Category: small business

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4 Rules of Thumb for Getting Business Benefit From EDI

The First Step in Transformation is to Stop Doing Things Twice

Double-entry is dumb. Entering data once introduces the possibility of making an error, and entering the data again only increases the chances for a mistake. Typing information into the computer also takes time and the more manual entry is done the greater the potential is for input errors which take even more time to find and correct. Manual entry of information may be required when starting with a paper-based process, but double-entry of information doesn’t make any business sense. In this age of computers, the internet and electronic commerce, reducing manual entry to increase performance and accuracy is more important than ever. Thankfully, manual data entry is being eliminated and EDI is the foundation that helps make it happen.

tall-tower-vancouver“… the key is the unattended and intelligent movement of data from one system to another.  People don’t have to get involved in order for the information to flow from one system to another… it just goes by itself.  Like a robot.”

Robots are just automation you didn’t know you needed

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the use of computer and telecommunication technology to move data between or within organizations. EDI uses strictly structured information that can be transferred from one program to another without human intervention. EDI is one of the most important subsets of e-commerce, being the technology that helps two parties exchange information around a commercial transaction. One of the fundamental first steps in business transformation is the automation of business processes, and this is the main goal of EDI.

EDI addresses and solves problems inherent in paper-based processes. For many, EDI is the basis for reengineering processes and giving manual workflows an automation overhaul.

4-rules-of-thumbHere are 4 Rules of Thumb regarding implementing EDI in the business and where it can deliver the biggest benefits

Rule 1: Go paperless and reduce or eliminate paper-based processes

Delays in activity performance and access to information are often due to paper-based processes, where transportation, storage and retrieval of documents cost valuable time. Labor costs are also higher when paper-based processes reign, increasing overhead costs for document processing and handling. Non-EDI systems also tend to be more error-prone because information is keyed multiple times, and because documents are transported, stored and retrieved by humans.

Rule 2: Reduce operational costs by increasing the speed of business and decreasing processing times and errors

Cutting costs is a top benefit of implementing EDI in the business, centered on doing away with the use of paper while automating key business transactions, saving both time and money in the core process as well as in error correction and problem resolution. Increased productivity is an expected result of employing paperless solutions and technologies. By reducing paper-based processes and embracing electronic transaction processing, businesses can handle more operational activities with the same (or fewer) human resources.

Rule 3: Re-Structure workflows to improve activities that make customers happy

Using EDI in the business helps to structure information and workflows, increasing efficiency and process performance in a variety of areas.

EDI also improves performance because processing time can be reduced to seconds, enabling greater efficiency in services delivery and a level of responsiveness that makes customers happier. Because EDI permits access to a potentially vast amount of detailed transaction data, the information can now be used to automate other processes and stored for analysis.

Rule 4: Get better data and more insight

EDI solutions help to minimize errors in the data, creating a basis for better reporting and analysis. Mistakes in data entry or order taking can be significantly reduced (if not eliminated), and well-structured data removes the need for “interpretation” of the information. Replacing paper documents with electronic ones can also make it easier to keep track of the status of an item, which is why EDI solutions ensure traceability of transactions that paper-based tracking can’t readily provide. All this serves to help the business gain the insight necessary to respond more quickly to changing market conditions and customer demands.

Integrating EDI into the business processes is key to improving business performance in a wide variety of areas. Like moving from phone to fax orders, or from fax to online, EDI represents a big change in how transaction processing takes place. By enabling EDI transactions with current and new suppliers and channels, the business also enables more efficient, seamless communications between all participants in the supply chain. Removing the need to re-key data and reducing the need to rely on human manual processes, EDI systems connect orders and invoices and shipping and returns… and all the trading partners along the way.

 

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Make Sense?
J

 

cropped-logo_mc_w_short-1Cooper Mann works closely with the experts at Mendelson Consulting, experts at QuickBooks and EDI.
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4 Rules of Thumb for Better Inventory Management

Do you know where your stuff is? I’m talking about your inventory, and whether or not you know exactly where it is. Surprisingly enough, many small business owners don’t know where their stock is (and isn’t) or when it will get to where it is supposed to be. Whether the items are in-stock or on-order, staged or stored, shipping or standing, managing inventory can be complicated.

Some inventory problems may be easy to identify but there are so many other issues that may be more difficult to track down.

4-rules-of-thumb

The challenges of inventory management are too numerous to count, but these four rules of thumb can help reduce much of the frustration for small businesses and midsize companies alike.

Rule 1: Get real-time inventory status information

To manage your inventory well, you have to know where each item is and what its status is. When you don’t have up-to-date information on product stock you will end up increasing your costs. It costs more when you are rushing the shipment of items in, overstocking products, transferring stock from the location that really has the product to the location that thought they had it, increasing losses due to spoilage or losing productivity by not getting materials to the site when the workers need it. Shipping, overtime labor and other related costs go up simply due to not knowing the status of every item, and customer satisfaction and loyalty goes down.

