Embrace Tech or Die? Newsletter July 8, 2021

Hello All,

Two of the top sellers on Amazon Canada’s bestseller list in the small business tax category are accounting ledgers. These were ubiquitous before the invention of accounting software and were used to prepare the accounts/bookkeeping for a business where transactions are manually entered, compiled and calculated. What is surprising is that while there are hundreds of free and modestly priced accounting software that have automated many of these tasks, accountants and business owners are still purchasing these ledgers to prepare their accounts. My friend, Sarah, would love this as it would all seem so quaint and old school (she loves all things retro) To me it mostly seems like time that could be much better spent on more value added work. This is not to denigrate anyone using these methods - I can certainly relate to the pain of changing from my established processes to try and learn a new app or software. There however times when adopting technology is necessary.

These days technology for almost every business function, abounds. You can find technology to help with graphic design, marketing, accounting, tax and automation of contracts. Many of these are sold on a subscription basis and are supposed to save time, increase accessibility to functions that were once only available to specialists and generally make life easier. The pandemic has greatly accelerated the adoption of technology. People who had never heard of Zoom are now experts at tele-conferencing. Home offices set ups are far more sophisticated and may people from all walks of life have learnt how to use software and apps that seemed unthinkable before the pandemic. There are very few businesses and industries who have been immune to this change and while the pace of adoption may diminish now that we are emerging back to normality, some things are here to stay. Businesses that have been old school have to re-evaluate their models and in many cases embrace technology to improve the experience for their customers , make internal operations more efficient or risk having their businesses become obsolete.

Of course it is easy to get caught up with the plethora of tech that is available. Many of us find ourselves with numerous subscriptions which seem cost effective on their own but tend to add up over time. Similar to a gym subscription, we may use a certain app a couple of times but continue to pay for it since we will need to access to it in the future (as soon as we have time). To avoid falling into the trap of oversubscribing, it is important to regularly review, assess and eliminate apps that are no longer useful in the present or near future. When you are ready to use it, you can always re-subscribe. A good accounting system can help you track your monthly expenditures allowing you to review them regularly and cull the ones that are no longer providing value.

So, while you should leverage any technology that can help you improve your business’s bottom line, directly by reducing costs or time or indirectly by improving customer service or improving internal efficiencies, a cost benefit should be done to be ensure that you are gaining more than you are spending.

As an accountant, I’ve often had to access my clients computers. In the early days, this meant that I would have to physically visit my clients premises. Now, of course, there a number of software that allow you to access a computer remotely. My blog posts explores three of these options.

Also, an older post discussing how you can transition to a paperless office and what the government’s view is on scanned/electronic documents.

Small Business Articles/Tips

Adopting Technology: An interesting article from the Financial Post shows that businesses that adopt technology are likely to experience higher sales growth and were better able to weather the pandemic.

Tax Tip : A question I get frequently is whether GST/HST and QST should be charged to non Canadian clients/customers. The answer is that, generally speaking (there are always exceptions), you don’t have to charge GST/HST and QST to clients who are located outside of Canada and do not have a Canadian presence i.e. an address or office in Canada and or not registered for non resident GST/HST.

QBO Tip: If you are transitioning from another accounting software or spreadsheet and you have a list of customers and/or suppliers, you can simply import these into QBO along with their address, email, website etc. To do this go to the gear on the top right hand side of the interface, and click on “import data” which is under tools. You can then download a sample file to help format your data after which you can import it as a CSV file. If you have more than a few names on your list, this can be a huge time saver.

Books

Small Business Tax Guide: explains tax concepts and gives you guidance on doing your own small business (unincorporated) tax return

Small Business and Your Dividends: gives you a detailed understanding of salary vs dividends, how they apply to your business and how to prepare and file your dividend declarations.

Start Your Business: gives you step by step guidance for those whose goal is to start a business or become self employed

All three books are also available at Amazon in both ebook and print format.

Save 25% by using the discount code “special” on our website.

Some free downloads to help you with your business journey:

Start Your Business Checklist
Dividend Declarations Checklist
Small Business Tax Return Checklist
Business Tax Deadline Calendar

Reviews/Feedback

For anyone who has purchased my books through Amazon or even directly, and have found it valuable, a review directly on Amazon would be hugely helpful.

I would also love to hear your insights into existing blog posts, topic ideas for new blogs, feedback on my products/website or anything else that you want to talk to me about. You can use my feedback form or email me directly. I’m always looking for ways to improve or provide value (to the extent possible) and this will be most helpful.

It’s been a pleasure! Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Ronika