E-accounting - a way to keep company settlements

Own company and accounting are the elements that create a coherent whole. An enterprise without well-kept books and records as well as settlements with the tax office may struggle with serious tax and legal problems.

That is why it is so important to decide what form of accounting to choose - whether to opt for the services of an accounting office, hire an accountant, or maybe take matters into your own hands. For entrepreneurs who prefer the latter solution and like to have control over their company, and especially over its financial situation, e-accounting may be an ideal solution

What is e-accounting?

The concept of e-accounting covers a number of tools necessary in the daily running of your own business. They differ from traditional applications in that they are given to the entrepreneur in the form of a coherent whole, made available via a web browser in the SaaS model. What does it mean? SaaS (Software as a Service) consists in the distribution of software in the form of a subscription via the Internet.

The e-accounting service is not only an integrated web software system, it is also a constant substantive support provided by highly specialized experts in the fields of accounting, taxes, labor law and insurance.

Who is e-accounting for?

It is worth noting that e-accounting is not intended for everyone.

The solution can be used by micro and small companies, in particular those that keep their accounting on the basis of the Tax Book of Income and Expenses or settle their taxes in the form of a registered lump sum.

E-accounting is also intended for entities with standard, uncomplicated business activities. This means that the potential recipients of this type of programs are approximately 90 percent. companies from the SME sector.

According to the Foundation for Business Development STARTER in its report from 2012, 37 percent. entrepreneurs running micro and small companies conduct their own accounting, of which 21 percent. Micro and small enterprises use e-accounting tools for this purpose. The data contained in the report shows that a continuous increase in interest in this type of applications is expected - especially among people who use stationary accounting programs.

What does an entrepreneur receive as part of e-accounting?

As already mentioned, e-accounting is a system consisting of a series of applications related to each other and helpful in running the daily affairs of the company.

The largest websites of this type, as part of the services provided, offer their users, among others:

• invoice program,
• storage system,
• accounting for VAT and PIT,
• fixed assets,
• Cash register / Bank modules,
• CRM,
• HR and payroll,
• analysis.

In addition, they have numerous integrations with various types of external applications useful from the entrepreneur's point of view:

• Google Calendar,
• self-collection systems,
• e-commerce platforms,
• on-line banking.

Advantages of e-accounting systems

The undoubted advantage of on-line accounting is the lack of the need to urgently track changes in tax law and to update the related software (for an additional fee) installed on the computer. It is the website owners who ensure that the software is always kept up-to-date in a way that is almost imperceptible.

An aspect that also plays an important role in the decision to switch to e-accounting is price. The company's accounting service by an accounting office costs from an average of PLN 150 per month. When employing an accountant, an entrepreneur must take into account an expense of up to PLN 4,500 per month. Compared to the standard price for access to an e-accounting application, which is on average PLN 33 net per month, the previous solutions are quite pale.

Another advantage of cloud solutions is data security. Professional websites use top-class hosting services and have implemented a data processing security policy. It imposes the obligation to design the deployment of data on servers, create and store backups in many independent locations, encrypt data transmission and perform other, less transparent activities aimed at improving the security of stored data.

E-accounting and cheap accounting offices

The price of the monthly subscription, as already mentioned, is extremely competitive - PLN 33 net per month.

Among entrepreneurs, there is a large group of people who say that for a similar price they can find an accounting office that will perform all the activities related to the company's accounting for them. However, such a solution may cost the entrepreneur a lot of nerves and money in the future.

A reliable accounting office that responsibly approaches the services it performs will not be cheap - it has to invest in appropriate software, hire the right number of people who will be able to properly service all clients. Make sure they constantly improve their qualifications. Moreover, in order to ensure the correctness of settlements, the documents pass through the hands of at least two people:

• accountant - junior accountant,
• checking account - a qualified accountant responsible for the correct settlement of the client with state authorities.

This model allows to rule out most of the mistakes, but it is expensive from the point of view of the owner of the accounting office.

Using the services of extremely cheap accounting offices may involve a considerable risk of accounting incompetence and inaccurate settlements. To assess the credibility of such an office, it is enough to conduct an initial economic calculation based on the price for the service offered to us. If someone proposes less than PLN 100 per month for posting 10-20 invoices, you should consider the quality of the service. If a professional accountant earns on the basis of a contract of employment about PLN 3,500 net per month (the total cost is PLN 5,942.67), how many companies such as ours are able to correctly book them so that the cost of her employment and frequent training returns , maintaining the accounting office and that the owner can still make some profit?

To sum up, if the entrepreneur has a relatively small budget for keeping the company's accounting, the best solution may be to deal with this issue on its own, based on the help of experts.

Interestingly, according to the STARTER Foundation's report, when asked why entrepreneurs decide to run their own accounts, most of them (as much as 60%) replied that it was not difficult.

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