11 Mins
In this short video, Jaslin Bhagrath, head of our Accounting & Business Solutions team interviews one of our clients Barbara Grzeda, co-owner of Kilcamb Lodge Hotel. Barbara didn’t have any past experience with accounting and finance before we introduced their business to Xero accounting software, but since then, she has found it very straightforward to run the finance side of the business. Have a watch below to see how cloud accounting could benefit you and your business too.
*Edited video transcript*
Jaslin Bhagrath:
I’d like to welcome Barbara Grzeda. So Barbara has worked in the hospitality sector for many years, and in 2021 bought the beautiful Kilcamb Lodge Hotel on the west coast of Scotland. I suppose, Barbara, whilst you have many years of experience working and managing hotels, managing your own business comes with its new challenges. So thank you for joining us. I thought first, it just might be nice for people to hear about I suppose, the challenges and also the exciting things that have happened in running your own business. So perhaps you could start by telling us some of the best bits or the highlights of the last nine months of being your own boss.
Barbara Grzeda:
Hello, everybody. Thank you very much Jaslin. So just a bit about myself. Like Jaslin said, I’ve got about 17 years experience in hospitality, but it’s mainly been front of house, so in terms of running the hotel, I’ve never done anything with accounts before. So that was a new challenge for me with this adventure. About two years ago, three of my partners and I decided to get our own business. It took us a year to find the right place. Eventually, we found a beautiful hotel on the west coast of Scotland, and we started trading in July last year.
There were quite a few challenges to be honest because on top of everything that you can think of when you open your own business, there was also COVID, which didn’t help at all. Everything seemed to take ages. Everything that you can think that might take day or two was turning into weeks and months. We were obviously on a tight schedule because we only had a couple of weeks to prepare everything.
Things like bank accounts, that you think would take one or two days, took over a month. There was two bank accounts at the end, because we had to get some just in the meantime. Setting up all the suppliers, all the systems, all the health and safety, that was a big chunk of time as well. Even something like setting up a PDQ payment system, you would think again, would be a straightforward thing, but unfortunately it’s not. There is a lot of checks happening before and it took couple of months to get that in place as well. So there was quite a few things going on, and obviously on top of everything, there was COVID, there was being a hotel, there was obviously lots of uncertainty, what’s going to happen, which way we’re going to go. So it was all a bit risky, but we did it anyway.
The best things, the obvious thing, you are own boss, so nobody can tell you what to do. Well, that’s what you think. But then you’ve got your team that does tell you what to do every day, but that’s a different story. But going back to obviously why we’re here, the main thing for me was the accounts, anything to do with finance. Like I said, I’ve not done that part of running the business before and obviously this is one of the biggest things. That’s where Henderson Loggie came in and obviously helped a lot. They introduced us to Xero, and I’ve never used any cloud system before. So that was the first one I’ve used.
Jaslin Bhagrath:
So how did you find it in terms of then the use of it, I suppose? Because as you say, you’re not from a finance background.
Barbara Grzeda:
Well, that’s exactly what I was going to say. It only took just a couple of hours of training with Henderson Loggie. I thought it was going to be the worst experience on a planet, to do my own accounts. We were actually looking to get an accountant because the paperwork was just everywhere. There was just so much to do, but honestly, after a couple of months of using the system, it’s amazing. I couldn’t recommend it enough. This was obviously with the support from Henderson Loggie. They explained everything and it’s so simple to use. I was actually shocked how I do it and honestly, it’s so easy.
If you make a mistake, you can easily fix it. It flags everything up for you. You can go back and change things. It’s like a live system that you can literally access anytime. As Ben said, a lot of actually what Ben said is what I found very useful. You can access anywhere. Laptop, iPad, anywhere, really in the workplace, outside the workplace. Anytime you want to have a look, you can easily just go and have a look.
The paperless point is a big thing for me, because we don’t have much storage space at all. It’s one small office that we’re sharing. What I found useful actually, is that I scan all my invoices through my phone. So it’s as easy as taking a picture of the invoice and that sends it directly to Xero. Once that’s done, it’s obviously in Xero, it’s kept there, so I don’t need to keep it. So in terms of paperwork, it’s almost gone. The only things I need to keep is to do with the hotel side of things, but nothing to do with finances. Everything is on a system. I can access it anytime. I’ve been using Xero since July last year. I’ve never had any issues accessing it. No error messages, no nothing.
