saas – Page 23 – Cooper Mann Consulting

December 11, 2012June 13, 2017

Being Proactive, Not Reactive – Accountants Need to Increase the Speed of Service Delivery

info Technology models are changing dramatically, with cloud services and mobile computing being the focus of the IT community and the customers they serve, and those technology changes are driving equally dramatic changes in how businesses and the accounting professionals who support them work together.

As the cloud enables an “anytime, anywhere” model for access to business applications and information, it is also driving accounting professionals to embrace those solutions in order to meet the demands of the business client who wants their information anytime, anywhere… accurate and up-to-date. For most accounting professionals, this means being more proactive in working with the client rather than taking the traditionally reactive, after-the-fact approach to providing service. More frequently, accounting professionals will be judged by their prospective (and current) clients as to their ability to meet the demands of these savvy clients who know that having accurate real time information is critical to managing a business.

Cash management is one of the biggest challenges for a business owner, and this is an area where the accountant or bookkeeper is an essential player, making sure that bank accounts are reconciled frequently and reporting accurately on outstanding receivables and payables. Business owners need to know where they stand financially, yet many accounting professionals only provide reconciliation and reporting at period ends. The result is often a client who watches the bank balance and works from that, not realizing that there were outstanding checks or undeposited funds waiting to clear. Clearly, this owner is not working from current and accurate information, and they will eventually realize it if they haven’t already.

The cloud is increasing the speed of business at all levels, and accounting professionals must also increase their speed of service delivery in order to retain relevance in the changing market. While there will be hold-outs and businesses that elect to take the more traditional approaches, those clients will start to become fewer and the opportunities they represent more limited in scope.

For a little while, accounting professionals may rely upon traditional approaches to client service delivery, and continue with their position as the last person to know what’s going on in the client business. But only for a little while.

Make Sense?

December 10, 2012

Surprise! Consumer apps get IT approval in small businesses: GIGAOM.com

In a recent article on GigaOm, author Barb Darrow discusses the findings of a survey of small businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where it was found that the use of “consumer” information technology is being more widely accepted for use in small businesses, and that many of these selections are happening without the knowledge or participation of the IT department.

“Employees are driving business apps selection in many small and medium businesses, according to new research. A good percentage of productivity, social and collaborative apps now sanctioned by IT in SMBs were brought in by workers without IT knowledge.“

Reporting that small businesses are adopting “consumer” IT, and that it is OK with IT departments, isn’t a surprising finding. Small businesses have begun leveraging mobility and cloud solutions to their benefit, being able to take advantage of powerful technologies that previously only enterprise IT departments could enjoy.

“.. the line between personal and workplace technologies has become all but invisible. That poses real challenges to IT departments that have to deal with all sorts of technology coming in over the transom. But it also opens up opportunities for vendors that design easy-to-use consumer apps to enter the business realm as well.”

The cloud introduces new agility and capability for all businesses, not just small business. For IT departments in larger businesses, this is a big IT management issue. For smaller businesses, the IT manager is often the business owner or an occasionally contracted on-site technician. When faced with IT needs in the business, many small business owners will at some level rely upon the solutions they also use in their personal lives – in many cases, there simply isn’t a budget for both. The line between business and personal has always been “blurry” for the small business owner.

Make Sense?

What will my business be worth, when I need it to be worth a lot?

Business Enlightenment

Get on the path…

Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud

November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

Not Everybody’s Accounting Online: Outsourced Bookkeeping and Accounting for “Offline” Clients

With all the focus on online technology, solutions that help you work smarter and not harder, and having mobile access to information at any time and from anywhere, you’d think that the entire world had adopted an entirely mobile and high-tech approach to life and business. The popularity of software-as-a-service models and apps for just about everything are certainly a testament to the movement toward a more connected and mobile lifestyle and business environment. However, not every business has adopted a comprehensive paperless, mobile-accessed, virtual working world – not by a long shot. In fact, more folks than you may realize are still using actual paper, writing things by hand (things like checks and invoices), filing piles of paperwork in stand-up filing cabinets, and generally doing things the long, slow, painful way and then recording it on PC-based spreadsheets. You know – the way we did things before the Internet showed up.

