Building a technology stack for your business in 2024
Colin Timmis, Country Manager, Xero South Africa
The new year provides a good opportunity to review your business and look at what areas you could improve.
South African small businesses are operating in a tough environment, but using technology can help automate manual processes, free up time and drive greater efficiencies.
Technology adoption accelerated with the pandemic as small businesses acted quickly to take their business online and connect with customers.
Investing in technology then has helped them withstand the hardships of the pandemic but has also set them up well to handle ongoing challenges.
South African small businesses now depend on digital tools for survival and day-to-day tasks.
Xero’s State of Small Business report shows technology was the most significant factor that helped small businesses survive and grow in the past year.
The research also shows nearly three-quarters (74%) of small businesses in South Africa say the importance of technology has increased in their business in the past 12 months, and 56% have increased their investment in tech over the last 12 months.
Many are seeing the benefits, with 39% reporting technology has made a significant positive impact on their business profit and 40% are planning to build on the investment in the coming year.
The Xero App Store has over 1,000 connected apps to help small businesses build a robust tech stack across all areas of their business in 2024.
Here are five apps to consider:
Hubdoc
Hubdoc does the heavy lifting for you by reading key information from bills and receipts and feeding it into Xero, saving time by reducing data entry.
Rather than holding onto a pile of paper, all your bills and receipts are securely stored in the cloud.
When the data is published in Xero, it’s easy to match transactions to your bank feed.
Syft
A South African business that’s gone global, Syft Analytics is a reporting and analytics tool that helps accountants and businesses understand their financial data.
As well as cash flow and profit and loss forecasting tools, Syft creates beautiful reports that visualise your business data and show trends.
Bridgement
Bridgment is breaking down the barriers to access finance for businesses across South Africa.
Traditional loans from banks and other lenders have a slow application process, require a lot of paperwork, and often have strict criteria.
Bridgement helps businesses get faster access to funding by using cutting-edge technology and data science to offer flexible credit facilities.
SimplePay
For businesses with employees, SimplePay provides payroll software that keeps you compliant.
It’s suitable for any business size or industry, and includes everything from payslips to reports to filing and allows you to keep track of payroll costs.
You can also allow your employees to use SimplePay self-service to view their payslips and to request and view their leave days.
Unleashed
Unleashed is an inventory management app for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors.
It allows you to have better control of your inventory by showing you what’s in stock and where, at any time, and allows you to manage your production.
To discover more apps that can help you with your unique business needs, visit the Xero App Store.
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