Useful financial tools for creative agencies
Creatives inspire. The people who throw passion and colour into the world are often the ones with an incredible interest in many things… except numbers. So it is no surprise at all that finance and accounting are often two things listed by creative agencies as being the biggest challenge of running a business. When all you want to do is share your creative passion with the world, there is nothing more frustrating than being interrupted by the mundane and often confounding process of trying to find order in the chaos of business finances.
At The Accounting Hub, we pride ourselves on being the people creative agencies turn to to help them learn to confidently navigate the line between the creative and business worlds. We’ve put together a list of some of our favourite financial tools for creative agencies to help you get started.
Xero for creative agencies
Just like us, Xero understands creatives. The innovative cloud-based accounting software is fast becoming the accounting solution of choice for many small businesses. Did you know they offer three features geared towards helping creatives experience business finance with simple yet aesthetic graphic displays to visually depict the often overwhelming numbers?
Xero Dashboard
The Xero Dashboard lets you see at a glance how cashflow is tracking with up-to-date, colourful charts.
Projects in Xero
Projects in Xero offer a way to visually track time and money spent on each job so you can be more efficient and see where you can be more profitable.
Payroll in Xero
While numbers may not be your strong suit, you never need worry about making your challenges anyone else’s problem. Pay your staff quickly and smoothly with easy to use small business Xero Payroll software.
Dext
Dext is the future of small business productivity and a key tool for creative agencies. It makes your bookkeeping faster, easier and more efficient and lets you submit receipts and invoices on the go, simplify expenses, and automate your paperless data bank. Dext is also the simplest way to get your client data into Xero!
Stripe
After using Xero to send an online invoice, Stripe makes it easy to accept credit card payments. Stripe and Xero together allow business owners to accept payments from their customers via credit card, debit card or ACH bank transfer.
PayPal
PayPal offers a simple, well-renowned online payment option that is perfect for creative agencies. PayPal eliminates all middle men, except perhaps the postman, and brings the buyer and seller together directly. PayPal works in three simple steps:
- Buyers make a purchase through PayPal – whether it’s on eBay, online stores or apps.
- Sellers receive payments in their PayPal account, less any applicable transaction fees.
- PayPal notifies both buyers and sellers on the payment and transaction details.
After accepting PayPal payments, you can automatically view and reconcile transactions within Xero.
Accounting for creatives with The Accounting Hub
Are you passionate about your creative business? We can help you to focus on the parts of the business that you love. At The Accounting Hub, our passion is to help small businesses achieve their business goals by assisting with business planning, accounting and tax.
Why creatives are choosing us:
Kor Creative
Here at The Accounting Hub we marvel at the creative folks. We love what our clients at Kor Creative do; their work is interesting, original and professional. After working closely with Craig from Kor Creative, Craig says,
“It wasn’t until I met Andrew and the team at The Accounting Hub that I could see the fun side of accounting. Now I’m the creative that understands the numbers. I still don’t like them but I now can take responsibility for them!”
The Department of Post
James and the team at The Department of Post are also dream clients; interesting industry, Xero lovers and super smart at what they do. Given their role in ‘tidying things up’ it is no wonder they embraced Xero and add-on apps to streamline systems, get rid of paper and save time. We put James onto our favourite tools, and he appreciates the added value,
“Because Andrew knows that we like to use technology in our business, he is good at recommending smart Xero apps and plugins.”
Let us help!
Reach out to us so we can get started helping you focus on the creative or read more about accounting for creatives.