Tag: business opportunity

Posted on

Smarter Online Document Vaults: Document Management for QuickBooks, Microsoft Office and more

Smarter Online Document Vaults

Document Management for QuickBooks, Microsoft Office and more

Document management used to be just about storing and retrieving files.  Being able to easily store document images and other files, and then quickly finding them when you need them, is an important aspect of business record keeping.  If you are an accounting or bookkeeping professional offering outsourced services to clients, having a secure way to store and manage client document files from a variety of sources is key to developing workflows and standardizing service delivery.   Invoices, bills, bank statements, and all the other paperwork which is generated by various business processes must be captured, accounted for, and retained for future reference and documentation support.  With all of this going on, having a secure and easy way to handle all that paper and computer-generated reporting is really important.

Using an electronic document management system isn’t really that much different from dealing with paper filing systems, at least in terms of the process.  You obtain the document, you translate it into a journal entry or transaction, and then you file the document away for later use.  The difference is simply that the document becomes digital image data and is stored electronically, instead of keeping the paper file around.   And, the earlier in the process where you can turn paper documents into digital images, the better, because it reduces the need for “paper-based” processes which take more time and resources, and which may introduce risk of information loss or damage.

In an outsourced bookkeeping arrangement, for example, allowing the client to convert paper to image files is highly desirable as it prevents the outsourcer from having to travel to client offices to obtain paperwork, and reduces the time involved either with traveling to and from client locations or time spent waiting for mailed information to arrive.  For the client to handle this process willingly, or with any frequency, tools which are simple to understand and use must be supplied.   Scanning a document, saving it to the hard drive, and then trying to find the file to upload later to an accountant “portal” is not a simple process and it is not efficient.  If the user is somewhat nontechnical (most business owners?), or if there is a lot of paperwork to scan and upload, that multi-step process just won’t work for the client.

SmartVault, a solution for QuickBooks-connected and general purpose document management, has an elegant solution to the problem, and it’s called the “InBox”.   Just like the inbox on your desk, the SmartVault InBox is where new documents arrive to be processed. The ingenious part is that the InBox is a little applet that gets installed on the client workstation, and provides them with a very simple way to scan files directly to SmartVault.  The accountant or bookkeeper then accesses the client files from the inbox and processes and/or attaches them to QuickBooks transactions as required.  The client has only to perform the simple task of telling the SmartVault InBox app to obtain documents fed into the scanner.  No local file saving and retrieval required.  For the accountant or bookkeeper, the inbox is the first stop in the workflow, and is the place they go to obtain whatever information the client has provided.  The SmartVault InBox can also be used to return files easily and securely to clients, bypassing the need to have the client access and log in to a website in order to get the files (but a website portal is also part of the system, just in case the client prefers this method).  If providing seamless service and easy to follow procedures describes how you work with your clients, then SmartVault could become a key element in your service delivery.

Affordability and ease of use are important factors to consider when looking for document management solutions for small businesses.  In addition, having the ability to store documents from popular small business applications allows users to centrally store and manage all their business documents and files, not just those related to accounting.  When users wear many “hats” in the business, and need access to a variety of document types, a centralized filing system is an absolute necessity.  SmartVault addresses this by providing direct integration with Microsoft Outlook, Results CRM, and a variety of other popular small business solutions.

Oriented for use by small businesses and the accountants and bookkeepers who serve them, SmartVault delivers a surprisingly powerful solution which addresses the variety of document storage, attachment and retrieval requirements of most businesses, coupled with the workflow tools and a unique QuickBooks integration capability to specifically address the needs of accounting and finance department users.  You know you need to work smarter and not harder, so your document vault should be smarter, too.

Make Sense?

J

Posted on

Big Data and Big Decisions

Structure a process to develop the questions and measure outcomes, and then go get the answers

It seems that everyone these days (including me) is standing on the soapbox of “big data”, and the need to go beyond simple dashboards to help executives and owners make the daily decisions which may ultimately result in great business success or total organizational failure.  What many of us fail to discuss is how to manage the process of getting and using data, and why it is important to know what decisions the business should focus on making before the data is collected and analysis performed.

The whole point of “big data” is to assist in the development of more informed processes and people, which are elemental to supporting successful operations.  Data becomes useful information which helps to bring understanding and insight, and which results with action (information = power).  While this type of analysis was once oriented almost exclusively towards financial risk and fraud identification or detection, it is now being turned to the front lines where it is more focused on customers and supply chains, and where decisions made may be more visible (and volatile).