Getting real-time information on inventoried items requires that item status be tracked throughout the inventory lifecycle. From purchasing to sales, inventory item and stock tracking will allow you to more effectively manage your products and avoid the troubles and additional costs that come with not knowing whether you’ve got it or not. Centralize the information in a software system which has the functionality to support end-to-end inventory management functions and keep that information up to date as activities occur. This is the key to knowing exactly the status of your stuff.

Rule 2: Don’t rely on manual processes

Manual Processes are dumb, m’kay? Really, though, they’re inefficient and take a lot of time and generally result in too many errors. Spreadsheets are hard to manage and time-consuming to update, and manually updating anything makes it prone to errors. When information is managed through manual processes it makes collaboration and sharing of that information far more difficult, which often impedes the performance of those who rely on the data. Perhaps the worst thing about manual processes is that they do not lend themselves to analysis or history tracking, making it difficult to identify historic trends or areas of possible improvement. And manual processes just don’t scale well.

Using software to manage your inventory introduces not just efficiency, but provides the information required to make informed decisions about purchasing and stocking items. Inventory management software delivers a level of automation in recordkeeping for inventoried items that reduces errors and makes the data more useful. When the inventory management software is combined with barcodes and scanning, manual entry of data is further reduced which increases the accuracy even more while also stepping up productivity.

Rule 3: Everyone should get access to the information they need to perform their work

Workers throughout the business need information to perform their jobs, but not every worker needs the same information. Buyers may focus on which products are in demand so they can negotiate the best deal with a supplier, but finance likes to see that purchased stock isn’t languishing in warehouses or on store shelves. While all users may work with the same product inventory, not all users should be able to view or change data that is outside of the scope of their work. A change made inadvertently by one user could become a costly issue to track down and correct.

Getting access to the information necessary to perform the work is a challenge when the systems or software aren’t geared to fully support all the business processes. On the other hand, workers shouldn’t have access to information outside of their area or which is not relevant to their jobs. The key is in providing the right functionality and information for each worker, enabling them to perform their tasks efficiently but not exposing them to other information or processes that may complicate or interfere, or simply take focus away from the task at hand.

Another aspect of information access is making the solution available to workers regardless of where they work from. Warehouse locations and sales offices or retail stores are often separate, so any central system should also address remote office or mobile worker access. Cloud deployment of desktop and network software solutions enables anytime/anywhere access and allows remote offices and warehouse locations to work seamlessly together.

Rule 4: Just know that you can’t scale a manual inventory system

Keeping track of inventory may be do-able when there are just a few items and a single location, but increasing the numbers turns manual inventory unmanageable. More items mean a greater likelihood that products will be missed or miscounted, and more locations increases the complexities of stock management and logistics. Without detailed item and location tracking a business won’t be able to recognize costs or losses per location. The business is more likely to lose or misdirect product, in part because issues with missing product due to worker theft are more difficult to identify because of the manual system.

Scaling a business needs the support of good software and systems to ensure that productivity and performance aren’t stifled even as business requirements expand. Manual systems or low-tech approaches to managing products and inventory may seem usable when there are few products and limited sales activity, but when the activity and volume cranks up, so does the need for a robust system that can keep up. With more orders, products, locations and workers involved a business also increases the chances for loss due to logistical issues, theft or purchasing mismanagement.

Among the considerations when implementing an inventory management solution should be the ability of the system to adjust to changing business needs through customization of processes or by integration with other solutions which extend and expand functionality. Additionally, training workers to use the software should be straightforward and not unnecessarily complicated by other unrelated processes, making it easier to expand use of the solution in the business.

How do you set yourself up for successful inventory management?

Get better software. It isn’t as complicated as you might think and it is really important.

The expense is worth it because the business will end up being more efficient, which drives profitability. The challenge is that there are many software products to choose from and they all seem big and expensive. Inventory management and stock control isn’t a simple endeavor, but the right solution will deliver business benefit quickly rather than requiring extensive training and complicated configuration that eliminates a near-term return.

Connect with us to find the inventory management and control solutions that meet the needs of growing businesses like yours. Our team understands the intricacies of single- and multi-location inventory management, just in time inventory and purchasing for stock, and we also know that small businesses can’t be overburdened by their software else there is no business benefit.

jmbunnyfeet

Make Sense?
J

 

cropped-logo_mc_w_short-1Cooper Mann works closely with the experts at Mendelson Consulting, the best in QuickBooks inventory management implementation.
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QuickBooks changes and enhancements for 2019: Making things easier for non-accountants and non-IT users

Intuit QuickBooks has been the standard of small business bookkeeping for many years. The number and depth of QuickBooks advisors, consultants, developers and service providers is unmatched in the market. Yet Intuit was able to establish a QuickBooks foothold in the market based on a couple of fairly unintuitive elements, such as leveraging highly unconventional sales channels for accounting software and promoting a bookkeeping tool for people who do not know business bookkeeping.

qbwordle

Today, Intuit continues to leverage a variety of innovative sales channels, such as through payment solution providers like Square (sales data from Square is now available for Mac with QB 2019), and to offer features to support the non-accountant in all of us.

Here is a shortlist of the changes and enhancements for QuickBooks 2019 desktop editions. Some of these items may not apply to everyone or every edition, such as the purchase order or sales order process enhancements available to Enterprise Platinum level subscribers. Others, like changes to QuickBooks installation and update processes, will apply to just about everyone.

