Laurent Charpentier, Chief Innovation Officer and COO, Yooz 

Every day thousands of startups are created around the world. In the UK, the number of new technology companies rose by almost 60 per cent in 2017 to over 10,000 new businesses. That’s more than 27 new startups created every single day.

When companies are started, the entrepreneurs have so many questions, things to understand, and rules and regulations to comply with. Cloud tools that automate some of the workflows can help, especially in accounts payable – an area full of time-consuming, labour-intensive tasks.

Open for business

Technology in the workplace has changed the way we do business. What was once local is now global. Teams that used to hold meetings around a table now join a conference call. What were once corporate headquarters are now co-working office spaces. Office hours used to be Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm – now they’re more like 24/7 (at least that’s how it feels sometimes!)

Cloud technology has brought a new, flexible way of working. As companies have allowed, and even encouraged, employees to use their own laptop, tablet, or phone at work, it’s not uncommon for many professionals to use their own personal devices instead of their work PC. You can do practically anything from your own smartphone now – from checking e-mails and editing a Word document, to checking or approving invoices.

Cloud is also making it easier to pack our schedules even tighter. Running late to a meeting? Join from your smartphone so you don’t miss anything. Stuck in traffic and need to remind yourself or someone else to submit payroll? Make yourself a voice memo. Wake up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea? E-mail or text it to your co-worker. You don’t even have to worry about waking them up, as they’re likely to be in a different time zone!

The most useful business applications leverage cloud technology so that they can be accessed around the clock and from anywhere in the world on a mobile device. And the more widespread the use of smartphones, the more important it is for software engineers to build products that can be accessed in the Cloud.

Sure, there are still many uses for on-premise, enterprise level systems. But, for the thousands of startups and small businesses that are being created every day, many of which are using people in other parts of the country or world, they must be able to run round the clock. Cloud technology allows them to do that without having to worry about maintaining servers or IT support for technical issues.

Accounts payable automation

Take Cloud-based accounts payable automation tools for example. These are ideal for small to mid-sized companies. Automating the accounts payable (AP) process makes invoicing easy, powerful,and smart. I could add “nimble,” “flexible,” “scalable,” and “affordable,” to the mix as well.All of these words are important if you are a new business, tech startup or franchise owner, usually with less than 10 users but with the potential to quickly expand.

You don’t even have to be an accounting professional. If you have ever started a business, you know that you begin with a small core group of people that do everything. Automated AP solutions in the cloud are designed to be user-friendly in this regard, with an easy implementation and onboarding process. It’s only a matter of determining who will approve the invoices and submit them for payment. Then on to marketing, raising money, software engineering…and making the coffee!

And, whereas many SMEs believe that AP automation is only reserved for large enterprises, Cloud solutions can make streamlining processes easy and affordable for all.

You work round the clock, so make sure your cloud solutions do too. It’s hard building and growing a new business, but with the right tools behind you, it can make it much easier.