Press Cuttings
- Harnessing IT
- Are You Held Back By Your ACCOUNTING Package?
- Business Solutions from Ruskin Information Systems
Are You Held Back By Your ACCOUNTING Package?
Many SME businesses, across the full spectrum of activities, are suffering from inefficient systems which at best collect the necessary numbers in an unhelpful way, and at worst fail on even that basic level!
So what should you expect of the systems in your business?
You should certainly expect a user friendly input arrangement, together with an integrated approach to save duplication of effort, and best use of modern technology. Ideally there should also be some automatic activity to assist in the smooth running of your business, which should allow you more time to assess both the performance of the enterprise and how to drive it forward.
If you can enter the name and address details just once, and then quote, invoice and progress payment using that same data, there is a readily measured saving in staff time. Now what if your system reacted to the sales processed throughout the day by raising Purchase Orders for replacement stock, automatically, requiring just the final authorisation before issue to your suppliers? How much time would that save, against chasing last minute purchases, and how might that improve your sales by preventing stock-outs?
And what of modern technology you may ask? Well some suppliers may insist on a paper Purchase Order, bearing your personal signature, delivered by post, but others accept a fax, and the more enlightened may even encourage email transmission of orders. Your software needs to be able to cope with such diversity, and to cope easily with the evolving demands of those businesses that you deal with. Similarly, suppliers have differing preferences regarding the presentation of Remittance Advices, while customers have alternative opinions about whether or not to send them a Statement, let alone by which medium!
We are increasingly used to addressing newsletters to our customer base, which is best handled using the up-to-date accounts records, and so it is expected that your system should work with the ubiquitous word processor to allow for mail-merged correspondence, including chase up letters for late payments!
So how does your Accounting System measure up? If your business is being held back, why not call Ruskin Information Systems for a no obligation analysis? This will identify your most realistic solution, whether that means replacing any existing systems, re-training staff, or maybe re-modelling to maximise return on your existing investment.
[Next month, John Holder will conclude this feature by covering reporting aspects and integration with other popular packages.]
Last month we considered some of the ways in which active systems may be costly to your business, both in staff time and lost revenue. To complete this study, we shall look at the reporting aspects and integration with other popular packages.
For maximum benefit from any Accounting System, the data needs to be collected in a meaningful way, and capable of analysis as and when required. For most of us the standard reports are fine for normal use, but we often need to dig deeper for specific exercises such as when something 'looks wrong' in a routine report. That is the time when full linkage to MS Office is so useful, because we are mostly familiar with such tools as Excel. It may also be preferred to continue with a familiar reporting style, produced out of MS Office, rather than change to the often more limited report layouts offered by your accounts package.
So what if your reporting needs are special, and not readily accommodated by the package? A dynamic link can show up-to-date values in your spreadsheet in real time, so problem solved! That is what ODBC functionality is all about, and works with numerous other applications besides. If regular analysis is required, it may prove to be easier for you to achieve via a link into an Excel spreadsheet, or possibly an Access database, rather than learning a new tool.
Finally, why should you be limited by a "one way street" link to MS Office? There are a number of occasions when the ability to import data from Excel both saves time, and avoids the risk of keying errors. One example of this is budget detail, commonly prepared in Excel first, and essential if we wish to include such details in enquiries or reports from the Accounting System. Another is large Journals, which are better handled in this way.
It would be nice to have some automatic "bells and whistles" on top of this functionality, such as screen warnings when action is due, and email alerts upon certain events, which you can have today!
So is your business being held back by your Accounting System? If you are not fully satisfied with your overall system performance, call Ruskin Information Systems for a 'holistic' analysis that will resolve how to maximise the effectiveness of your systems!
John Holder, July 2002
To discuss how Ruskin Information Systems can benefit your business, contact us now, or call us on 01788 812050.