HELPERS FOR NON-ACCOUNTANTS

Accounting professionals understand the rules of bookkeeping and can fully appreciate the nuances of classifying transactions properly, like cost of goods sold versus regular expenses.  For most people… not so much, which is why having a product like QuickBooks has been so helpful to so many small business owners. Intuit’s motto for QuickBooks was “if you can write a check, you can do your own books” and the popularity of the application is a testament to its ease of use by non-accountants.

In keeping with this philosophy of simplicity are a couple of new changes to QuickBooks that help ensure transactions are handled properly.  It is like that these two items represented a large share of corrections accountants make in their clients’ books.

1. Transfer open credits between jobs

This is a HUGE deal for businesses that track by job. You set up a job for a customer, and then you end up setting up another job for the same customer because there is another phase, another project, or another something that you’re going to do for them.  The payments they made against your invoices were posted to the first job, but it left a credit open. Subsequent invoices were posted against the second job, but the customer doesn’t really owe you any money because of the open credit on job 1. QuickBooks now provides the means to easily and properly apply open credits and transfer credits between customer jobs. The process involves the back-end posting to a new GL account for credit transfers so that the asset is recorded prior to being applied to the other job invoice. This protects from overstating job revenue and earnings, eliminates hard to explain entries in the bank account, and keeps job profitability reporting squared up.

2. Write a check and pay a bill

When is writing a check to pay a bill not writing a check? In QuickBooks! Seriously, though, this is another one of those things where trying to make accounting software for non-accountants gets tricky. Instead of talking about vouchers and accounts payable, QuickBooks offers Paying Bills. That’s easy enough.  But then there is the functionality to Write Checks.  Not intended as a replacement for paying the vendor bills, writing a check in QuickBooks is really intended to be the single entry of a payment of some sort, and not the payment of an existing vendor bill. The unfortunate result of this is that a lot of vendor payments end up getting entered twice… as a bill and again as a check. Thankfully, Intuit has introduced to QuickBooks the logic that helps catch when a check is being written for a bill already in the system. By looking up or matching the vendor name, QuickBooks can prompt the user to see if the check they are about to write should actually be treated as making a bill payment. The effect here is that the back-end transaction posts against accounts payable rather than recording the cost or expense again, reducing the need to make more manual entries to reclassify the transactions.

IMPROVED VISIBILITY

With any application software there are functions and data that are not fully visible to the user. Depending on the complexity of the application, there may be far more hidden than shown. In many cases, data displayed on the screen is not actually stored by the software but is instead calculated on the fly. A profit and loss statement is usually footed with a calculated profit/loss value which is not necessarily stored anywhere. Changes in the revenue, cost and expense numbers will result in a change to the calculated profit/loss value. It wouldn’t be very useful if the totals didn’t change as the reported items did… the report wouldn’t balance and accounting is all about balance. The point is that there is information deep in the data of QuickBooks, and now you get to see a bit more of it.

3. Invoice history

Technology is ever-evolving, and in the area of email click-tracking QuickBooks has now caught up a bit. Some time ago, Intuit introduced the ability to email invoices to customers and this was very helpful for many users. Now, using technology similar to that found in many e-marketing systems, QuickBooks can show you when a customer opened and viewed an emailed invoice. Revealing the customer name and invoice view date helps eliminate those “I didn’t see your invoice” excuses for customer non-payment, hopefully easing the collection process and improving the clearing of outstanding receivables. It is important to note that this functionality may not work with users of Outlook 2010, so those working on some hosting platforms or with older Office applications may not receive the benefit of this functionality.

4. Employee pay rate history

Changing the hourly or other pay rates for an employee is a relatively straightforward process, but previous to the new change, seeing when the change happened and what the historical rates was only as simple as printing reports for all the past periods. While the system shows what the current rate is, you had to go looking for information on historical pay rates. That employee that said they haven’t had a raise in 5 years might realize how challenging it is to find when rate changes occurred, hoping you’ll take their word for it rather than spend your time looking it up. Now QuickBooks offers a little more visibility into historic pay rates for employees, so operators are able track rate changes more easily and can be fully informed in preparation for those pay rate discussions.

5. Sick and vacation pay tracking

Knowing how much time an employee has coming for sick or vacation is among the most popular requests for information from any payroll department. To ensure compliance with local, state or federal regulations – or to simply comply with company policy – it is important to have a handle on the vacation, sick and other time-based benefits due to an employee. No employer wants to over-compensate their workers with wages or benefit hours, and no employee wants to miss out on benefits they are due. QuickBooks now provides the ability to enter information about accrued sick and vacation time so that the payroll includes and works with this data. Not only relieving balances of accrued benefits as they are taken, the system also helps prevent oversubscription of those benefits. Having the information printed on paystub is also a big improvement, providing the employee with a clear accounting of their used and available benefits.