Jaslin Bhagrath:
Obviously because you’re quite remote at the hotel. So I did wonder about that in terms of accessibility and wifi issues, but you’ve not had an issue.
Barbara Grzeda:
No, nothing at all. It works great. It’s connected to the bank directly, so all the transactions go through it straightaway. The Profit & Loss account is on there as well. It’s very straightforward to use. Everything is very clear to read. Again, if you’re going down the route of using an accountant, it would be quite easy for them to talk you through it and set up everything for you. We’ve done two VAT returns, which again, was a huge thing for me. I didn’t have a clue what to do, but we’ve done two since we opened. Again, it was so easy and I still can’t believe how easy it is. Taking into consideration, like I said, I’ve never had anything to do with accounts and finance before, it’s like magic to me.
Jaslin Bhagrath:
So going back to what you were talking about there, I suppose with the bank fees, and that’s a factor that makes it really simple, is obviously Xero connects to your business bank account. Which therefore it basically downloads all your transactions, doesn’t it, into ero from your bank. Obviously then you decide where that transaction should go, whether it be an income or an expense. But it is building your reports for you.
I know you looked at, because you do have 1001 things to do running a hotel, that you did look obviously at trying to maybe potentially get a bookkeeper. But there was issues there in terms of the right person and the availability of bookkeepers, I know. But how long is it therefore taking you roughly on a monthly basis to keep up to date with all the books and prepare your VAT return?
Barbara Grzeda:
So I probably should not admit this because you do recommend to do it once a week, but not every week ahead the time. So I was doing it once a month and it only took me a couple hours to catch up with a month’s work, which is again, a massive help, because obviously time is of the essence. Again, it was so easy to do. If you miss something, it flags it up. It’s like a step by step guide that you do every time you’re on it. When you do it every month, you maybe forget, but then again, it’s so easy that you can go back, you can look through the history and see how you did it a month ago and straight away you can see. It is really good.
I do recommend doing it once a week, because that would maybe just take half an hour instead of two hours. But even the two hours once a month, it’s nothing in comparison to what I would do if I went through a different desktop system.
Jaslin Bhagrath:
Then I suppose, as you were saying before then, from there at a touch of a button, you can run off your profit and loss account and your balance sheet. So at any time, as Ben talked about, you’ve got that real time information to see how the business is performing.
Barbara Grzeda:
Exactly. Yeah. It’s very easy to use. Again, you just go into the post P&L and everything is there. As much information as you put in, obviously that’s what it sees. But once everything’s up to date, you can see straight away your bank accounts are balanced and P&L is nice and easy to see as well. It’s very easy to access and very easy to read, which to me again, from having no experience was the main thing for me to see. And honestly, it’s very easy to understand.
Jaslin Bhagrath:
I suppose speaking about that, because I know working with a lot of different software, and particularly when you’re not used to it, I find the language that they use in Xero is really user friendly. So it’s less about debits and credits, which is the old school accounting terms and more about, I think, is it money in, money out? And talking about customers and suppliers, so things that are easier from a business perspective to understand.
Barbara Grzeda:
Definitely, it’s very, very user friendly. Like I said, for somebody that’s never done accounts before to, within just a couple of weeks, to putting everything through without any issues, that is definitely very easy. I couldn’t recommend it enough. Obviously I don’t have experience with other systems, but just from what I’ve seen so far with Xero, I wouldn’t change it.
Jaslin Bhagrath:
Great. Thank you very much. I suppose it’s just important to, and I know you mentioned this already Barbara, which is really kind of you, but I think it’s like any system. What you put in is what you’ll get out of it. So it is important to make sure that it’s set up correctly, and that you get the right training so that you know how to use it properly. But I think it’s good to see, especially from a small business point of view where you don’t have a lot of help and support and you’re doing a lot yourself, and also you want to do a lot yourself, so that you’ve got that control. But being able to keep of your finances quite quickly, efficiently and providing the information you need, which is great.
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