The UK Small Business Cloud Computing Toolkit

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These are online tools I’ve been using for a while now and have found I can’t do without them.

They all integrate with each other and as a system I’ve found it works really well.

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For Online Accounts: FreeAgent

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I started off with Quickbooks and while that is very good at some things, I found I got lost in accounting detail and more importantly I was not doing the most important thing of keeping a close eye on my overall figures and chasing invoices quickly enough  i.e. getting paid, the most important thing after good customer service.

FreeAgent will make sure you know who has paid you and will chase those who haven’t. It will also do a rough calculation on how much self assessment tax is due at one time, good for putting enough by, and this info is right in the home page of the program.

You upload statements from your bank, (a small file with all the transaction details, most online banking does it) and tally every purchase and payment in from your business account, including attaching receipts to the payments,

Then you know where you are at any point, which saves a lot of the underlying stress caused by using spreadsheets or account software you don’t fully understand (not without being an accountant, or doing a lot of reading)

There are three packages  Sole Trader, Partnership and a LTD Company and a free 30 day trial

For an Online CRM: Capsule

If you need a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), to track all your contact with different clients, I’ve found Capsule to be excellent,

It’s not complicated, you can export the contact details directly into FreeAgent and it means you can keep track of any work that that has been done and what has been said, they have just done a Google Apps integration also,

It is also free for up to 250 contacts,

Capsule CRM

For Email, Calendar, Docs and More: Google Apps

This is Gmail with your own domain name, so you’re sending and receiving mail as your company address i.e.  me@companyname.co.uk

You get a full email setup with IMAP so you can use Outlook, you get the amazing Gmail interface for webmail.

You can have many different address’s for different people within the company.

You also get a Calendar and Google Docs (online word processor and simple spreadsheets)

There is a paid for edition for $50 a year and a free Standard Edition

Google Apps

Tips on Cloud Computing Usage

For all online activities I recommend using very strong passwords, here’s previous post on how to create long memorable passwords

Also I think it is a good idea to backup your Data even though it is hosted and backed up by the company.

Gildas Jones – DialaGeek IT Support Bristol

If you need a hand setting any of this up or have any other computer support requirements contact us