6. Better warnings regarding payroll data visibility

User roles in QuickBooks allow an administrator to be somewhat selective in terms of what information and functions QuickBooks users are granted access to.  Unfortunately, some roles aren’t well-described, and may provide unintended visibility to certain sensitive information, like payroll data. It can come as quite a surprise to the business owner when they find workers snooping into payroll information they aren’t supposed to see, particularly when it was believed that the data was secured from prying eyes. Recognizing the potential sensitivity of the payroll information, Intuit now has QuickBooks prompting the Admin with a warning when a user role is selected that will allow payroll data visibility.

7. Inventory report totals now can include inactive items

Items come and items go, and keeping the product information updated in QuickBooks can be a full time job by itself. One of the challenges for some QuickBooks inventory users has been reporting for all of the stock on hand, whether the stocked items are currently being sold or not. Inventory reports tended to focus only on items actively being offered and not so much on parts that were expired and made inactive, which makes sense. Sometimes product changes occur very frequently or maybe there are just a lot of products, which makes the reports simply too long to be useful if they include both active and inactive items. On the other hand, just because an item is no longer being actively offered doesn’t mean there wasn’t stock already received and sitting on the shelf or in the warehouse. Active or not, the stock item is still on the books, and it is a good thing that the inventory report totals now reflect that.

WORKFLOW HELPERS FOR ENTERPRISE ADVANCED INVENTORY USERS

8. Purchase order management worksheet and better receiving using handheld/mobile devices

Few workers just love the process for receiving inventory and matching against purchase orders. When the PO data is in the computer which is in the office but the stock gets delivered to the warehouse or receiving area, there isn’t a great way for entering or validating the received items. The process involved lots of communicating back and forth between the office and the receiving location and lots of typing, which could result in lots of errors.  Fortunately, users of QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum with Advanced Inventory can now utilize a more efficient process for receiving stock against purchase orders by using the Purchase Order Management worksheet. By assigning and downloading PO data to handheld/mobile devices used by receiving workers, the workflow for getting inventory in match against PO data – and for updating PO data with corrections or adjustments – becomes much more efficient and is far less likely to have errors in item or quantity inputs.

9. Better pick, pack and ship workflows with mobile sales order worksheet

Just as the stock receiving process is greatly improved by enabling meaningful access to purchase order information for those in the receiving locations, the outbound item processes can also be significantly improved by providing the order information where it can be directly addressed. With mobile device and sales orders in-hand, the user is able to quickly enter picked item quantities, notes and adjustments, and even complete the order with weights and dimensions.

SMARTER FILE UTILITIES AND SIMPLIFIED PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Many people find that using QuickBooks for their business finances is very simple. Those very same users can often find managing the company files and software application to be a bit more challenging as not everyone has a penchant for IT. To make things a little easier and smarter, Intuit has introduced a few improvements for those who work with the QuickBooks files and program installation.

10. IIF file import improvements

The file format used in QuickBooks for importing and exporting list and transaction data is the IIF (Intuit Interchange Format) proprietary text file format. With data in this format, users are able to get data quickly into a QuickBooks company file, like doing a bulk update of item cost information or importing transactions from Paypal into QuickBooks. Intuit’s improvements in the IIF import processes for QuickBooks 2019 will be welcomed by those who use IIF imports. While the IIF import/export capability in QuickBooks is a handy feature, it wasn’t very smart and often allowed poorly formed data to be entered into the company file. Now, the IIF import process benefits from data validation and error checking, error reporting and other functionality that QuickBooks developers use when bringing data in to QuickBooks.

11. Condensing the QuickBooks file allows to keep or remove audit trail and selected transactions

QuickBooks company files can get big, but the program can only efficiently handle files of a certain size. With this in mind, it seems that condensing a QuickBooks data file is a good idea, but it hasn’t always worked well when done with the utility built in with QuickBooks. Probably due to irregularities with data introduced through incomplete entry, bad imports or broken integrations, the condense function didn’t always work as expected and sometimes left users with damaged and unusable files. Intuit has made some changes to the process with QuickBooks 2019, providing options to remove the audit trail data but leave transactions, or to remove certain selected transactions while compressing the file.  The vast majority of users have no problems with this functionality, and running a utility to condense the file and clear out old audit trail data is a very good idea.  Users should always remember to run a complete backup of the data before doing any maintenance on a company file, just in case.

12. Intuit Data Protect can backup all QuickBooks data and other files

Speaking of backup… imagine thinking that you have all your valuable financial data backed up safely on Intuit’s servers only to find that just the company file, no attachments or other supporting data is there. Every business owner knows it is important to protect their data, and some users may have believed that the utility they used with QuickBooks to backup their QB company file was also protecting the other files they use with QuickBooks, like attachments, templates, exported reports and other data. The Intuit Data Protect utility which can provide cloud backups of QuickBooks company files can now include that other data on the computer, backing it up to the cloud along with the QuickBooks company files and providing another level of protection for the business.

