Business Software

A Business Plan Software is Essential to Small Businesses and Start-ups

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:49:31 +0000

For any business to succeed, creating a well-thought out business plan is the key. This can make your business dreams come true by bringing in prospective investors and future clients. Lucky for you, there are programs available now that can create good business plans.

Why buy a business plan software?

There are so many advantages to having a business plan software. One is that it can help you start your business and scout for potential clients and investors. This will give you a good head start against others who don’t use business plan programs. Two, it allows even those without business backgrounds to create a business plan. Third, it also functions as platform for users to record their business goals, plans, vision, mission and targets. By doing this, first-time business owners can keep track of their goals and progress.

You won’t have to worry about the price because there are affordable programs out now in the market.

What are the Different Kinds of Business Plan Software?

You can choose from among the different programs available depending on your needs and budget. Some are free and others come with a price:

Miniplan – This software is used to generate an executive summary based on a finished plan, or a basic plan that includes the nature of the business, financial needs, budget, cash flow, income projection, marketing plan, financial statements and balance sheet.

Working plan – This software is used for business proposals and project plans. It includes employee information, mission and vision, rules, scheduling, working styles and charts.

Presentation plan – This type makes plans in a screen-viewable format, such as Flash or a slideshow. It uses pre-made templates that can be presented to bankers, investors, and other ventures outside the company.

By: Ilse Hagen

How to Choose the Right Software For Your Business

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:30:30 +0000

The decision to invest in technology for your business may be a costly and time-intensive undertaking due to the sheer number of products currently on the market. Computer technology and software is likely one of the biggest expenses your company will incur over its lifetime, especially since computer technology must be upgraded and updated regularly as products improve in order for your business to remain efficient and competitive.

So how can you make intelligent choices when it comes to selecting technology and software solutions that will be instrumental in the productive operations of your company? Here are some tips to help you prepare for these purchases and suggestions to help you throughout the selection process:

Identify Your Company Needs and Goals

In order to understand what to buy, you first need to understanding what you need. Start by making a list of the functions your company performs or will perform in the future. For each of these functions, create a subsequent list of what features your technology solutions will need to have in order to perform these functions properly. For instance, your sales department’s needs may include the ability to create order forms, sales reports, inventory lists, and invoices.

Continue making lists for all company functions and prioritize which functions are needed most. Do you have a greater need for customer relationship software than you do for other software types?

Shop For Software

If you do not yet have computers for your business, you should first shop for the software you need before buying a computer system. This will help ensure that the money you invest in computers will not be wasted because the operating system does not meet your business productivity software requirements. When it comes to shopping for software, conduct thorough research before you buy. Once you have a list of your needs, you should be able to narrow down the right software solutions to fit them more easily. Remember that while you may be working on a budget, it is not always the wisest decision to choose the least expensive solution – remember the old adage: you get what you pay for. Software is a big investment, so invest your money wisely in products that will last.

Consider Accessories

In addition to the computer and software products your company needs, you will also need to incorporate the “extras” into your budget. Will your company have a need for network printers, scanning equipment, virtual fax or phone services? These technology extras can add considerably to your costs, so consider all-in-one products if they meet your business needs.

Investing In Technology

Technology is an important investment in your company. Generally, your business will only work as well as your technology, so do not be short-sighted when making your technology purchasing decisions. Instead of reactively buying a series of software products as band-aids to meet the changing needs of your company month after month, step back and look at the big picture from day one. Evaluate your needs for the long term and invest good money in sustainable products that can support your business’ needs today and your company’s growth long-term.

By: Erick Simpson

Choosing A Payroll Accounting Software For Small Business

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:05:39 +0000

You need people to run a business unless you happen to be a one-man-industry. So, if you have employees, you have payments to make, taxes to deduct from the salaries and send the deducted money to the state exchequer. In case of larger establishments, these things are taken care of by the professionals, who are experts in the area, which takes the accounting load off the higher management.

But if you own a small business, you need to take care of the payroll all by yourself. The old paper system, quite obviously, is too cumbersome and time consuming to fit today’s business needs. Therefore, what you need is an efficient payroll accounting software.

A small-business payroll software manages payroll and taxes in a small business establishment. Now, you may be in a fix as to whether or not your establishment is a small business. The answer is quite simple. If you have less than 500 employees, your business is small business for the purpose of getting an accounting software. In other words, irrespective of how much revenue it generates or the amount of profit you might be making, if you have less than 500 employees, you just need a payroll accounting software designed for small businesses.

The tedious tasks of figuring, documenting and executing a payroll is made easy by payroll accounting software whether it is on monthly, biweekly or weekly basis. So far as the cost of the software is concerned, it depends upon the number of employees and the duration of payment. Other than that, the state where your company is located together with the tax procedure followed also matter. These factors influence the features in the software, which, in turn, affects their prices.

Executing payroll is a complicated process and involves skilled manpower. That’s the reason why even small businesses have to have full time employees specifically for this purpose. A payroll accounting software reduces the necessity of the payroll executors and makes the whole exercise far smoother, faster and accurate. What is further heartening is the fact that these software are constantly evolving and are getting faster, friendlier and more accurate.

While choosing a payroll accounting software you must also keep in mind the growing needs of the company. So, get a software that is flexible enough to accommodate a reasonable amount of work expansion. It is also advisable to purchase the software that comes with an assurance of an up-gradation later in time. The best deal is the one that give you the most for the least.

By: Aasheesh Jain

Small Business Accounting Software – What Is It Good For?

