If you are a small business owner you may find it hard to keep on top of your own accounts. You may find that you are so busy doing work or marketing that you have little time to keep your own accounts up to date. This means that you may get behind with payments or easily lose track of who owes you money. It is important to get processes in place to make your accounts as automated as possible. If you have people that you invoice a set amount to on a regular basis then you may want to set up a direct debit or standing order with them so you do not have to chase the money every month. Many accounting software packages will also let you create recurring invoices that can be done every week, month or year (for example) and then automatically emailed out. This can take a lot of the hassle out of accounting and keep your cash flow in order. Do your research to find out which accounting software best suits your needs and is the best price as they can range quite drastically and you can end up paying over the odds for software that is more sophisticated than you need.