Category: small business trends

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When a Business Outgrows QuickBooks Enterprise

Small and midsized businesses use QuickBooks software to manage finance and operations. Since growing past 90% market share in 2008, Intuit QuickBooks proved over the years that businesses adopt accounting and finance software if it is affordable and easy to use. While Intuit’s focus today may be on gaining market share with the web-browser-based QuickBooks Online edition, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise continues to serve the needs of companies requiring more robust functionality than QuickBooks Desktop Pro/Premier or QuickBooks Online editions offer.

Over the years the QuickBooks product line has grown to support larger businesses, with the Enterprise edition scaling to 40 users and boasting a load of features that fully support operational processes. Inventory management, order processing workflows, construction management, and other features give encouragement to businesses needing support for more complex processes. QuickBooks Enterprise allows the flow-through of product use knowledge, stored data and integration with other business solutions to be seamless and consistent when moving up from QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier editions.

When a business finds that it may be outgrowing the capabilities of QuickBooks, it does not necessarily have to abandon the product line in lieu of a larger framework such as with alternative ERP systems. While the larger web-based systems may boast greater capabilities, they often come with much greater cost of service and implementation.

For businesses invested in QuickBooks Enterprise, it makes sense to look at alternative technical or platform solutions to address certain operational needs rather than shifting to different finance and operations software. The cost and complexity of an entirely new ERP software implementation is often more burdensome and costly than is needed to meet the real business demand. Also, the value found in business data can be lost when converting from one solution to another, and the cost of change is often so burdensome that many businesses simply abandon their projects if they even get started.

When using QuickBooks, at times it is the platform — the local network, computers and server — that is not geared to handle more users, processes and applications working with QuickBooks and a more robust and agile situation is required. Businesses should also explore integrations or extensions that can address the functional requirements, supporting advanced and complex workflows with greater agility while retaining the full value of the historic data.

Some challenges with QuickBooks may indicate a business needs a more robust and scalable solution, but that does not necessarily indicate that the business has truly outgrown QuickBooks. Instead, it may be a situation best handled by extending QuickBooks through application integration with a more robust subsystem to address specific business needs, to add scalability, and to build on the existing history and business intelligence previously developed in the enterprise.

Large transaction volume, extensive inventory management, or performance issues can easily create the impression that a business has outgrown QuickBooks Enterprise. In most cases, these conditions are overcome by extending QuickBooks with solutions geared specifically to handle the complexities and volume of heavy inventory management processes. These solutions not only address the in-depth functionality required, but also tend to utilize more agile and robust database structures that can scale far beyond the capacity of any QuickBooks edition alone.

Some businesses wishing to provide more advanced reporting and analytics, along with delivering realtime insights, may initially consider QuickBooks reporting to be insufficient for their needs. Yet there are integrations available which make QuickBooks financial and operations data as accessible and usable as the most robust enterprise applications. Satisfying the need for highly customized reporting and analytics far beyond QuickBooks standard reporting, these solutions create visibility and give meaning to QuickBooks data in ways that cannot be accomplished within the application alone.

Mendelson Consulting understands how businesses can outgrow the core functionality of QuickBooks and provides the tools and solutions to address growth in practical ways that do not diminish the value of data, training and operational intelligence that has been so costly for the business to acquire. We help businesses expand their capabilities and improve efficiency without losing their investment in QuickBooks, addressing the needs of growing and complex businesses without forcing the change to more extensive and expensive solutions.

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J

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Preparing Your Business for Exploding Growth

Preparing for exploding growth in a business requires careful planning and strategic decision-making. To develop the information necessary to support these activities, businesses must implement their processes and systems to properly collect the data required. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to develop the systems which will support increased activity and business growth, only recognizing after the fact that the process support and the data they need isn’t there. To prevent being caught off guard with more business demand and not enough organization to support it, follow these recommendations to set the business up for success over the long run.

Set clear goals and adjust as required. You need to know what the business purpose is… the objective you hope to achieve with all this activity. Establish SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. With a set of smart goals and a well-defined objective, the business has a clear direction and a guide to assist in decision-making.

Build infrastructure that is scalable. If the business infrastructure can’t handle increased demand, the business can’t grow effectively. Scalable information technology and software systems, robust production capabilities with adequate human resource availability, and increased efficiency in supply chains will help the business meet increasing demand, while improved reporting and business intelligence helps to anticipate potential bottlenecks, allowing for plans to be developed to address them.

