The 10 Best Financial Management Tools
The financial aspect of running a small business can take up a lot of time. Indeed, it’s a lot of work to keep up with day-to-day accounting, invoicing, applying for loans, tracking your expenses, budgeting and whatnot. But, every business, small or large, relies on sound financial management. In fact, investors adore companies that have a solid financial management system in place. This is because it sends out a message to them that you’re capable of handling their money well and won’t make financial blunders that your competitors might.
Thus, it’s crucial to streamline your financial management process to enhance the overall functioning of your small business.
Fortunately, in this digital era, technological advancements have resulted in a plethora of advanced financial tools that can save small business owners time and hassles when it comes to everyday financial duties.
Check out these ten financial tools for your small business covering everything from accounting to expenditure management to budgeting.
Rundown
- To better manage the cash flows: QuickBooks, “A modern, and rich-featured accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses that keeps track of the amount of money flowing in and out of your business and bank account.”
- To make a budget plan: Centage Budget Maestro, “An excellent cloud-native planning and budgeting software for small and mid-sized businesses to help them create more accurate, driver-based company budgets and financial projections.”
- To create and review financial reports: Financial Reporting by Xero, “A convenient cloud-based accounting software for small businesses that makes it easy to know exactly how the business is functioning with up-to-date financial reports.”
- To create and send online invoices: Freshbooks: The Best Invoice Software Online, “The best cloud-based invoicing platform for the small business management that helps to create a personalised and professional invoice online.”
- To manage business credit: Invoiced: Automated Accounts Receivable Software Solution, “An award-winning platform credit management software for small business that significantly accelerates the order-to-cash cycle.”
- To keep track of your spending: Expensify | Receipt & Expense Tracking App, “An expense management app for freelancers, small businesses and contractors that automatically imports business expenses for approval and reimbursement from your bank account and credit card and generates reports.”
- To manage and apply for business loans: TurnKey Lender | Unified Lending Management Software, “An AI-driven company which is a global leader in ULM (Unified Lending Management) solutions and services and facilitates unmatched credit decisioning accuracy and overall security.”
- To maintain records of inventory: Unleashed: Inventory Management Software, “A powerful and integrated inventory management system that allows small businesses to manage inventory with ease and in real-time.”
- To manage Payroll system: Rippling: The Employee Management Platform, “An all-in-one modern platform for all types of businesses that allows you to handle your company’s payroll and other HR activities from a single platform.”
- To master in Financial Planning: Quicken Financial Planning & Money Management Software, “An established and reliable finance management tool for businesses that assists in the organisation and optimisation of your finances.”
Recommended Financial Management Tools
QuickBooks
For small business owners, self-employed or entrepreneurs who want to have a clear picture of how money moves in and out of your business, Quickbooks is the tool for you. Rated as the #1 accounting software, QuickBooks is a feature-rich tool with extensive functionality for everything your business needs to function smoothly. So, use this software to keep track of your cash flow, quickly produce GST invoices, and manage payroll.
In addition to this, QuickBooks is well-known in the business circle as it allows you to:
- Analyse your inbound and outbound sales,
- Track inventory,
- Process tax payments,
- Coordinate distribution all from one mobile-friendly interface.
Centage Budget Maestro
If you are a small business owner looking for ways to improve your budgeting and forecasting processes, Planning Maestro is the perfect platform for you. Not only will it enable you to establish a structured environment in which you can make budget plans, but it also familiarises you with the financial forecasting process. Its built-in “What If” tool that generates quick and accurate scenarios will always keep you one step ahead of your competition.
It will help you respond faster to market changes and capitalise on new possibilities with a clear line of sight into the business’s financial health that you can utilise to make important decisions.
Go for this software if you want to create and deliver outstanding services like:
- Fast database queries, a single-click working interface, and quick import/export.
- Reporting on the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow that will adjust to your business’s structure and reporting needs.
However, if you’re using the desktop version, you’ll need to buy extra modules to automate prepaid insurance and predict inventories.
Financial Reporting by Xero
If you run a small and developing business that you plan on growing down the road and are looking for affordable accounting software that creates and reviews financial reports, Xero is a great choice. Founded in 2006, this cloud-based accounting software helps turn the data you input into useful, actionable information at every subscription level.
It’s the go-to software of small business owners as it:
- Has capabilities like cash flow tracking, payment processing, bank reconciliation, cost tracking, inventory management, financial reporting, and more.
- Ensures that accounting data is kept safe and secure.
- Provides precise financial reporting that helps you to see how your company is doing.
Freshbooks: The Best Invoice Software Online
FreshBooks is created particularly for you if your business creates value for the customers by devoting time and expertise in solving their issues. Include Freshbooks in your software collection if you want to save time and create professional-looking invoices very easily. Simply put, it’s effortless to generate and modify invoices through Freshbooks. You can even:
- Customise your thank you email using the invoice generator
- Process payment faster
- Communicate and collect payments easily.