While paperless offices and technology-enabled approaches to collaborative business are gaining popularity and adopting users every day, there is a community of business users out there who are not as laser-focused on the high-tech approach to online accounting and working closer with their outsourced accountant or bookkeeper. These business people are just getting the job done, and have found ways to handle their information and processes that work for them. It is this business user that accounting professionals should not forget as they seek to adopt new and innovative cloud approaches to service delivery, and for a couple of reasons. First, this type of client is likely to be in need of process support and additional service as the business grows, and the accounting professional is in a great position to help with those needs. Second, this type of client exists in great number.

Consider the following scenario; a discussion I discovered when perusing a small business forum recently. The interesting thing is that this is a discussion I see pretty frequently with small business owners and entrepreneurs – the discussion about the value of actual accounting or bookkeeping solutions versus a simple spreadsheet approach to record keeping.

I am the owner of a brand new small business. It has only been up and running for a short time. My accountant is pressuring me to use the online version of QuickBooks, but I am doubtful as to whether this is the right software for me.

I know that QuickBooks has a lot of different features, but I really only need it to track spending and customer payments, and since it’s still early on, I don’t have a lot of either. I would only need the very basics, and would probably only check it every two weeks at most. The fees they want for the software would add up pretty quickly for something I’m not really going to use much. My business is very small (just me) and service-based (tour guide), without much potential for repeat customers. I don’t need the payroll, invoicing, or other advanced features.

I honestly think that the easiest thing for me would be some sort of spreadsheet or really basic software that I could put directly on my computer instead of accessing online.

The truth of the matter is that spreadsheets often provide the common ground between small business owners and their accountants. For a business owner, spreadsheets offer a simple and intuitive way to organize and record information because the column layout makes it easy to understand where to enter which data. For the accountant, a spreadsheet can fairly quickly be sorted, filtered and prepared as accounting or tax return data. While working with clients in a fully online, collaborative model may be the “best case scenario” in terms of delivering high levels of service in the most efficient manner, understanding how best to work with those clients in other scenarios is also necessary. Getting the spreadsheet from this type of client is generally not terribly difficult – they are often more than willing to email it. As long as the professional has a good document management solution to capture and manage these files, and introduce them into the firm workflow, then working with this type of offline client doesn’t have to be a huge impact to internal firm efficiency.

For accounting and bookkeeping professionals working with small business owners around the country, this type of client likely fits into the “normal” category more than those with a strong motivation to use cloud computing and having a great desire to use the Internet and connected services for everything they can (eventually the “new”normal?). I believe the reality is that only a small fraction of smaller companies – solo, soho, and small/medium business – are actively managing the majority of their business process and information online. In fact, Intuit (makers of QuickBooks) and other entry-level accounting and bookkeeping solution providers continue to heavily target small business users who are still tracking their finances using spreadsheets and other methods. This simplified and after-the-fact approach to spreadsheet record keeping is being further facilitated by the banks and credit card companies providing customers with a greater ability to classify and categorize transaction information, and then quickly download it into said spreadsheet.

Yes, the dichotomy is clear: many small business owners resist (or are, at least, unimpressed with) cloud accounting approaches, yet these very same individuals are likely utilizing cloud services from banks and other financial institutions to support their spreadsheet and checkbook record keeping, as well as accessing email and other services via the web for various reasons. It makes some sense, though, when you look at it from the business owner perspective. Their way sounds easier, is less overwhelming, and meets the need – for now.

Learn more about Working Online With Clients: How to leverage the internet and cloud computing to work closer with your clients

November 20, 2012January 26, 2016

QuickBooks SDK Integrations, Cloud Hosting, and the Customer Relationship

Intuit QuickBooks desktop editions are the most popular small business accounting software products on the market, boasting somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5M users. In contrast to the QuickBooks Online Edition, which has approximately 300,000, desktop QuickBooks still reigns supreme with small business.

While QuickBooks satisfies most of the general business functionality required from a general accounting product, it doesn’t address much else. For this reason, numerous software developers have created the software products – the extensions, integrations, widgets, and tools – that make QuickBooks more useful to the business.

The sheer popularity of the QuickBooks product line has supported the creation of a very large and diverse community of developers who make things that work with QuickBooks. However, as with any attempt to bring like-minded people together, the QuickBooks developer “community” is not all-inclusive, and there are lots of ISVs (independent software developers) out there who aren’t communicating with Intuit frequently, and who aren’t necessarily exposing their solutions through the Intuit marketplace and other Intuit-branded venues. In many cases, these are developers who have line-of-business solutions that represent the operational priority for their business clients, and where the integration to QuickBooks financial is somewhat of an after-thought. In many cases, these solutions rely on QuickBooks only for general back-office account functions, where the GL, AR and AP are all that really matter. The “tough stuff” is done in the line-of-business application.

