Good software is free – money saving tip

sage accounting software

Cutting your IT budget

I want to help you save money and I am never going to ask you for a penny in return.

Every year I save hundreds of pounds by not spending any money on software. It was the Sage Software that pushed me over the edge one afternoon and drove me to look for a better deal for systems to run my business. I am lucky enough to be running most of my key business activities using software that cost me nothing. Only the Lord knows why this stuff isn’t evryday knowledge for most business folks. I am constantly suprised by the people I talk to who work in small businesses and dont know about what I am imparting here.

Perform these three simple tasks to start saving money.

* Only spend 8 to 10 minutes per day searching for software tools that cost nothing.
* Capture the detail of everything you find (and your experiences) on Evernote.com (Devote ten minutes each day to test drive everything you found).
* In one month from now you should have found a really good list of free tools to help you cut costs and run your business.

I want to make your life as easy as I can so here are some examples of stuff I use everyday. The software listed on the left is free and in some cases there is an upgrade to a paid version but don’t let this daunt you I get by with the free version most of the time (to help you easily identify what each tool does I have listed their “paid” for equivalents on the left hand side – I hope this helps).

Come back soon as I will be adding more insights here.

Here we go:

Just type the name of the free product to the search engines

One system to manage customers and accounting

salesorder.com pricing: free Sage Software – really expensive and only does Accounting

Creating and writing Documents

Google Docs pricing: $0 Microsoft Office pricing – at least $100

Or

OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org)

Sharing ideas online

Bubbl.us pricing: $0 Mindjet pricing – at least $200

Making videos

Jing pricing: $0 Camtasia Studio pricing – at least $300

Teleseminars

DimDim pricing: $0 AdobeConnect pricing – at least $200/month

My thanks to the Sage Software incident for the inspiration!motivation to blog this and help you out.

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running and keeping a small business – why small business ERP is important

small business erp

Running a company effectively is about organisation, focus and process as a massive 55% of businesses don’t make it to their fifth birthday. The observers offer useless ‘insight’ as to why this happens. I continuosly observe three key reasons why this tragedy happens so often and to so many individuals with different backgrounds, education and knowledge.

The primary reason is insufficient market understanding.

Refusal to look at the water ahead. For example People dream up the idea, create the product and then expect the market to flock and buy. In networked age there is no excuse for lack of investigation before spending any time and money on building a product until you have robust evidence there is a market.

The second reason is lack of understanding of the basics of business.

A significant proportion of people starting a business know their trade, how to offer a service or build a product, but not how to run a business.  Having the ability to read and track the numbers in the P&L or the balance sheet is a vital. The basic knowledge of accounting is not very often imparted well by the business books, internet resources and those with the knowledge such as CPAs and bookkeepers. Companies such as Sage software and Intuit aggressively hoodwink business managers with their messaging that their systems are the cure for all ills.

Small business accounting software isnt a complete answer.

Until recently ERP software solutions and packages were the privilege of corporations who had deduced that the back and front office systems need to be fused together to give a complete view of the business. One vendor NetSuite had the vision to see the opening in the market and began selling its small business ERP software. NetSuite competitors have since emerged.

The final reason companies don’t survive is because of lack of process and procedures that put in place the essential behaviours and consistency a business must have to operate efficiently.

Easy and affordable ERP for small businesses

sage software

You might have heard of SAP systems. It’s a software package deployed by a major percentage of medium sized and large enterprises all over the planet. The objective of the system is to connect the whole company together and enable hundreds and often thousands of employees to record, share and recall knowledge about the physical and financial processes of the enterprise. Significant organisations are lead by intelligent people who understand the strategic value of this category of software, such as how it can give them an appreciation of why problems are occurring inside their business or where there might be opportunity for improvements.

This type of system is often known as ERP. It is very complicated, very expensive and can take along time to deploy. A deployment of ERP software is a significant investment but this doesn’t stand in the way of large companies buying these applications.

