10 fintech apps to help you better manage your startup’s finances

Your startup’s on fire! Now get the best fintech apps to help manage your company’s finance.

Navigating the complexities of startup finances can be tough. In the beginning when there is little or no money, it’s not all that hard to do. But as you start scaling, the finance function becomes a beast – and a critical element of business success.

We are fortunate to live in exciting times. New fintech apps make managing your numbers easier than ever before. Put the right things in place now to set you up for scale.

These 10 fintech apps can help you do just that:

1. Xero for cloud accounting

Originally from New Zealand, cloud accounting company Xero has taken over the global market for startup accounting apps. Forbes Most Innovative Company in the world for multiple years, the speed of their development is hard to match.

New fintech apps make managing your numbers easier than ever before

Get live access to your financial information – turnover, bank feeds, debtors, cash flow and more – from anywhere in the world. Real-time financials are golden for executive decision-making. We love their cash flow reporting capabilities.

2. Spotlight for reporting and KPI management

A powerful dashboard tool that can be set up to track and improve key metrics, Spotlight Reporting wins this battle. Impress your investors with gorgeous reports that clearly show key drivers of growth in the business.

3. Receipt Bank for going paperless

How frustrating is a wallet full of slips or a box full of invoices? No more! Receipt Bank can help you digitise every invoice and source document by simply taking a picture of it. Then you can throw them away as you go.

Even the SA Revenue Service (Sars) accepts digitally captured source documents.

4. Simple Pay for effortless payroll management

Payslips and leave days management can take up days and days of your HR department’s time. Or you can just implement Simple Pay that automates these functions in one simple, affordable app.

Let HR spend time on company culture and team building – it yields higher dividends than admin tasks than can be systemised.

5. Expensify for staff expense claims

More than one office? Managers and sales reps on the road? Staff expense claims can become a big admin burden as your team’s numbers grow. Eliminate this pain point by introducing Expensify to automate staff expense claims.

6. Vend for point of sale management

If you sell directly to consumer from stores or shops, having the right POS system in place is a must. Vend is easy to use and has great reporting capabilities. Don’t pay a ton for old school POS systems that do not speak to the rest of your finance app suite.

7. Unleashed for inventory management

Companies that carry stock are often more complex to manage than ones that do not.

Keep proper track of your inventory with a tool like Unleased Inventory. Stock codes and inter-branch transfers are just some of the capabilities that make this one of the best ways to keep a hand on your stock movement.

8. Asset Guru for asset tracking and fixed asset register management

Asset heavy companies need proper visibility on where their assets are, how they are performing and how they are depreciating.

Even if you only have a few laptops, tracking which employees have them and at what location and when they need to be replaced can be valuable. Streamline asset management with Asset Guru.

9. Sales Force or HubSpot for sales automation

You can only manage your finances if you have got money coming in from customers. Track and convert leads into paying customers using tools like Sales Force or HubSpot. No potential customer will ever slip through the cracks again.

10. Shopify for e-commerce sales

If you sell online, plugging Shopify into your website can change the game. Advanced tracking and full visibility on key client data help to sell better and more often. Sales also funnel through straight into your cloud accounting system if you have made the right pick.

Some final thoughts

The amazing thing is that almost all of the above apps integrate with Xero, making your finance function streamlined from source document to beautiful financial forecast.

The value of an automated finance function in any startup looking to scale cannot be overstated. Get the right apps on board and invest in utilising their full functionality to hit company finance management out of the park!

Louw Barnardt is the co-founder and managing director of Outsourced CFO.

Featured image: Outsourced CFO managing director Louw Barnardt (Supplied)