Craig MacDonald, Principal Advisor to All About People, drives his business like he drives his car – glancing at the dashboard to make sure the engine is ticking over while he devotes most of his energy to running a growing small business.

All About People is a company dedicated to workplace health and safety; it creates practical solutions for workplaces to assist with ACC Levy Discounts, prevent injuries and ensure compliance with Health & Safety Legislative requirements.

But at the end of the financial year Craig found he had a nightmare sorting out his accounts.

"We thought we were tracking along one way with our expense claims only to find some had been coded the wrong way resulting in incorrect reporting! We then had to go back through and recode. This meant a lot of time wasted, and a lot of frustration. The worst thing was it wasn't the accountant's mistake, it was the inflexibility of our old accounting system"

Craig went to a small business planning seminar - it turned out to be the most enlightening experience of his professional career.

One of the speakers told how he had almost lost his business to bankruptcy, and that the most important thing small business owners can do for themselves is to have an overview of their enterprise - a dashboard.

"I identified with what the speaker said. Why can't we ever get our accounting right? I didn't want to make myself an accountant, but I was determined to find a package that allowed me to keep an eye on the financial fundamentals at all times, while running the business"

"The lights went on when we saw Xero. We had a play with it. And found that it was to our liking"

Most importantly, Xero had a dashboard.

"It's just like driving a car, you have to look at your speed, at your fuel gauge, and know where you're going"

The dashboard gives Craig and his team a clear real-time snapshot of his business at all times.

www.safetyworks.co.nz

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