Does your business need a mobile accounting app?

Managing your mobile business

Small business owners work hard and are often on the move. You may be out meeting clients, working on-site or traveling between jobs. If you have an office – at home or anywhere else – you probably don't spend a lot of time in it.

Mobile phones, tablets and laptops have made working on the go much easier. You can check emails, manage appointments and edit documents. But did you know you can also manage your accounts on the go?

Mobile accounting apps (sometimes also called mobile bookkeeping apps) let you manage expenses, send invoices and track your cash flow from anywhere. There's no need to wait until you get back to the office at the end of the day.

Mobile bookkeeping app or mobile accounting app?

Bookkeeping and accounting have different meanings but, when it comes to apps, these words are often used interchangeably. So when you’re shopping around, look for both.

Seven apps in one

A good mobile accounting app comes with a lot of capabilities, including:

1. Expenses app

Instead of stuffing receipts into your pocket or work bag, you can photograph them with your phone. The image is stored with your accounts, so you don’t have to worry about losing track of what’s been spent. You (or your staff) can also raise a personal expense claim using the app.

2. Data capture app (optional)

Data capture tools like Hubdoc or Dext Prepare will make it easier to stay on top of business spending. Once you’ve taken a picture of a receipt, these apps will read the image and enter the data – like supplier, date and amount – into your accounting software for you. Data capture apps also allow you to easily get your supplier bills into your accounting software to keep track of spending.

3. Mobile billing app

Send invoices directly from your mobile device, straight after you finish a piece of work. You won’t have to spend your evenings on billing, and you’ll be far less likely to forget about sending an invoice. Mobile billing helps you get invoices out faster, which can do wonders for cash flow.

4. Mobile invoice tracker

Because mobile accounting apps receive fresh bank data every day, you can easily see if and when payments have landed. The software spots payments and matches them to invoices for you – so you don’t have to sift through a bunch of transactions to figure out what’s been paid and what hasn’t.

5. Automated bookkeeping

These sorts of apps connect to your business bank account over the internet and copy across transactions into your business accounts. That’s a massive time saver and explains why these are also called mobile bookkeeping apps. This bank connection means that you get a very recent and accurate picture of money coming in and going out of your business. You will still need to reconcile and categorize this information but a lot of the raw data entry is taken care of.

6. Bank reconciliation app

One of the least-loved jobs of any business owner is bank reconciliation. That’s where you make sure the data on your bank statements matches the data in your accounting records. Most people sit down at a desk once a month and work through hundreds of transactions at a time. But a mobile accounting app will show you fresh bank transactions every day and allow you to reconcile them right there on your phone. You can do your bank reconciliation anywhere, for a few minutes at a time, which prevents ugly backlogs of work from forming.

7. Live cash flow dashboard

Keeping tabs on money coming in and going out is vital. Mobile accounting apps help you check cash flow whenever you like, with simple dashboards that show you things like revenue, expenditure, overdue invoices and payments that are due. The report refreshes every day, so you always have a current picture of cash flow.

An accounting app for Android, iOS and iPad

Mobile accounting apps and mobile bookkeeping apps are online services. The software isn’t on your device. It’s online, and you simply use your phone to access it.

This means there are no compatibility issues. Online apps run the same way on any operating system. So it makes no difference if you change from Android to iPhone – or if you switch between phones, tablets and desktops throughout the day.

Towards easy accounting software

Mobile bookkeeping and accounting apps allow you to take care of important financial admin while you’re on the road. You can capture expenses, send invoices, see what you’re owed, chase payments, reconcile accounts, and see what bills are coming due. And because these apps keep pulling fresh data from your business bank accounts, you know you’re working with accurate numbers.

It’s accounting for business people that don’t sit at desks. Mobile accounting apps allow you to get the basics done, no matter where you are.

Are mobile accounting apps for you?

Mobile accounting apps – or mobile bookkeeping apps – are useful for almost any business. But they are great for sole proprietors and businesses that don't have dedicated office staff.

In other words, if you do most of the bookkeeping yourself, an app can really save you time. You can do things on the fly that might otherwise ruin your weekends. When you're ready to start looking for an app like this, choose wisely. Get a system that offers a full list of features, make sure it syncs with your bank account every day, and check that it integrates with other apps (such as receipt scanning apps).