Decisions, questions posed in the business which are answered with action, are best made when based on complete and accurate information.   To accomplish this, data must be collected from all available aspects of the business, including trapping detailed operational data not often collected for summary financial reporting.   With this level of data, and with a structured and purposeful approach to management of the decision-making process, the business gains agility by being analytical and informed, and is better able to sustain performance by adapting to changing conditions.

The success of any decision-making effort is enabled by management practices which recognize the need to apply structure and standards, and know the value of actionable data over instinct. The application of performance monitoring and similar tools is also essential to measure the effectiveness of not just the decision, but also the processes which supported making it.  Like asking a student to produce their work, this approach helps to identify potential flaws in the decision-making process, even as apparently successful conclusions may be reached.

Today’s big data push is fueled by cloud solutions and interconnected systems delivering more, and more detailed, data than ever before.  Further, analysis tools have evolved beyond summary reports in graphs and charts and now offer advanced data mining and visualization, and introducing a predictive capability based on trends and condition sets.  While the availability and access to business data increases, so does the responsibility of the organization to understand WHAT decisions it is looking to make improvements in, and to create a process to monitor the effectiveness of those decisions made and acted upon.

Make Sense?

J

  • Read more about using the cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries
  • 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
Posted on

Disruptive Trends = Emerging Opportunity: Adapting to a changing technology and business environment

Every new day brings some new advancement in business technology, and much of this advancement relates to cloud computing, mobility, and new social computing models.  Information technology and solutions applied to business use have rapidly evolved away from paper-based or fixed-location tools, and are now oriented towards enabling mobility and anytime, anywhere access to business applications and digital data.

Trends driving change in business technology today may be reflected in two main areas: enabling solutions which are revealing benefit not previously recognized, and disruptive approaches which represent trans-formative changes to how businesses operate.   Disruption and transformation often generate new business opportunity, yet many professionals in accounting/finance and information technology fail to see the new potential available and resist anything which represents significant change.  These professionals equate change with risk, and are reluctant to entertain either.

An example of a class of solutions which enable the organization to “know more”, providing decision support through deep analysis and reporting of key business data, is the new generation of data visualization tools now available in forms and formats easily accessible by any business professional.  Previously, business owners had to rely on system analysts and accounting professionals to compile and report on various aspects of business activity.  Using spreadsheets and database driven chart-building systems, manipulation of large volumes of data was unwieldy and limited by available computer resources.  Moving beyond previously recognized boundaries in data collection and aggregation, tools now available assist users in combining data from disparate sources, and offer a rich suite of analytics coupled with the simplicity of drag-and-drop selection and exploration.

The opportunity introduced with this new capability does not rest solely in the analysis of the data.  Rather, it is in the control and the structure which must be developed to ensure that all relevant data being collected, and in the structure and control placed on those data collection and integration processes which will ensure that the information is properly associated or correlated, and accurately integrated into the model.   Completeness and accuracy of data is of critical importance, as is an in-depth understanding of the nuances of structured and unstructured data relationships.

In addition to the enabling solutions emerging on the market which are driving deep changes in how businesses see themselves are the advancements in technology which cause fundamental shifts in how business use technology to support operations.  The most evident advancement, often viewed as an approach which is disruptive to more traditional models, is the emergence of “cloud” computing models.  Cloud computing, connected services, and fully-managed outsourced IT solutions address a number of issues which have burdened enterprise IT deployments since IT departments were invented.

The difficulty for IT managers is that they are often overworked and underfunded, as information technology is not often viewed as a strategic differentiator but merely as a necessary cost of supporting operations.  Users view IT as being unresponsive and ineffective, and have little understanding of the balancing act required to meet user demands and at the same time deliver standardized enterprise computing services in a secure manner.

Mobility and the cloud has changed the landscape of business IT, and the concept of “there’s an app for that” is now fully ingrained in the user mentality.  Cloud solutions, sometimes introduced to the business by non-IT personnel and often viewed as “rogue IT” projects, have won adoption by business users due in large part to the simplicity of implementation, and often because they can deploy the solution quickly, outside of the boundaries established by internal IT management.  Information management within the organization must necessarily extend now to mobile computing devices, where an entirely new set of issues is revealed in terms of personal device management and distribution of corporate data and intelligence.  Professionals assisting the business with information management, access, collection and integration processes must now give greater consideration to incorporation of mobile device and application management, as well as the risks introduced with the broad use of personal computing devices within the organization.

The cloud represents a convergence of social and mobile computing, and introduces an entirely new class of business metrics to measure due to the significant increase in available data captured at various levels and through various types of virtual interactions.  With users being able to engage wherever and whenever they choose (“there’s an app for that”, again), businesses must shift IT focus to strategic enablement, creating standards for outsourced deployments, and infusing each effort with the security and control required, which is a mainstay of IT operations.

