SMEs: have you completed your financial planning for 2019?

While small to medium enterprise (SME) owners may not have a great deal of control over South Africa's broader economic issues, they do have control over how they plan and manage their finances, says EasyBiz Technologies Managing Director, Gary Epstein.

"The failure of many SMEs to make it past the critical 3.5-year mark is more as a result of their inability to get the fundamentals right, rather than being able to deal with issues such as political uncertainty, crime or credit-rating downgrades.

"Several SMEs do not gain an adequate understanding of their markets or the competition they are up against. In addition, failure to manage their finances properly or to access funding and adapt to changes in the marketplace can also be serious hindrances to success."

Epstein believes without proper financial planning and management, businesses place themselves on the back foot. "Business owners can only make informed decisions when they have a clear view of what is happening with their finances."

That's why having the proper financial management tools in place is so important for start-ups and SMEs. "At EasyBiz Technologies, we offer accounting solutions that are aimed at helping businesses manage their finances properly and placing them on a sound financial footing," adds Epstein.

Tangible outcomes of a good system include increased productivity, reduced monthly expenses, improved accuracy, simplified tax compliance and better financial security. An effective system can also provide critical business insights and allow business owners to make informed and proactive decisions.

Epstein says efficient accounting solutions can help speed up business processes, affording business owners more time to focus on their core processes and growing their operations. "After all, time and money are the most precious resources when it comes to running a small business.

"Our solutions include analysis tools, report making applications and payroll assistance. In addition, income and expense trackers provide valuable information for tax and audit preparations," he adds.

Epstein urges SMEs to plan for 2019 if they haven't done so already. "It's not too late to prepare for the year ahead and, with the financial year end for many businesses looming, now is the time to get a good system in place."

Note to editors

Now available to new and existing EasyBiz partners, the latest QuickBooks software, QuickBooks 2019, offers users additional features as well as improved functionality to assist them in growing their businesses.

The easiest and most productive QuickBooks solution to date, QuickBooks 2019 includes: a filtering option to include or exclude inactive inventory in reports, as well as a check-to-bill payment window, invoice status tracker, easy upgrade functionality, credit transfer options and enhanced IIF import for greater accuracy.