Most of these types of solutions, as well as many with more complicated functionality or data integration requirements, utilize a method of communicating with QuickBooks developed using the QuickBooks SDK, or software development kit. This SDK was originally introduced as a means to replace the clumsy IIF import facility, an early way to get data into QuickBooks from other systems. The SDK is really a tool kit designed to facilitate desktop application integrations, which is why so many developers use this method. Particularly when an application is intended to be used on the desktop in conjunction with QuickBooks, it makes sense for developers to use an integration method that will allow them to produce the rich experience and seamless re-use of data that the desktop environment allows. The SDK requires that the QuickBooks program be present, and QuickBooks controls access to the data file rather than allowing the 3^rd party application to have direct data access.

The new method for integrating with a QuickBooks application is by using the IPP (Intuit Partner Platform) method, which is essentially an API (application programming interface) which simplifies the creation of data streams to and from the QuickBooks database. This method of integration is intended to be serviced by the Intuit Sync Manager (included with QuickBooks), where your data first syncs to Intuit servers, and then connected apps sync from that source. In this case, Intuit acts as the intermediary, hosting the synchronized data and controlling the sync with the QuickBooks database. While this may be much easier in terms of offering stricter standards for QuickBooks data integration, it is not a method which addresses the needs of those solutions requiring an integrated experience involving QuickBooks programs and data, or which have more complex data integration requirements than may be served through the IPP.

Because the QuickBooks SDK has been around for many years, it allowed for very stable QuickBooks-integrated solutions to be developed. In comparison, the IPP is pretty new and has taken Intuit a few tries to get working. For this reason, there is a limited catalogue of solutions available in the Intuit App Center, which is where IPP solutions are promoted. Moving forward, Intuit has stated that the focus will remain on the IPP, with the SDK no longer being a preferred (or supported) method.

The method of integrating with QuickBooks desktop editions matters, especially if you’re looking to bring your business applications to the cloud. Application hosting services is the way to “cloud-enable” desktop solutions, yet not all hosting providers recognize or understand the differences in how applications might integrate with QuickBooks, and what that means to the technical and user environments. Not all applications are created equal, and not all QuickBooks integrations are, either. Some integrations sound simple enough to implement, yet have hidden requirements that make deployment with a host or outsourced infrastructure provider an interesting endeavor to say the least.

Developers using SDK integrations with QuickBooks should make certain that they have thoroughly discussed their solution requirements prior to deploying their applications with any host, particularly with a client-selected provider. Companies experienced in hosting QuickBooks are not necessarily adept at understanding the nuances of SDK-developed integrations, and may minimize the technical requirement to the point of leaving your company and your customer with a bad feeling about hosting. In worst-case scenarios, the software developer loses their customer altogether due to a poor experience with the solution in a hosted environment.

Cooper Mann Consulting is working to help developers and commercial ISVs with QuickBooks-connected solutions get their products to the cloud, and in a way that they can influence and help control the all-important customer experience. Rather than being just one of a few hundred hosted products customers can select from the provider menu of offerings, we believe your solution should be delivered with your values, your message, and your unique service approach. Doing so allows you to keep your arms firmly wrapped around your customers and users, working closely with them as you develop your solutions towards a true SaaS or cloud application model, and easing the transition from desktop to web application delivery and subscription service.

Intuit believes they own the relationship to all QuickBooks customers, and they’re right to the extent that the user relies on QuickBooks for some business functionality. Hosting service providers think they own the customer relationship because they have significant influence over the products accessed from their servers.

Operational support solutions go deeper into the business than any high-level accounting product, and the method of deploying the solution (locally installed or hosted) is an IT issue and nothing more. As a developer or provider of essential solutions which address specific vertical industry or line-of-business needs, and as the company who understands the business of your customer and supplies those solutions that help them perform, don’t you really think you should own that customer relationship? We do.

Make Sense?

Want to know more about how Intuit is changing their approach to QuickBooks integration? Read Charlie Russell’s rant: Is Intuit Abandoning QuickBooks SDK Developers?

