I had another Xerocon attendee ask me today what cloud add ons we use. I struggled to answer. Not because we don’t use any, because we use them without thinking about it. It would be easier to ask what do we use that isn’t cloud based.
The cloud and it’s convenience is such a big part of my personal and professional life.
For work our Practice is planned around Xero. We use Xero for our clients, not just the business plans but also to prepare all our financial reports through the ledgers. We also use it for our own business management and our payroll.
We use Receipt Bank to process our payable invoices straight into Xero. No more paper filing for tax purposes, it’s all saved digitally.
We use Xero Practice Manager for our workflow management, client database, to prepare and lodge BAS and company tax returns. We use Xero Workpapers for our practice quality assurance.
We use Office 365 for email and document storage. We use Suite Files for document management that integrates with Xero Practice Manager.
We use Timely for our booking system and SMS reminders to clients for appointments, which also integrates with Xero. We use EnableHR to prepare and store our policies and procedures and employment contracts.
We use JotForm and Dropbox for our client checklists and our preparer checklist, meaning all the documents are attached to the checklist. We use Zapier so that when a staff member completes a checklist an invoice is raised in Xero. We also now use Doxie Go scanners which scan into dropbox for us and Send To Dropbox for multipages documents into dropbox.
We also use Maxotel for our voice communications through VOIP.
I’m writing this blog on our website through a web app from Practice Plus. Our website integrates with Xero Practice Manager making email marketing a breeze.
While sitting in my hotel room in Sydney I’ve contacted clients, reconciled bank accounts, reviewed work my staff have completed and reviewed letters and emails that need to be sent from the office.
Even for the products we use that are still stuck on the desktop we access them through a private cloud managed by Virage IT.
Since all these cloud apps have different websites and logins we use OneLogin to make it easy. Although most of them are set and forget that work in the background making our life easier.
Personally I use google calendar, which integrates with Timely to manage personal appointments. I use imessage constantly! I’m a twitter addict. My photos are all in dropbox and/or icloud. I shop on ebay and pay with PayPal. I keep in touch with friends and overseas family through Facebook. I watch TV shows and movies through Fetch TV, iTunes and Amazon. I read books on my Kindle and listen to music on Spotify. I even attend University through Moodle.
If you stop and think most of you will realise the cloud is now a huge part of your life too. There are an abundance of cloud apps now so that no matter what you need to do you can almost be certain there is a cloud solution.
If you want to know what the cloud can do to help your business or your own household, give us a call. We’d love to chat, or make an appointment to see one of our cloud advisors through our website.
Savvy Solutions. Anywhere. Anytime.
