admin, Author at aACEsoft Business Management Software

Easily and Accurately Collect Sales Taxes with aACE+ Avalara AvaTax

By admin June 22, 2020aACE Feature Highlights, Accounting, Integrations, Order Management

Managing sales taxes isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time — but it doesn’t have to be a chore, either. aACE’s out-of-the-box tax management infrastructure makes it easy for you to set and update tax profiles for each jurisdiction in which you do business. And for even more peace of mind, the aACE+ Avalara AvaTax integration uses geolocation to provide precise, up-to-date tax rates every time you make a sale.

To learn more about how aACE makes sales tax management easy, let’s look at how our sample company, aACME Education Solutions, uses these features in their day-to-day operations.

aACME sales rep Jamie Gianelli receives an order from P.S. 118 in the Bronx for 35 science textbooks and 5 hours of curriculum development. When Jamie creates the order, aACE automatically pulls in the NYC tax profile based on the postal code in P.S. 118’s shipping address. This tax profile is configured with each of the tax rates applicable in New York City as well as any items that are exempt from the local sales tax.

When Jamie processes the order, aACE calculates the sales tax and includes it in the grand total.

Once the order is shipped, Alexis Kohn in the Accounts Receivable department receives a notice that the related invoice has been generated. While inspecting the invoice to make sure everything looks accurate, Alexis wants to know how the sales tax was calculated. By navigating to the related general ledger transactions, she can see how much of the tax went to the GL accounts for the New York State, New York City, and Metropolitan Commuter District taxes, respectively.

This will become important when it comes time to remit these collected taxes to the government. Alexis will be able to easily see the balance owed to each tax agency and cut a check for those amounts.

But what happens when an order comes in from a state where aACME is not required to collect sales taxes?

Jamie receives an order from the Shea Township School District for two new electronic whiteboards. Shea Township is located in Ohio, where aACME does not have a presence and is therefore not required to collect sales taxes. When Jamie enters the order, aACE automatically pulls in the Out-of-State tax profile based on the customer’s ship-to postal code. This tax profile is configured not to collect taxes, so when the order is processed, the sales tax comes to $0.

Similarly, aACE also includes tools for supporting tax-exempt customers. For example, longtime aACME client Full STEAM Charter School is a nonprofit and exempt from paying sales taxes. In Full STEAM’s Company record, they are flagged as tax exempt and their exemption certificate is kept on file.

Now you may be asking, what happens when a customer located in one tax jurisdiction places an order to be picked up in another jurisdiction? aACE can handle that, too.

Jamie receives an order for 5 new student tablets from Nikki Huang at Southglen High School. SHS is located in Pemberton, NJ, but Nikki is going into the city for a conference and plans to pick up the tablets in person from aACME’s Manhattan location. When Jamie enters the order, she selects “Pick Up” as the type of delivery.

This automatically changes the shipping address from Southglen’s Pemberton campus to aACME’s New York office. aACE also pulls in the NYC tax profile based on the new postal code associated with the order.

As you can see, aACE’s out-of-the-box tax functionality makes it simple to collect and remit sales taxes. But if you have a presence in a large number of tax jurisdictions, you may not want to manually update dozens of profiles every time there’s a change in tax rates — and some tax jurisdictions don’t align perfectly with local zip codes, complicating matters even further. Then there are jurisdictions that tax certain items on a tiered basis — meaning the first $5,000 in sales, for example, is taxed at one rate while the next $5,000 is taxed at a different rate and so on — not to mention jurisdictions that tax items differently depending on the circumstances, like a raw chicken from the grocery store’s meat department vs. that same chicken sold after having been roasted at the deli counter. Wouldn’t it be great if you could automate sales tax collection with even more precision?

That’s where aACE+ Avalara AvaTax comes in.

Jamie receives an order from the Brightside Charter School for 10 new student tablets and 10 cases — but now, aACME has implemented the aACE+ AvaTax integration. Like the previous examples, aACE auto-selects the tax profile associated with Brightside’s postal code. This time, however, the tax profile has AvaTax enabled as shown by the icon, which tells aACE to bypass its internal tax infrastructure and use the Avalara integration instead.

AvaTax calculates the order’s sales tax in seconds using the precise location of Brightside’s shipping address. Without leaving aACE, Jamie can see top-level details from AvaTax such as the amount of the order, the total taxable amount minus any discounts or exemptions, and the total sales tax.

Once the order has been shipped, aACE again automatically generates an invoice. Over in the A/R department, Alexis logs in and reviews the invoice to make sure it’s correct before sending it to the customer.

If Alexis ever needs to double-check the tax calculations for this invoice, she can simply log into aACME’s Avalara AvaTax account. She finds invoice #50064 in the Transactions portal and opens up the detail view. Alexis can see the sales tax for the invoice broken down by line item, including the taxable amount of each line item, any discounts, the taxes or fees associated with each item, and the cost of each item with taxes included.

For more details, Alexis can click on the line item for the tablets. Here she can see each individual tax jurisdiction that this item was subject to as well as the tax rates and total tax amount for each one. When tax time rolls around, Alexis will use Avalara’s robust reporting and filing tools to remit any accrued taxes to the appropriate jurisdictions all over the country.

aACE tax profiles and the aACE+ Avalara AvaTax integration can help take the headache out of tax time. To learn more about aACE+ AvaTax, check out our landing page on Avalara’s website. And to discover how aACE can help streamline your business’s operations, register for a webinar today.

7 Ways to Increase Customer Engagement for Big Gains in eCommerce

By admin June 10, 2020Blog

In light of COVID-19 social-distancing and stay-at-home orders — which have now spanned three months or longer in some areas — many businesses are struggling.

Some, particularly those in retail, that closed doors temporarily have announced they will likely never re-open. Others, like restaurants, have adjusted from full indoor tables to take-out orders, curbside pick-up, and limited outdoor seating.

Other industries are doing better — and in some cases even thriving, especially those engaging in ecommerce.

In late April, for example, ecommerce in the United States was up more than 120% compared to the same time last year. The latest numbers show great promise with late May remaining at more than 110% over the previous year.

This may not be a trend that’s likely to disappear when communities go “back to normal” post-COVID-19. One report indicates that by 2040, some 95% of purchases may be made through ecommerce. By next year, there will likely be about 2.14 billion digital buyers around the world.

If you’re a retailer of goods and services and you’re not already actively engaged in ecommerce — or you’re not doing so strategically — you could be falling behind while your competitors make gains.

First, what is customer engagement?

