Put simply, cloud accounting is the way forward for many small businesses.

Tax Smart Group and many other accountants are choosing Xero over Sage to manage their clients better. Notice I said ‘accountants’ not businesses. It’s a well-known fact that as small businesses we will ultimately choose our accountant first, and then implement their solution to manage our business, but this is like picking a pair of shoes without checking the size, and then trying to squeeze your foot into the shoe before a big date. It might not be a great fit.

Let me explain, you made the biggest decision of your life to become a solopreneur (yes it’s official) and then you decided that you need an accountant to handle compliance and give you advise. So you ask Mr Google or your newly found Tech Buddy and ended up with a great accountant who then sends you an excel spreadsheet to enter all your transactions. Sound familiar? Well this is how most accountants operate. In fact this is how 90% of SMB accountants operate today.

Historically all accountants were brought up using sage, or iris to manage client’s records, this is a server based solution designed purely for accountants and it means that they cannot give you open access to what they’re doing. Therefore they have to ask you to do all your accounts in excel and send it over to them so that they can produce your business accounts for HMRC and Companies House.

One of the major downsides is that in this way, accountants interact with their clients 1 to 5 times a year at the most. They also charge anything from £600 up to £2,000 for simply taking your figures and transferring them into their internal accounting software before submitting them to HMRC and Companies House.

So what the alternative?

Xero is beautiful cloud accounting software that is the UK’s No.1 cloud accounting solution and has over 600,000 users worldwide. Xero has disrupted the accounting space and taken the control of accounting from the accountant and given it back to the small business owner. Xero gives business owners the power of management accounts like the big companies, at a fraction of the cost.

So why don’t all accountants use Xero?

Xero is simple to use but still requires a whole different approach and the firm will require a rather large change in workflow processes. Xero certified staff are required to provide frontline support, as oppose to just accounting support. This is the main reason why we are now seeing accountancy firms like Tax Smart Group who are actively building their business model around Xero and supporting their clients with the 400+ integration points that Xero has to offer.

If you feel that Xero is better suited to your business and you need monthly management accounts then feel free to say hello to us on hello@taxsmartgroup.co.uk or call us directly on 0330 80 80 840. Alternatively take advantage of the discount offered exclusively through included.co below.