Can you run your office from your mobile?

Mobile technology is fantastic – fact. We can now do almost anything from our mobiles. Having come back to find my computer installing an update that was estimated to take 50 minutes, I stood there thinking “what I am going to do for 50 minutes”? The answer, grab my phone of course. But rather than looking at Facebook or doing an odd bit of shopping I used it for working.

Pretty much most of the software that we use here at The Counting House has an app. Xero, QuickBooks, Google Docs (on which I am writing this blog), Zoom, Receipt Bank, they all have them.  So whilst my computer was busy taking its time, I got to work.  

A Slack message came in from a colleague (yup you’ve guessed it, Slack is an app too) saying we needed to make a payment, could I jump into the bank?  My first response was “Sorry my computer is updating itself, I’ll do it when I’m back online”.  But then I thought, why do I need to wait?  The invoice is in Xero, with a copy of the original attached (this will be important later) and I have mobile banking, no problem.  

So I logged into Xero, found the invoice, opened up my mobile banking app and then realised the supplier wasn’t set up on our list of payees.  No!  I was so close to being awesome.  But then I noticed that I could add new payees in the app.  Yep, I was awesome.  So, I jumped back into Xero found the original copy of the invoice attached via Receipt Bank (told you it would be important later) found the bank details and set them up in my mobile banking.

All from my mobile I was able to 

  • receive a message on our internal messaging system
  • Find an outstanding purchase invoice on our accounting system
  • See the original copy of the purchase invoice sent from the supplier
  • Add the suppliers bank details to our list of payees on our bank
  • Pay that outstanding invoice
  • Mark that invoice as being paid on our system

I can even make calls and send texts too!

Mobile technology is truly amazing.  It’s like having your office in your hand and it allows us to work from anywhere. We can reply to a quick email on the bus, check what money is due in whilst we wait on our next meeting. Reply to a customer query whilst picking up the kids from school.

Now I’m not suggesting that we work all the time.  One of the downfalls of mobile technology is that we are pretty much always contactable. However, the opportunities it gives us to grow our business and to keep on top of things are endless.  Whilst we can’t take the credit for mobile phones, we’re always looking for, and testing, the latest software and apps so that we can help our clients grow and be awesome too. 

If you’re looking for a bookkeeping service in York or anywhere else in the UK then book a discovery call today.

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