Moving your recordkeeping from spreadsheets to appropriate accounting software can make a huge difference in your business. It can help to:
- Enforce your internal controls by restricting user access and ability to write/edit/delete records.
- Document everything that happens – and who does what – so that if you need to investigate an issue, the details are captured automatically.
- Provide professional looking invoices for delivering electronically and/or via US mail – and easy ways to accept and process payments that are then automatically settled into your bank.
- With a few clicks, provide reports on outstanding bills, income statements, and other reports you’ll need to share with your accountant, tax specialist, or lending partner.
There are a variety of accounting software options to choose from, but you’ll want to consider what else you need to accomplish. Suppose you are also looking to move your scheduling, booking or product-selling capabilities to a more robust system. In that case, you’ll find that many have the capability to do some basic invoicing and integrate with one of the more established small business accounting softwares. You’ll want to consider what type of businesses the software focuses on and compatibility with the accounting software of your choice. Options include:
- Time to Pet for pet sitters/dog walkers that has a tight integration with Quickbooks;
- Gingr for boarding, daycare, training, and grooming businesses that has a basic integration with Quickbooks; and,
- Pawfinity provides features for a variety of pet care businesses with a scheduled 1x/day transfer of data to Quickbooks.
Quickbooks is the most popular option for accounting software for small businesses. It integrates with most banking and credit card systems, as well as apps such as PayPal, Square, and Shopify, which many businesses use for accepting payments. It’s intuitive and established. It will be something your accountant or bookkeeper will be comfortable guiding you through.
Building a Trusted Team of Financial Advisors
Though we are listing this third, one of the primary things you need to do to create a successful financial infrastructure is to partner with ethical and experienced financial advisors. In particular, your Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and your financial lender. As you look to establish your internal controls, create/update your financial technology systems and make decisions about how to move your pet care business forward effectively, these people’s expertise and experience can provide information that is invaluable to your success.
Pet Care Industry Consulting Firms
Building a set of advisors, technologies, and processes for your pet care business can be daunting, especially if you are new to the industry and/or this is your first time as the owner. What if you could work with a team who has “been there and done that” helping other pet care businesses drive success? There are consulting firms that specialize in the pet care industry, working with prospective and current business owners to establish industry best practices for people, processes, and systems that contribute to the bottom line. Outstanding Pet Care is just such a resource. Laura Laaman and her team understand exactly what it means to be in your shoes and have helped many other pet care business owners implement comprehensive approaches that result in revenue. Their focus on clients delivering quality care to their customers, while achieving strong financial results for their business is one of the reasons First Financial Bank has chosen to partner with Outstanding Pet Care. We want you to be a success.