Customer engagement, while broad, encompasses all the ways your brand and customers (including potential customers and former customers) interact with one another. These interactions can represent a range of communications. The more successful companies offer customers a multitude of engagement opportunities and then let the consumer decide which option works best. While not exclusive, here are some examples of customer engagement channels:

Calls
Text messages
Emails
Chats, both with bots and real people
Reviews and ratings (both positive and negative)
Feedback/website forms
Social media comments
Likes and follows on social media
Direct communication with your employees and staff
Customer support portals

Why is customer engagement important?

Customer engagement is more than selling products and services, but, if done well, that will be the end result.

Customer engagement is about setting yourself apart from your competitors and building trust — and often an emotional connection — between your customers and your brand. The better your customer experiences are, the more likely you may be to convert sales leads into customers and retain them for additional, ongoing purchases with your company.

Not sure what’s effective or where to begin? Here are 7 ways to increase customer engagement for big gains in ecommerce:

1. If you don’t have an ecommerce site, now is the time

According to the 2020 Remote Payments Survey from PYMTNS.com, in 2020, consumers are more than 30% more likely to make an online purchase than they were the previous years. It’s a move fueled by COVID-19 forcing closures of many brick-and-mortar stores, but with convenience, speed, and reliability increasing with online retailers, it’s a trend that may not dissipate in the near future.

If you don’t have an ecommerce site to help you deliver goods and services to the public — and especially if your retail locations have been closed or have limited capacity — you’re missing an opportunity to engage with your customers who may very well be stuck at home or limiting their in-person interactions to only essential services.

The United States, according to Statista, has one of the highest ecommerce penetration rates of anywhere in the world. Pre-COVID19, the report indicated that in 2019, some 80% of internet users in the U.S. were expected to make at least one purchase online, which is up from 73% from 2013.

2. Focus on the ecommerce experience

Today, it’s not just enough to have an ecommerce site (although it’s a great place to start!). You also need to ensure that your site works properly, is engaging, and easy to use.

Here are some questions to consider when auditing your ecommerce site:

Is your site visually appealing?
Does it load quickly with no technical issues?
Is your site secure?
Does your site accept common, trusted payment methods such as credit or debit cards or PayPal?
Does your site effectively tell your brand story and connect with consumers?
Does your site make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for?
Is pricing clear and easy to understand?
Do you offer a variety of shipping alternatives?
Do you make it easy for your customers to communicate with you if they have questions or concerns?
Is your site mobile friendly?

While you may be stuck at home working from a laptop or computer during coronavirus restrictions, remember, a growing number of your potential customers are likely using mobile devices to connect with you. At least 72% of respondents in that PYMNTS.com payment study are using mobile devices for ecommerce.

And because the adoption of mobile devices and high-speed internet have made most consumers accustomed to fast service, it’s important to ensure your site loads quickly on both desktop and mobile devices. That’s because on average, almost half of consumers expect a site to load in two seconds or less and about 40% of your potential customers will leave your site if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

3. Focus first on re-engaging existing customers, then attracting new ones

Acquiring new leads and converting them to customers is challenging, time consuming, and it can be expensive.

In tough times, your efforts may be better focused on re-engaging existing customers than trying to find and convert new ones. That’s because in most cases businesses have a 60-70% chance of selling something to an existing customer. For new customers? That chance can drop to as low as 5%, and in best cases, only 20%.

This can be especially beneficial if you’re trying to sell a new product or service because your existing customers can be seven times more likely to try it. And the good news doesn’t stop there. Those repeat customers are more likely to spend more money with you — almost 70% more than a new customer.

Not only do these customers spend more with you, it’s cheaper to retain an existing customer than find and convert a new one, which can cost you six to seven times more.

And existing customers are almost 60% more likely to return to your site if you recommend more relevant products.

4. Get social

While people are stuck at home during this pandemic, more people are using social media more frequently. In an early study at the start of the outbreak, some 43% of users said they thought they would use social media more while at home. Think about it for yourself. How many times have you aimlessly scrolled social media during the past few months? This is a great place to focus your marketing efforts for your ecommerce sites.

If you have an advertising budget, target your social media ads to existing customers. But even without one, you can use social media as a tool to share your brand’s stories, offer promos and deals, and engage with your customer base.

5. Listen

eCommerce success will take more than just being on multiple social media and digital advertising platforms. You also need to listen to and engage with your customers. Meet them where they are.

Don’t just push messages and posts outward. Monitor all your accounts and engage with the customers who engage with you. Create compelling content that encourages engagement. Respond to messages quickly with integrity and offer viable solutions to known problems. Graciously accept criticism and say thank you to the customers who support you.

Did you know that 65% of U.S. consumers say that a positive brand experience is even more influential than advertising?

6. Capture data and deliver personalized experiences

When it comes to ecommerce, personalization is key. Hopefully, you’ve already tailored your marketing messages to your core buying demographic, but today, modern buyers expect much more.

About 45% of online shoppers say they’re more likely to shop on a site that offers personalized recommendations and the click through rates for digital advertising is more than 10x compared to ads without personalization.

7. Have great customer service

Earlier in this post we mentioned some of the communication channels you could use to engage with your customers. These days, ecommerce isn’t just about setting up a site and waiting for customers to come to you. You have to go to where your customers are and engage with them. That engagement includes exceptional customer service with fast and effective responses.

And the better your customer service, the stronger your ecommerce sales may be. One Gartner report indicates that almost 90% of companies expect to compete for customers based primarily on customer experience.

Quality customer service is key here. Not only do 73% of customers say their customer experience is an important factor in purchasing decisions, but some 42% are willing to pay more for a product if they have a welcoming customer experience.

Facilitate engagements with business management software

There are a lot of moving pieces and parts to an effective customer engagement strategy. It can be challenging to keep up with it all. Business management software (BMS) can help.

You may want to consider a BMS that easily integrates with your existing operational systems and applications. BMS can help you streamline processes for your customer relationship management software (CRM), your accounting system, billing, and even shipping and receiving.

If you’d like to learn more, join aACE for our “Sales Leads and aACE CRM App” webinar on June 16 where you can learn more about using a BMS to increase your customer engagement. Register now to reserve your spot!

Kick Off the Summer with Our June aACE Webinars

By admin June 3, 2020Blog

Learn how aACE can help you streamline your operations and take your business to the next level. Last month, we covered topics ranging from expenses to commissions and production to cost of goods sold. Here's what we have in store for June:

June 2nd – aACE Basics

If you’re brand-new to aACE, this is the webinar for you! Learn how aACE’s system-wide conventions make it easy for new users to interact with the solution. Check out our video before the presentation to get a sneak peek at aACE’s user-friendly design.

June 9th – Managing Transactions

aACE makes it easy to track each step of a transaction, giving you the peace of mind that comes from having one solution manage every aspect of a sale or purchase. We’ll explore how users manage transactions in aACE using the Purchase Orders module as our example.

