Thriday vs. Excel: Which is best for business owners?

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Excel has always been a popular choice for small business owners to track their spend, income and budget. Excel can be useful if you want to plan ahead and play around with different financial scenarios. Thriday combines some of the best aspects of Excel - forecasting, budget and planning - with the power of real transaction data and automation. Thriday is the perfect solution for small business owners who have grown out of using Excel because their business needs to accurately track profit and loss, cashflow and balance sheet data for end of financial year reporting.

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Unlimited invoices and quotes

Thriday allows you to create, customise and send invoices and quote with ease. You can even tailor your template down to the HEX code. Some business owners use Microsoft Excel to create and track their invoices but you can't track your income and see the status of your invoice in real-time. Thriday can monitor if your invoice has been viewed or not, and even if it has been paid. Thriday also allows you to setup automated payment reminders if the invoice is overdue.

Expense reconciliation

Every business owner likes to keep their costs in check but it's hard to do without the right information at your finger tips. Unlike Microsoft Excel, Thriday can pull all your real-time transaction data and then track your costs by category, and GST. Seeing your spend by category can help you make informed decisions about when to cut back, and when to invest more.

Receipt scanning

For most expenses you need a receipt or similar document as evidence of your expenses. You will need to keep a copy of these for five years in the event you are audited. Thriday has an inbuilt receipt scanning feature which allows you to upload, take a photo, or forward via email any receipts you receive. Those transactions are then automatically reconciled to the corresponding bank expense and the GST is calculated. Microsoft Excel does not provide any receipt scanning functionality which means you will be forced to either track them manually (hopefully not in a shoe box), or use another product that will cost you money.

Cash flow forecasting

If you want to take out the guess work of knowing how your business will be positioned in the future , then Thriday's cash flow forecasting feature is going to be a game changer for your business. Unlike Microsoft Excel which has no integration into bank account data, as soon as a transaction hits your Thriday account, Thriday will update your current and predicted cash flow position. Having this information at your fingertips means you can make decisions today, knowing what implications it will have on tomorrow.

Automated bookkeeping

Getting a good grasp on your real-time financial position has never possible before Thriday. Bank feed data is messy, unstructured and days late. With Thriday, anytime you earn income or spend money, your current and projected financial position are instantly updated. You can see exactly where your money has gone, or how much you have left to spend. Microsoft Excel works similar to other solutions in that it can provide powerful 'rear view mirror' insights, but when it comes time to figuring out what is going to happen tomorrow, you are left scratching your head.

Budget tracking

Many small businesses use Microsoft Excel to track their budget and expenses. Excel has some great forecasting and trend analysis features that you can utilise. What is often forgotten however, is that Excel does not integrate into your business banking transaction account. So if you actually want to control your spend, there is nothing you can do. With Thriday, you can setup sub-accounts for different purposes, common examples would be Income, Expenses, GST, Wages, or Savings. You can then track your spend against these categories, and even freeze your debit card to put a temporary block on purchases to ensure you don't go over budget. Thriday is a great way to budget!

BAS lodgment

BAS lodgment is a requirement if you are registered for GST. Depending on your business size, you will need to lodge your BAS either monthly, quarterly or annually. Thriday calculates your BAS automatically and even notifies you when it's due. Thriday takes all your transaction activity and automatically calculates your net GST position. You can then lodge your BAS directly to the ATO for a fraction of the cost of using an accountant. Microsoft Excel does not provide any integration to the ATO, and you would have to import all your bank account data to calculate your position yourself. This could easily take you 4 to 5 hours to do on your own.

Management reports

Microsoft Excel does not provide any management reporting which means you need to import your bank transaction data and create them manually yourself. When doing things by hand, you run the risk of human error. Thriday on the other hand allows you to generate all your accounting reports, including income statement, cashflow statement and balance sheet with a press of a button. You can view the reports online, or download a copy.

Enjoy these great Thriday features

Thriday is completely cloud based and available on web and app

Modern, fast and AI-driven platform that has no legacy systems

Works out of the box with no training or third-party support required

Combines banking, bookkeeping, accounting and tax in one platform

Saves hours each week as no manual intervention required

No bank feeds or manual expense tracking

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Why Thriday?

Do you love running a business but hate the 'business stuff'? Managing your financial admin can be a real drain on your time and job satisfaction but there is a better way. Thriday is a new solution for a centuries old problem – managing your banking, accounting and tax. Thriday uses artificial intelligence to instantly categorise all your transactions and apply them to a chart of accounts. This means that as you earn or spend money, all your books are processed without lifting a finger. Thriday takes care of everything for you, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what matters.