As a growing company, it's crucial to be transparent about finances with key leaders on your team. These tools make it a whole lot easier to do just that.
A. LastPass
We use online platforms to manage our finances, and I use LastPass to manage all of my account logins and passwords. I can share the login credentials to my company's financial system with employees who manage our finances or need to pull some numbers. That way, they can access the information they need, but they don't have the actual login credentials in their possession. - Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
A. Shared Spreadsheets
Cloud document applications like Google Docs or Microsoft One Drive make it very easy to share information with the people who need it, and only those people. It's a far more secure and efficient system than having important data locked up on someone's laptop or emailing around multiple versions of the same document. - Vik Patel, Future Hosting
A. A Corporate Wiki
We use a secure, cloud-based wiki to organize all of our internal documents, including invoices and other financial documents. I work remotely and run my team remotely, so having our documents easily available from anywhere is invaluable. - Brian David Crane, Caller Smart Inc.
A. Online Accounting Software
If you're still using a desktop version of accounting software or (heaven forbid) Excel to keep track of your finances, you should upgrade to an online accounting software. Two great options are Quickbooks Online or Xero. These platforms allow you to set permissions for your team and access levels to the data that your team needs to access. - Mark Daoust, Quiet Light Brokerage, Inc.
A. A Bookkeeper
Entrepreneurs often wait too long to hire administrative staff such as bookkeepers. As it relates to keeping your finances organized and accessible, the best thing you can do is hire a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper will be the sole person responsible for making certain that your finances are properly kept and ensure that information will be readily available when financial decisions need to be made. - Obinna Ekezie, Wakanow.com
A. A Company-Wide Dashboard
Superior organization requires the exceptional maintenance of finances with massive transparency to co-founders, team members, board members and other stakeholders. A company-wide dashboard ensures that financial reporting is the top priority to guide the company and carries with it inherent transparency and accessibility. What gets measured gets done. - Eric Mathews, Start Co.
A. Permissions For Accessing Data
When we built our in-house web application, I had permission levels set so the most important people could easily access the financial data they needed. I set the permission levels so they can see the most relevant info on our entire company. Permissions are also perfect for succession-type planning as well as getting the right people the access they need to valuable company information. - Brad Cummins, Local Life Agents
A. Live Sharing Reports
We have implemented a simple yet effective finance organization system based on projects and department heads. Each active project has a live profit and loss report on the company's Google Drive that is only editable by the project lead. Every Friday, expense reports are collected by department heads and then made live on Google Drive, allowing us to account for the line items and run reports in real-time. - Justin Lefkovitch, Mirrored Media
A. Google Drive
Google Drive allows us to save files anytime and is even accessible on mobile. Anyone can easily take photos or scan physical documents and attach it to a folder for all to see. Checking on my team's productivity is easy too because I can see what they're working on in real time, and there's no need to train them. - Daisy Jing, Banish
A. Integrative CRM Software
Choose a customer relationship management software that integrates with your enterprise resource planning or financial software. Compiling data from your marketing, sales, customer service, inventory and finance in one system is the most efficient way to keep everything organized and to run accurate KPIs. This allows you to assign team members to the appropriate departments within the system. It's an absolute must when scaling a business with many moving parts. - Hillary Hobson, Highest Cash Offer
A. QuickBooks Online
When we first started, we looked at several accounting apps but tried Quickbooks Online after other companies recommended it. We've been pleased with how robust Quickbooks Online is; it tracks inventory and wholesale sales in addition to expenses. Every month, we close out our books so we know where we stand. It has been critical to our success since we started without raising any investment money. - Ashley Ferraro, Dona Jo, Inc.
These answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.