Tag: traditional boundaries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make Sense?

J

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Simultaneous Syncing Sinks Solution: Extend Access but Control Integrations

Simultaneous Syncing Sinks Solution: Extend Access but Control Integrations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make Sense?

J

Read more …

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

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

Compliance in the Cloud – their system, your responsibility

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

Beyond Bookkeeping to Total Business

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

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Be the McDonald’s of Professional Service

Be the McDonald’s of Professional Service

The Progressive Accountant

You run a professional services firm, perhaps an accounting firm. You have a wide variety of clients with a wide variety of needs, but the services you offer are relatively standardized. You provide tax return preparation, bookkeeping and financial statements.

What’s not standardized is how you approach each client need, and how you work with each client. You treat each engagement as a one-off, dealing with the client (and the client information) in a manner that suits the client at that time. While this sounds like a great approach, lending itself to a high level of personalization, the underlying result is inefficiency, lack of standards, and a very limited ability to improve your internal profitability.

What you need is a machine – to be the McDonald’s of professional services – delivering consistent and predictable service to your client community. Your service quality doesn’t have to be in the realm of “fast food”, but the point is that you should be using a standards-based approach and applying the same tools and methods to each engagement in a consistent and repeatable manner. You’ll rapidly find that a great many of your clients will eagerly adapt, and begin to embrace and take advantage of the tools you provide to them. For your firm, the result is more predictable performance and increased profitability.

As an example, let’s say that your firm is “tooled up” to provide services using Internet or cloud services.  You have a client portal where you can store and share files with clients, and you have mechanisms for securely emailing files and documents to clients as well.  Your goal is to get your clients to use the online portal to exchange information with your firm, enabling somewhat of a “self service” model.  But many of your clients won’t log in to the portal, and require you to use email to send/receive files and information.

The right approach here is to use the portal no matter what.  This is a key element to the success of your overall approach –the strength of your standardized processes.  And it’s important to remember that it isn’t a process if you don’t do it the same way every time.  Even if your clients don’t use the portal for data exchange, you should still encourage it and put the documents there.  Now, you’ll still likely do the email thing – it’s always a good idea to have at least two paths of communication.  But if you consistently use the portal as a standard method of making data available for your clients, many of those non-portal users may become users simply because they find that the convenience of any time/anywhere access really works for them.  Sometimes it takes letting folks get used to things, but once they do, it becomes second nature and almost an expectation.   Once these clients have adopted your standard portal approach, what else can you introduce to them to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the engagement?

You need to help make your firm as efficient and profitable as possible, and to have a quality product (or service) produced every time.  Henry Ford’s assembly line is where you start.  Create the machine that is the operational level of your business, and establish the tools and standards that will allow for sustainable growth and success.

Make Sense?

J

Read more about Data Warriors: Accountants in the Cloud

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

Article originally published via The Progressive Accountant

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Use the Cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries

Use the Cloud to connect beyond traditional boundaries

With the number of definitions being applied to the term “cloud” these days, it’s no wonder business owners and IT managers are having a hard time keeping up. Depending on who you talk to, cloud can mean anything from “all things related to the internet” to a description of a more complex, distributed method of provisioning and utilizing the various elements (or layers) involved in a network computing model. There are purists in the industry who don’t agree with the broad use of the term “cloud”, as it creates confusion in the market as to what is and is not true cloud computing. Over time, however, this situation should be resolved through the understanding that, no matter what software or system you elect to implement, there will likely be an aspect of “cloud” in it. The popular term will become less important, and the market will simply recognize that this is how business computing is done.  It becomes “normal” IT, and not something special.

The stealthy inclusion of web services and connected applications has been happening for a few years now.  Even the tried-and-true QuickBooks desktop editions have become the center points for a large number of Internet delivered product features. Where payroll was once simply part of the program, it’s now an outsourced service delivered seamlessly from within the application. It’s the same with credit card processing, bill payments, attaching documents, and more. The cloud is involved in a lot more than most people really understand, because so much of the “magic” happens behind the scenes. This makes it easier for the user to adopt, but doesn’t go a long way towards helping them understand the model or the intrinsic benefits derived from it. Cloud is here, and it’s probably in the solution you are currently using. It’s already “normal” IT, you just didn’t know it.

While the market works through this realization, there is much to do in terms of educating folks on how they can use this new paradigm to their greater benefit. Business process automation, outsourcing non-core processes, and using integrated systems to improve information sharing and exchange within an organization aren’t entirely new concepts. What’s new, and what is enabled through this distributed yet interconnected technology model, is the ability for organizations to extend their “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries. The walled garden of the enterprise can be safely and affordably opened to allow interaction at deeper levels with entities outside of the firewall, allowing metrics relating to those interactions to be captured, collected and analyzed in real time.

Make Sense?

J