Keeping your financial information Fresh, clean and healthy is vital so that you can reliably base your business decisions on your data.
Here at Fresh Financials in order to ensure you can take risks, explore opportunities and make decisions on the fly, we carry out bookkeeping daily. This might seem excessive compared to what you’re used to from an Accountant, but it means you’re always ahead of the game because you know your financial position down to the day.
To be able to carry out daily bookkeeping, we have all our clients set up on Xero, so their bank transactions can be automatically imported into Xero daily. But there are also other technologies and systems we use to make sure you’re always on the ball. We’re going to talk about these today, so you know exactly how we’re working away for you in the background.
Dext Prepare allows you to send us all your ‘paperwork’ easily
You may know Dext Prepare by its former name – ReceiptBank. It’s a cloud-based app you can use on any device to scan in all your paperwork (receipts, bills, expenses) and then turn those scans into data. This data gets instantly pulled into your Xero online accounting software. Magic, right!? Here’s more about the magic of Dext.
Partnering with Dext Prepare, we use Dext Precision to keep your data as accurate as possible
To ensure your bookkeeping data is as accurate as possible we use an amazing analytical tool called Dext Precision. Previously Xavier, Dext Precision works alongside Xero and Dext Prepare, providing us with valuable deep insight into your financial information. The kit includes data clean-up tools and flexible reporting in multiple areas of the accounting data across our whole practice.
We use this tech to carry out health checks quarterly with our clients. Although not as intense as the initial check we do when you first become a client, we like to make sure that you’re always on top of your books.
Dext Precision rates each client with a ‘Health Score’, represented as a percentage, based on your data recorded in Xero. Naturally we aim for this to be as high as possible! Because your health score comes from the data, it is an important indicator that your data is accurate down to the day and can be used for making decisions without any hesitation or stress. It’s also another reminder of why it is so important to get your documents to us on time.
The clean-up tools enable us to pick up any anomalies that may have slipped through the net
While automation tools such as Xero and Dext Prepare are fantastic at reducing time spent, anomalies and duplications, some areas of your bookkeeping can still occasionally fall foul to a processing or system hiccup. The clean-up tools enable us to pick up such anomalies that may have slipped through the net.
We use Dext Precision clean-up tools daily to ensure your data is fresh, clean and healthy, keeping that Health Score percentage nice and high!
We can get a little competitive in the team seeing whose clients have the highest scores, and are delighted to say that most remain above 90% with the majority of these maintaining a regular 95% score or above.
The clean-up areas we look at daily are:
- Unreconciled transactions
- Duplicate contacts
- Multi-coded contacts
- Suggested Defaults
- Dormant accounts
- Duplicate Transactions
Being alerted to a duplicate sales invoice, for example, enables us to raise this with you quickly and rectify your client’s account.
It might be that there are duplicate contact names with minor spelling differences. Here Dext Precision we will alert us to the small things, like the difference between a a Mrs Fox and Mrs. Fox in your Xero contacts list. We can then investigate and merge such contacts into one account meaning all Mrs Fox’s transactions are in one place.
This will save you time, and money – these mistakes can seem small, but if they skew your data, they can also be costly to fix.
The deeper insights this tech allows will help you with business planning
Dext Precision provides a range of stats and reports on a practice level and client by client basis. Keeping our eye on the deeper insights contributes to maintaining a high health score because we’re led to look at any issues raised.
But the deeper insights this tool allows will also help you with planning, such as budgeting, cash flow, borrowing, and tax planning. All the time your records are up to date and accurate, you can plan for cash fluctuations and be ready for future tax liabilities. If you want to expand and need a cash injection, your books are ready for any questions your lender has.
Overall practice views – We can see everything from whose VAT Return is due next to the total annual turnover.
Corporation tax calculation – We’re not tax advisers but we are able to provide you with an estimate of what your corporation liability is likely to be at regular intervals throughout the year. This is a valuable service which enables you to put aside funds regularly, ready for when your Accountant advises you of the final figure.
Turnover – This provides various stats in one place including monthly average turnover and the number of Sales transactions you have. If something looks out of place, we can bring this to your attention.
Supplier issues – Here the system will notify us if your expenditure is unexpectedly high in a particular period, leading us to investigate. For example, you might have been issued with an incorrectly dated invoice which inflates costs and distorts your monthly or quarterly data, in turn affecting any budgeting or cash flow forecasting you have in place.
Historical changes – Dext Precision will highlight transactions that have been posted since your last accounts were filed at Companies house. This is valuable for spotting mis-postings in previous years (I’m pleased to report we haven’t found any of these yet).
Bank transactions – Seeing the number of transactions being processed through your banks is a good indicator of business activity.
We’re committed to the fresh approach
Using the Dext Precision toolkit alongside Xero and Dext Prepare is incredibly valuable to us as your bookkeeper. It’s also incredibly valuable to you, because it means your financial information is kept fresh without you needing to do the work. As long as you’re getting your documents to us on time, we promise to keep up the Fresh Approach and keep your health score high.