Ryan owns a small plumbing business in Melbourne, O'Flynn Plumbing. Like many tradespeople, the size of his business depends on his workload from week to week.
"Some weeks I could have five to six contractors working for me, another week I'll scale right down to just me and my apprentice," explains Ryan.
"Life before Xero was a nightmare. I'm a plumber, not an accountant! I was basically using an Excel spreadsheet set up by a friend of mine. The amount of time it took was ridiculous.
"I'd find myself just putting it of, not doing it week-to-week, like I should have been.... obviously if you don't invoice, you don't get paid! A few time I got caught out and had to take a day or two off work to catch up on my bookkeeping."
"Xero keeps track of outstanding invoices automatically. If an invoice is overdue it comes up in red. I don't have to check bank statements to make sure I've been paid... it's all reconciled automatically."
Moving from Excel to proper accounting software is easy. Find out more here: xero.com/small-business-guides/accounting/move-from-excel/
