using.

Why do you need an Accounting Software? Tune into our next post to find out!