Every now and then I like to reflect on the beauty of Sage CRM and voice my appreciation. Sometimes I, (perish the thought) try to contemplate my position without it in my life and that…that takes me to a dark place.
Read More >
There can be many reasons why your current accounting system no longer makes sense for your business. Maybe your company didn’t grow as big as you first anticipated. Maybe you had to downsize and let staff go. Either way, the end result is the same. You are losing money by maintaining an accounting system that is too big for your needs, as well as the expensive upkeep of servers and workstations.
In discussion with our clients it has come to my attention that there is often a great deal of functionality that is not used in a typical ERP/Accounting system.
Examples of some of things I have heard:
- I don't use the bank reconciliation module
- We don't have security set up
- We export our Trial Balance to Excel and then produce our Financial statement in Excel
- My ERP system can't consolidate or financial statements it is to complicated
- We enter our invoices in MS-Word and re key them into our accounting system
- We create our sales and sales commission reports in Excel
- We track our serialized inventory in a FOXPRO database
- We re key all our Point of Sale transaction into our Accounts Receivable system
- there are many more....
On the other hand there are many amazing things we hear from clients in terms of how they have utilized their systems to achieve their goals and sometimes to obtain a competitive advantage.
Examples of some things I have heard:
- My ERP system manages over 500 projects simultaneously
- My ERP system recognizes revenue of our multi period contracts
- My ERP system automatically reconciles my checks and deposits in my bank account
- My ERP system provides our Executive KPI reporting
- My ERP automatically integrates 2 ways with our web store
- MY ERP system automatically integrates EDI transactions
We would like to hear more of the interesting ways you are using your ERP system to make your lives easier and more efficient and effective.
We would like to share them with others so they might understand how they can take advantage of their Accounting systems and save time and be more productive.
Cloud computing is a way of distributing software completely over the Internet, relieving you from the burden of IT expenditure and maintenance. In contrast to on-premises software, cloud computing presents a host of benefits including:
- Anywhere, anytime accessibility to real-time information about your business so your entire staff can make knowledgeable choices, no matter where they are located.
- Reduced TCO eliminating capital expenses, operating expenses and hardware and software installation and maintenance - freeing your IT staff to concentrate on more strategic projects.
- Operational Distinction, including back up, disaster recovery and a 99.8% uptime guarantee - better than what most small and mid-sized businesses can guarantee internally.
- Pre-built integrations that remove the burden and expenditure of connecting complex software products with one another.
Contact BAASS to discuss our Cloud options for Accounting and CRM.
BAASS Business Solutions has been using Sage CRM to manage staff schedules for several years now. It has powerful scheduling features for recurring appointments, conflict notification, email and on-screen reminders and more.
When you first open Sage Fixed Assets, an “Assets Snapshot” pops up. Many people either ignore this or set it to “Do not display on startup”. However, I have found it to be a valuable, convenient management tool. At a glance, you have a lot of pertinent Fixed Asset information including an Asset Listing with an asset count and cost; information about the latest activity dates; charts showing active assets by property type and the value of assets placed in service. This information is visual and very easy to read. It gives you, as the name says, a “snapshot” of the status of your assets.
Read More >Guest Blog by Joni Burchett of Avalara
Back in the summer of 2011, British Columbians had a unique opportunity to participate in a providence-wide referendum on the harmonized sales tax (HST). Despite the efforts of those who advocated keeping the HST for economic growth, the general public rose together and voted in favor of eliminating the HST in August of 2011. At that time, the decision was made to revert back to the former system, a split between the provincial sales tax (PST) of 7% and the federal goods and services tax (GST) of 5%.
So, you may be asking yourself how this will affect you. Starting April 1, 2013, the new tax requirements will go into effect and you can expect some of the following changes:
UNCHANGED: The following items will still be taxed at 12% but with the 7% PST and 5% GST:
- Household items such as cars, furniture, electronics, and appliances.
- Almost all clothing, footwear and beauty products.
CHANGED: The following items will no longer be taxed at 12% and will only be taxed at the 5% GST:
- Routine items such as: restaurant meals and snacks; hair and nail services; movies and gym memberships; some maintenance and repair services; bicycles; tobacco products; and professional services.
- Non routine items such as: newly built homes; realtor commissions, structural home renovations and home repairs.
While this change will likely provide an immediate benefit for many consumers, it may be a hard hit for many businesses. It is estimated that businesses will pay 730 million more in taxes with the blended PST/GST system, and will no longer get a break on production costs such as electricity, heating fuel, computers, and vehicles. This may cause a lull in production, as well as overall sales and exports. Additionally, businesses can expect more administrative costs, since they now will be required to register for the tax, file and remit their taxes to BC, and manage two tax rates instead of one. Based on an independent study made up of a panelist of four (an economist, a former BC auditor general, a banker and former Alberta finance minister), it was estimated that small and large businesses could see an additional $150 million in administrative costs.
BAASS Business Solutions has also teamed up with Avalara, the creator of Sage Sales Tax to offer you an affordable cloud-based sales tax automation solution that works seamlessly with Sage 300 ERP to help with the transition. Sage Sales Tax can take the hassle out of manual sales tax compliance and help you to calculate, file, and remit your PST and GST taxes, as well as any taxes that you might have to collect in the states.
For more information on Sage Sales Tax for Sage 300 ERP Click here. Both BAASS Business Solutions and Avalara will also be at annual TPAC conference in Richmond, BC, it would be great to have you join us!
Is it too difficult or expensive to have a Credit Card processing system integrated with my accounting software? Studies show that more and more purchases are being made with credit cards each year, and vendors accepting credit card increase their sales by 15 to 50 percent.
Sage 300 ERP customers can take full advantage of this opportunity with the ease and efficiency offered by fully integrated credit payment processing.
Whether your customers place orders over the phones, through mail order, or through a web page, Credit Card Processing provides a complete solution.
Data can be entered through the Sales Order and Accounts Receivable modules. Sage Credit Card Processing adds functionality in key areas of Sage 300 ERP, including Sales Order Entry, Payment Entry, Invoice Entry, Invoice Processing, Cash Receipts, Down Payments, Customer Returns and Customer Maintenance.
Here is a sample Order Entry screen with pre-authorization
So, contact us today and find the answer to the above question.