June 16th – Sales Leads and the aACE CRM App

Your sales team is moving fast to keep your customers and prospects engaged, and they need a solution that can keep up – even when they're on the go. See our CRM App in action and learn more about how sales leads move through aACE. Check out our sales leads and CRM App feature highlights for a sneak peek before the presentation.

June 23rd – Sales Orders

See aACE's sales order, drop shipping, and special order workflows in action and learn how aACE makes each of those workflows a breeze. Before the webinar, check out our feature highlight for a preview of some of these topics.

June 30th – Shipping and the aACE Pick App

Your customers depend on you to get them the right products at the right time. Learn how aACE streamlines the pick, pack, and ship process with our Pick App and shipping integrations, and take a sneak peek by checking out our feature highlight.

5 Tips to Help You Select The Right ERP Platform For Your SMB

By admin May 28, 2020Blog

If you’re a small or mid-sized business (SMB) owner or executive, you understand that the better you are at business, the more customers you have, and the more products or services you sell, the more complex day-to-day operations can get.

This can be especially complicated if you have growing teams where new employees are routinely added to your roster, or you have high turnover within your company.

Growth and change make it difficult to keep up with new customers, new orders, billing, and all the back-end tasks associated with running an SMB. It’s especially tricky if you’re doing a lot of manual tasks or using spreadsheets or static word processing documents to manage your operations.

In some cases, the opposite can be true.

In today’s COVID-19-influenced business world, you may struggle to keep up not because you’re growing, but because your staffing situation has changed in light of “stay-at-home” orders or because your staff is sick or afraid to come to work because they’re worried they’ll get sick.

So whether you’re growing and can’t keep up or you’re trying to figure out the “new normal” of operating with reduced staff during a pandemic, how can you manage operations more efficiently?

It may be time to think about an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Did You Know: About 95% of businesses that implemented an ERP said they’ve experienced “significant” improvements in workflow and that today, about 65% of small businesses are using ERP consultation services?

An ERP can help connect all of your core business operations, systems, applications, and processes into a single platform. ERPs offer a wide range of options from orders and billing, to customer relationship management systems (CRMs), to inventory and production management, and more.

The goal of using an ERP is to more efficiently manage your systems and processes to reduce costs, time spent, and resources used while conducting more efficient (and in some cases automated) processes with fewer errors and more accuracy.

But there are a lot of ERP solutions on the market, and, in general, they’re not cheap. So how do you know where to start? As an SMB owner or executive where do you begin and how do you have the confidence that you’re making the best choice for your business, not just today, but for the future?

Here are five tips to help you select the right ERP platform for your SMB.

1. Outline your needs

Selecting an ERP isn’t like shopping for a new car. Sure, they’re both big investments and require a lot of thought and research, but that’s about where the similarities begin and end.

With an ERP, you don’t start with what’s on the market and then decide which is best for you. Instead, you have to start by figuring out what’s best for your business — and what meets all of your goals and objectives — before you take a product out for a test drive.

A big mistake SMBs can make early in this process is starting out with a list of ERP platforms and then trying to figure out how to make a platform work for your needs.

Instead, begin by outlining your business needs and requirements. First, look at your existing processes and systems:

What works well?
Where do you have gaps?
What can you do better?
Where can an ERP help with efficiencies?
Which processes are critical to your operations?
Do you have existing software or applications that handle those processes? How efficient are they now and for your future needs?

In setting your ERP requirements, your starting point should be where your operations are today, but you must also look forward. What will your business needs be in a year? Five years?

It’s important here to include a cross-section of representatives from your work teams for this part. Talk to the people who are responsible for your core functions on a daily level.

What do they like about your existing processes?
How do they think they can be better?
How do they feel about using new tools to help them work more efficiently?
Are they open to new technologies?
Will they willingly use an ERP solution if they are well-trained and fully understand the product benefits?

Understanding your requirements both short and long term will set you on the right path to choosing your perfect ERP solution.

2. Set a budget

Once you’ve determined your needs, it’s time to set a budget.

ERPs can be expensive, but you should anticipate recouping some of those costs in savings over the lifespan of your platform.

On average, an SMB can spend as little as $25,000 for a small business ERP to $1 million or more for a medium-sized or larger enterprise. Here are some things to think about when making a cost-estimate for a new ERP.

First, how will the solution be deployed? On-premises solutions often cost significantly more than cloud-hosted options.

Most on-prem and cloud-based solutions come with additional fees like subscriptions, licensing costs (how many users access the ERP), and service.

While some ERP vendors like aACE include access to the entire solution for each named user, other ERPs charge fees for modules for specific business tasks. For example, there may be one fee for a CRM module and another for an accounting module.

This is where step 1 is important. Some vendors offer more modules than you need or will ever use. Don’t get caught up in the “what if you might need this?” sales-push. Know what you need now and for your business in the future. Stick to your list, but be open to professional input, but only if it aligns with your business goals and objectives.

Other additional ERP costs can include fees for training, maintenance, and more. Some maintenance fees can cost at least 15% of your implementation expenses. Let’s say you’re a small business that invested $100,000 in your ERP implementation, could pay an additional $15,000 a year in maintenance fees alone.

If you have existing systems that you’re using for day-to-day operations, for example, accounts payable, you may have more fees for software integrations into your ERP platform.

For licensing fees, depending on vendor, these can range from less than $1,000 to more than $4,000 per year.

Also, if your requirements call for significant customization of a core ERP product, you’ll look at expenses for that, too.

And what about upgrades? Some vendors charge upgrade fees when they release new software versions.

It’s also a good idea to budget for overages. They happen frequently with technology implementations. One study finds that more than half of companies surveyed exceeded their ERP implementation budgets and more than 60% took longer to implement than expected.

If you’d like to make more accurate budget predictions during this step, you may want to work directly with an ERP advisor who can align your requirements to a more realistic budget. To learn more about what goes into the pricing of an ERP implementation, check out our FAQ on how much aACE costs.

3. Review platforms

Once you know your requirements and have your budget, it’s time to look at platforms. There are a lot of ERP solutions on the market, so it’s hard to know which is best for you.

Software review sites like Capterra are a good starting point.

These sites outline core offerings of a variety of platforms, including information about what’s included with a product. You can also make comparisons between competitors.

Once you’ve delved into several review sites, use that information to make a list of platforms that meet the short- and long-term requirements you outlined in step 1 that also fall within your budget.

Then, comb through customer reviews.

You can quickly narrow your list with products that get five star reviews on sites like Capterra. If you feel that list is too narrow, you may want to consider products with four-star or higher reviews.

Don’t just look at product reviews. Seek out information about customer service, training, education, and staff availability for support, too.

