HOW TO REDUCE SOUTH AFRICAN SME's FAILURE RATE

Many South African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to survive mostly due to cash flow constraints. Due to a number of business interactions with our customers, Olympus Business Services has identified that small businesses are showing stagnation in turnover and profitability. This impacts negatively on the future growth of these businesses. According to the 2015 SME Growth Index, one in five South African SME’s reported a decline in turn over from the previous year, while a further 20 per cent reported minimum growth or stagnation in turnover during the same period. Therefore, it is expected that th  number of South African companies filing for bankruptcy during this year may increase by a s much as 51 %.

However, SMEs can be greatly assisted by their accountants, to remain in business when things are not looking good . A business accountant, and the methods that they employ, can ultimately lead to business longevity for the essential small and medium enterprises in South Africa. A business’ accountants should be helping SME clients with the following:

• The proposed value of the companies.
   
• Examine factors that are negatively affecting cash flow and profitability.
   
• Customer profitability analysis. A review of the existing and new product lines
   
• Accounting systems set up.
   
• Business Advisory Service

​Ironically, many businesses only get the above assistance from a Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP) when they are already going through the motions of engaging in business rescue . It should not take the appointment of a BRP to access the services that every business needs to stay alive and by then it is too late. New accounting tools have been developed in recent years, to assist in improving processing of accounting information. Cloud accounting systems such as Sage One Accounting, assists SMEs in a great way with the above challenges.

Olympus Business Services is able to add value to SME’s businesses functionality with custom built reports that offer support where it is needed the most, and to nurture and grow our clients’ businesses into sustainable and successful organisations. Cloud accounting with a Sage One Advisor can lead SMEs to financial success. Listed below are some of the applications made possible through Sage One Accounting and which are now offered to South African businesses:

• Accounting records that are produced daily/weekly/monthly/yearly .
   
• Accounting records that can be viewed from anywhere in the world, at any time, on any device
   
• Automated customer in voice generation and follow ups
   
• Electronic and automated supplier invoice processing
   
• Online processing of quotations
   
• Management reports that are visual and focused on business sustainability
   
• Automated Business Intelligence System.
   
• Custom built reports for different industry sectors
   
• Inventory management .

Visit us on : www.olympusbuziness.co.za to access more of our services.