What efficiencies should you have in place to make going on holiday easier when you are a business owner?
Everyone loves to go on holiday whether it’s a staycation or visiting foreign shores and it is important for your health and mental wellbeing to have time off work. Taking a holiday as a business owner can be hard as it will require planning and forethought to ensure things run smoothly while you are away.
Depending on the size of your business you may have staff who can run the business in your absence. If you don’t have staff you need to make sure the business doesn’t stop because you are on holiday.
One of the best ways to improve efficiency whilst you are away is to use the right software and apps for your business. Here are some suggestions;
- Xero This is an easy to use cloud based accounting software, which enables you to pay bills, track projects, accept payments and connects to your bank, accountant and book keeper. Employees can also fill in and submit timesheets and expenses from the app to be approved so you can pay employees whilst away. The business bank account links to the software to make reconciling transactions effortless.
- Dext (previously receipt bank). This app will help you free up time spent before your holiday processing supplier invoices. It links to cloud accounting software and captures data from invoices and receipts. You simply take a photo, scan or email the documents to the app and publish into Xero.
- Chaser This is a credit control app that links to cloud accounting software and will automate personalised invoice payment reminders. So whilst you are sitting in the sun Chaser is working in the background chasing customers who owe you cash. It will improve your cashflow as customers pay on average 16+ days sooner.
The above apps will take care of your accounts but there are other areas of the business to think about as well.
You can use apps such as Buffer or Hootsuite to plan, create and schedule social media posts. You could use Mailchimp to automate email marketing.
Monday is an easy to use project management app designed to make project management simple. You can assign tasks to specific employees, track progression for each task and notify people of the activity that relates to them.
No matter which systems and apps you use it is important to build and document processes to make your business consistent. This will eliminate the risk of errors and reduce the time spent on tasks. You could use a program such as Microsoft OneNote to manage processes.
Once you have the right apps in place for your business you will have the confidence to go on holiday. The next step is to enjoy your holiday and not spend it logging into the apps. Gary Turner, co-founder of Xero, cautions against undisciplined use of technology on holiday. He disables access to his email on his phone to avoid work distractions while away; “If I must attend to pressing matters, I leave instructions in my ‘out of office’ to resend messages that can’t wait, marking them urgent in the subject line, and I’ve created a rule in my email settings to forward these to my phone,” he says.
Great advice Gary.
To help you with efficiencies within your business contact our advisory team: ba@robson-laidler.co.uk or visit www.robson-lailer.co.uk