Accountants and Bookkeepers are no strangers to the cashflow and accounting challenges our hardworking tradies face. Aside from the obvious struggle to capture and save their receipts (hint - it’s not the shoebox or centre console), what’s really going on in the trade industry that is keeping our tradies from growing sustainable businesses?

No doubt the pandemic has had a substantial impact, however, tradies have faced financial issues long before Covid-19.

The core issue is simply time, or rather, a lack of it. St George’s Tradie Report 2019 found that 30% of tradies don’t have time for bookkeeping and administration and that’s just the beginning. According to research conducted by EY Sweeney and KEK Consulting, 1 in 4 tradies are forced to give up jobs due to administration. This equals an average revenue loss of $120,000 annually.

How are tradies any different from any other SME?

While tradies face the same issues as other SMEs when it comes to invoicing and getting paid on time, there are other administrative tasks that make up their reality. Firstly, the supplies industry isn’t consistent. Materials are subject to price increases at any moment. Even if tradies have negotiated pricing with their suppliers, oversights still occur. Suppliers are only human too.

We know businesses who have hired full-time administration assistants at $60,000 p/a to compare supplier purchase invoices for oversights and to manage credits.

With the cost of materials changing so frequently, how can tradies ensure they charge enough while staying competitive? This extra work often means invoices get sent late, and tradies are left chasing money. It’s no wonder that 1 in 4 have turned down jobs due to administration. They also aren’t alone. Businesses that purchase and sell products share a similar experience; the frustration of tedious manual data-entry. 

Burdi is leading the Line-Item Revolution

Tradies and other SMEs are now needing accuracy more than ever when it comes to their financial data. For Accountants and Bookkeepers, this means they need to be working with accurate data from the start. 

The baseline for invoice automation now must include line-item extraction. The devil is in the details and Burdi was created for this purpose. Extracting line items, including product codes, from all purchase invoices allows for accounts and tracking codes to be set against individual items as well as entire invoices. Burdi can also accurately provide pricing and purchase alerts to ensure tradies never undercharge, while only paying what they should for materials. 

One of the best ways to reduce time spent on manual data entry is with detailed line-item extraction and, with Burdi, that’s just the beginning. Burdi is the new frontier of pre-accounting software. We are leading the line-item revolution to help Bookkeepers and Accountants keep their clients’ books in order and grow their business sustainably.