13. Moving QuickBooks to another computer

QuickBooks desktop editions are like most other software; if you want to use it on a different computer you need to install it on the other computer. Unlike most other products, however, Intuit makes moving QuickBooks from one computer to another a simple process and not a multi-step project with license keys and original installation CDs required. If you install and use QuickBooks 2019 on a computer and then need to move it all to a new computer, all you really need is a USB drive big enough to carry everything (a little less than 250MB) and a functioning Internet connection. The process for moving your QuickBooks installation looks like it is facilitated by other improvements in QuickBooks that came with 2019, including the upgrade/activation and data protect. Intuit is able to identify the account and license from the installation on the current PC, and is able to identify company files by looking at recently used file lists. Packing it all onto a flash drive so it can be ported to another PC, the entire profile of the QuickBooks installation can be recreated on the new computer in one seamless process.

14. Easier upgrade of QuickBooks to new version

The same features that enable moving the QuickBooks installation from one computer to another are the core of what also makes QuickBooks easier to upgrade this year. Intuit has been increasingly turning program functionality into web service, which means that QuickBooks licensing and activation via the Internet are more integral to the product than ever. QB Enterprise customers and others with license payment plans find that their software will no longer update without an active paid subscription. Connected service users risk loss of functionality if they don’t keep current with their software maintenance. The benefit of the connection between the software and Intuit’s servers is that the process for installing the new version and subsequent updates is smoother and requires less work. When the new software is installed, it connects to the user existing Intuit account and gets version, license and other information required to activate the installation.  Previous to this new release, users had to locate their files on the PC and upgrade them manually after a program upgrade, but now this part of the process is simpler, too. The process identifies company files and prompts the user to upgrade the data along with the software and adding the company file to the list of recently used files for the new version.

IMPROVEMENTS FOR MAC VERSION

QuickBooks desktop editions run on Microsoft Windows or on Mac and the two platforms have very different characteristics.  While both are installable editions of QuickBooks, the features and functionality can vary even more dramatically than the differences between desktop and online editions. As a side note, I often wonder why Mac users of QuickBooks don’t simply adopt a hosted delivery model, like a cloud server running Windows and using the Windows version of QuickBooks, enabling multi-user capability, supporting the widest variety of 3rd party integrations, and delivering on the anytime/anywhere promise of mobility and device independence. I get it. Mac users love their Macs.

For those Mac users that prefer to keep the Mac edition of QuickBooks locally installed on the Mac, Intuit has a few updates and improvements for you with QuickBooks Mac 2019 (Surprise!). Intuit had indicated that QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2016 would be the last version available, with the product continuing to be supported by until May 31, 2019, so a new version for 2019 should give Mac users renewed interest in staying with QuickBooks. The primary focus of these upgrades is modernization and security, which sort of go together.

15. Passwords required

Passwords and encryption are now part of a Mac users’ life. Not a fortress of safety in a world fraught with platform vulnerabilities, Mac has seen its share of attacks. Bad guys don’t discriminate, so it is critical that Mac users protect their valuable data just as aggressively as those on Windows or Linux. QuickBooks 2019 Mac edition now embraces this reality by requiring passwords for company files and by encrypting personal information stored in the file. While entering passwords can be annoying, Intuit recognizes that security is important enough to force users to make an effort at it.

16. Discrepancy report for bank and credit card reconciliations

Allowing a transaction to be changed after-the-fact is among the user-friendly features of QuickBooks.  Not an awesome accounting tool, the ability to change transactions after they have already been reconciled can create errors that are very difficult to track down later. Now there is a report that will reflect these transaction changes, helping identify irregularities and errors in the books. The report will only work for items created after the new software was installed as transactions entered and reconciled prior to the upgrade weren’t being monitored in this way.

17. Email tracking for Customer and Vendor communications

Just as the Windows versions of QuickBooks desktop 2019 enhance visibility into certain communications, so does QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019. It used to be that the user had to copy their own address on emails sent to customers and vendors in order to track when email was sent and to whom.  Now QuickBooks has a tab that shows users information about emails sent to customers and vendors, increasing visibility into communications related to QuickBooks activity.

18. Import Square transactions in .csv format

QuickBooks desktop editions generally allow only list data to be imported from .csv format files, requiring IIF files for processes involving the importing of transaction data.  Square, on the other hand, exports their transaction data in .csv format and Square is among the more popular payment solutions used with iPad tablets and other mobile devices. To simplify bringing Square payments and transaction data into QuickBooks for Mac (and obviously to encourage Square payments users to do their bookkeeping with QuickBooks) Intuit now supports importing Square transaction data using the .csv format.

19. Improved Report Windows

One of the key features of the Mac OS is the interface. Mac does things differently and users tend to either love it completely or they move to something else. Because there are different properties with each computing platform, interface conventions and program methods typically found in Windows applications won’t generally fly with Mac users. Programmers developing for Mac must use different tools and design elements than those working with Windows, and not all functionality or presentations will wind up in both the Mac and Windows editions. With QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019, Intuit has updated certain report windows and display elements to make them work better with more modern Mac OS releases. Spacing issues with tabs and report data have been corrected, making the overall readability greatly improved.