4. Demo the product

From your short list, it’s time to see the product in action.

Where you can, first try to find on-demand videos and feature highlights or live webinars online. This can help you further shorten your list. If those types of demos aren’t available, then it’s worth the time to set up an appointment for a personalized demo. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, many companies offer these demos remotely.

High-level product demos can help you narrow your list further.

Which platform looks easiest to use?
Which platform will meet your needs with the least amount of customizations and add-ons?
Which platform do you think your team will be more likely to adopt and use to its full potential?

Try to narrow your list to the top two or three competitors, and then ask the vendors to give you a second demo to take a deeper dive into your top priorities.

At this point, some vendors will set up an account for you and let you loose in the software without any guidance. Others, like aACE, pair this trial period with a paid training process known as Discovery that enables you to experience the software as it would work for you. While not a full implementation, this can help you better understand how the program works and, with your existing knowledge of your team and requirements, you can make better informed decisions about which products appear easier to implement and will be more user-friendly.

5. Select a vendor

Once you’ve sampled a couple of your favorite products, it’s time to select your vendor. Here are some questions you may want to ask before narrowing your pick.

What’s involved in the implementation process?
How long does implantation take?
Will my critical business operations be affected during implementation?
What type of training do you offer for new users?
How does your customer support system work?
How often do you release updates or upgrades?
Is there expected downtime for updates or upgrades?
How often does your product need maintenance and what’s required?
How can you help ensure I have no unexpected or surprise costs in the future?

ERPs are Good for SMBs

Once you’ve selected your vendor, it’s time to begin the ERP implementation process. Soon, you’ll be on your way to more efficiencies for your day-to-day SBM operations.

There are a number of business benefits for adopting an ERP:

Streamlined processes
Task automation
Standardized processes
Relevant and secure data sharing across multiple systems without repeated re-entry or re-keying
Less repetitive work for your employees
More transparency in your operations
Less chance for errors and fraud
More productivity
Data visibility and simple reporting tools
Improved compliance and audit performance
More collaboration and better communication across your company
Improved customer service and more satisfied customers
Fuels innovation and scales as your business scales

Have questions about selecting an ERP solution for your small business or looking for ERP consulting services? Check out our white paper on choosing the right ERP for your SMB.

Remote Payments May Be Key to Business Success with Social Distancing

By admin May 20, 2020Blog

This time a year ago, the word “pandemic” seemed like a far-off phrase used only in history books to describe horrible events that shaped the world. But today it’s part of our reality, and it’s a reality that’s altered the face of business and the global economy.

As COVID-19 spread first from Asia then to other parts of the world, government leaders here in the U.S. at the federal, state, and local levels sought ways to curb the virus spread while trying to keep essential services operational.

As stay-at-home orders spread from coast to coast, “non-essential” companies were left scrambling to figure out how to stay afloat when workforces either couldn’t come onsite or where team numbers dropped drastically and conditions changed inside offices and facilities around the country.

For retailers and other services providers, this new normal meant not only having to make workforce adjustments, but also adapt to new ways of doing business to reach customers and clients. Companies that previously relied on walk-in business or onsite transactions suddenly had to figure out how to move into the digital realm to keep going.

Move to Digital Payment Processing

Long before the coronavirus changed the working landscape — and fueled by more card-based transactions — many companies were already considering a move to more convenient digital payment options for customers.

According to the U.S Federal Reserve, between 2015 and 2018, debit and credit card payments increased almost 9% each year. By 2018, the most recent data in the study, the value of remote card payments equaled in-person payments. Today, with social distancing and many facilities closed to the public, it’s likely we will see even bigger growth in remote payments values for 2020.

Back in February, before the heart of the outbreak, the global digital payments market was valued at more than $3885 billion, and that’s expected to increase to more than $8686 billion by 2025. Of that total value, the average transaction value per mobile point-of-sale (POS) payment user is more than $3,647.

The report also indicates that online and ecommerce payments that don’t require a card in-hand had a higher growth rate — 23% over the previous year — compared to card-in-hand transactions.

Digital payment is becoming the payment method of choice for most consumers, and it’s driven largely by the proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, many of which have digital “wallets” that remove the need for handling actual cards for transactions.

If you haven’t yet adopted remote payment options for your customers, there may never be a better time. Because of coronavirus, social distancing may continue for weeks or months longer. The information at this point is still uncertain. That means you’ll need ways to collect payments from your customers without engaging in-person. So where do you begin?

Here are a few steps that can help you adopt a digital payment system for your business:

Virtual Terminals

First, consider adding a virtual terminal to your traditional point-of-sale (POS) system. The virtual terminal can also serve as your credit card payment system and they’re great to have as backups to your onsite payment terminals.

You can access your virtual terminal to process customer payments from any device, like a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, that has an internet connection.

Unlike a traditional in-house payment system, you don’t swipe or tap a card to complete a transaction. Instead, you manually enter your customer’s payment information into the system for processing. For example, your customer calls in for service and instead of paying in person, the customer can give you payment card information and you can enter it into the system directly.

To lessen the likelihood of fraud and to potentially decrease the overall expense of purchasing a virtual terminal system, look for terminals that have an Address Verification System (AVS). AVS allows you to enter additional verification information such as an address to decrease the likelihood of fraud and ensure legitimate transactions.

Your existing card payment processor should be able to help you add a virtual terminal to your existing account.

Text Payments

Another great option during social distancing is text payments, and it’s a system many of your customers may love.

With text-to-pay, you can text an invoice directly to your customer’s mobile device and they can make a payment when it’s convenient.

This is a particularly great option for companies that offer services, for example home or business repairs. You can send a technician to do the work and instead of waiting around to complete an invoice and engage for a transaction, your employee can complete the required task and then send an invoice remotely from wherever they are.

Smartphone Terminals

It’s likely that soon more non-essential businesses will be allowed to reopen, but what exactly that looks like remains uncertain. In some states where this has already happened, businesses are offering curb-side pickup for a variety of products, not just food. This is a great place to use smartphone terminals. All you need is an internet or cellular connection.

There are a few ways companies offer these mobile payment options. One is with a card reader that connects to your device. You simply swipe the card from the reader to complete the transaction. Some companies even offer small handheld devices that can electronically process the transaction without having to use your personal device.

Integration is Key

Regardless of your remote payment option of choice, be sure that your digital services fully integrate within your existing business management software solution.

For example, aACE integrates directly with a variety of payment processing options to ensure you have seamless access to all your data when you need it. With aACE+ OpenEdge and aACE+ SagePay you can execute credit card, debit card, and ACH payments with ease from within your aACE solution. To learn more about payment processing, check out our feature highlight on aACE+ Payments. Then register for an upcoming webinar to learn more about what aACE can do for your business.

