We’re well into January now and everyone is trying hard (or not) to stick to their New Year’s resolutions and make improvements to their personal  lives, whether it’s saving more money, taking up exercise or eating more healthily.

The start of a New Year is also a good time for making improvements to your business. So why not take a look at our tips on some of the ways you can get your company fitter for business in 2016.

Go paperless – Ditch paper and send all your invoices, statements and other accounting documents electronically via email. You will instantly save money on stationery and postage costs, and you may even get your customers paying you faster, as they receive their electronic invoice instantly on the same day rather than it taking days to arrive in the post.

Get more office space – Are your filing cabinets taking over your office? Instead of saving paper copies of invoices, statements, remittance advices and so on, why not save your documents electronically? You’ll save time on filing and searching for files and your documents will be better protected against the risk of fire or flood. You must ensure you meet the HRMC guidelines for storing your documents electronically. 

Have more available cash for your business – Over £31.3 billion is owed to UK businesses in late payments, according to the latest Bacs research (July 2015). Delayed payments can have an adverse effect on your cash flow and may force you to rely on bank overdrafts and paying your own suppliers late. By keeping on top of who owes you money and reminding your customers that they need to pay you, your customers will be encourage to pay more promptly. With more payments coming into your business faster, you will soon start to see improvements in your cash flow.

Improve internal communications – How well is information shared within your business? Do your sales people have the knowledge they need to provide good customer service? You can help the flow of information between colleagues and departments by storing documents electronically in a central location, such as a shared network location or on SharePoint, so it’s easily available when dealing with queries. Additionally, when you email invoices, statements, credit control letters to your customers, copying in the sales person as well will keep them in the loop during customer communications.

All of these tips will help you to save time, reduce costs and work more efficiently, giving you the strength to grow your business and ready to face 2016 in a better shape.

Draycir’s range of software solutions are designed to help businesses work smarter to reduce costs, improve cash flow and streamline operational efficiency. Visit www.draycir.com to find out more