SMEs enjoy $450+worth of 'me time' thanks to bank feeds

30 October 2013

SMEs enjoy $450+ per month worth of 'me time' thanks to bank feeds

Many of New Zealand's business owners spend hours each week keying bank transaction data into their financial accounts when they could be enjoying life outside work. These days there's no need to fight that battle.

SMEs utilising MYOB's bank feeds - a service that automatically feeds bank transactions into cloud accounting software - say it saves them an average of 10 hours per month, according to the business software company. The average value they put on this time saving is NZ$458.

CEO Tim Reed says he was impressed with the findings of MYOB's recent research that asked clients to estimate how much time they had saved in automating their bank transaction reconciliation.

"That's a big saving in the context of how time poor business owners can be. We know SME operators often sacrifice personal and family time in order to run their businesses. This kind of time and cost saving is equivalent to a day off a month or a couple of weeks' holiday each year," he says.

The MYOB Client Insights Panel surveyed more than 600 small and medium-sized client businesses across New Zealand and Australia who use MYOB BankLink bank transaction feeds. These feeds allow business owners to automatically import and match transactions from their business bank accounts with security, reliability and accuracy. The service is a key feature of MYOB LiveAccounts and AccountRight Live cloud accounting solutions.

Mr Reed says the research has quantified in tangible ROI terms just how much value accounting software can add in lessening the workload and driving unnecessary tasks out of the routine of a small business.

"Here's real proof that MYOB's accounting software, and in particular bank feeds, can significantly change our clients' business lives for the better. It pays for itself many times over," he says.

"We also uncovered broader benefits such as less stress and greater ability to spend time on the business and/or with loved ones. 40% of clients who saved time with feeds spent it on improving systems and processes, 28% spent it on reviewing business performance and 20% spent it on strategic planning and marketing. From a personal perspective, 38% spent the extra hours with immediate family, 29% on 'me time' and 26% with extended family and friends.

"At MYOB we continually work on new ways to help our clients run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. We're delighted when we see our products and services genuinely deliver tangible benefit, and that some of this benefit is returned in establishing work life balance."

The research showed these business owners now spend 42% less time on bookkeeping thanks to bank feeds. 77% said feeds resulted in less work at end of the month and 71% said there was less data entry. Time saving was the biggest benefit (89%), with others including easier bank reconciliation (75%), clients feeling more up to date with their accounts (70%), staying on top of financial paperwork (70%) and managing accounts more efficiently (70%).

Donna Lee, director of South Island's Peter Ray Homes, say, "Each morning when I get into the office I approve any overnight transactions and reconcile them; I would spend around 10 minutes each day on that. I used to spend around 10 hours a week on average - bank feeds are brilliant. I'm able to spend more time with my family or doing things I enjoy… Manually entering our bank account transactions seems an archaic way of doing accounts now."

For MYOB product information, research results, business tips, discussions, client service and more visit the MYOB website, or its blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube sites.

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