20. Sharing a QuickBooks company file with iCloud

I am not fond of this feature, but many users will find it to be really helpful until they lose their changes or corrupt the file. QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2019 allows users to store/share their company file using iCloud, which is the Apple version of an online file sync and storage service. Similar in concept to Dropbox or Google Drive, iCloud allows users to store data on their device and have it automatically synchronized with their iCloud account online. This may be a convenient way to keep a QuickBooks company file backed up online, or to make it available to work on at different times from different locations. On the other hand, this is not a good way to try for pseudo multi-user or anytime/anywhere working access.

When a desktop opens the file into QuickBooks, it has exclusive use of that file. Any changes exist with the file in memory on the desktop and not in the copy of the file on the hard drive. When a second instance of QuickBooks opens the iCloud file and a user makes changes, there are now two copies of the file and each copy has its own set of changes. QuickBooks will notify the first user who opened the file and give them the option to overwrite the file with their changes, or to abandon their changes and re-load the file. Both sets of changes aren’t able to be saved, so one of the users ends up having to re-do their work.

While Intuit has done a fine job of making QuickBooks an easy-to-use solution for small business finance, the technical aspects of running QuickBooks desktop in a business remain a challenge to many. This is among the reasons why so many businesses elect to work with professionals that can help them run the Windows version of QuickBooks desktop on a managed cloud server environment. A quality hosting approach can deliver more fault tolerance as well as anytime/anywhere access businesses need, and reduce or eliminate concerns of local software installation issues or finding the right way to make QuickBooks available for multiple users and/or from multiple locations. For single-users of QuickBooks, on the other hand, the technical enhancements in QuickBooks Desktop 2019 are likely to come in handy.

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J

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Contrary to What You Learned in Grade School… Sharing is Bad, Okay?

There is a place and time for sharing. Share your color crayons, share your toys… share your feelings with those you love. But when it comes to business technology and infrastructure, sharing isn’t always the best approach. Some things you should just keep for yourself… like the servers you use for hosting business desktops, desktop applications and business data.

When we first began the journey of bringing small business desktops and applications like QuickBooks to the Internet, the “cloud” was not yet a thing. Hosting providers put up servers in racks in data centers, installed software and stored data on behalf of customers, and did their best to find ways of making the service affordable. Elastic resources, massive scalability and built-in redundancy (which are benefits of a real cloud fabric) were not generally available nor were they even remotely affordable. Because the hardware, networking and other resources that make up the hosting infrastructure is costly, it is important for the hosting service provider to be able to spread those costs across the entire customer base.

In most cases, this meant creating shared servers where many customers run their applications and store their data. Even when a provider suggests that a customer has a “private” server, there is still a good chance the server is using shared storage and/or networking resources made accessible in the environment.

Sharing can be a good thing or a bad thing, and it often depends on the behavior of those involved. In shared application hosting environments, particularly desktop hosting environments, there is a lot of potential for intentionally and unintentionally causing problems that can and will impact other users and customers on the platform.

A simple provisioning error might allow a user to see data belonging to another company or have access to applications or services they should not.

With shared resources, bad actors and intruders can often escape permission boundaries, attaching to network shares and other computers on the platform.

Malware accidentally introduced by an innocent user from one company could easily penetrate the entire system, following paths to data storage locations and other servers, spreading the problem to many customers and systems and even data centers.

If you are operating on the compromised system you are at risk, even if the compromise wasn’t initiated by one of  your users or from within one of your applications.

In the realm of QuickBooks hosting providers, the issues around sharing infrastructure and resources have created some very difficult situations for hosts and for their customers alike – especially when it comes to dealing with computer viruses, malware and ransomware. A few high-profile events, as well as numerous incidents which have flown under the radar, have revealed just how damaging the shared approach can be.

With the IRS, AICPA and other agencies issuing increasingly strong guidance for tax and accounting professionals to protect client information, finance professionals should strongly consider the risk introduced through shared hosting service arrangements and evaluate if it is greater than the costs of having a more private system.

Cloud platforms available today are fully matured, delivering scalability and agility at price levels that are affordable even for very small businesses.  No longer solely for enterprise enjoyment, real cloud solutions and delivery models can be used by small businesses for desktop and application hosting without compromise. Every business deserves their own cloud, and we know how to make that affordable.

Cooper Mann works with teams deploying on the Microsoft Azure platform, offering an agility in design not previously available with legacy computing approaches. Because every delivery is absolutely private to each customer, the solution can be scaled up (or down!) on demand to suit the specific needs of the individual business. More important is the fact that each customer operates separately, so any bad behavior the system may suffer from is their own.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Model Your Dreams, Not Your Workflows

Jurassic Park: “Are those heavy? Then they’re expensive, put them back..”

Process modeling, process improvement, workflow design and quality management all sound like big, complicated things that larger companies do. Analyzing and re-engineering processes and developing highly structured workflows is often work performed within an enterprise; heavy and complicated and expensive work that’s required to keep large or distributed organizations operating as a single unit. But structure isn’t just for big business operations; it’s a big deal for small business, too.

The truth is that modeling business processes and workflows isn’t necessarily difficult or expensive, and the benefits to be gained apply as directly to small businesses as they do to large enterprises – perhaps even more because smaller businesses can change their trajectory early on, before things are too fully entrenched.  Ongoing, the development of workflows to guide process activities and the regular evaluation and testing of the outcomes may reveal wondrous opportunities to increase performance and profits. It’s all about drawing that picture of what you want the business to be, and then finding the best way to make it be like that.