Big data, visualization and analysis, and mobile and social computing are changing how we do business.  As the trusted advisor to the business, the accounting professional should embrace these changes and the opportunities they present to deliver more value and service in each client engagement.  Accountants can help their clients understand how to do more with less – leveraging technology to improve operational efficiencies, and to structure, capture, integrate and analyze the relevant data which will reveal the risks and potentials of the operation under a variety of circumstances.

Disruption creates your opportunity to bring order to the chaos, helping clients compete and flourish in a difficult economy, and providing the proactive guidance and analytical support necessary to build and sustain profitability.

Make Sense?

J

  • 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
Posted on

Bringing Order to Inefficient Business Processes: Give people easy to use tools that make sense, and they’ll use them.

Give people easy to use tools that make sense, and they’ll use them.

Most businesses need a little help streamlining those frustrating back-office processes that remain as barriers to better information collection and use.  What sort of processes?  Time keeping, for whatever reason or need, is one of them.  Maybe employee time spent relates specifically to billable project revenue, or possibly time spent is part of an embedded cost in an engagement.  Or, time tracking may simply be a means to capture data on employee productivity.  In a lot of situations, getting time records from contractors or employees is like asking them to move a mountain.  Maybe there is a mountain to move, depending on how many sheets of notes and handwritten records they’ve got stacked up.

Another process to look at is expense management and reporting, where all those random size receipts taped to a piece of letter paper, credit card statements with lines blacked out with a Sharpie, and spreadsheets of purchase requisitions for things you’ve never heard of before get stacked in the in-box where you not-so-secretly hope a fire will start some time during the night.  Someone actually has to go through this information and enter it into the system, and then decide what to do with the requests.  When this “someone” is the owner or manager, it means taking time away from actually running the business.  When it’s the bookkeeper, more focus may be placed on data entry than on verifying spending authorizations or managing the cash flow.

While almost every business has these time and expense management needs in their business, it is an area of automation and “tooling up” that is often overlooked.   One of the reasons for this may be that a lot of the solutions users are asked to implement just aren’t “usable” enough, or don’t really fit the context of what the user needs to accomplish.  In order to get the most value out of any business solution, workers must actually use the solution.  It has been proven time and again that, if you give people easy tools that make sense, they’ll use them.

Your accounting software may have time tracking with it, but does it make sense for your employees to access accounting just to record their time?  How about your contractors?  Employee reimbursable expenses paid by credit card can be accessed directly via transaction downloads from the bank, but does it make sense for you to have access to the employee’s account?  While there may be many ways to accomplish these tasks, there are only a few really effective ways which deliver the access as well as the security, and the relevant functionality that makes it easier for good workers to capture good data.  Selecting a system with the right functionality is key, but finding a system people can and will actually use means you’ve found a real solution, not just a system.

Make Sense?

J

Posted on

Knowing More: Accountants Delivering More Value with More Information

Knowing More: Accountants Delivering More Value with More Information

An article on CFO.com titled “What Does Sustainability Really Cost?” discusses the need for accounting and finance professionals to collect, analyze, and report on business data which is not always represented in the financial statements.  In many ways, this speaks to operational and other elements of the business, visible only with a closer look and through a deeper understanding of the operations and the many and varied factors which impact them.

Integrated financial reporting, which combines financial reporting with reporting of intangibles and other off-balance-sheet factors, needs CFOs’ support, investors say.
CFO.com (http://s.tt/1lWOa)

The focus of the article is one of sustainability and the ability of a business to maintain operations, profitability, and growth over time – and an integrated reporting approach which more fully describes this information, as well as elements relating to business risk and corporate governance.  In order for investors to fully understand the business health or the risk of investment in the operations, it takes looking beyond the balance sheet into operational metrics and detailed performance and supply chain data which is not often fully available in high level financial reports.

“..added material information will make investors a happier group. A more comprehensive approach to reporting would help investors more easily determine a firm’s ability to generate future cash flows, says Ian Ball, chief executive officer of the International Federation of Accountants and chair of the IIRC working group for integrated reporting. “Financial reporting on its own isn’t any longer telling us enough about a company to really understand its prospects,” he adds.

In recent years, about 80% of a company’s value was on the balance sheet, which contrasts to about 20% today, notes Ball. The reversal stems from the burgeoning presence of intangible assets among corporations. “If you’re trying to figure out whether a company’s worth investing in, you’ve got to understand the other 80% to understand the company,” he adds.
CFO.com (http://s.tt/1lWOa)

Deeper and more informative reporting on the business performance, as well as the data supporting the continued ability to perform at such levels and under what conditions, is what businesses owners need whether they recognize it or not.  Many business owners and managers believe they have the information necessary to make daily decisions, yet find their resources lacking when it comes to obtaining financing or meeting challenges posed by various unforeseen events.