Make sure finance and accounting are set for growth. Strengthen overall financial management and review your financial processes to ensure they can accommodate growth. Implementing the right systems and software is necessary to not just optimize production and operations, but to provide a foundation for establishing sound accounting and financial practices which will help the business secure funding and manage cash flow effectively. A good way to evaluate your preparedness for growth is to prepare financial forecasts and stress tests to gauge your business’s financial resilience under various growth scenarios.

Streamline operations and automate where it makes sense. Evaluation of businesses processes is an ongoing task if your business is to continuously work to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Where opportunities for optimization and improvement exist, consider using automation and technology solutions to help streamline operations and reduce manual effort while remaining focused on enhancing customer experience and satisfaction through streamlined processes and improved service delivery.

Plan for Risk and Contingencies. You should try to identify potential risks and challenges associated with rapid growth, such as increased competition, supply chain disruptions, or changes in customer preferences. Develop contingency plans to mitigate these risks and ensure continuity of the business and operation. It may even make sense to consider diversifying your revenue streams to reduce dependency on a single market or product.

Monitor, adjust and adapt as needed. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be regularly monitored, as should market trends, to stay informed about your business’s progress and to stay on top of industry developments. Use data analytics and reporting tools to gain insights and make data-driven decisions instead of operating on emotion. The business that plans for growth must remain agile and adaptable, adjusting strategies and operations as needed to accommodate changes in demand as they occur.

Preparation for rapid growth requires a proactive approach and continuous evaluation of your business’s readiness. Regularly reassess your strategies, make necessary adjustments, and stay focused on delivering value to customers as you scale.

Mendelson Consulting and the Noobeh cloud services teams are advisors and consultants with expertise in scaling businesses, and can provide valuable insights, guidance, and support throughout the growth process and beyond.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Good and Proper Accounting for Small Business

There are many reasons why a small business needs to have quality accounting, and it isn’t just about the cash. Especially when a business is small or growing, a strong financial management and reporting process will benefit the business in a number of important ways. Managing the cashflow and keeping money in the bank to cover payroll and inventory is critical, but good accounting data helps support better decision-making for more than just cash management.

Accounting and financial systems help small businesses keep track of their financial performance. This includes monitoring income and expenses (money in and money out) and creating financial statements. By having accurate and up-to-date financial information, small businesses can make informed decisions about how to allocate resources and grow the business.

Tax compliance is another area where good accounting data is essential. Small businesses are required to file taxes just like larger ones, and proper recordkeeping helps small businesses stay compliant with tax laws and regulations and to avoid penalties and fines.
Securing funding for operations and growth is another area where quality accounting data is critical. Banks and investors usually require financial statements and other financial information before providing any funding. By having accurate and well-organized financial records, small businesses can demonstrate their financial health and increase their chances of securing funding.

Knowing more about the business is always helpful, but being able to look at trends and understand what the numbers indicate is the real power. From budgeting and forecasting to identifying and reducing areas of risk, accounting data is the foundation for developing a true understanding of business activity and performance and finding ways to improve.

Track business performance, remain compliant with taxes, and get funding or investment when it’s needed. With good and proper accounting supporting management decisions, decisions become more informed and relevant and are likely to bring a better result.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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4 Rules of Thumb for Better IT Security

Your business is a target. The simple fact of being in business makes it so. There are a lot of bad actors out there who will go to great lengths to get your personal and financial information, and they have many different and innovative approaches to get it. There are some small steps any business can take to make a big impact in protecting business data.

Here we present our 4 Rules of Thumb for better IT security; a starting place if you’re looking for somewhere to begin.

We can’t stress enough that every business should make it a priority to implement some basic information/technology security standards and regular employee training. Having more discussion on the subject helps everyone in the company learn and shows that management is paying attention. Remember that business data isn’t just word documents and spreadsheets. It’s banking and financial and other information, employee information like social security numbers and direct deposit info, customer, vendor information and more. For even a small business, the possibility data exposure or loss isn’t trivial.

NOOBEH cloud services works to keep your QuickBooks on Azure cloud deployment more secure in a variety of ways, but we always start with a few essential policies. These rules and policies can mean the difference between a small IT annoyance or catastrophic failure and data encryption, loss, or exfiltration. If you haven’t implemented these four essential policies in your business IT environment, today is the day to start.

