Accountability Edinburgh

Xero isn’t the problem. The backlog is.

At Accountability Edinburgh we work every day with business owners who love what they do - but can’t get at the truth in their numbers.

💰 How much did we make?
💸 How much do we owe?
💵 Will I have the cash to pay my staff?

We work with business owners who have hit a brick wall with their books.

They don’t understand how to fix a bank reconciliation that isn’t right.

They don’t know about opening balances or how to set up Xero.

They don’t know about the many, many automations that can be put in place to make life easier.

They don’t know how to fix the payroll mess that’s been created.

They can’t bring themselves to turn to bookkeeping after a busy day actually doing the income generating work - because they also want to spend time with their families and getting some well earned (and much needed) rest.

And when those business owners don’t know - they don’t do. And often - a backlog of transactions brings with it a huge source of stress and anxiety.

We can bring calm. We can clean up. We can fix. We can automate. We can just do.

If you’re not sleeping because of a mess with your accounts, then get in touch with us. It will be a step towards sleeping calmer.

As part of our onboarding process, we ask new team members to write a blog on a topic of their choosing.

Ginka wrote about her experience of changing careers from recruitment to accounting. As she puts it: "If there's one thing I'd say to anyone considering a career change, it's not to assume you're starting from zero."

On the same day we offered Ginka a role with us, she received the news that she'd passed AAT Level 2 with Pitman Training Scotland

In our latest blog, Ginka reflects on the challenges of changing careers, the transferable skills she brought with her and why she knew it was the right decision.

Click below to read more ⬇️ https://www.accountabilityedinburgh.co.uk/blog/from-recruitment-to-bookkeeping-why-i-changed-careers

📸 Picture from Ginka's graduation recently

Is Xero a tool you use - or a chore?

For the chores:
💣 Everything is on paper - or in inboxes. At a month end, VAT quarter, year end - there's a mad scramble to put it all on Xero so you can do something for HMRC - or your accountant.

💣 You've got no idea how much to pay your suppliers. They send you statements and you pay what they tell you. You've got no system in place.

💣 Your VAT is all over the place. You're likely underclaiming VAT as you don't have any automation in place to get the recovery you're entitled to.

💣 Your VAT could be all over the place because the person working on your accounts doesn't know what they are doing. We had a scenario where the bookkeeper was claiming VAT on PAYE. Yes - you read that right 😶 In fact - almost every VAT treatment there was just wrong.

💣 You haven't got any idea if you've made a profit. The biggest issue we find is that spend on salaries doesn't make it into the accounts. Your accountant is doing the payroll - and only enters those figures at the end of a year. (I saw that a month ago 😶)

💣 You can't forecast cashflow in your software as you've got no useable data.

💣 Your bank reconciliation might have hundreds or thousands of unreconciled transactions. Until those are reconciled - the numbers aren't included in your reports. I think our worst was in excess of 37,000 unreconciled transactions. We are literally unshockable

💣 Your sales come in from other system. You record the income you receive at the bank - but actually this includes discounts, payment charges, gift cards, shipping. This isn't just an e-commerce issue. Membership organisations, beauty salons etc - all have variations on a theme.

If Xero is a tool:
🚀 Your paperwork is automated to flow into your accounts daily.

🚀 Your bank reconciliation is in a position to turn on auto bank reconcile - so there's very little interaction or work required here, other than a review.

🚀 Your sales are generated in Xero - or the data is integrated from your other systems and all mapped to the correct codes

🚀 You've got payment services turned on - and combined with credit control measures, so your customers pay you promptly.

🚀 You run regular payment runs, paying the invoices you've seen and approved - with visibility over the value of payment runs a couple of weeks before you actually have to pay them

🚀 Your cashflow is up to date - and that is reviewed weekly. You've got good visibility over the next two or three months

🚀 Your account codes are structured well. They describe what your business actually does - so that the numbers produced are meaningful.

🚀 We can track gross profit and net profit margins so we know when these are dipping - and can dig in to the why. Too many business owners have to spend time on what the profit margins are - before they can even get to the why.

If you're worried - at all - about your accounts, we’d be really happy to have a quick chat - and give some advice.

📸 Throwback to 2024

We've been shortlisted in TWO categories! 🎉

We're delighted to share that we're finalists in this year's The Herald and s1jobs Top Employer Awards:

🏆 Employee Career Development Award
🏆 Excellence in Flexible Working Award ~ sponsored by Flexibility Works

To be recognised for our ongoing commitment to creating a workplace where people can grow, develop their careers, and achieve a healthy work-life balance is something we're incredibly proud of.

Congratulations to all the other finalists and to the who uphold our values every day 🙌

“For one client, the weekly payment run was a huge administrative burden: 3-4 hours every week. With Modulr, we do it once a fortnight and it takes 20 minutes.”

By implementing Modulr, we’ve transformed the process into a simple, streamlined workflow that’s faster, more efficient and reduces the risk of error.

If you’re still handling payroll, supplier or HMRC payments manually - it may be worth a conversation to see if we can help?

Read how we’ve helped our clients free up valuable time.
🔗 link in our story