Growing Together: Duggal Celebrates 10 Years on aACE

By admin May 8, 2020Success Stories

Duggal Visual Solutions is a global supplier of printed visuals, custom displays, and multimedia solutions for a wide-ranging clientele of image-conscious brands. Since becoming the first company to implement aACE 4 in the spring of 2010, they’ve seen exponential growth — and so has aACE.

At aACE Software, we’re proud to say that our product has been developed through years of working hand-in-hand with our customers, evolving feature sets in line with their real-world workflows. Nowhere is this more evident than in our decade-long relationship with Duggal, an aACE Enterprise customer that has helped us enhance our offerings over the years while easily customizing their own aACE solution to fit their one-of-a-kind workflows.

Challenges & aACE Solutions

Robust Support That Grows with Your Company

When the team at Duggal began looking for an ERP solution back in 2009, they were a much smaller company of about 100 employees. Over the past ten years they’ve grown to over 4 times that number — and aACE has been with them every step of the way. “It’s been a steady climb up,” says Matthew Pelfrey, Duggal’s Director of Process and Compliance. “We’ve bought other companies and brought in entire divisions. And without very much onboarding attention, we put [those new employees] in front of computers and they work with aACE. It’s intuitive.”

“I would say that new users pretty much get it within a week,” adds Rick Jacobs, Director of IT. “I think they find it to be very easy to learn and to use.”

As Duggal has expanded, they’ve also added new locations across the country. From Oregon and California to Manhattan and Long Island, the entire business runs on one single aACE solution located in Brooklyn. This growth hasn’t been without challenges. “Our expansion into California has made tax accountability much more important,” Matthew says. To that end, he’s working with the aACE team on a customized aACE+ Avalara AvaTax integration. “I think that’s a big win.”

Another challenge that comes with the expansion to multiple locations has been ensuring that everyone who needs to can access the many large image files that Duggal deals with every day. Enter aACE’s File Server Folder Launcher feature, which gives users access to the files they need right from within their aACE solution. “Everything goes through aACE,” Rick explains. “We come in, we start up aACE, and we’re in aACE all day.”

Evolving Feature Sets Based on Real-World Workflows

Unlike many other solutions, aACE wasn’t developed by sticking some software engineers in a conference room and asking them to dream up features that might appeal to hypothetical businesses. Instead, aACE has evolved naturally over time by working directly with customers like Duggal to identify, automate, and enhance the workflows they use every day.

The Commissions module is a shining example of this kind of collaboration. As the aACE team built version 5 of the software solution, they made improvements based on requests and feedback from aACE 4 clients like Duggal. The result has been especially valuable as Duggal’s sales team has grown. “It’s been a real game-changer,” says Rick. “There’s been a six-fold or seven-fold increase in terms of how many sales reps we have,” and aACE has easily kept pace with that expansion.

Upgrading from aACE 4 to aACE 5 gave the team “the ability to calculate commissions on the fly, to calculate them at any point in time, to make changes, refresh, redo… There’s a lot more flexibility and accuracy in that report now than there ever was before,” he adds.

Inventory management was another area of the system that Duggal helped improve. “It was a huge jump forward in giving us a way to audit our inventory process,” Matthew says of the switch from aACE 4 to aACE 5. “We can actually push all that inventory costing and audit it down to the penny, down to each and every transaction. We can track who generated it, whether they put the right costing in at the beginning, and whether it changed later on. The logging is really robust.”

He adds that these tools were developed over time; the aACE team made improvements throughout the life of aACE 4 before pulling out all the stops in aACE 5. “We’ve done a lot of work together,” he says of his relationship with the developers at aACE Software. “The Inventory Counter app using FileMaker Go was something that we sort of built hand-in-hand, but we also don’t lock ourselves into a specific workflow. We use the Inventory Counter app for some inventory, but not all of it. It’s just simpler to count certain things in different ways.”

Cross-Platform Flexibility for Any Workflow

Due to the nature of their work, each project at Duggal is unique — and most go through a series of changes before they’re finalized and sent out to the customer. They needed a software solution that could support multiple workflows, giving their staff the freedom to structure each individual project in a way that makes sense rather than forcing them to conform to a template mandated by their ERP. With some customization, aACE fit the bill so well that even its own architect was astounded at what it could do! “Michael [Bethuy, President of aACE Software] was always fascinated — stunned, actually — at the amount of transactions we have in our system. It’s literally thousands every day,” says Rick. “As our own processes have changed, aACE has changed with us. That’s been very vital.”

And because aACE is built in FileMaker, it was easy for the Duggal team to seamlessly integrate other solutions with aACE, including a custom-built production solution. “The communication back and forth between aACE and that production system has been flawless,” Matthew says. “And that’s a big plus not just for aACE, but for FileMaker. Being on that platform has been key for our success.”

In fact, the FileMaker platform played a role in making aACE more attractive than the other packages they were looking at back when they began their ERP search more than 10 years ago — and that remains true today. “The vast majority of machines at our locations are Macs, but we also have printing equipment and financial people who prefer or are required to be on PCs. Having a solution that everybody could access was an important determining factor in our decision-making process,” Matthew explains. “We looked at NetSuite, we looked at Global Shop, and a couple of smaller FileMaker-based solutions, but nothing impressed us as much as aACE did.”

Results

A Customized Solution on a Trusted Platform

Because Duggal’s order management processes are so one-of-a-kind, it took some trial and error to find a solution that fit. For a time, they even tried developing a custom order-writing solution that would integrate with aACE’s accounting functionality. “We spent about a year and a half preparing that and trying to get it right,” Matthew says. “It lasted about a month and a half.”

As it turned out, the new solution was cumbersome and didn’t quite fit the bill. But, Matthew stresses, there was an upside to the failed experiment: “We learned what we needed through the process of building it from scratch. And we realized that aACE [out-of-the-box] already gave us 85% of that.”

In the end, they incorporated the elements of the new solution that did serve them well back into aACE as custom features. “That was a major turning point,” says Rick, which caused them “to embrace aACE even more and tap into its abilities. We had great people struggling to get through the day [with the custom solution], whereas they were not doing that before when we were on aACE.” Shortly afterwards, Duggal upgraded to aACE 5, which brought even bigger possibilities. “Every one of us was stoked about aACE 5,” Rick says. “That was a very interesting moment for the company. We realized how good we had it.”

A Developer’s Dream

aACE is a comprehensive business management solution powerful enough to support most businesses out of the box – but sometimes unique processes require unique solutions. One of the key benefits to building aACE in FileMaker is that any of the thousands of FileMaker developers world-wide can get under the hood and, with very little training, begin making the product their own. This has proven true for Duggal. “We’ve been able to use FileMaker itself as a platform to hire our own developers, which has allowed us to expand the software as the business expands,” says Rick. “We’ve been growing with it as the central launching point for all sorts of new initiatives in the company.”