Read more about QuickBooks cloud hosting: Cloud Hold-Out No More: QuickBooks Desktop Editions in the Cloud

Read more about cloud development: Lessons Learned (or Not): Development and the Cloud

November 19, 2012

Simultaneous Syncing Sinks Solution: Extend Access but Control Integrations

Accounts and ProAdvisors: Make sure you “enable” only those who need it

In this wonderfully interconnected world of hosted and online applications and the integrations which complement them, it is important to not let the excitement of connectivity and collaboration replace reasonable control. While there is much conversation on this topic when it involves file sharing and similar services, the discussion of data synchronization and data integration doesn’t often come up. However, it has been my experience that there is usually a misunderstanding in how, exactly, a particular sync or integration should be applied and who should have access to the functionality when it is deployed as an extension of the QuickBooks desktop financial software.

An example of the problem might be seen when QuickBooks desktop editions are set to integrate or sync data with a web-based solution such as Method Integration or Santrio Open for Business Order Bridge. Solutions like these, which extend the functionality of QuickBooks through extending access and integrating data, rely upon QuickBooks integration functionality move data between their solutions and the QuickBooks database. These solutions are quite beneficial for businesses because they can affordably deliver support for various business functions via a true web application and incorporate QuickBooks data in those application views. Additionally, this type of solution is able to push information from the web application to QuickBooks, allowing for complete integration of financial and other relevant data.

While having this type of integrated service is beneficial, there are a lot of businesses who don’t fully understand how to appropriately implement the solution and end up creating a great deal of difficulty for themselves. One of the most frequent failures I have seen when implementing this type of solution is where the customer doesn’t really understand who should or should not have the integration.

When a web-based solution exchanges data or syncs with QuickBooks, a path is created to communicate between the two systems – the web solution and the QuickBooks application and data file. This path must be open, and both sides of the communication identified, in order for data to sync. The most important thing to remember is that there should be only one controlling entity on each side handling the integration. What this means for QuickBooks users is that only one installation – one PC accessing QuickBooks – should be configured to facilitate the primary integration with the QuickBooks company file.

To illustrate, consider an implementation of Method Integration and QuickBooks that was done for a business some time ago. This business used Method-based applications for a variety of business functions, and those applications used data sync’d from QuickBooks desktop. Just after implementation, it was discovered that system sync’s were not happening as they should, and sometimes when they went to sync data, it would take a huge amount of time (which was not supposed to be normal behavior). In short, the system proved to be problematic and, at times, unusable. But the problem didn’t have anything to do with the Method Integration system, nor the technology.

The problem was that all workstations in the office were set up to sync data between QuickBooks and Method. QuickBooks was installed on all the PC’s, even though most of the users did not use QuickBooks (they used the Method Integration system to do their jobs), and each PC had the Method Integration sync engine installed and set up to run. This caused the system to be frequently overloaded with sync requests and caused QuickBooks to behave erratically or crash. In addition, users who did not need (and should not have had) access to QuickBooks financial information were starting up QuickBooks and opening the company file every day because they thought it was required to allow them to access or use QuickBooks data in the Method Integration system.

The benefits of using web applications which can connect to and integrate data with QuickBooks is that a business can give users functionality and data access required to get the job done, but not expose those users to more software or data than they need. In most cases, if not all, QuickBooks is not necessary for users of the web application (saving you the cost of purchasing and installing QuickBooks for these users). Further, to ensure proper functionality and to remove any possible conflict or confusion in the sync process, only one workstation with QuickBooks should be set up to sync data to/from the web solution. While it makes sense to have a “backup” PC setup with the ability, syncing should remain inactive on this machine unless the primary “sync machine” is out of service. The key element to remember here is that the data coming from the web application is being added to the QuickBooks company file. Once the data is in QuickBooks, QuickBooks users may access the data from QuickBooks and do not need the connection to the web application.

When deploying this combination of solutions with a hosting service provider, the same rules will apply. Only users who need the sync capability require service with both QuickBooks and the integration installed. In some cases, this may make selection of host services more affordable, as only those who need the “additional application” (being the sync solution or integration tool) require customized service, and the rest of the QuickBooks-only users need standard QuickBooks service. *It might also be worth noting that many hosting providers do not support “persistent” connections – sync connections which continue to run even when you are not logged in), so syncing of data would only be able to occur if the primary user was logged in to QuickBooks and had the sync integration active on the host solution.

