All the Time We Have

How much time do we really have? During Christmas season you realize to stop for a while. You spend the time you have with your family and enjoy life. What do you do for the rest of the year?

It seems like the older generations had so much more time for everything. One could wait several years for something to grow or something to generate profit. One could build a cottage and it might have took him ten years. One could buy some stocks and keep them for seven years - today most of the people are not having them for longer than seven months.

Where does all the time go and do we try to catch our own tail? People get easily stressed these days. Deadlines are never questioned and everything is always due. When someone says that he or she is perfectly happy at work, everything is on schedule and life is in balance, what do we automatically think? We think that he or she is either lying or then soon to be fired. It seems that there is no such thing as perfectly balanced life anymore. Noone is going home happily to just be there and then wake up refreshed the next day. Everything seems to be more urgent and hectic than ever before.

If you ask elderly people about their perception of time and how they spend it and do they have any regrets about how they should have spent it - you will be surprised.

If we continue like this until we are old - we will have regrets. We will regret the fact that the music was too fast and loud, we did not see the birds really fly and remember only one summer out of all the 60. We did see our kids grow but it seemed to happen overnight.

Some things save you time and money. One of them is ProCountor financial administration software. This software is designed to save you time and take some pressure off when doing your financial administration (in Finnish: taloushallinto). Imagine having one week per year more just to be with your family. One month per ten years and one year more in your lifetime. This is what it’s all about. Spend the time you have with the loved ones and let the professionals do the rest.

Learn by Doing

Learning is a difficult process. It has been explained through various experiments, psychology and many more sciences. Learning is a perfect mixture of practice and theory. The theory gives the base for learning and by doing things you give the theory some practice.

Learning is overall a fun process. When you learn something new you can do new things. With new things comes always new circles and with new circles comes new things. You could say that learning different tasks gives you the access of everything new. As described before, new has a good circle of brining the good stuff around.

These days there are multiple learning methods. You can learn by e-learning. This happens through internet and the learning courses are held either by date of your choosings or then pre-set dates where there is a live instructor in the e-learning zone. You can also watch some pre-recorded learning tapes or listen to audio records that explain the process.

The problem with e-learning and audio tracks are that you can’t really get the practice you need to really master the task. Learning should result in mastering something and in this case you merely learn the theory.



Looking at videos and not doing anything result to the same issue. You feel like mastering the issue but when you start doing it in real life you realize that theory is not always enough.

Perfect example of good e-learning process is ProCountor financial administration -software and it’s e-learning zone. You are actually doing your own financial administration (in Finnish: taloushallinto) while learning from the internet. They have set dates for different topics so you can prepare your work to match the dates in order to get everything done.

ProCountor e-learning zone is new way of doing financial administration. You basically outsource your financial administration but still you master it your self and best of all you are on the loop all the time. This is essential in learning process as well. If something happens, you need to know why and how it is being done. Remember, learning is all about having fun.

To Match the first Account Details

Starting a company is full of all this exciting actions. You have to register the company, open up a bank account, pay some money, import your information and much, much more.

If you were working for a company and are now starting up your own - some things may now seem really fascinating and you are eager to do them. Accounting (in Finnish: taloushallinto) is a good example. At first, you like to keep your accounting clear and really see where the money is going and document it all. Later when you start to value your time you will come to a conclusion where you should let a professional do this. Luckily with professional I don’t mean an accounting firm or an agency - there are other choices, too.

ProCountor is an online accounting software that enables you to do your whole accounting processes online. They have extensive training schedules and videos on their website and they are updating it all the time. Free customer service number that you can call anytime. That’s what I call service.

When you will get the first account information and you are matching it up with the receipts you start to realize the reality. Every single financial action you make through your company has to be verified and somehow related to your business. You are in charge of everything being in order so it is also your responsibility to have your accounting processes in mint condition.

ProCountor is also helping start-ups and gathering good pieces of information for starting companies. It is important to be able to ask when one needs information but as important is to attract people to do their accounting promptly and with professional help. Videos are a great way of communicating different topics around accounting. They are easily understood and a perfect way to stay focused and learn remotely.

