6 features in Sage Accounting that save you time and boost productivity

In our Small Business Made Easy series, we provide you with the latest news and updates on our small business accounting and HR offerings.

Does this sound familiar? You’ve invested in new technology to streamline accounting functions of your business, put it to work, but wind up not taking advantage of its full functionality.

Or maybe you’re in a trial for the new software, but don’t exactly know where to start using certain features. That is, functionality you may not even know exists.

Then there’s the nagging suspicion that there are probably more ways to leverage your software investment fully, without any additional cost, to generate even greater efficiency and provide new timely insights into how your business is performing.

In the excitement to get new technology up and running right away, users may think they’ll spend time later learning some of the system’s finer points. But “later” sometimes becomes “never.”

Beyond the basics with Sage Accounting

When you consider the cloud-native features that Sage Accounting executes, it’s easy to understand why you might not be fully utilizing it all. Basic features and modules allow you to:

• Create, edit, and send your invoices from anywhere ( download our 7 tips to get your invoices paid even faster )
• Track expenses and payments with bank data that flows directly to Sage Accounting automatically
• Snap and post receipts with AutoEntry, which eliminates hours of manual data entry
• Monitor and manage your business from anywhere with the mobile accounting app available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play
• Control your inventory with real-time views of your stock, helping you stay on top of your numbers

You can compare mastering these base features to learning how to ride a bike. After learning the basics, the next step is to optimize your bike performance; learning the gears, adding lights, mirrors, and a water bottle attachment to make your ride more enjoyable, efficient, and safe.

In comparison, some of these enhanced features are what can optimize your technology tool’s performance, but your business may not be fully leveraging.

Discover the six features that take Sage Accounting to the next level

Once you’ve mastered the basics in Sage Accounting, there are features that will make running your business more efficient.

Examples include simple ways to:

• Collaboration: Easily and securely invite your accountant to access Sage Accounting so you can collaborate in real-time
• Automation: Take advantage of automation with easy auto-categorizing in AutoEntry
• Financial Reporting: Get real-time insights with automated, easy-to-use reports that are available to share, print, or email directly to your customers
• Invoice Payments: Take payments faster with Stripe, which makes it easy to create and send e-invoices, creating a simple process for your customers to pay online or over the phone
• Customize with Apps: Extend the capabilities of Sage with the Sage Marketplace, which offers a variety of cloud-native apps that allow you to automate your business even more
• Conquer Year-End: Sage accounting provides a complete audit trail of any changes which helps make year-end easier for you and your accountant.

Leverage Sage Accounting training resources

First, take a tour of your provider’s training modules and other resources. To find out what you may be missing.

For example, Sage provides three great resources:

• Sage University for training support and training videos,
• Sage Knowledgebase for a library of technical resources, and
• Sage City for a community forum of specific questions you may have.

Next, assess the price, in staff time and opportunity cost, you may be paying by not using those resources.

Finally, prioritize which system features you want to start with and establish a clear process for you or your staff.

A good system vendor makes improvements and adds functionality to its products on an ongoing basis. It’s important to monitor them as they are announced, and decide whether, when, and how to take advantage of them.

Finally, set aside time down the road to assess how well you are expanding your utilization of all of the system’s capabilities, and the concrete benefits you have gained by doing so.

In addition, establish a routine, perhaps on an annual basis, for carrying out this kind of a review so that you don’t “fall behind” again in the future. Once you institutionalize this practice, you can be confident that you’re reaping the full benefit of your investment in your technology infrastructure.