Until this year software similar to this was not feasible or financially viable for tiny firms. As a result small enterprises have not been aware of the significant benefits that ERP systems can offer. Tiny enterprises have been wrongly convinced by aggressive software like Sage Software and Intuit that small business accounting software is what they need. These systems most often have no functionality to allow their users to connect the whole organisation or undertake common tasks such as customer relationship management.

The achievements of Web based CRM software from enterprises like Salesforce.com is a damning testimony of the small business accounting software firms misleading or misunderstanding the small business community.

It is for this reason that small business ERP enterprises similar to Salesorder.com have begun to make great progress in the market. They provide software as a service which includes all of the key functionality a small enterprise requires at an affordable price. What is even more fascinating is these packages are a cinch to operate and can be rolled out rapidly.

Now ERP systems are no longer the privilege of big organisations.

The best technology to run your business

sage accounting software

I have been struggling for along period with my bookkeeping and I wanted to share with you a shortcut that I discovered after a lot of trial and error. Most individuals I know in small companies want to devote their working day to finding customers and making sales instead of doing accounting. All companies have to pay special attention to their bookkeeping if they want to avoid disaster.

When I first began my accountant advised or should I say insisted that I used a small business accounting software package made by an outfit called Sage Software. Without even trying out software I simply went ahead and bought the cheapest package I could find. This was definitely one of the worst mistakes I made as the software turned out to be really difficult to comprehend and use. To be honest whenever I see the word accounting together with the word software I am instantly reminded of the first piece of advice I want to share with you and that is the majority of small business accounting software makes the assumption you have a good practical knowledge of accounting.

I had to find an answer that worked for me so reluctantly I cleared my schedule and allocated quality time to find an answer. The good news is I discovered a really excellent solution, it’s an online system called salesorder.com.

This is possibly the easiest software I have ever used and what’s more it is internet based and therefore I can access it from anywhere I choose to work. Better still and the third piece of advice I want to share with you is that the people who work at salesorder.com are not just very knowledgeable of their application but they know a tremendous amount about the issues of running a small enterprise and have taught me the bookkeeping I need to know.

Remote Working Part 2 – Things you should know about managing yourself

Quickbooks online edition

The most cited reason individuals fail to adjust to working remotely is they don’t realise the neccesity of high-quality organisation and solid self management.

I have been operating remotely for nearly 8 yrs since I first discovered Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software online system and was energised by the fact that if you can do accounting on the web then why shouldn’t it be possible to perform other key types of of work at a distance?

Whilst working remotely has a lot of positives there are numerous mistakes that people make which evolve into issues that cause cuts in productivity and reduced morale. The key reason for low productivity in remote professionals is distraction and it is a verified and well publicised fact that it can take a professional up to 20 mins to return to their original productivity level after experiencing an interruption.

Research also shows that people who are continuously affected by disturbances are more likely to be susceptible to reduced memory ability and are prone to developing mental health trouble in later life. We live in an over communicated environment and it is important that you recognise the issues this causes before you commence working remotely. When operating remotely you should do everything possible to mitigate the risk of being distracted.

Here are the essentials:

1, Get a routine, make sure that everybody knows it and obsessively maintain it!

Good examples are a regular time of day when you review or write and send electronic mail and make or will accept telephone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to get nearly 200 e-mails over a period of twenty four hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get over four. To start over with my e-mail experience I modified my e-mail address and obsessively took steps to look after the details being made available to anyone. I then made sure everyone who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it with special care. I also created an auto-responder that swiftly told anyone sending me mail my routine for processing mail and if an e-mail should have my urgent attention to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Disable every function that can send you a visual or audible alert. This includes cell and
ordinary handsets and types of alerts from electronic mail such as on screen pop ups, warning sounds, screen changes to your inbox list and of course facing a window. Get a door on your study and put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign on it.

In ‘Remote Working Part 3 – Basic Toolkit’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.