Whether the economic environment is “friendly” or not, small businesses will turn to their banks to secure lines of credit and get funding to smooth out bumps in cash flow and availability.  Getting credit is always a challenge, even in the best of times.  When the economy stalls and times are tough, getting the necessary cash to support the business gets even tougher.

Bankable: Giving Small Businesses Credit http://wp.me/p2hGOJ-c1

Implementing dashboard analytics and other reporting tools is not always the initial answer, because part of the underlying problem may be that the right data is not being collected, or is not accurately accounted.  Developing a complete picture and providing an accurate and informed analysis of the data requires getting the right accurate data.  This is often where the process starts, ensuring that the systems in use benefit not only the work, but the information and reporting needs of the business as well.

When speaking to accounting professionals about the additional valuable services they could be providing to clients by using these KPI reporting tools to identify additional consultation and advisory services clients need, the feedback I generally get from the professional is that “you have to get the numbers right, first”.  It seems that, even with the ready availability of powerful and affordable software solutions to run the business, accounting and finance still tends to be an afterthought for many business owners.  Relegated to the back-office, and being an after-the-fact recipient of transactional data, accounting is still viewed by many as a “necessary evil” of doing business rather than an area of potential strategic advantage.

Working With the Right Numbers: Financial Data Analysis Requires Accurate Financial Data http://wp.me/p2hGOJ-9y

When the information systems in use appropriately support operational requirements of the business, the necessary data may be more easily collected for analysis. This is where accounting professionals should help their clients, to improve the quality of data available for analysis and for integration into financial systems.  It is through this attention to operational process support, getting the right tools in front of the user to support their job function and tasks, which will allow the collection of detailed information about the operations, and which ultimately provides the basis for a great deal of insight into the business.

It is in the interaction – of people, data and systems – where better technology-supported collaboration with the client should be established.  In many cases, this means focusing on improving the client system and the accounting process will benefit as a result.

Accounting Online and Outsourced Accounting – Focus on Enabling Your Client http://wp.me/p2hGOJ-bU

Accounting and finance professionals wondering how to increase their earning potential from the  existing portfolio of clients should look more closely at the operational and managements aspects of the businesses rather than focusing solely on tax return and financial statement preparation.   The value to the client is far greater and has a more direct impact when it helps in the performance of daily activities and provides support in overcoming challenges in cash availability, financing, and other issues business owners regularly face.  Know more about the client business, and the information you both gain provides the foundation to deliver greater service and tangible value.

Make Sense?

J

  • 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
Posted on

Bankable: Giving Small Businesses Credit

Bankable: Giving Small Businesses Credit

Whether the economic environment is “friendly” or not, small businesses will turn to their banks to secure lines of credit and get funding to smooth out bumps in cash flow and availability.  Getting credit is always a challenge, even in the best of times.  When the economy stalls and times are tough, getting the necessary cash to support the business gets even tougher.

A recent post on blogs.wsj.com (Wallstreet Journal) discusses the results of a survey (Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Small Business Borrowers Poll), where it was revealed that “small-business owners in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are still struggling to acquire credit for day-to-day expenses and expansion”.  What a surprise.  Times are tough, and the banks need to manage their risk and increase the predictability of repayment for loans and lines of credit.  If accountants are looking for reasons to adopt and implement analytics and forecasting for their clients, there you go.

Accounting professionals can help their clients get the credit they need, by helping demonstrate how “bankable” the business is.  Here are three ways to improve the odds when trying to get financing for the business (and where the accounting professional can be a pivotal player), according to an article on Bloomberg Businessweek: Three Ways to Make Your Small Business “Bankable”

1. Tighten up your books. The value of good financial reporting cannot be understated. By being able to demonstrate profitability and a strong balance sheet, you reduce the ambiguity that is often present in a small business’s financial statements. Banks look to manage their risk and increase their predictability with the loans and lines of credit they give. Owners who can do that for them will stand a better chance of getting approved.

2. Showcase your strategic thinking. Give financial institutions an idea of how your strategy will help your bottom line. Broad brush strokes won’t cut it here. Provide specifics as well as the quantitative and qualitative reasoning behind it.

3. Get some help. Although most small businesses don’t require a full time chief financial officer, many should consider hiring a reputable, outsourced accounting firm. The right one will give you a better understanding of your company finances.

Make Sense?

J

  • 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