How a mobile accounting app can help tradespeople reclaim their evenings and weekends

The UK has seen a £110bn surge in home improvements during the pandemic.

While that sounds like a nice problem for tradespeople across the country to have, in reality, many electricians, plumbers, gas engineers, painters and decorators are working flat out to manage the workload.

And with that in mind, they’re sacrificing their evenings and weekends to catch up with their accounting.

Sound like a familiar scenario?

Actually, despite the recent surge in work, time spent working on the accounts after hours probably isn’t a new way of life for you.

But life doesn’t have to be like that.

By using a mobile accounting app, you could stay on top of your finance admin while you’re out working on a job or when you have some downtime. And that means you can simplify and streamline admin, reclaim your evenings and weekends, and avoid burnout.

Read on to learn more about how using a mobile app could help you regain that work/life balance.

5 ways a mobile accounting app can help you reclaim your evenings and weekends

1. Productivity

Many tradespeople already rely on apps such as Tradify to simplify the management of jobs.

With order books full to bursting, now’s a great time to start using a mobile accounting app to manage your accounts (if you’re not already).

When using an accounting app, you can access data on all critical areas of your business’s finances on your mobile phone or tablet.

Your accounting app will work with your accounting software to enable you to manage critical aspects of your finances, such as invoicing and chasing payments, with just a few clicks. In addition, apps are often much faster to use than desktop computers or web browsers.

According to McKinsey, half of businesses see increases in productivity, and around 20% save money, when they introduce digital practices.

2. Offline working and flexibility

Many apps are designed to be used even when you’re not connected to the internet. This means you can input data throughout your day, whenever and wherever it suits you.

By updating information regularly, you can tackle the burden of dealing with admin long after work hours have been wrapped up – keeping your evenings and weekends free.

3. Professionalise your brand

We live in an era when customers can leave highly positive or negative online reviews of your business within minutes. Quite simply, it’s never been more vital to prove your commitment to delivering excellent customer service.

One way to do this is to process key admin tasks such as final costings and invoices via your app as soon as your jobs are finished and before you leave a customer’s location.

This enables you to be transparent, upfront and efficient with client communication, while building trusted relationships.

4. Personalisation

Most advanced mobile apps allow you to change settings in order to meet the specific needs of your business.

Options include uploading and using your logo in documents and communications, and setting up automated chases on invoices.

5. Reducing risk

By managing data within cloud-based mobile apps, you can eliminate slow, manual and paper-based processes, reduce the chance of losing important documents, and ensure you keep robust records of transactions.

That’s a smart move at a time of increased focus on data protection and compliance.

Common accounting tasks you can streamline with a mobile accounting app

Across the world, tradespeople spend an average of 120 working-days per year on administrative tasks, and the largest admin task for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK is accounting.

Now, many tradespeople are realising they could earn thousands of pounds more every year by using apps to reassign time spent on admin on to higher-paying, skilled work.

You could do the same.

Here’s some key tasks you could carry out using a mobile accounting app.

For your business

• Automate key processes: This includes the delivery of invoices and quotations. This means fewer hours on repetitive, non-chargeable administration, and more time for you in the evenings and weekends.
• Access to information: Mobile apps will be connected to the core functionality of your phone – such as contacts lists, call records and your in-built camera – to reduce hassle. Not only that but most apps can be accessed via a fingerprint, saving you from having to remember multiple passwords on the move.
• Review the health of your business: Check how your business is performing and review your financial position, including where you stand with cash flow.
• Stay on top of day-to-day transactions: Work as you go to record income, expenditure and expenses, and send, process and chase invoices.
• Manage inventory: Control stock levels, track sales and purchases.

For your customers

• Issue quotes and estimates: Rather than waiting to issue a quote or estimate when you’re back at a desk, you can do so right in front of your customers. That helps you to avoid having to manage multiple email conversations with them over details around the quotes and estimates. In turn, that will help you stay on track and fulfil your work requirements.
• Generate invoices: Avoid putting invoices on the back burner (or even forgetting about them). Use your app to create them and send them straight to your customers.
• Manage payments: Easily track and take payments, and chase customers who owe you money.

For your suppliers

• Maintain databases: Use a mobile app that integrates with your contacts database to effectively manage your customer and supplier data.
• Track payments: Maintain strong relationships with suppliers by staying on top of payment dates and sending money on time.
• Check payments have been received: Eliminate the potential for issues and maximise clarity by proactively checking that your payments have come through on time.

Final thoughts

Using a mobile accounting app to stay on top of your business admin can be beneficial not just for your customers but for you.

Rather than having to wait until you’re in front of your computer after work or during your weekends to manage your finances, being able to issue invoices, chase payments and view the performance of your business from your mobile phone or tablet will save lots of time.

And that’s time you can use to recharge and spend time with friends and family, before the start of another busy working day or week.