While business owners and managers may be familiar with projecting financial performance under different scenarios, how often do they look at the actual processes supporting business operations and “project” performance based on changes to processes, worker activities or operational workflows?  It just isn’t something you hear much about in the small business world.  When I reached out to Ben Boomer of ParkPro to have a discussion about this type of stuff, I had no idea that the conversation would turn into a real example of how one single software solution could be the foundation for incredibly beneficial change in the organization, the business performance, and the satisfaction of workers and customers alike. The software is from the Dutch company Exact, and the product is Synergy Enterprise.

ParkPro has been operating for just about 40 years, providing an array of services and solutions ranging from auto gates and access controls to parking revenue management and camera solutions, and even anti-terrorism solutions.  Their deliverables are mostly project-based and there is a very large installation and maintenance services aspect to the business. What all this means is that there are a lot of moving parts, lots of scheduling, projects and recurring activities, and lots of possible product and service combinations. There’s also a lot of inertia behind the processes and methods that have been standard business practice for a long time.

“Making any change to how the business operates is akin to changing tires on a moving vehicle” says Boomer. “You still have to get the work done and move forward”.  With Synergy Enterprise, ParkPro’s system is agile enough to allow them to use the software and at the same time configure and tweak it to meet the needs of the business and not the other way around. He suggests that this is the problem with systems that lack of the flexibility of Synergy Enterprise; businesses must adjust to the way the software works rather than making the software really work for the business. Ben discussed an example and the good advice he received from Jeff Sachs when the company wanted to implement barcodes and thought they could use whatever came in a “canned” solution. Jeff’s suggestion was that “if the process doesn’t work, then this will simply make it not work… faster”.

Greater efficiency and performance are always important, but what it also comes down to is configuring accountability into the system.  The very act of formalizing the processes and the workflow forces ParkPro to think about and define the processes as they really are.  The system that helps them set up work requests and structure activities also helps establish accountability along the way. This has allowed the company to benefit in ways they couldn’t even imagine.

Synergy allows them to make copies of their system where they can pose questions and model the answers and outcomes.  “Do we really need to do this step, or is it just because it’s written down?” he asks. “We can pose questions and then find efficiencies in answering those questions”.  Just as with financial modeling and forecasting, workflow modeling informs on the potential result of the adjustment, allowing businesses to make better decisions and avoid missteps.

The ability to adapt Synergy Enterprise to the requirements of the business has been central to the company’s success in creating new efficiencies and improving overall performance, and the effects are felt throughout the company.  Boomer says that the changes they’ve made in their processes and the workflows which connect them has even resulted in restructuring the organization and management hierarchy to be more reflective of how things are in Synergy because its more efficient.

Reliant upon the “open” nature of Synergy Enterprise and its ability to flex with the needs of the company, Ben knows the solution will continue to support beneficial change in the operation.  In Ben’s own words, “Synergy allows us to project our future dreams and know the software can keep up”.

Make Sense?

J

 

  • Series Introduction:  Fringe to Foundation: Aligning Business Goals and Lifting Business Performance through Digital Workflows
  • Article 1: Every Business Deserves a Chance to be Better
  • Article 2: Improve Processes and Profit More
  • Article 3: Workflow Has 3 E’s
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Workflow Has Three E’s

When discussing how a business operates – how folks in the company go about the business of getting work done – the conversation almost always boils down to a discussion of the problems, conditions and challenges to consistently getting the work right and on time.

No mud. No flow. We got to go.
(Deepwater Horizon, 2016)

Sometimes the focus is on people and other times it is on resources or processes, but the underlying context is that there are kinks in the line which interrupt the flow. When the flow is interrupted, bad things can happen.

The flow in business is the workflow: those strung-together processes which make up the work and form the operation.

The workflow guides workers in the performance of their jobs, informing them about who is supposed to do what when, and sometimes even why.

Structured and managed workflow drives the 3 E’s in business: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Evolution.

In almost every discussion about structuring work and documenting processes and procedures, the terms “efficient” and “effective” come up.  In fact, it is hard to have a conversation on these subjects without running into those terms. Most organizations recognize that worker efficiency and process effectiveness are guided and informed by structured workflows, so desk reference guides and operations manuals become the norm. What may be somewhat less obvious is the evolutionary aspect of modeling business workflows, where improvements small and large may be uncovered or identified at any level of work while it is being described and modeled. A solid workflow management system serves to remove any memory impairment in a business, memorializing not just the process but its result as part of the historic record of the business. This data assists in supporting ongoing process evolution, ensuring continued alignment with changing business conditions and goals.

Modeling the operation and applying conditional elements like timing and resource availability can make the difference between useful guidance and a semi-useful handbook of procedures.

As business conditions change so does the workflow. Unlike with printed manuals, the software system that is used to structure workflows and provide worker guidance can also supply data necessary to support change.  Using a software solution to manage workflow creates an agility in the business that is necessary to make meaningful adjustments when it matters –prior to or with change, rather than far after.