Choose Freshbooks if you want an all-in-one package.
For those looking for powerful billing and transaction tracking software, Invoiced is the tool to meet your demands. It’s an award-winning platform that enables small to enterprise-level businesses to get paid faster, save time on collections, and deliver a better customer payment experience. In fact, buy an Invoiced subscription if you want to save time managing all of your receivable credits in one location.
It allows its users to:
- Accept payments from their customers using various methods, including credit cards, ACH, and payment merchants, thus saving a lot of time.
- Usually, it comes with an integrated suite that includes Invoice-to-Cash, Recurring Billing, Payment Plans, and Customer Portals.
But, have patience as it takes a long time to install and deploy the application.
Expensify | Receipt & Expense Tracking App
If you are looking for a platform to track your expenses and transactions, Expensify is made especially for you. It’s an excellent app for creating expense reports for businesses of all sizes. This all-in-one tool takes care of a lot of the heavy work of and thus, it’s a must-have.
Rated as one of the most top-rated cloud-based accounting software that uses real-time data processing, no wonder it’s one of the most-loved accounting software by business owners as it is effortless and quick to use with features like:
- Corporate card reconciliation
- Multi-level approval procedures
- Direct syncs with all major accounting software.
- Mileage and gps tracking
- Automatic credit card import
Also, it does a wonderful job of pre-organising receipts.
The only downside of this software is that it lacks a support tab or user guide, making things easier for customers. Also, a user handbook that explains where the various modules are situated and what they do is much needed.
TurnKey Lender | Unified Lending Management Software
Turnkey Lender is a user-friendly lending platform specifically designed for large/midsize businesses and multi-finance businesses. This software will offer an end-to-end solution that will automate every stage of the lending process, from the loan application and borrower evaluation to origination, through servicing, collection, reporting, and more. It’s even known as a pioneer in the creation of AI software for lenders by some experts.
With customers in more than 50 countries and a 98.5% customer satisfaction rating, its growth is fast-paced. This is because it has a variety of features that includes:
- Precise credit risk assessment
- Integrated credit risk management with flexible decision rules and integrated scoring.
- Modular design that allows for the installation of additional modules as needed.
However, the majority of Turnkey Lender’s latest updates apply to those who are using its stock version. For highly customised solutions getting new upgrades is difficult.
Unleashed: Inventory Management Software
If you have a hard time maintaining inventory records, Unleashed software will act as a game-changer for you. This robust platform will integrate with various eCommerce, point-of-sale, and accounting applications that provide your business with real-time access to precise inventory data. It has been empowering businesses of all sorts, from start-ups to multinational corporations, with accurate tracking data on all stock products so you can save expenses and boost earnings.
Using Unleashed, you will be able to:
- Manage all of your stock movements, from purchase through manufacturing and sales.
- Maintain the safety and security of your inventory data.
- With crucial integrations, you can manage multi-channel sales operations.
- Create price levels and discounts for your customers based on their requirements.
Unleashed can be a vital tool for your business to help execute most of your job regularly.
Rippling: The Employee Management Platform
If you’re a small and midsize business owner and performing HR tasks occupies most of your time, then it’s time to buy Rippling - a focused cloud-based human resources (HR) software.
It has all of the tools your company needs to manage your business’s payroll, benefits, HR, and IT- all from a single platform.
It connects all of your personnel systems and data and assists you in automating your hectic job. And that’s just one of the reasons why Rippling is the best HR management software in the market. You can use the platform to:
- Send an offer letter and new-hire paperwork,
- Conduct background checks,
- E-verify documents,
- Add onboarded employees to payroll, and enrol them in health insurance,
- Pay employees in real-time, with no arrears or pay delays.
Rippling’s UI, design, and layout is more current, inventive, and distinctive than your standard HRIS system.
However, if you’re a small company that lacks a tech-savvy HR administrator, then the absence of phone support becomes a real headache. Also, not being able to contact a customer service number for urgent concerns (to speak to a real person) immediately is another concern. But the help email is updated frequently, so it more than compensates for any shortcomings.
Quicken Financial Planning & Money Management Software
For businesses looking to master the art of financial planning and handling payment collection, Quicken is a good choice for you. This cloud-based application is designed to allow its users to keep track of income/expenses, paperwork, and loans. Also, it finds your best-performing assets and compares your portfolio to the market that will help to make an informed buying and selling decisions.
Mostly it helps you:
- Make more informed purchase/sale choices
- Reduce the amount of tax you pay on your assets.
- Simplifying budgeting and bookkeeping process
- Manage your money more efficiently.
- Maintain contact information for tenants, rental rates/agreements, security deposits, and lease conditions.
Quicken is quite adaptable. However, it takes some time to figure out how it works. You need to pay close attention to how you set up your software and enter the data so that later you can easily distinguish between suppliers, customers, and other entities.
