subject: Small Business Accounting Software Package - Cashflow Manager [print this page]
Becoming an accountant was one of my career aspirations (albeit a short one) but unfortunately I don't fare well in the accounting department but then one of my readers told me to try out Cashflow Manager's 30 day free trial software, stating that it was easy to use and that I wouldn't need to spend money paying an accountant ever again to do all of the work for me (who doesn't want to save money?)
Cashflow Manager is an Australian cash book software, which was voted the 'best cashbook program' by Australian PC User magazine. It was designed for small business users who have limited accounting knowledge who want to manage their own record keeping. The website claims that "You Can Keep Excellent Records That Slash Accounting Costs, Save Up to 75% of Your Time Spent on Bookkeeping AND Protect Yourself From the Tax Office" so I decided to test out this record keeping program and I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised.
My bookkeeping records consist of receipts and invoices filed in manila folders and I tend to write everything out (by hand) into a small business cash book, but downloading this product has been a real treat. The download itself is effortless and the software comes with preloaded templates to suit your business or personal needs. I tried the General Sales and Professional templates. There is also an option to do a Home and Personal template which is great for budgeting and monitoring expenditure on unforseen expenses.
This record keeping program can also be customised to support the accounting package that your accountant uses, making it easy to export your data and saves on your accountant's time which means less charges (if you have a decent accountant)
What I love about Cashflow Manager:
When adding accounts you can add your bank accounts, credit cards and PayPal account to reconcile their statements with your record keeping of payments and receipts.
You don't have to type the amounts in twice! Once you've inserted the amount of your payment into the Total Payments Column, the amount can then be tabbed across to fit into the appropriate payments description column thanks to the pre-programmed formulas and simple column layout.
Included are drop down menus storing your previous entries, so there's no need to retype your descriptions. The column names can also be changed to suit your business needs.It also automatically calculates and records your GST as each column has a GST 'type' to automatically calculate and record the GST. When it comes to submitting your BAS, you can lodge it online by simply using the inbuilt Business Activity Statement report. This is a massive time saver!
Completing your BAS takes seconds because all the figures are right there on an easy to follow report.
The software is user-friendly and I didn't even have to consult the Help menu but should you have any questions, there is a comprehensive user guide and video tutorials available.
You can reconcile your Cash Manager Records to the Bank Statements received from your bank manually or by downloading a file if you use Internet banking. There's also an option to reconcile the cash on hand and you can create a new budget from using the historical data or by creating a new one from scratch.
IT'S A TIME SAVER! The only time consuming part of the process was to dig out my receipts and invoices to insert them into the system. But I managed to do a whole year worth of bookkeeping within a day. If you did the process on a daily or weekly basis, it would go by really quickly.
What I didn't like about Cashflow Manager
Yes, I have to criticise some points, but all criticism is good as the software can then be improved upon.
Do not change the column names after inserting the data as you will lose all of the pre-entered information.
Do not jump from one account to another or go between the months before saving as the data will be lost; there is no automatic saving.
Other features:
There's an option to create invoices with either a GST option or a GST-free option and this stores all of your client's information, has an inventory control and offers an array of reports like Activity statements and Order Status.
There's an option to record staff wages which also captures Superannuation, Tax File details, HECS/HELP debt, Tax Free threshold information as well as casual or full-time payment options. The payroll details include the hours worked per work, the pay structure, frequency and payment methods. It automatically calculates both carer and annual leave entitlements.
All in all, this is one of the easiest and accurate accounting tools that I have ever used. There was no need to attend lengthy and costly accounting courses and the software package is a once off payment equivalent to accountant fees (no need to pay someone to do it year after year) and there's telephone support and a 3 month money back guarantee! For more information and to test out the trial version, you can visit the Cashflow Manager website.
