MTD and the limitations of spreadsheet bookkeeping

Early in my career I worked for a genuine start up. The guys I worked with were great, although we were often flying by the seat of our pants. It was exciting but, at times, terrifying! As an inside sales rep, I used a spreadsheet as my CRM. I thought it was the best thing for the job at the time but it was a nightmare for a number of reasons:

1. I hardly understood the thing and I designed it! So when somebody else had to decipher it (when I was on holiday, sick or when I finally left), they had no chance.
2. It took ages to search through and maintain. Probably several hours per week were taken up adding new data and resorting. Plus, it had no reminders, automation or shortcuts.
3. It was really restrictive in the data I could store and analyse and became ungamely as I added in new prospect data.
4. It was far too easy for me to make errors. I can remember fiddling about with columns and losing a load of data on a few occasions.
5. It was kept on my laptop. No-one else could see it unless I sent it to them and, if I had left my laptop on the train, we would never have seen it again.
6. It did not in anyway link to our website where leads were captured or to the system we used for recording orders. Nor did it link to our cloud-based bookkeeping software.

In every job before and since I have used software specifically designed to be used as a CRM (from Lotus Notes to custom systems and more recently Salesforce). This experience gave me a much better understanding that these tools really did make me far more productive, strategic and accurate. 

An HMRC commissioned report found that 25% of businesses still keep records for VAT purposes on a spreadsheet. I find it pretty worrying that these “proper” businesses still rely on such an ineffective tool for something so crucial.

The good news is that, MTD represents a huge opportunity to make these businesses more productive and to give them a much greater insight into the financial health of their business by moving them onto modern, cloud based bookkeeping software. This should be a win-win. As their advisor, accountants will suddenly have access to accurate, live data (enabling a genuinely proactive service) and, to win their hearts and minds by introducing a tool that will change their business. 

Take a look at Xero’s MTD Comms Kit to get your messaging right and have a chat with your Xero Account Manager to get your plan in place!