Brought to you by
pandle logo

Pandle is cloud bookkeeping software made with real people in mind.

Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Pandle: How Cloud Accounting Can Help to Plug the UK’s Productivity Gap

22nd Jun 2018
Brought to you by
pandle logo

Pandle is cloud bookkeeping software made with real people in mind.

Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

The UK’s productivity problem is well known but little is understood about the cause. Since the financial crisis, productivity has fallen further behind other leading economies.

Last year, international comparisons published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that output per UK workers continued to lag behind Germany, France and the US. Output per workers was 15.1% below the average for the rest of the G7 economies.

In the final two quarters of 2017, productivity in the UK grew by 0.9% and 0.7% which is the strongest growth since 2011. However, the UK’s output is still around a quarter behind France and Germany. This means it can take British workers five days to achieve what can be done in four in France and Germany.

This is particularly a concern as the UK prepares to leave the European Union. Many business leaders are wary of the uncertainty surrounding it and have been hesitant to invest or recruit. This has meant that productivity and growth have been impacted and may continue to be during this period.

Tony Danker, chief executive of Be the Business, an industry-led organisation to help close the UK’s productivity gap, said: “The UK has a long way to go in order to catch up with our European neighbours.

“With less than a year to go before we leave the EU, bosses must start now to make the most of the opportunities it presents and make Britain’s economy the most competitive in Europe.”

Pandle How Cloud Accounting Can Help to Plug the UK’s Productivity Gap

How cloud accounting could help productivity

How does this relate to cloud accounting? We believe that the rise of cloud-based technology can help users to work more efficiently, saving time and as a result produce an increase in profits. Cloud-based solutions can also be more cost-effective, freeing up cash to spend elsewhere on the business.

Below are some of the ways cloud accounting can help to boost productivity for your clients and also your own accountancy firms.

Smoother communication and collaboration

Cloud accounting software allows you and your client to work simultaneously and in real-time on accounts. This encourages better collaboration and stronger working relationships which improve efficiency and productivity.

The process of managing accounts is a lot smoother if the client is encouraged to collaborate rather than take a back seat. Clients can provide details or clear up any confusion for accountants because they have in-depth knowledge about their business.

Less hassle for clients

Having legacy accounting software installed can end up being a hassle for clients as they will need to spend time and money maintaining hardware in order to run the software.

With cloud accounting, all maintenance and updates are handled by the provider. This means that there’s less hassle for the client to deal with and their time and money is freed up to spend elsewhere.

Mobile capabilities

With the ability to update records whenever and wherever users are, they can keep on top of their records without delay. For clients who are always on the move, they would usually have to wait until they were in front of a computer with the software installed on to update records.

With cloud accounting software, business owners can now whip out their phone and update their records as and when needed, no matter where they are. This transforms the tedious task of leaving bookkeeping until the end of the day/week into something that just takes a few minutes here and there.

This encourages users to keep records updated regularly and means errors are less likely to occur. As their accountant, fewer errors to sort out also frees up your time to work on other things.

AI and automation are time efficient 

Cloud accounting is making more use of AI and automation which means that all the hard work can be carried out automatically within the software. This will be music to your clients’ ears.

This leaves your clients free to spend more time making money and running their businesses. It also frees accountants up from tedious tasks meaning they can spend more time with clients or simply take on more clients, increasing productivity either way.

With automation, the need to manually input transactions is gone. Accounting software such as Pandle can connect to a business bank account and pull over transactions automatically. It’s then up to the user to categorise and check them, although this can also be automated once the software “learns” how to do it for them.

The software will automatically send out payment reminders to ensure users are keeping on top of cash flow without having to spend time chasing invoices. Users can also receive handy alerts come tax time or when it looks like they’re close to the VAT threshold.

Having software pick up on things like this means that accountants won’t have to spend as much time with each client as the whole process becomes more efficient.

How Pandle could help your accountancy firm

At Pandle we recognise the needs of our clients to run a business as efficiently as possible. With our simple approach to software, we aim to make bookkeeping less daunting for users, which encourages better record keeping and collaboration.

As Pandle is entirely cloud-based, clients can update their records, record receipts and expenses wherever they are. With our mobile app, it’s easy enough to do everything at the simple tap of a smartphone.

We believe that our simple approach can also help accountancy firms to manage their clients’ accounts more efficiently. We currently offer two options for you to partner with Pandle. Our basic package allows you to use our software to manage your clients’ accounts and to switch seamlessly between them.

With our Brandle package, you can essentially have your very own software. You can use our software but all mentions of Pandle will be removed and replaced with the branding and logo of your choice.

You can customise the colour scheme, the content and the message you deliver to your clients so it’s in line with the rest of your website. You’ll be able to host your Brandle account on a domain of your choosing, increasing traffic flow and helping to boost your marketing efforts.

Tags: