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Simon Gleen's company, Netphobia, designs, builds and maintains websites for its clients, as well as offering branding and logo design services. His story is typical of people who choose to take a more gradual approach to building a business.
"I'd been doing it for about ten years, part time," he explains. "A couple of years ago we switched to full time and moved into our office." Since then, things have gone well. "It's picking up a lot more customers," smiles Simon, "and we're attracting bigger customers as well."
Finding the right account system
Simon is no stranger to the challenges of managing his company. "Half my time is spent running the business, so anything I can do to shorten that time is great," he reckons.
"But," he continues, "nothing's free. You have to invest in tools to do things for you, leaving you time to actually get on with the work."
Although not scared of making an investment, Simon was keen to make the right investment in an accounting system. Attracted to QuickBooks Online by the easy set up process, he decided to give it a go.
"It's in a web browser," he elaborates, "so it's got to be simple and it's got to be fast. I haven't got to spend too much time learning it or pulling down menus."
Software that gets you paid faster
And while it might be a stretch to suggest that managing your company accounts can ever be that much fun, QuickBooks Online has encouraged Simon to check his figures more regularly. "Because it's so nice and easy to use, it makes you want to use it," he clarifies.
"The biggest thing is being able to set up products," continues Simon. "You set prices, VAT rates and everything. Then, when you create an invoice, you just have to select the products and it populates the whole row for you."
There couldn't be a bigger contrast with his old way of doing things: "With spreadsheets, I'd have to open up two or three files to find the items and copy them in."
He's seen some clear-cut benefits too. "Because invoices are sent in a more formal way than they were previously, I tend to find I'm getting the payments quicker," he enthuses. "It looks a bit more serious than just a friendly email."
So, that's his income sorted. But what about outgoings? "I haven't got a big budget to spend on things," he says, highlighting a situation that'll be familiar to many businesses. "QuickBooks Online fits in well, because it's just a monthly fee, rather than spending a few hundred pounds on a full accounting package."
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