 

Remote Working Part 1 – The Rough Guide – Summary

Quickbooks online edition

Obviously not everyone is able to work remotely as many types of employment require us to be at their employers premises or travel to perform their duties in person. But for those of us have the chance to work remotely then I thought it would be useful to share what I have learned and share some practical wisdom by putting it on the Internet in the hope that I could give others helpful timesavers for adapting to remote working or managing remote workers.

I must tell you you that there are a lot of so called ’experts’ online who will try and sell you videos for large sums of money, believe me you don’t need to do this.

I am lucky enough to be allowed to work in whatever location I choose and just about everyone who asks me what work I do wants to get an idea of how I am able to work remotely. Don’t get the wrong idea I am still improving the science of remote working as each day I meet persons on the net who teach me new tricks and I am constantly finding new software and processes that make my life easier and improve my productivity.

In the past seven years I have steadily adapted my working processes to enable me to do all of my work remotely with a mixture of web tools and robust self discipline. One day whilst surfing the Internet I uncovered Quickbooks online and this made me aware of what just might be possible. The encounter with ’hosted’ ‘on demand’ small business accounting software was a special moment for me and the start of my ‘remote working history.

I have to say up front that effectively working remotely is as much about the software as it is about self management. Working remotely also means getting across to your colleagues, superiors and clients as to what they can expect and how they will interact with you.

In ‘Remote Working Part 2 – Staying focused and maintaining concentration’ I discuss how to focus.

Why budgeting and cash flow forecasting are important

small business accounting software

Budgeting is essential as it gives you a detailed view of the relationship between the various financial activities that will happen in your company and helps you expect and prepare for changes that will inevitably happen in the period ahead. Budgeting makes you focus on you must improve to enhance profit and gets you ready for the way ahead. A detailed profit budget highlights what fluctuations you can expect in your cash flow.

The resulting cash flow forecast from your budgeted activities will tell you about your expected cash positions in the future from which you can tell what you can or can’t invest in increasing the size of your business.

The higher the cash flow from profit the more flexibility you have when it comes to [changes in the economic climate. It is therefore critical that you have comprehensive small business accounting software that can give you clear insights to how your actual cash flow is tracking your budgeted cash flow.

Creating more profit does not automatically create a better cashflow . Do not be deceived by this point

Any deviations from what you budgeted for your cash flow from profit should be studied carefully. Any extraordinary from what you expected] you find should be evaluated to see if you have an opportunity or a problem.

The reports in most small business accounting software allow you to drill down through the numbers and analyse the underlying details.

Be careful here, higher sales can mean you are consuming more cash and there may be a big gap before the cash from sales is available to replenish the depleted cash balances.

Once again it is essential that you can easily follow movements in expenses as they occur and that is why you need robust discipline in recording expenses and sales as they happen into your small business management software so as you can re-animate your cash flow forecasts, see predictions and make any adjustments to keep you in line with your budget.

To operate and grow a business you must implement a rigid discipline of tracking cash flow against budget, without this you will inevitably face problems that could lead to disaster.

I hope you found this advice useful andI wish you every success with your business.

Small business accounting software – The profit and loss explained – Part 2 – Expenses

small business accounting software

In businesses that sell stock you will find a line directly below income called Cost of Goods. Reports in most small business accounting software will display this as COGS

This line represents the actual costs (COGS) associated with the Products you sold in the period you report from your small business accounting software. The purpose of this line is to help folks who sell products calculate the gross margin or gross profit, in other words the amount of profit made after taking into account the costs directly associated with acquiring and selling the goods.

Gross profit or gross margin is the sum of subtracting COGS from Income. Gross Margin is often expressed as a percentage and to calculate the gross margin and express it as a percentage just divide the Gross Margin by the value of sales you made in that period. Now if you’re a Services Business life is a little more complex if you want to determine the Gross Margin you make on Services (and you should). The reports in some small business accounting software systems will help you determine this.

