Bookkeeping as a service

Basic bookkeeping provides an accurate record of all the incomings and outgoings of your business. Getting this right is critical for you to manage your cashflow and plan for the future. With the increase in cloud accounting services, it is now even easier to trust this to outsourced accounting service providers, ensuring your records are accurate and up to date at all times.

If you are happy managing your own small business bookkeeping but need some advice on a tricky issue, we are here to help. Our team have an in-depth knowledge of cloud and Xero bookkeeping services and can help you overcome those issues when expert insight is needed.

Sales invoicing

A well-organised and reliable sales invoicing process can help you in so many ways. As well as providing a record for both you and your customers of the service or product you have provided, it is essential to have these records for tax purposes.

A sales invoice also constitutes legal proof of the agreement between you and your customers in case of any legal dispute. On top of that, the information you can gather from your invoicing can be used to inform your sales and marketing strategy, and therefore help shape your future success.

Leaving this to an outsourced accounting firm assures you of accurate, reliable, and timely invoices to keep your income steady and protect you from delayed payments.

Credit control

Outstanding invoices are a fact of life in business but can have a severe impact on your ability to run your business effectively. There is a balance to be struck between allowing your customers time to pay, and risking delivering goods or services to individuals or organisations who are unlikely to pay.

Running checks on high-value customers, deciding on payment terms and choosing which approach to take when chasing debts are all things which may affect your personal relationship with your customers. Credit control allows you to monitor which invoices are left outstanding, which need to be written off and when further action can be taken to recover the money you are owed. It can require expert knowledge to know which category your debtors fall into and what the appropriate action is, plus you are spared the stress of chasing payments yourself.

Handing this over to an external company distances you from the process, so you can maintain those personal relationships, while benefitting from the specialist knowledge of credit controllers Purple Lime can handle everything from advising on standard payment terms and conditions, to running credit checks and implementing a debt collection policy.

Supplier payments

As well as collecting payments from your customers, it is equally important that your suppliers are paid in an efficient and timely fashion. As all business owners are aware, late, or incorrect payments can lead to wider problems. If you can avoid being the cause of such problems, relationships with your suppliers are likely to be stronger.

If you offer your customers some form of credit, you may find that there is a gap in the process between buying supplies or resources and getting paid by your customers. There are a few ways to bridge the gap, and we can advise you as to which is the best option for your business. This could include arranging an overdraft, applying for a business loan, invoice finance, trade or purchase finance, or stock finance.