This way you don’t actually have to go to lessons where you learn the basics of accounting but you can focus and do your accounting at the same time. This is the easiest, most cost-efficient and nerve saving way of doing accounting.

Christmas holidays with brothers in business

Christmas time is always the time to stop and enjoy. Stop to relax and rewind the previous year. What happened in whose life and who did what where - these are tough topics but if they are being handled with a glass of red wine and cinnamon crackers it is doable.

We are three brothers and we all have our own businesses. I am the last one to setup my own company and I did it just few months ago. My brothers have been doing their own business already for years but somehow I never got the spark of doing all things regarding accounting, business plans etc.

During Christmas we usually sit down for a longer while and think through everyone’s business and try to find good solutions to problems. This is our way of relaxing and bonding.

This year I think the whole Christmas and even the Santa Claus was focused on helping my business to stand on its own feet. My business is IT and it really needs a bit of boost and recruited power to kick in. Everything would be so easy if one could just execute solutions one after the other without any accounting or taxations.

My brothers are both using ProCountor accounting software (in Finnish:
aloushallinto ohjelma) and they say that it makes their lives easier. They even have online teaching courses where you can learn the basics of accounting and how to use the software. To use a software in doing your accounting might be very good for a start-up.

A problem with the accounting is not the accounting itself but the mystery around it and the possibility to fail. As a start-up you don’t want to risk the reputation of your own company by not doing your accounting well. I have also heard that tax raids are not so nice when they hit you especially if one’s accounting is not in order.


My brothers told me that I should also consult the sales people at ProCountor or look up for the dates of training on their website. The trainings are in various phases and you can choose a training by a subject. This might just be the best gift of this Christmas.

Taking the Responsibility

Title ‘manager’ used to mean something. These days title manager is added in to every sales assistants title and when recruiting more sales people everyone wants managers. Managers comes probably managing. It use to mean managing people and almost mastering issues, nowadays it is more like managing the issue - that’s it.

Director steps in when one has to bear the responsibility. Financial director might be one of the toughest positions along the human resources side. Every decision of the company reflects on your work and vise versa. Times are tough and Financial directors should have set a clear course for the ship.

How to make one’s life easier. Software as a Service financial administration (in Finnish: taloushallinto) outsourcing. Companies like ProCountor really have managed to take the financial administration business to a new level. Everyone who is responsible of the finances delt within the company knows that this is a time bandit. Dealing with the financial administration and doing somewhat operational tasks on the side can be challenging. Online solutions like ProCountor lets you look at your data close to real time and release some of the time spent on financial administration. Time is something the online solutions are riding on. And not without a reason. You can save a lot of time by outsourcing and dealing your financial s in an online software.

Transparency actually increases when you start dealing with an online service provider like ProCountor. You have all the data in your hands just waiting to be pulled out. You don’t have to search and not find your critical financial documents anymore when they are all in the same database.

One of Financial directors responsibilities is security. Information is these days covered with robust protection. The information that is being stored in Software as a Service -databases vary from military to economic data and is always considered close to financial data. This means that a risk of your financial reports getting into wrong hands is even smaller than it is with the physical documents. Online solutions are safe, robust and you can always call for customer care and ease your mind. Time for slow working local financial administrations seam to be over.

Outsourcing Financial Administration

What does it require to outsource parts or even all of your financial administration?

When you agree on outsourcing of your financial administration with accounting company you will sign an official assignment agreement. In this agreement you will find a very specific listing of all the services you have agreed with the accounting company (in Finnish: tilitoimisto). The agreement lists also the responsibilities and duties of both parties.

Outsourcing is saving costs but choosing a wrong partner in outsourcing might be very expensive. References and good background is good to check up on when choosing your agency. Sometime business partners, potential investor and shareholders tend to check which accounting company you use, then the reputation really matters. There are also some great online accounting softwares that have a lot of customers and great reputation. ProCountor is one of them, having near to 10 000 users.

The checklist is quite long when you are outsourcing your financial administration. You have to know that the accounting company is authorized. When you confirm this one you can be sure they use the accounting companies mutual agreement framework which makes agreeing on everything a whole lot faster and reliable.

