It is tax time! Time to take a moment and reflect on your tax planning opportunities for 2012 and beyond. If you have not ever reviewed Government Programs that can help, here is one to consider:
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It’s not uncommon for a small business to have that one person in the office who is a little more computer savvy than average and soon becomes the go-to guy or gal for all things IT related. This works out well because it can keep costs down; no dedicated IT person required and reduced visits from the 3rd party IT company. In the short term this is fine, but over time this can be frustrating and costly when that person is incapable or lacks the time to address all the issues that may crop up.
Read More >Sage Source is an easy-to-use, personalized web-based work space designed
to provide services and benefits exclusively to Sage customers and their employees.
In our first blog of the series Are you getting 100% from your ERP System, we discussed Sage CRM and all of the benefits of integrating it to your Sage 300 ERP, (Formerly known as Sage ERP Accpac). Today I am going to discuss the integrated reporting program SAI (Sage Accpac Intelligence).
If you are running version 5.6 or 6.0 then you already own SAI so make sure you are putting it to use!
Quickbooks provided the basic bookkeeping capabilities you needed to start your company. But you have grown and now your relationship is strained. You have more customers, more employees and more complexity. In short, your business isn't so small anymore and the spark is gone.
It's the eve of Christmas Eve and I am sure you have spent a fortune on presents for family and friends and are exhausted from doing so! How about after the holidays, we look at how we can make YOUR life easier?
Read More > I recently met with the President of BAASS to determine the best way to get data from our Sage ERP 300 (formerly Accpac) and Sage CRM. Sage 300 and CRM are two independent, but synchronized systems. All customers, vendors and their respective contact details are updated live between each. It’s an out-of-the-box solution provided by Sage. The limitation that we were up against was that the customization nature of CRM was leaving Sage 300 behind.
I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss why I believe in Fixed Fee pricing vs Hourly billing. It is a very controversial topic as many clients and prospects I discuss fixed fee pricing with seem to feel as if its a scam. Plus Computers will one day soon be an organization that only offers Fixed Fee services. I hope the following explains my motivations.
- I do not believe time has value. As that would indicate that the longer a project takes the higher the price should be. This would then mean that a poor consultant who takes longer to do their job should be of more value than a strong consultant who takes less time to do the same work. In fact it means that the strong consultant should charge less for the same work. Some would say that we should then have different rates for different consultants but some consultants are stronger at some types of projects than others. Some say that we should then charge different rates for different types of work. I do not feel right charging one rate for report writing and one rate for training as they both have value and every client would have a different perception of which is more valuable.
- I believe results have value. I believe our clients want results. I believe they do not really care how long it takes to get the result but rather that they get a result that improves their business. If you had cancer and one doctor indicated they could remove 100% of the tumor with a non evasive high tech surgical technique that takes 3 hours and another indicated they could remove 100% of the tumor with a evasive technique that takes 12 hours. If they were charging by the hour the more risky surgery would cost more. If they were charging for results I expect the high tech doctor may charge more. I don't know about you but I would strongly consider paying a premium.
- I believe clients do not like projects where they are uncertain of the cost prior to the job beginning. I believe clients enjoy cost certainty.
- Almost every product and service in the world is based on a fixed price other than professional services. I do not believe professional services should be different.
- I believe as an organization we sell knowledge not time. The value of knowledge is determined by the client or customer. Clients pay us to give them information and expertise they do not have. The level of expertise and information varies from client to client but the value of this expertise can rarely be correlated to a time measurement.
- Since we have moved to Fixed Fee Telephone Support contracts and Upgrades our client satisfaction ratings for these services have gone through the roof. Our clients on Fixed Fee plans are more satisfied than clients on hourly billing plans with rare exception.
- I believe charging by the hour is unethical.
- I believe tracking time via timesheets is a complete waste of time and energy.
- Hourly billing is based on a theory developed by Karl Marx around 150 years ago. It is old, antiquated, and it was developed by a communist, need I say more.
- I believe so firmly in Fixed Fee pricing I am willing to offer a 100% guarantee on Fixed Fee engagements.