The team at aACE Software has welcomed this growth with open arms. “The great thing about aACE and the people that work there is that they’ve always been there for our developers with any questions. They’re great partners, and they’ve never been closed-off. They’ve always welcomed us hiring new developers to work with the system; they want that to be a thing.”

Even Duggal’s in-house developers have been pleasantly surprised by aACE’s elegant design, both in front of and behind the curtain. “One of our programmers, Yelena [Teplitskaya], learned how to become a FileMaker developer while working in aACE,” Rick says, “And today she’s our go-to person for customizing aACE. She works extremely closely with aACE’s developers and she loves it. She thinks the structure of aACE behind the scenes is fantastic; it’s extremely professionally done. She loves the guidelines that have been given and the way that all of the scripting has been done.”

“aACE 5 was built so programmers could customize it,“ Matthew adds. It was built in a way so that programmers, with just a little bit of help, can do some really phenomenal stuff.”

He adds that Yelena has taken the lessons she’s learned from aACE and applied them to other endeavors because aACE has set the bar so high. “The experience behind the way aACE does things has taught her more efficient coding, which is a great thing,” Matthew says. “The more efficient every action is, the more efficient the system is. And Yelena is one of the smartest people we have, so for her to praise aACE really means something.”

“Crazy Awesome” Reporting

The ease with which data can be imported to or extracted from aACE makes reporting a snap. One particular custom report is so robust that Duggal’s CFO dubbed it the Crazy Awesome Report. “It breaks out our entire income statement by department, by time period,” Matthew explains. “It gives the CFO a lot of information, and he regularly gives that report to the CEO, Mike Duggal, as his monthly report. It’s been tremendously helpful for Mike in making steering-the-ship decisions. And creating that report with essentially the touch of a couple buttons vs. how we were doing it, which was hours and hours of Excel work, has made a huge difference.”

Before implementing aACE, Duggal had been using Sage — and a lot of manual work. “When we picked up aACE, our inventory was being ordered using handwritten forms in triplicate,” Matthew explains. “Our accounting software was Sage, but our Controller did everything in Excel. Everything. And our order-writing software was as basic a thing as you can possibly imagine, so almost nothing was being captured. So what aACE has allowed us to do is become the company we are.”

A Decade-Long Relationship Built on Respect

After 10 years, the partnership between aACE and Duggal is still going strong. “We realize more and more every day how rare it is to have a partner that lasts,” Rick says. “Truly the longevity of aACE itself, to be around for 17 years in the software business is pretty amazing. Each company has been growing together, and I think that’s fantastic. There were some growing pains in the beginning, but I think the flexibility, the tolerance, and the understanding on both sides has only grown. We have a great partnership.”

“The flexibility of the system, the eagerness to improve on the part of the team at aACE Software, and the fundamental stability of the solution have all contributed to the longevity of the relationship,” adds Matthew.

Like every long-term relationship, there have been some challenges along the way. “I believe we’ve been a demanding client,” Matthew admits. “And the aACE Software team, over the course of many years, have been able to deliver on some pretty ambitious requests. We’ve been happy with the relationship for the duration.”

“The support has been phenomenal as well,” Rick adds. “Any type of urgent matter gets taken care of extremely fast.”

“Any relationship that lasts this long has to have a good foundation,” says Matthew.

In Their Own Words

Here’s what Matthew Pelfrey, Director of Process and Compliance at Duggal, has to say about their aACE implementation:

“aACE is a digestible midsized company solution that can grow with you. Or shrink with you, if you need to downsize. If that should happen, you’re not on the hook for some crazy-expensive system, and there’s a sense of comfort with that.

“I would be hard-pressed to find a company that aACE wouldn’t fit. The production elements of the system can be as rich and complex as you want them. So companies that are more in the true manufacturing world can operate within the system. It’s a true ERP with inventory management, serialization and lot tracking. It is robust.

“Obviously we don’t have too much of a problem saying good things about the situation we’re in. We’re happy to be partners with aACE, happy to share in our growth and share in their growth, and we can’t wait for aACE 6 and 7. Every update is welcome. The aACE Software team works really hard to give us features that are helpful. They are true solution-finders.”

Do you or someone you know need a change from one-size-fits-all ERP tools? Check out our feature highlights to learn more about whether aACE business management software for Mac and PC can help accelerate your company.

Seamlessly, Securely Process Customer Payments with aACE+ Payments

By admin May 5, 2020aACE Feature Highlights, Accounting, Integrations, Order Management

You’ve nurtured a lead through the buyer’s journey, matched them with a product that’s sure to fit their needs, and now it’s time to take their payment. If you’re still using outdated manual methods and terminals that don’t communicate with your ERP, this may be time-consuming, error-prone, and unsecured. Wouldn’t it be great if you could process payments quickly and securely all from within your order management solution?

With aACE+ Payments, you can.

A growing list of leading payment processing services integrate seamlessly with your aACE solution, ensuring that you’re able to quickly and securely process credit card, debit card, and ACH check payments. Eliminate the hassle of manually entering payment information into multiple solutions; with aACE+ Payments, you can enter payment information directly into a payment processor’s secure servers from aACE. Securely applying payment is a breeze, saving you time and minimizing the potential for errors. To learn more, let’s take a look at how our sample company, aACME Education Solutions, uses this feature in their day-to-day operations.

Mara Harvey receives a call from Luisa Ramos at the Brightside Charter School. Luisa would like to place an order for 5 student tablets and put it on her company card. Mara creates the order in aACE, specifying Credit Card as the billing terms.

When Mara selects Credit Card as the billing terms, a Credit Card field appears underneath the order’s total. Because Luisa doesn’t have a credit card on file yet, Mara will need to enter one so that it’s available when the product ships.

To add Luisa’s credit card, Mara clicks on the button to the left of the Credit Card field. A form pops up where Mara can enter Luisa’s credit card details without leaving the order. The form automatically pulls in address information from Brightside Charter School’s company record, and Mara fills in the card number, expiration date, security code, and cardholder name.

Although this form was launched by a button in aACE, the form itself isn’t part of aACE — instead it’s a portal into the payment processor’s server that has been integrated seamlessly into aACME’s aACE solution. This ensures that when Mara enters Luisa’s sensitive credit card information, that data is never stored locally where it may be at risk, but rather is stored only on the payment processor’s secure servers.

Once the Mara submits the form, the payment processor generates a token for Luisa’s credit card that is stored in aACE. This makes it easier for the aACME sales team to process future orders, while still maintaining PCI compliance. In seconds, Mara receives a message that the transaction went through successfully. The card is now ready to be used.