When outsourcing you should know how to ask all the right elements. Balance sheets is one of the basic operations of accounting companies. Taxation, reports, payouts, planning and VAT reporting would be tricky without a proper accounting company. Their job is also to optimize the taxation for your company and look into your business from a different perspective. Paying salaries for the employees, partners and doing the reporting of these should be included in the business of the accounting company. All this can of course be done online with a good software like ProCountor.

By this time you have most likely come to realize that all business are required to do have proper accounting in place. The management of the company is in charge of organizing the accounting. This means that the management have to really be up to date of the company's financial administration and be very careful when choosing the accounting company. This is also one of the reasons why online solutions like ProCountor are growing. The management are up to date close to real time when dealing with online software's regarding company's financial administration.

Software as a Service

SaaS is a combination of software and a service. Lots of the services we used to have in real world are now being found in the internet. Software as a Service means that these sofwares can be used when they are being maintaned and held in most of the times at cloud services.

SaaS gives the benefit of not having to update, maintain and develop the software you choose. We have great softwares that can be used as a SaaS -model. Banking softwares, ERP, mail, accounting softwares etc. Accounting (in Finnish: kirjanpito) and overall financial administration software that is operated as Software as a Service -model is Procountor. It is very popular and easy to use, that might be the reason why hundreds of accounting companies are using the software.

All the data that is imported to these SaaS -softwares are the property of the customer by agreement. Customers can usually demand for the localisation of the data but it is very expensive compared to having it in the ‘cloud’. By saying in the ‘cloud’ is usually meaning some big server compound somewhere in Europe.

Scalability is also one of the biggest benefits of SaaS -softwares. You can scale it by your own growth. This means that when your business is in starting phase you dont have to pay for the capacity of running a big business, which is usually the goal that everyone is preparing for. When you grow you can scale your software up and get enough power.

Software as a Service usually includes training and customer care from the service providers side. ProCountor for example offers free customer service and is available by phone or mail. Training is done via internet. Many service provider upload some training material like videos PDF -slides etc. on the internet and link them from their homepage.

Software as a Service means that you don’t have to have the capacity or power to run software built for big businesses. You can run serious softwares on ‘rental’ servers and get the right amount of power when its needed. It really is the future of Software business.

Founding a Company

I’ve been working for different companies for a decade now. I have taken some serious challenges and turned them into opportunities, eventually succeeded and then climbed up the ladder. Working for a company, big or small, isn’t that rewarding. Most of the actions you do are measured in growth of sales or similar kpi. After achieving the goals you are rewarded, but still all you get is a bit more money when the other partners get the growth and value of it.

After a decade of creating success for these companies and not seeing any other reward than a tap on the bag and a bit more money, i decided to jump into the world of entrepreneurship. I founded my own company.

There is too much mystery built around founding a company. It really isn’t that hard and usually working through your own company means extra income and as everyone seams to be talking about but not too sure what it means, deductible expenses.

Figuring all the important stuff out regarding a new company is best to start by goint to PRH and registering your company. After that, or even before, you can book a time to Uusyrityskeskus and many other helpful places. They tend to tell you what your first steps should be and how to push it through.

After a while of enthusiastic starting a start-up phase the reality check is in place. Taking a 100% focus on the company finances and financial administration is the key in every successful business. I started freelance consulting but ended up doing some other projects with start-ups and now i own a small slice of quite a few new start-ups. In every investment, every acquisition it is critical to have flawless history. This means having your financial administration done thoroughly. There are some brilliant softwares for the purpose on the market. To mention one, which i implemented is Procountor. They are a full service financial administration (in Finnish: taloushallinto) house, they have great Software as a Service model and they do like small businesses as well. This was important for me, when choosing the service provider.

Success Makers

The Finnish software developer, ProCountor’s software is a digital financial administration software that covers all the different areas of financial administration and enables the comprehensive management of corporate financial tasks. The web-based software allows the real-time tracking of a company’s finances regardless of the time of day or place efficiently, economically and easily. It simplifies financial administration processes both internally and with co-operating accountants and accounting agencies. With one contract you have access to all the financial tools you need as well as a comprehensive partnership network from which you can find the right accounting partner if you don’t already have one.

