Mobile Accounting

Mobile Accounting apps have been around for some time to automate personal financial management. Before that, banks included mobile apps for individuals to manage their accounts, view their balance and pay their bills on the go. However, small and large businesses had to wait for an extended period of time before they could enjoy such features.

Mobile accounting apps (also known as mobile bookkeeping apps) make it easier for users to handle their daily accounting tasks such as invoicing, expense management, cash flow tracing and bank reconciliation from anywhere around the world without waiting any further to get back to the office at the end of the day. Now it is just a matter of connecting clients to a mobile accounting app to perform tasks effectively. Users can monitor cash flow, process tax returns and also offer advice to improve profitability.

As of now, mobile applications are gaining skyrocketing popularity in all aspects of life; personal or business. The best part is that now we also have mobile accounting apps most of which are fully compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows platforms. The features and functionalities of each mobile accounting app differs according to the vendor and package as some vendors offer an extensive range of features flexibility in terms of “mobile accounting” for businesses while others do not.

Mobile accounting apps can make business better and life easier in a number of ways:

• With a mobile accounting app, users can easily send invoices off their phone or tablet
• Accounting applications take a direct feed from a client’s bank account so they can review transactions every day
• The clients can go paper-free as they can photograph receipts with their phone using a mobile accounting app
• Mobile accounting apps allow users to keep an eye on cash flow trends by setting up a dashboard so the clients can check money in and money out on their phone
• Users can use mobile accounting apps to attach expenses to a job right after a purchase is made in order to find the true cost and profitability of various jobs

Most businesses have to incorporate mobile accounting into their frameworks, so there are different types of mobile accounting buyers. We have shortlisted the majority of them into the following three categories:

• Small Business Buyers: These include small businesses that require upgradation from basic systems to more powerful accounting systems for small businesses that also support advanced functions along with mobile accounting. This category also involves businesses that already utilize a fairly robust accounting framework, but need to include mobile functionality. Small businesses may upgrade for a number of reasons especially when growing and achieving certain targets and finding it necessary to incorporate various functionalities and features and considering the availability of a mobile application.
• Business Buyers: These include businesses that require features and offerings of a larger enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to execute their tasks. These buyers are usually after seamless integration and include robust functions suitable specifically for large businesses. Since these systems have a wider scope to cater to, mobile accessibility and functionality is of pivotal concern to these organizations. This is to allow the large number of company stakeholders to access and update financial data anywhere and everywhere.
• Feature-Focused Buyers: Unlike integration-focused business buyers, these buyers include those who are after specific functionalities, for example, law firms would prefer accounting software that offer trust accounting as a key feature, whereas NGOs will go for a software that can monitor fundraising data. Most of these buyers will also consider mobile accounting as a key feature, such as sales enterprises or other businesses who require their financial officers to multitask, will specifically look for mobile accounting functionality.

Billing and Invoicing

Streamlines the process of collecting payments from customers to ensure a timely collection with no significant human error. Most accounting apps offer these functions and allows users to accept online payments through credit card, PayPal, e-check etc.

Receipt and expense management

With mobile accounting app, users can easily scan and upload receipts immediately. Some applications also offer users to convert receipts into instant expense reports, so they can track and manage expenses anywhere or otherwise away from the office.

Calendar and time tracking

Allows effective time tracking on particular tasks. Numerous mobile accounting apps help do this by including a calendar that notifies users instantly about the scheduled “to-dos” and also monitors how they spend their time.

Payroll management

Users can track and process employee payroll from anywhere. With a mobile accounting app, users can access the core payroll system to compose and send paychecks, automatically withhold and pay government taxes while also generate the legal and tax reports regularly.

Database access

Comes with the option of monitoring financial records and review transactions in real-time.

Inventory management

Users can track inventory levels and maximize revenues by avoiding overspending and cutting costs related to inventory depreciation.

• A mobile accounting app allows users to access the company’s accounting system even from outside the office. This certainly cuts costs and expenditures and results in more responsible financial decision-making.
• Tax and compliance is another positive aspect related to mobile accounting applications. Robust mobile accounting systems have the capabilities to consider the regulations, laws and taxes related to business transactions happening across anywhere in the world. Thus, transactions are processed carefully by keeping in mind each geographical location.