Mara closes the form, and aACE automatically pulls the card’s alias into the Credit Card field. Only the card brand, last four digits, and expiration date are displayed. A hidden field contains the token; remember, at no point does aACE itself or Mara’s workstation have access to the full credit card number.

Mara saves and processes Luisa’s order, which prompts aACE to automatically generate a shipment for the tablets. In aACME’s warehouse, Ned Walker picks the tablets using the aACE Pick App. When he’s finished, aACE automatically transmits the shipment to aACME’s shipping solution.

Over in the Shipping Department, Kristie Hernandez logs into the shipping solution and schedules Luisa’s package for delivery. The shipment information is automatically pulled back into aACE, where the shipment record’s status is updated to Shipped.

At this point, aACE automatically generates an invoice for the order. Because the order is configured to charge the card on file, Luisa’s card is automatically charged for the balance, resulting in a posted receipt and closed invoice.

In the receipt’s log, we can see that the credit card was successfully charged.

But what happens when there’s a problem with the credit card and the payment fails to go through? aACE notifies the relevant parties immediately, enabling you to prevent products from going out the door without having been paid for. Let’s take a look at how that works.

Mara receives another order, this time for 3 electronic whiteboards from the Montboro School District. Sam Patel, the Assistant Superintendent placing the order, would like to pay with a credit card he has used previously with aACME. As before, Mara selects Credit Card as the billing terms and the Credit Card field appears under the order’s total. This time, instead of entering new credit card details, Mara can simply choose the card Sam wants to use from the drop-down list.

The order proceeds to the warehouse, where it’s picked, packed, and prepared to be shipped. When Kristie schedules the shipment, aACE again automatically generates an invoice and charges the credit card on file – but this time, the card is declined.

Immediately, aACE sends a text message to Kristie’s mobile phone. She cancels the shipment and stops the package from leaving before payment is received. Mara also receives a notification, allowing her to quickly follow up with Sam to get a new credit card for the order.

Now we’ve seen how aACE+ Payments makes it easy to take credit card payments, but what happens if a customer requests a refund or exchange?

The Full STEAM Academy Charter School ordered 25 French textbooks, but when they arrive, two of the books are damaged. Tina Rivera, the school principal, contacts aACME to initiate the refund process and send the damaged books back.

When the package from Full STEAM arrives in aACME’s warehouse, Alexis Kohn in the Billing department receives a notice alerting her that an adjustment invoice has been generated. She determines that everything looks correct and processes it, which reverses the amount of the two textbooks from the original invoice.

Next, Alexis needs to issue a partial refund for the two damaged books. To do that, she pulls up the original receipt and selects Credit/Adjust Receipt from the Actions menu.

aACE automatically pulls in the customer, method of payment, invoice, order, and a suggested amount for the refund. After double-checking that the information is correct, Alexis posts the receipt. Tina’s credit card is then refunded when the credit card batch settles overnight.

What if a sales rep makes a mistake and accidentally overcharges the customer? Fortunately, aACE+ Payments makes it easy to correct those errors — and as long as the mistake is fixed on the same day, the erroneous charge won’t even make it to the customer’s credit card statement.

Jamie Gianelli, a sales rep at aACME, receives an order from Southglen High School for new textbooks to replace the outdated ones the school has been using. Nikki Huang, the Vice Principal at Southglen, gives Jamie a long list of books and their quantities, including 45 natural science textbooks. Jamie accidentally mistypes this number as 54, and due to the many items in the order, neither she nor Nikki realize that the total is higher than it should be. It’s only after Jamie has opened the order and taken the payment that she realizes the mistake.

Fortunately, because Jamie caught the error on the same day that the payment was processed, she can fix it before the incorrect charge hits Nikki’s credit card. She pulls up the order and changes the quantity of the science books from 54 to 45, then voids the receipt that was originally created, which voids the pending charge and removes it from Nikki’s credit card statement. With the updated order Jamie can charge the correct amount without Nikki ever seeing the mistake.

And if a customer wants to pay by ACH? aACE+ Payments supports that too.

Jamie receives an order from the Shea Township School District for a new mounted electronic whiteboard. Tim Collins, the Administrative Assistant at Shea Township, would like to place a 50% deposit on the order using ACH.

To process the deposit right away, Jamie clicks on the icon next to the Payment Due field, which opens up a payment dialog. Jamie enters “50%” in the Payment field and marks the “Payment is a Deposit” flag at the bottom of the screen. She selects “ACH” as the payment method.

Jamie clicks on the icon next to the Bank Account field, and a form for entering the bank account details pops up. Like we saw in the first example, this form is not part of aACE — rather, it’s an integrated portal to aACME’s payment processor.

Jamie enters Tim’s bank information in the form to authorize the payment processor to take the deposit directly from Tim’s checking account — all without his sensitive banking information ever entering aACE.

Jamie closes the form and returns to the payment dialog in aACE. As above, the bank account has been “tokenized” so it can be used for future payments. The only thing left for Jamie to do is click on the Apply Payment button to record the deposit in aACE.

Days later, Jamie receives a notification that the order has been shipped and it’s time to process the final payment. She returns to the order record and again clicks on the icon next to the Payment Due field.

As before, she selects “ACH” as the payment method. She has already entered Tim’s banking information in aACME’s payment processor, so a token representing the account appears in a drop-down menu when Jamie clicks into the Bank Account field. Jamie selects the account and clicks the Apply Payment button to process the payment.

As these examples show, aACE+ Payments enables your business to take credit card and ACH payments swiftly and securely, removing the opportunity for errors introduced by duplicate data entry. To learn more about what aACE can do for you, register for a webinar today.

"We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without what aACE does for us. We used to spend hours entering each piece of data by hand — aACE automates ALL of it, freeing up our employees to handle our increasing volume of orders. We can do a lot more now thanks to aACE’s near-limitless functionality." - Cory Elliot, Founder and President, Troy Filters Ltd.

Spring Into Our May Webinars

By admin April 30, 2020Blog

Learn how our comprehensive business management solution for Mac or PC can help increase your business's efficiency while improving your bottom line. Last month, we covered topics ranging from the very basics of aACE and the fundamentals of accounting and transactions to the sleek aACE Pick App and aACE CRM App. Here's what we have in store for May:

May 5th – Cost of Goods Sold

Demystify your cost of goods sold with aACE's advanced tools for COGS reconciliation. Learn about estimated vs. actual cost, how aACE handles products with multiple vendors, when and how to run the COGS process, and more.