This article is the 3rd in series, and focuses on how business workflows are supported and informed by the right software solution.  Even more, that activity tracking and process controls should be part of the structure and foundation for worker activities, where workers perform their job functions while the systems that guide them capture meaningful information regarding those activities and transactions.

The thesis is that creating structured workflows not only informs workers what is expected of them and when, but the act of creating and updating the workflows helps identify disconnected processes, finds missing process data, smooths cross-functional transitions, and identifies missing or ineffectual policies. There are numerous conversations and interactions that wrap around or influence every activity and transaction. The goal is modeling the business and workflows in a way that not only defines worker activities but also connects those activities (transactions) to the related documents, contacts, policies and other data involved or impacted.

Whether there are a few or many individuals involved in the business, there are tasks and activities which must be performed in particular order and manner.

For a few people to efficiently and effectively manage the work, it is essential that there be clarity in what should happen and when and by whom it is to be done.  It may seem that crafting workflow systems to guide these activities could be overkill, where a few people could communicate directly and let each other know what and when. Really, it only seems that way and typically only when things are going just right. Change a factor or condition or make an individual unavailable to perform the work and things can change dramatically.  What was once a seemingly straightforward operation becomes mysteriously ineffective when critical players or information are no longer available.

Without structure to guide and support the entire organization, any part may fail to perform when the essential elements holding the process together are removed. The result is dis-satisfaction with the work as well as the result. In the end, it means reduced performance reflected as lower productivity, lower work quality, lower customer satisfaction levels, and lower profits. As with any legend or lore, details in the “tribal knowledge” are lost over time and what was once trusted and workable ultimately fails in the face of progress.

These truths became the focus of a conversation with Jerie Harrell of Small Business Solutions LLC (SBS) based in Huntsville, Alabama. Jerie works with Bob Crook, also known as “QB Bob,” and his team of certified consultants offering on-site and remote setup, training, instruction, and ongoing maintenance of QuickBooks financial solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. SBS prides themselves on forming long-term relationships with their clients. According to Jerie, the team “is always there after the sale; we don’t walk away after a customer buys from us”.

“I often tell clients we are like an Oreo cookie, with the accountant on one side and the client business on the other” Jerie says. ”We’re the creamy center that holds everybody together and makes things work together. The client’s business is more efficient and gets things done faster with our support, and the accountant gets better data”.

Keeping things coordinated with the consultants, supporting clients and managing ordering and other activities keeps Jerie very busy most days. Layer into those responsibilities the added requirement to plan for expansion and train new personnel and the workload gets even bigger. There is a lot of information to manage, lots of procedures to work through, and the regular work needs to be done completely, accurately and in a timely manner or the machine breaks down and customers don’t get the products or services they need when they need them.  Just thinking about taking a vacation or maybe even retiring causes chills to run up and down her spine because Jerie knows she has more work to do before that could really happen. This is where the discussion about workflow and process support really started.

Jerie knows that you have to “keep things simple and keep the flow simple” in order to get everyone to participate. Her background in process analysis and improvement is really helpful to the business, because it enforces the understanding that things need to be fully documented and communicated clearly. “If you get things written down.. the processes and procedures, then the staff can be more efficient and effective.  They get more work done, production goes up, sales go up, and then you can hire more people. “

Speaking of hiring new people, this is another area that Jerie knows she needs to address and is among the reasons for looking at a structured workflow system. Also, while the idea of retirement sounds increasingly attractive on some days, the challenge is that Jerie’s job has been developed over many years and there isn’t a comprehensive guide to how she does it all. She has created a way of working and a flow that meets the needs of the business, and transitioning all that knowledge is no small endeavor. “Having things structured and documented is the key. I always have procedure manuals on every desk, but that doesn’t cover everything. The workflow, time management, and the underlying processes should be visible to others because even if a key person isn’t available, business still has to go on”.

Synergy Enterprise is a business management solution from the Dutch software company Exact (www.exact.com).

Looking at CRM and workflow solutions, and specifically at the Synergy Enterprise system from Exact Software, is the next big step in solving the workflow problem and setting up the business to learn more from its activities.

“Transparency in the workflows and processes allows you to analyze them, identify bottlenecks and where improvements can be made” says Jerie.

“It’s like TQM (Total Quality Management) embedded in the CRM: you manage from the bottom up.  When I look at CRM, I really see workflow.  It’s everything in the business: everyone is a customer… even your boss is a customer, and the goal is to provide great customer support throughout the organization. I try to help inform management about work performance, but there are a lot of issues that are intertwined. How do you measure that without a good system?”

Summing things up, Jerie suggests that implementing Synergy in a business might be similar to using something like Google Analytics to analyze and understand website activity.  She asks “why not track the activities performed in everyday business? Why did the customer not buy from you and what needs to happen to change that outcome? You need to know more!”

All three E’s are there, and I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Make Sense?

J

  • Series Introduction:  Fringe to Foundation: Aligning Business Goals and Lifting Business Performance through Digital Workflows
  • Article 1: Every Business Deserves a Chance to be Better
  • Article 2: Improve Processes and Profit More