As it grew its operations several-fold in the first year, a home-grown start-up knew it had to quickly solve a pressing issue - its accounting system and financial flows.

For Moovaz, a company that helps global citizens relocate from one country to another, it was clear the company had to move beyond using simple spreadsheets to manage its working capital flows and keep track of its accounts.

It needed a better system to keep track of payments in and out, claims made by staff for expenses and a host of other accounting items all too common to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Moovaz's leaders knew they needed a solution that could automate many of the processes that were getting unwieldy as business grew quickly.

Otherwise, the inefficiencies would have become an operational choke point, stunting the start-up's growth, explains co-founder and chief executive Lee Junxian. "Many start-ups don't do the 'ideal' thing early on, but we knew we had to resolve this issue early."

Two years down the road, Moovaz has become South-east Asia's largest relocation platform, enabling global citizens to move to a new location for work easily. It also helps take care of tasks like bank account opening and house hunting, for example.

From a team of three at the beginning, the company has grown to 43. They now serve thousands of customers.

Automating day-to-day processes

To overcome the accounting issue back in 2019, Moovaz looked to Xero. The cloud-based solution that not only made processes seamless, but also brought new insights on its business by analysing the data that was in the system.

Being cloud-based means that the data was available anywhere, any time, on an app. For the company's managers, such as Mr Lee and finance manager Ronnie Pangan, this meant that they could get a glimpse of the company's finances easily. The transparency was a boost to productivity.

One process that immediately improved was the claims process for employees. All they have to do is take a photo of a receipt and send it to the Xero system. Managers or auditors need only to click on the receipt stored in the system to confirm the amount.

Being seamlessly connected to several of Singapore's local banks also means that Xero can automate many processes to do with payables and receivables.

For example, when a customer makes a payment to a bank account that is tied to the Xero software, the amount shows up automatically on the company's Xero account. There is no need to hire a person to frequently check up on the bank accounts to reconcile the transactions.

The setup also does away with data entry, which can be time consuming and may also introduce human errors into the record. With Xero making the process seamless and in real time, there is only one "single source of truth". "No need to keep checking your bank account," says Mr Lee.

For a company that deals with logistics, it is important that Moovaz keeps track of its payables and receivables, and proactively manages working capital flows so as to be able to grow in a financially responsible manner.

The Xero app enables Mr Lee to have a clear idea of the buffer he needs to have, for example, to make payments that are with short credit notice, and to prepare for costs that are unplanned.

Just as important is the ability to keep track of international transactions. For a company that helps people move across borders, it is important to be able to seamlessly include payments in different types of currencies.

Xero fits the bill for Mr Lee because it is a multinational company that works with businesses large and small around the world. This way, he can count on solid support as his company expands to and grows in more new markets.

Helping your business to grow

Indeed, this ability to scale is important to many SMEs, especially in today's volatile business climate. Just as crucial is how extensible the cloud-based accounting system is when it comes to supporting other systems.

The Xero Marketplace for connecting up third-party apps such as Dext, Zapier, Stripe and PayPal works like "magic" for Mr Lee because it allows for simple integration with most of the important software that is used by businesses like his.

"I don't have to worry about onboarding other software to support my operations," he notes. "The systems I already have are integrated easily."

For companies in the growth phase, he recommends a cloud-based accounting system like Xero.

"You get transparency with all your numbers at your fingertips, so you can manage costs and revenue," he says.

"Automation is key as well because as you grow, you don't want to grow in the "manual" way or at a slower pace," he adds.

"You want to be more efficient by resolving any operational choke points through automation."

Visit www.xero.com/sg to digitally transform your business' accounting needs today.