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.
Your company is ready to make the transition to CRM software, and by this point you’ve researched the many options available. You’ve found the Business Partner that is best able to meet your company’s needs, and are imagining a future where your CRM is the superstar of your office. That future is entirely possible, but hinges on one important aspect of the implementation: Employee Buy-In.
Read More >There is so much information on the internet about Cloud Computing and as the concept trends more and more with businesses, so do the myths and misconceptions. In this blog I am going to work to debunk some of those myths so that you can be more confident in the benefits of putting your business in the Cloud.
1) It's on the Internet - so it must be Cloud!
Not everything on the internet is necessarily on the cloud. In most cases when we refer to the cloud we are talking about Software as a Service (SaaS). This is where software applications such as Microsoft Office or Intacct are stored and run from a centralized remote server. Clients use the internet to connect to a Cloud Service Providers (CSP’s). Programs and Files are accessible from any computer with an internet connection and data is automatically backed up by the CSP.
2) Other people can access my data
While your data is stored on a huge server rack along side other companies data, the strict access controls applied by the CSP’s can make their systems less risky that in-house systems. Cloud Service providers are made or broken by their reputation and because many corporate decision makers are very risk adverse, the consequences of a breach of a cloud server would be disastrous to the future of the CSP. Most companies need to use computers and access their data but have other core business interests, for CSP’s storing your data is their business.
3) The Cloud isn't secure
While it is important to do your due diligence when it comes to choosing your cloud service provider, most reputable cloud service providers have state of the art facilities on the cutting edge of security and technology. It is very hard for most SME’s to keep up with the latest hardware and afford expensive data migrations when the time comes to upgrade older servers. In many cases your data is more secure when in the cloud compared to being stored in-house. While many companies have a back-up plan and execute their daily back-ups, very few ever try to restore their backed up data until a failure occurs only to find their data is either not actually backed up or it is corrupt.
Even individual users can benefit from the cloud. Everyone knows what happens when your PC crashes. Everything can be lost, we scramble to find a backup that we may or may not have made and in most cases can only recover a small portion of our data and we either have to recreate or live without files created more recent than our latest backup. Having your work and material backed up remotely to the cloud can be much more reliable. If you have a hardware crash, you lose or just forgot your PC, all you need is an internet connection to keep on working.
4) The Cloud is a passing fad
The cloud is not new at all. The concept of cloud has been around since the Timeshare model of the 1960’s and even modern versions of the cloud such as Google Docs and Hotmail have been around for years. With the ever increasing cost of maintaining in-house networks and the speed of light changes in hardware and software, it is making more and more sense for companies to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing.
Cloud service providers are making vast investments in their server clusters and infrastructure and are making plans to expand the services they provide to include: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) computers and networks are offered as a physical or virtual environment and Platform as a service (PaaS) this usually includes the operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server.
5) Clouds will kill off System Administrators and IT professionals
Companies will always need System Administrators and IT support staff. The roles may change and additional or different training and skills required but the integration to the cloud, desktop support of cloud-based software and infrastructure and smartphone/tablets hardware will need to be serviced. The other thing to keep in mind is the CSP’s will need to employ a large number of network and IT professionals to maintain their networks. As access to cloud services grows so will the demand for skilled IT professionals.
Many companies will take the “dip the toe in” approach and slowly transition services to the cloud. With the increasing usage of flexible work locations and telecommuting, it is inevitable that at least some common services will need to be relocated to the cloud. The first step is to adopt a web-based email service (Google Docs), an internet desktop application package (Office 365) or a cloud based accounting system such as Intacct.
If you would like to speak to a cloud expert about your business requirements, contact us and check out our cloud accounting and financial management product offering, Intacct here.
BAASS Business Solutions has recently become a Certified Intacct Reseller and when talking to client and prospects about this new Cloud ERP offering we often get asked the question above.
I think there are 5 principle reasons to move your ERP system to the cloud
- Lower initial Software Cost - with pay as you go subscription pricing, upfront costs are a fraction of on premise ERP pricing.
- Rapid Deployment - installation does not occur on your server or workstations so the roll out is much faster. PC's just require an internet connection and browser.
- Reduced IT Staffing - Cloud ERP's require little or no IT staff to manage it
- Low Cost and Seamless upgrades - upgrades are managed by the Publisher and are transparent to the user. In the on premise world upgrades can cause customizations, forms and reports to stop working which may require significant effort and cost to ensure compatibility with the current version.
- Scalability - Cloud ERP is scalable and does not involve a lot of cost. Costs increase as the users capability to pay does.
If the above resonates with you, please contact us to discuss how moving your ERP system to Intacct and the Cloud might be beneficial.
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With so much buzz about 'the cloud' in the last few years, many vendors are trying to rebrand old products with the buzzword to make it seem as though they are offering a modern-day cloud solution, when in fact they are not. This is known in the industry as 'cloud-washing' and is a dishonest and unethical marketing tactic. The term 'wash' in this case is to apply a thin layer of paint to freshen something up and make it look new. These companies are trying to make their old products and services seem new by adding the term 'Cloud' to it. This article intends to clear a few things up so that you can be confident you are choosing a true cloud solution.
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