Visit the Small Business Heroes channel on Youtube for videos explaining the Profit and Loss and other accounting elements. The COGS row is always followed by the section called Operating Expenses this details the running costs. All of the expenditure made by the business i.e what was spent where is detailed in the Operating Expenses section.

Expenditure, what you spend or Expenses are divided up into major groups such as Sales and Marketing, General and Administration, Research and Development. As you can see these sections represent major functions or centres of activity in a business. The rows contain the accumulative balances of expenditure in a given period.

The balances in these sections are derived from Expense Accounts and it’s really important that you know and understand that there are two major types of Expense in any business. These are Fixed and Variable expenses.

P&L a.k.a Income Statement explained – Part 1 – Brief overview

small business accounting software

If you are running a small business or using small business accounting software it’s vital that you master reading and understanding your profit and loss statement. And if you are stuck You will find videos on Youtube in the Small Business Heroes channel to help you understand this report or statement.

What you have sold, spent and how much profit you are making in a time period is reported in the profit and loss or income statement.

The Profit and Loss or P&L is often referred to as the Income statement, it tracks and reports the financial activity of your business over a period such as a month or a quarter.

To help you understand the financial activities of your business, here is a step by step breakdown of how to read and understand the profit and loss.

I am going to explain the structure of the profit and loss report as generated by a typical small busines accounting software system

I will also explain how the profit is calculated by walking you through the simple calculations that happen when the P&L is reported.

Just one important point before I begin. Get it clear in your mind now – The profit and loss will NEVER tell you how much cash you have. It is perilous to assume that because you made a profit that you have sufficient cash. The financial position (how much cash you have) is reported in the balance sheet.

Always first is Sales (in other words how much you’ve sold),it’s also known as Income or Revenue and is always shown at the top of the profit and loss report generated by your small business accounting software The balance or amount on this line is derived from your Income Accounts.To be clear, the Income or Revenue accounts record the transactions resulting from Sales you make.

So if you’re reporting by month and in March you invoiced or sold 1,000 worth of Products or Services. This line will show a balance of 1000.00 for March.

Each line in this top section represents the sum of the transactions over the time period you specify when you run the profit and loss report

How to sell your skills online

small business accounting software

I use videos like the one above (took about an hour to produce) to help people using my low cost alternative to small business accounting software i.e. Quickbooks quickly learn new skills and techniques they can immediately use to improve their business. Everyone should master the essential skills of turning what they know into digital content and how to market and sell it online to a worldwide audience. The optimum approach is to focus on creating and selling your own product as all of the income you make will be yours and not have to be shared with others.

Take a closer look at YouTube and you will see that it is incredibly easy to upload a video and make it available for millions of people worldwide to watch and it is here I want to start with showing you how to sell your knowledge. The downloads and views on these platforms for my small business accounting software videos is beyond belief and it just keeps getting better.

To get the right result you should always begin by getting your ideas about what you want to say organised into a storyboard or plan that sets out the flow, format and agenda of your video. Don’t even think about using pen and paper to create a storyboard, you can save yourself a lot of repetitive work and let your creative powers loose by using slide creation programs like Microsoft powerpoint or Apple Keynote. In case you are wondering how much this is going to cost I should say that you can create your storyboard, produce your video and get it to your target market without spending any money what so ever.

I have tried loads of other tools and experienced a lot of pain doing this and by far the best tool I have used and still use today is TechSmith Camtasia Studio as it will produce videos in YouTube, Podcast, Windows Media Player and Quicktime formats and it has a great library of tutorials which you should watch first (whatever you do, do not download the 30 day trail yet). I recommend you get your idea storyboarded and learn as much as you can about Camtasia Studio before downloading it as you want to get best use of the 30 day trial.

Now you know what tools you need to create your videos and in the next few days I will be publishing to this blog (owners permitting) another and much more detailed lesson on storyboard creation using how I created and distributed my small business accounting software videos as real life examples of what is possible.