  1. Always use strong passwords, at least 10 to 12 characters, and make them complex. Require passwords to be updated periodically. Don’t reuse passwords and avoid common words or phrases.
  2. Don’t let users operate with permissions greater than required. In applications, consider restricting functionality based on the role or job requirements. On servers and PCs (Windows, Mac, whatever), make sure users are operating as “standard” users rather than system administrators. When you reduce the permissions granted to users you prevent their accounts from performing possibly harmful actions in the system, like installing malware or damaging programs, modifying settings, or even creating backdoor user accounts.
  3. Control user account information and manage it closely. Simply knowing what user accounts exist can give hackers and phishers enough information to begin targeting logins and applying methods to crack them. Part of this includes making sure to remove or disable accounts for user accounts that are no longer needed. Every unused account that remains enabled is just another point of vulnerability. Protect system and administrative accounts and directories (like Microsoft Active Directory). Make certain that you only grant access to sensitive system and account information when absolutely necessary, and only to a completely trusted source. Also make sure to have at least one “break the glass” (back door) admin account you can use if the regular administrative account(s) become compromised.
  4. Limit the installed software to what is needed for the business and keep it current. Make sure operating systems and applications are up to date, and keep browsers and plugins updated to make sure they don’t become the weak link.

Cyber criminals are delivering waves of cyber-attacks that are both highly coordinated and far more advanced than ever before seen. Endpoint attacks have become complicated multi-stage operations, ransomware hits small business and enterprises alike, and stealth crypto mining got criminals into unsuspecting corporate networks. The year has been awash with massive data leaks, expensive ransomware payouts and the realization of a completely new and extremely complicated threat landscape. The bad guys have upped their threat game in a big way.

Diligence is required to help protect valuable business information assets. Following these four rules of thumb will help the business avoid becoming easy prey and can provide a foundation for greater system security and a more streamlined approach to identity management, applications and access.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?
J

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Web-based, Hosted and Cloud: The Confusing Journey to Transformation

There is no doubt that businesses of all sizes and types are moving from analog and paper-based to digital and electronic systems. Moving from postal letters to email, “PDF-ing” instead of printing, and EDI rather than manual order entry, businesses are taking on the challenges of transforming their processes one by one.

Cloud computing and virtualization have had a great impact in these areas, providing the foundations for process improvements and higher business intelligence than ever before. Increasingly, businesses are looking to “cloud” to help them do more with their businesses, and to do it better and more profitably.

In looking at cloud – applications, platforms, and services – it is important to understand that different approaches aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Many businesses implement a combination of technologies and services, creating their own hybrid approach to doing business the way it works for them.

Web-based, Browser-based

When most small business owners think of implementing “cloud” in their operations, the things that initially come to mind are web-based/browser-based applications. Due in large part to how these products are marketed, web-based apps are among the most widely recognized “cloud” type of service.

QuickBooks Online edition is an example of web-based/browser-based application service. It was built to run in a browser, and you access it over the Internet. These types of applications are often referred to as “net native”, because the only exist as Internet-based service. Other examples are NetSuite and Intacct.

The key with these types of application services is that they aren’t just applications; they are subscription services that include the infrastructure and data storage as part of the solution. You access by going to a web URL in a browser, and login and use the system. You own nothing of the system – not the servers its running on, not the application itself, and (if you don’t pay your bill or export your information) not the data.

What makes these systems “cloud” is that they are running on servers – application servers, network server, data servers etc. – that are all meshed to work closely together. You do not have to worry about (in fact, you often won’t even know) exactly where in the world your system is located, and you have no direct contact with or interaction with the infrastructure on which your application and data are running. As far as users are concerned, their application and data exist “in the cloud” … somewhere.

Hosted applications can also be Cloud

Cloud or not cloud really doesn’t have anything to do with whether the software is browser-based versus disk-based (desktop). Cloud really refers to having a ubiquitous network of connected resources which allows for the creation of dynamic, agile, scalable infrastructure. Google Compute, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure are the 3 primary (publicly available) cloud platforms.

Online application services generally use cloud platforms and infrastructure to support their software and data, enabling the delivery of services to large numbers of users regardless of where they are located.

Desktop applications can also be run on cloud infrastructure, enabling businesses to access and use their applications and data regardless of location or device, but to retain all the functionality and capabilities of the more mature desktop solution.

For example, NOOBEH cloud services deploys managed QuickBooks and other desktop applications from the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. With Noobeh’s approach, customers can retain essential control of their infrastructure (Noobeh manages it for them, but it is the customer’s private system), allowing it to be configured to be exactly what the customer needs.