With this financial administration software you can manage, among others, all sales invoicing, salaries, bookkeeping, and the tracking of your company’s financials. The comprehensive solution also includes digital bank connections, online billing services both for sending and receiving, posting and scanning services, and the required connections for digitally notifying authorities.
The web-based software can be used anywhere and at any time. Taking into use the financial administration software is easy, fast and flexible and you don’t have to worry about installations, hardware, version updates or back-ups. All of these are taken care of on your behalf. With the help of the comprehensive reporting tools, it is always possible to get an overall picture of the financial status of your company.

The ProCountor software is also perfect for efficient co-operation between you and your accounting agency (in Finnish: tilitoimisto). All the company’s financial data is available to both users in your company and your accountants. A division of responsibilities between you and your accounting agency is easy to set up based on user rights. The goal is usually a co-operation model where changes are saved once to prevent mistakes and making work much more efficient. As ProCountor is web-based, planning user rights and access well is essential.

Web-based financial administration software

ProCountor is financial administration software that is available for use anytime and anyplace as you use it through a web interface and hosting is managed by the provider. It’s easy to start using the software as it’s intuitive and you pick up the flow very fast. Accompanied with the software as a comprehensive package, you receive all version updates, back-ups and the safe-keeping of all data. The amount of users from one company is limitless and adding new users is quick and you can assign each user specific user access to restrict and allow as you feel necessary for different users. Additionally, you receive a complimentary Helpdesk service and a comprehensive online manual.

The software allows you to create monthly and annual notifications that you can digitally distribute to authorities as necessary which is all managed directly from ProCountor’s bookkeeping (in Finnish: kirjanpito) features and elements. Also taking care of notification related payments can be managed easily through the software with integrated bank connections. These integrations are included in the overall package and consist of the biggest and most commonly used banks ready to use at your convenience.

ProCountor is also an easy-to-use and effective salaries management software with which you can calculate and pay salaries within your company and manage all related notifications to the authorities. All related legal payments are updated automatically to the software and are calculated according to data provided by the authorities leaving less hassle for you to take care of with the salaries of your employees. Creating travel expenses by everyone in the company is easily possible with personal accounts, also from on the road. ProCountor automatically updates all valid daily allowances and mileage compensation which makes creating travel expenses a breeze.

When using ProCountor, bookkeeping is created automatically. Each receipt from all sales invoice statements is automatically transferred to bookkeeping when saving changes and thanks to a clever automation bookkeeping is always up to date. ProCountor’s default account mapping, default accounting and internal account cost tracking can be modified according to your company’s specific needs.

Financial software for our medium sized company

My company recently and finally decided to update its financial software and the task of finding the right software for us was given to me. I’ve sourced software plenty of times before, but I’ve never been involved in accounting or a company’s financial responsibilities before, so there is plenty to learn before I start sending out requests for quotations. However, I find that the best way to learn is to jump in feet first and start reading up on what’s out there.

I came across a few decent alternatives, but I quickly realized that it might be best to get a relatively local solution given that each country has its own laws and regulations concerning corporate financials and the software needs to adhere to them. I did come across a Finnish developed financial administration software (in Finnish: taloushallinto ohjelma) that seemed really good. To behonest, the recommendation to look it up came from the accounting agency that my company uses as they use the software themselves. It occurred to me that it was probably be a huge benefit that we use the same software as our accounting agency as it seems that you can connect in the software which I’m sure will make our accountants lives much easier.

The software seems pretty robust, but in my experience there’s rarely that much difference in different software alternatives that are specialized for particular areas of expertise. The difference is more often in the service levels, user experience and the nice-to-have features. So, I contacted the company that develops the software and asked for a trial period to try out the software. They responded quickly with log in details and I set off testing the software. I also asked one of our accountants to try it out and to send me feedback about it. Well, our accountant was happy as a clam and I can’t really say that I found any fault in the software. It’s not very common to get off this easily in a software procurement project but it would seem that I found quite quickly exactly what we were looking for.