Financial data lies at the heart of any small business operation. Managing it can be a juggle, but there are an array of tools you can use to stay on top of this crucial information and better manage your cash flow and compliance.

Depending on what stage of the business growth journey you’re on, some Xero-connected solutions are more appropriate than others. Hubdoc and Dext Prepare are two powerful Xero pairings that each suit businesses at different stages.

Financial data’s messy beginnings

Before financial data is organised and sorted into our single-ledger, it has a different life: it’s messy and all over the place. It hides in emails, paperwork, envelopes, statements, a myriad of supplier systems, and multiple bank accounts. To bring it into Xero, you first need to capture it.

Early on, many businesses have time-consuming manual data-entry processes. Finding and entering this data from multiple sources takes up valuable time, and can be prone to human error – it can soon become a task that you dread to complete. Fortunately, there are smarter, easier and quicker ways to capture this important information.

If you’re tech-savvy (or have an advisor that is) you might already use our built-in Hubdoc data capture tool, included for free with Xero Starter/Early, Standard/Growing and Premium/Established plans.

But as your business grows, so does the volume and complexity of your financial information. At this point, you may need a different tool to keep business information flowing. For many Xero customers, that tool is Dext Prepare.

Scaling up without slowing down

Small businesses start with simple needs, but bigger business means more data. This data comes in more formats, from more sources and more people. Very quickly, data-entry becomes tedious and time-consuming. It begins to slow down. It starts happening in batches. It takes time away from other work.

It can also create a data bottleneck, which means that data in Xero isn’t always up-to-date. Up-to-date data is crucial to providing you with the complete financial picture you need to make decisions. That’s why both Hubdoc and Dext make it easy to capture that information.

If you’re doing data-entry manually, Hubdoc can help you capture data from bills, receipts, and statements more efficiently. Hubdoc can analyse information from emails, a photo on your mobile device, or document scanning. It then automatically extracts key information like supplier names, amounts, invoice numbers and due dates. For many, this is a quick win and the right fit, especially as Hubdoc is included free with certain Xero plans.

Dext Prepare’s paid plans do those things too, but widens the net further to capture data from more sources. Dext Prepare can automatically collect your bills and invoices from a huge range of supplier websites, storage and document management tools, or email inboxes. This means that data can come straight from a source in near real-time, into Xero.

Keeping accounting work flowing

When scattered, multi-format financial data is captured in one place, you’ve already taken the first step towards your time-saving future. However, as many bookkeepers or accountants would attest, automatically syncing and processing that data with Xero is the next step-up in unlocking accounting productivity.

Hubdoc syncs captured transactions with Xero, and uses supplier rules to automatically create transactions in Xero. Dext Prepare adds flexibility and control as you scale — with data quality checks, customisable rules and auto-categorisation. It uses machine learning to determine how to categorise each item based on your previous behaviour.

The right tool at the right size

If this all sounds like a better way to work, that’s because it is. Improved data capture makes the entire accounting cycle work smoothly and makes using Xero even better, from day one or as you grow. Reconciliations become more reliable, employee expenses are paid faster, your revenue picture is robust, and you can be more confident in compliance.

To start taking control of your financial data, check out Hubdoc or Dext Prepare on the Xero App Store.

The post Hubdoc and Dext: Powerful Xero pairings for burgeoning businesses appeared first on Xero Blog.