NOOBEH Azure hosting is provided as a subscription service and can be changed or adjusted at any time with just a restart of the system. This agility gives businesses what they need now, but also allows the platform to be adjusted to changing business needs. Not having to purchase or invest ahead of needing new resources, as well as reducing the system size if less is ultimately needed, are among the many benefits of using a true cloud platform. Migrating applications and data from on-premises to cloud platforms allows businesses to reduce or eliminate their reliance on locally installed servers and network systems, which is another step in transforming the business and its capabilities.

When a business elects to migrate from desktop to web-based applications for only some functions, the result is often that other applications and data remain active on the local systems. This forces the business to retain their expensive computers, networks and local IT management services and reduces much of the value of a cloud transformation.

On the other hand, if the business elects to migrate to cloud infrastructure it allows them to migrate all their applications, data, and processes immediately, delivering immediate business benefit and providing the right platform for further improvement.
For most small and growing businesses, it is the elimination of concerns about hardware failures, not having to purchase ahead for possible future needs, and having up-to-date secure and compliant systems that deliver the full value and capability of the cloud.

Business transformation starts with the foundation, and a strong information technology platform becomes the base upon which smarter and more efficient processes are built. Whether your company is just beginning its transformation journey or is well on the way, cloud applications and platforms are integral to helping your business keep moving forward.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Keeping Your Financial Software Updated: Annual QuickBooks Desktop Service Discontinuation

It’s time again for the annual QuickBooks Desktop service discontinuation notice, which does not mean in any way that QuickBooks Desktop is being discontinued. Rather, Intuit (the makers of QuickBooks) take this time each year to encourage customers to change to QuickBooks Online edition instead of desktop, or for existing desktop users to {sigh} update their desktop software to keep it working fully.

The features and capabilities of QuickBooks Desktop have evolved over time and through a great deal of usage, making the market-leading accounting software for small businesses something that not even its online counterpart can compete with. While QuickBooks Online edition adoption continues to grow, businesses with more mature and complex requirements continue to rely on the tried-and-true capabilities of the QB Desktop editions.

Yet, as technology and business models evolve, so must certain aspects of the beloved QuickBooks Desktop products. Many of these evolutionary changes center on services delivered within the QuickBooks product or as add-on benefits of a particular license type. With identity, license and service management now being handled, at least in part, via web services, QuickBooks is ever-more reliant upon the Intuit.com account and the ability to validate users, roles, license, and services. It is in these areas that service discontinuations tend to focus as older versions of the product no longer support the new methods.

Here is the information Intuit provides regarding service discontinuation for older versions of QuickBooks Desktop (sans the “migrate to QuickBooks Online” messaging).

When does service discontinuation happen and what does it mean?

Access to QuickBooks Desktop add-on services, live technical support, software updates and security patches are all discontinued after May 31, 2023 for QuickBooks Desktop for Windows 2020. This includes all 2020 versions of QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions (v20). Versions of QuickBooks Desktop earlier than 2020 were discontinued previously, as this is an annual occurrence.

Here is Intuit’s statement regarding service discontinuation:

“Your access to QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Services, Live Support, Online Backup, Online Banking, and other services through QuickBooks Desktop 2020 software will be discontinued after May 31, 2023. This also means you won’t receive critical security updates starting June 1, 2023. If you receive any security updates before this date, install them.

Products affected by service discontinuation after May 31, 2023.

  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro 2020
  • QuickBooks Desktop Premier 2020 (General Business, Contractor, Manufacturing & Wholesale, Nonprofit, Professional Services, and Retail)
  • QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 20
  • QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2020
  • QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant 20
  • QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2020”

Keeping your software up to date is important for a variety of reasons. Not only are new features introduced and software bugs patched or fixed, but security enhancements are introduced regularly to keep your data and accounts safe. Further, regulatory and compliance factors play into some of these updates, as is often the case with online banking service and the like.

Securely connecting to bank feeds, email systems, identity management services and other aspects of software functionality and integration are among the reasons for making sure your accounting software is being updated.

For businesses that don’t use or rely on any of the above services for QuickBooks, the software will continue to work. But, even if the software works after the May 31 date, it might not be a great idea to stay on an older un-updated un-patched and semi-functional version of financial software that you run your business and manage your finances with. Just sayin’.


jm bunny feetMake Sense?
J