May 7th – Campaigns, Templates, and Rate Cards

Learn how to save time and prevent errors related to duplicate data entry with standardized orders, purchase orders, pricing, and more.

May 12th – Expenses and Credit Card Purchasing

For many companies, tracking expenses can be a nightmare – whether you're reimbursing employees or reconciling charges on the company card. Learn how aACE makes it easy to accurately record business expenses and use credit cards for purchasing and see our Expenses App in action.

May 14th – Production and the aACE Job Shop App

Your production process has a lot of moving parts, and your business depends on keeping them all running smoothly. Learn how aACE can help save time and reduce data entry errors with our robust production tools, including the aACE Job Shop app. Before the webinar, check out our feature highlight and demo video to get an advance look at the app.

May 19th – System Administration and Document Management

Take an advanced look at aACE system administration and document management. Learn how aACE makes it easy to manage system preferences, user access privileges, and system notices. Our powerful segregation-of-duties tools gives you full control over what your users can see and do, while aACE's document management system allows you to attach files directly to records in aACE, ensuring that you always have the information you need right at your fingertips. Check out our feature highlight and demo video for a sneak peek.

May 21st – Commissions

Discover how aACE's comprehensive commissions tools can help you incentivize your sales team and reward your affiliates for referring new business.

We look forward to seeing you in our May webinars! Reserve your seat now for a chance to see aACE in action and ask questions of our senior developers in real time.

Eliminate Repetition, Increase Velocity By Automating These 7 Finance Tasks

By admin April 15, 2020Blog

When it comes to finance and accounting, many companies still rely on manual tasks for routine processes — for example, calculating an amount due in a spreadsheet or manually generating purchase orders in a word processing program.

Manual inputs — or doing things the way they’ve always been done — can create a false sense of security that team members follow procedures as expected and that what they're doing is accurate.

But the reality is, one accidental number flip or a single cell deletion can send your employees down a rabbit hole sleuthing into what went wrong. That leads to lost time and productivity, and sometimes lost revenue.

And unfortunately, many industry accounting teams have experienced budget and staff cuts, meaning they have fewer people to do required tasks.

So how can you standardize workflows and improve efficiencies with fewer resources while still decreasing chances for human error and completing repetitive (and often time-consuming) manual tasks?

Look no further than robotic processes automation (RBA) within your business management software (BMS) solution.

Did you know? 55% of respondents in a survey conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) expect automated accounting systems to have a significant impact on businesses in the next three to 10 years.

Here are 7 finance-related tasks you can easily automate with a BMS:

Credit checks and payment approvals

Business management software integrates directly with your core operational applications and processes including sales, accounting, and inventory.

With an accounting component included in your BMS, you can track all of your sales from initial lead to order to payment and even shipping and receiving.

In manufacturing, for example, you can use your BMS to see current accounts receivable balances. If your customer has credit issues, you can automate tasks to prevent a new order from processing and even communicate directly with your sales team for instant follow-up and resolution.

Once resolved, a BMS can automatically complete the purchase order and facilitate the next steps in your order management processes.

You can also use your BMS to automate payment processing directly related to system events, including point-of-sale (POS) transactions.

Accurate contact information

Email addresses change. Phone numbers change. Customers move. It’s challenging to keep up with current, accurate contact information, especially if your customer relationship management (CRM) tool is separate from the rest of your business processes.

Bad contact data makes it increasingly difficult to process payments and deliveries, ultimately making your customers unhappy and potentially costing you money.

You can use a BMS to automate contact information tasks. For example, if your customer updates an email address in your sales portal, your BMS can be configured to update that same information across all of your core operational systems.

Event reminders

Task management is one of the most time-consuming components of day-to-day operations. Do you have orders to process? Sales leads to follow up on? Shipments to send? Invoices to process?

A quality BMS should include calendar and event scheduling. This enables you to see all of your upcoming transactional-related events. Your BMS should also include email and text reminder notifications for unusual or urgent matters requiring your attention.

Business management software should also come preconfigured with filtering options that enable you to see everything from the big picture of all your upcoming events to specific events directly related to a particular business contact or customer.

Pending payment inquiries

How many times in business have you experienced this scenario?

The phone rings. The vendor on the other end says the company delivered your last order, but has not received payment. When will payment arrive?

Next, you check your email. There’s a message from a customer saying payment was made weeks ago, but they haven’t received your product.

How do you know if that customer sent the payment or if your team facilitated payment to your vendor?

A BMS solution will give you accurate, immediate insight into when payments process, when to expect delivery, and any issues along the way.

The great thing about automating this process is your team can check statuses at any time, note where there are issues, and facilitate communication with your vendors and customers before they get frustrated with you.

Timely, automated payments with visibility means happier customers and suppliers, and ultimately reduced stress and headaches for your team.

Ensuring compliance

Ensuring your company meets all compliance and regulatory standards can be a daunting task — whether that’s responding to an external audit or an internal one.

How do you know if everyone on your team follows required standardized processes? Without task automating, that’s difficult, but with a BMS you can automate many compliance and regulatory tasks to ensure they’re following appropriate procedures and reduce the potential for human error.

You can also use your BMS to automate reports and analytics to more quickly prepare for your next audit.

Automated, accurate quoting and sales processes

Even in a mobile, digital-friendly company, many processes and work functions remain siloed across teams and in disparate software. That means if your company makes an important change, for example, updates product pricing, someone (or multiple team members) must take on the task of updating the new pricing model across all of your applications.

When that data is stored in a spreadsheet that lives on multiple hard drives or there are multiple copies of that file stored in the cloud, how can you do this efficiently and ensure everyone is working off the same numbers?

A BMS can simplify your pricing processes by using automated rate cards. One change on the rate card in one connected system means that information is automatically updated in another. This helps your team provide timely, accurate quotes. It eliminates pricing confusion and also the chance for mistakes.

And your sales team members will love that they can use those pricing modules to determine real-time commissions based on your company’s policies.

BMS for bookkeeping

Are you drowning in spreadsheets? Do you still have a calculator with ticker tape rolling off your desk and onto the floor?

Bookkeeping is critical to ensuring operational success, but manual data entry means you’re likely working harder rather than smarter.

A BMS can automate your bookkeeping tasks by pulling appropriate financial information from multiple sources across your business into a single, easy-to-understand dashboard. The dashboard gives you near real-time insight into your big financial picture and you can explore it down to a granular level.

Automating your bookkeeping tasks reduces not just the chance for error, but also reduces fraud risk, helping to keep your business safe and your employees accountable.

Are you ready to help your team focus on high priority financial tasks while automation takes care of the routine, repetitive ones? Join our upcoming webinar on March 17, 2020, to learn more about using BMS to automate recurring transactions. Register for the webinar or check out our schedule of upcoming webinars.