So I was wondering what type of methods people are using to organise their business. I did a few searches, then thought to myself I could of course just ask a group of people who I know are doing it already.

I have access to Pandle, which I get via my accountancy firm, but to be honest I am struggling a little to get my head around it. So I have a simple spreadsheet, well simple-ish. I log all my expenses & have pdf copies of invoices & receipts.

But mostly I'm wondering how the 'paperwork' gets organised. So I use a desktop (Win 7) and a laptop (Win 10). The desktop isn't always on. And I do have in mind to set up a small home network in the future, once our home renovation is complete. In case anyone is wondering, home server because I'm a geek & would like to keep my server knowledge up to date & I enjoy tinkering, which is why that will be in the pipework. I plan to have a file server and a VPN running.

But till then, how do you keep your files synced? Do you just use google drive or dropbox? I know windows 10 has a virtual desktop feature, but I don't THINK it works across more than one device, I'm not really sure what it's for but from what I read it doesn't look like it. Do you just put everything on a NAS drive?

I'm frustrated as I just want an easy short-term solution, even have network points in every room of our house, but the PC workshop isn't finished yet, so the network points aren't hooked up yet & I hate using the wif on my PC. And the router is in the garage so I'm hesitant to put a temporary NAS drive in there. I've put everything on google drive this morning, it is my cloud of choice, but I thought I'd see what everyone else does.

🤖

This is something that I think it down to personal preferences and setup, but for me...

I use xero for accountant stuff - it's the same system that my accountant uses so it's easy for everyone involved. It's more advanced than i really need but, as it feeds information directly from my business bank account, it's easy to keep track of who has paid invoices and any business costs i need to add invoices for.

Regarding local storage, I use a Synology 2 bay NAS drive with RAID set up. I've got a few of them, one in the office and one at home, and love them! They have an easy to use UI and you can set up auto back ups to dropbox, google drive and easily set up vpns and remote access.

I use the drive and then have specific sections (mainly client files) back up automatically to dropbox - this means when im in the office, i use the local drive which is faster than working directly through dropbox. But, when i'm out and about i can connect dropbox to the folders i need and access them that way. Any changes i make are then synced with the office drive, ready for anyone there to access.

I'm not sure if Dropbox has made any recent changes, but with the introduction of GDPR I've been warned not to use it for any internal staff related docs or any sensitive data - i haven't had time to properly investigate the reasonings though.

hth

Matt