Accounting professionals, QuickBooks ProAdvisors, and small business consultants can help their clients understand the value and potential of extending QuickBooks desktop editions with connected web-based solutions. The additional value these professionals bring to the conversation is the understanding of the need for structure and control of the data flowing into and out of the financial systems, offering their expertise to ensure that the accountability and appropriate treatment of the information exists throughout the business.

Make Sense?

Read more …

There’s a lot of legacy ERP out there, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon

https://coopermann.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/theres-a-lot-of-legacy-erp-out-there-and-its-not-going-anywhere-any-time-soon/

Compliance in the Cloud – their system, your responsibility

https://coopermann.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/compliance-in-the-cloud-their-system-your-responsibility/

Beyond Bookkeeping to Total Business

https://coopermann.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/beyond-bookkeeping-to-total-business/

November 12, 2012

Managing The Purchasing Process: More than just expenses

When a business owner hears the term “expense management”, they immediately get a vision of traveling employees with piles of receipts and vouchers to be organized, accounted, and possibly reimbursed for. The image is fleeting, gone out of mind with no lingering thought, because this business owner does not have personnel who travel frequently, and does not have to deal with volumes of expense reports from employees. Expense management solutions aren’t anything this business owner is looking for.

Yet, what does happen every day is that equipment, materials, supplies, and services must be purchased to keep the business operation going. Calls are made to vendors, price quotes are developed, and purchase requests are typed up in Excel spreadsheets and piled on the owner’s desk for approval. The business owner rifles through the various requests, and brings in the bookkeeper to help work through the decision of which items to authorize based on current cash availability. Because the availability of working capital changes frequently with billings being sent out and receipts being deposited daily, the owner and the bookkeeper spend much of their time together figuring out which purchases to make and when. It is a continual and ongoing process, taking a lot of time and attention away from other important business matters.

Too often, thoughts of managing these efforts with more structure places the problem “in a box” and addresses only half of the issue – the purchase. While managing materials requirements and predicting when parts or supplies will be needed is one side of the problem, factoring those purchasing plans in to the cash requirements of the business, and having a meaningful and effective way to monitor current cash, expected receipts and purchase requirements together is essential. This ability requires that the payments management solution also address receivables in order to have the cash flow and availability information necessary.

Expense and purchase management processes generally involve three main steps: planning, tracking, and reporting. As the process involves planning, it suggests a proactive rather than a reactive approach to cash management and purchasing activities. By bringing together all of the critical data which describes “inflows and outflows”, the business owner has the information necessary to not only forecast (plan) cash requirements but to also understand the availability of working capital. Knowing ahead of time that traditionally slow paying contracts aren’t factored into immediately available cash is important, and being able to make adjustments to purchase schedules based on availability of funds is essential.

Expense reporting may not be a big part of the business, but managing cash flow and purchasing goods and services is, even in the smallest of enterprises. Make sure the business has the tools in place to help bring an additional level of intelligence to purchasing activities, and that those tools deliver the benefits of a structured (but not time-consuming) purchasing approvals and proactive cash flow management process.

For accounting and finance professionals, this is a highly valuable area of service you could be providing to your clients – helping to implement the tools and solutions which not only allow you to work in more depth with client businesses, but which deliver immediate visible and actionable benefit to the client. This is just one of the ways accounting professionals can work closer with their clients, and the benefit is delivered each and every day (not just at tax time).

Make Sense?

Is your purchasing and expense approvals process holding up your business? Read more…
Read more about using the cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries
Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud

Being Proactive, Not Reactive – Accountants Need to Increase the Speed of Service Delivery

Share this:

Surprise! Consumer apps get IT approval in small businesses: GIGAOM.com

Business Enlightenment

Get on the path…

Share this:

Not Everybody’s Accounting Online: Outsourced Bookkeeping and Accounting for “Offline” Clients

Share this:

QuickBooks SDK Integrations, Cloud Hosting, and the Customer Relationship

Share this:

Simultaneous Syncing Sinks Solution: Extend Access but Control Integrations

Accounts and ProAdvisors: Make sure you “enable” only those who need it

There’s a lot of legacy ERP out there, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon

Compliance in the Cloud – their system, your responsibility

Beyond Bookkeeping to Total Business

Share this:

Managing The Purchasing Process: More than just expenses

Share this: