If you’re a South African business owner feeling stressed about your finances and you’re not sure whether you’re coming or going when it comes to profitability in your business, you’re not alone. Financial uncertainty is one of the biggest obstacles for small business owners, and the good news is it’s entirely within your power to manage it.
This isn’t about making a million rand from nothing. It’s about having clear insight into your numbers so you can make smarter decisions about growth, pricing, hiring, and your business’s future. And if you’re thinking “I’m not a numbers person”, you don’t need a finance degree. With the right tools and a bit of effort, anyone can learn the basics.
Here’s Why Financial Control Matters
Cash flow problems are the number one reason small businesses fail. When you have control over your finances, you can forecast cash shortages before they become emergencies, avoid panic borrowing, and set realistic revenue and profit targets. You start identifying unnecessary costs early, recognising your best-performing clients and services, and holding yourself accountable to financial goals.
Beyond the day-to-day, financial control prepares you for the bigger picture. Banks require solid financials to grant loans. Investors want to see a consistent financial history. Larger clients may request proof of financial stability before working with you. And when the time comes to plan for retirement or an exit strategy, you’ll be ready.
Perhaps most importantly, knowing your numbers gives you confidence. Financial uncertainty keeps business owners up at night, when you understand what you’re managing, you’re free to focus on growth instead of stress. You also gain independence from having to rely entirely on your accountant to tell you how your business is doing.
Signs You’ve Outgrown Spreadsheets
If you’re chasing late payments manually, mixing personal and business finances, spending hours on spreadsheets each month, or you’ve recently registered for VAT, it’s time to move to a proper accounting platform. These tools automate bank feeds, match transactions to invoices, handle VAT calculations, and give you visual dashboards showing your business health at a glance. They’ve made it possible for non-accounting people to genuinely understand what’s happening in their businesses.
Good Accounting Habits to Build
Having the right software is only part of the equation. You also need to build consistent financial habits to get real value from your platform.
Ongoing, make it a practice to issue invoices as soon as work is delivered, capture receipts before they go missing, follow up on overdue invoices promptly, and schedule regular time for admin. Keep communication open with your accountant throughout the year, don’t wait until tax season.
Monthly, review and categorise all your expenses, go through your profit and loss statement, check your cash flow forecast for the coming month, and prepare your VAT return if you’re registered.
Annually, update your pricing, plan for major expenses in the year ahead, review your asset register and depreciation, reconcile all accounts, and prepare your annual financial statements.
These habits turn your accounting platform from a tool you pay for into one that genuinely works for you.
Choosing the Right Platform
In my video, I do a detailed walkthrough of three of the most popular accounting platforms in South Africa, Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks, including dashboard demos, pricing breakdowns, and how online payments actually work for SA businesses (spoiler: it involves some creative workarounds with PayFast and Yoco).
Check out the video here:
It’s worth noting that Yoco integrates with all three platforms, but you’ll need to be on Yoco’s Accelerate plan at R499 per month. The features differ across platforms, Xero and QuickBooks only reconcile card machine transactions (e-commerce isn’t supported), while the Sage integration goes further with daily sales capture, reconciliation of fees, payouts, tips, and cash sales, and the ability to sync historical sales data. I haven’t personally tested these integrations, so I’m simply highlighting what’s available.
Your final choice will depend on your budget, your accountant’s preference, and where your business is headed. But the most important thing is that you actually start, any of these platforms is a massive upgrade from spreadsheets and guesswork.
I create a comprehensive guide to facilitate your financial journey:
Comprehensive Accounting Business Guide
Understand your business’s finances and gain financial independence.
What You Should Be Tracking
At a minimum, keep an eye on your gross and net profit margins, total revenue and growth rate, cash on hand versus what clients owe you and operating expenses by category. I cover these metrics in more detail in the companion guide I’ve created, which also includes a full feature-by-feature comparison of all three platforms, when to hire an accountant, and everything covered in this article laid out for easy reference.
Get Started
Don’t wait for the perfect moment or the perfect system. Take control of your finances today, and your future self will thank you for it. Watch the full video for detailed platform walkthroughs and download the companion guide for everything you need in one place.
This video is for educational purposes only and should not be considered professional accounting, tax, or financial advice. The information provided is accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time of filming, but pricing, features, and regulations can change.