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:55:04 +0000

Did you know that around 50% of small business owners don’t use saccounting software to process their accounting information? Many resort to the excel spreadsheet to keep track of money coming in and money going out. These small business owners would rather get on with their core business than worry about the administration tasks associated with accounting, even with a software package, because it seems like such a waste of time.

On the surface they are right. Administration does not contribute directly to earning cold hard cash, and takes the small business operator away from actually earning for the business. However, if the movement of money in and out of the business is accounted for accurately and on a timely basis, there are many benefits that come from having a package.

Enter data once and update a number of modules

The first benefit of using accounting software is having your accounting information centralized and organized, and having a system of easy retrieval. That is the beauty of a computerized database. You enter information in once and a number of areas in the accounting system can be updated so you don’t have to enter the information repeatedly.

Saves time and cuts down on errors

This saves considerable time and also cuts down on administrative errors that can be time consuming to find and fix. For example, when you make a payment for some capital equipment used by your business, the vendor file is updated, the cost account is updated, and if the accounting software has an integrated fixed asset register, that is also updated. Three areas are updated with one entry. If you maintained a manual accounting system on a spreadsheet or on paper, these three entries would have to be performed separately, wasting your valuable time, or costing you more for someone else to do the task.

Easy to find accounting information

Another benefit of the computerized database is that information is so easy to find in comparison to the manual system. If a supplier rings up and asks why they haven’t been paid, you can easily access their account information and check all previous payments and invoices entered for payment, to find the answer.

Automatically generate documents and reports

When it comes to purchasing, your purchase orders can be generated by the software, so you have a record in the system to match against the supplier invoice when you receive it. This system provides for an easy check to ensure you are being billed for, and also paying for, what was originally ordered. Checks can be printed by the accounting software instead of being manually hand written. Finally, reports can be generated at the push of a few buttons (or the click of a mouse!). Manually preparing reports can be time consuming and the process is prone to errors.

For countries that have a VAT / GST tax, it also automatically calculates the tax and generates reports for the end of month or quarter, for payment purposes.

Payroll Processing Benefits

There are benefits when it comes to payroll processing using accounting software. Most payroll processing is done on an exception basis. That means that the payroll for many small businesses are similar from week to week. Therefore, only exceptions or variations to the standard pay need to be entered into the payroll software. If there are no variations, there is very little in the way of processing.

These are just a few of the benefits of using it in a small business.

By: Graeme Wheeler

Software Applications For Small Businesses

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:04:43 +0000

There are several software applications for small businesses available in the market. Any small business must learn to use these software applications for the success of the business. Software applications can perform a variety of tasks for your business and are very helpful for the smooth operations of any business. Here are some examples of what the software applications can do for your business.

What Kind of Jobs Software Applications Can Do?

Any business today needs a website for competing with other business in the industry because of the evolution of the Internet. Software applications for small businesses can help in the development of professional looking website. In addition, they can also help you in maintaining the websites. There are several tasks need to be performed on the computer on a regular basis. It is possible to get these tasks done automatically with the help of software applications. Some applications are even capable of removing all the tedious paperwork required for keeping the information in an organized way. Some applications can suggest you off the shelf suggestions that are very useful for the smooth operation and growth of the business. In addition, you get the facility of one to one consultation and training.

Database Management:

Most of the businesses gather data from different resources before they reach any big decision. However, when you gather information from several different resources, you face the problem of information coming in different formats. Every individual formats the spreadsheets differently using incompatible units and using different kind of rules for subtotaling and categorizing the data. This makes the job of making summary report very difficult for the person concerned. You can get rid of this problem with the help of well-designed software applications. This kind of applications set some standards for data formatting for all those people who send the information and then write a code to extract the summary report from the different databases using report generation user interface.

Windows Applications:

Windows application development is also effective method of using software applications for the smooth operation of small businesses. A well-designed windows application can simplify the most complex type of task making business operations easier. These applications are capable of customizing according to your requirements and that too at very fast speed. You are only required to input the data and all the job of record keeping is taken care by the software applications. All this information is very useful for the purpose of taxation and warranty claims etc. it also helps you in managing your cash flow in a better way. There is no point in knowing how much your bank balance is if you do not know how much money do you require for different budgetary demands.

By: Alexander Gordon

Software Company Business Valuation

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:43:04 +0000

What business valuation would you place on a distribution management software company with $1.5 million in annual revenues and $500,000 in losses? How about a healthcare software ASP with $300 K in revenues that is breaking even? These companies don’t exactly fit the 5 times EBITDA or the discounted cash flow valuation models.

That is what makes software or technology based companies so much fun to sell. Arriving at a business value is done the old fashion way. You identify the universe of likely buyers, prepare your blind profile and NDA, and contact the president or person in charge of mergers and acquisitions. What you are trying to accomplish is to identify and articulate the strategic rationale for considering this acquisition.

In the example above, our distribution management software company had adapted their software to a new vertical market while also introducing it on Microsoft’s .NET platform and upgrading from green screen to GUI interfaces. They were not getting any traction in the new vertical competing against the two dominant players in that space. They had, however, created a lot of value in their technology. They were a very good acquisition candidate for one of the dominant competitors. They had “leap-frogged” this competitor with a more modern platform. The competitor, through a series of prior acquisitions, was actually supporting six different software platforms for essentially the same capability. They were contemplating a long and expensive system rewrite. They needed to consolidate platforms, but did not have an upgrade path for their installed clients. Their clients were vulnerable to defections.

We approached the president and positioned our client as follows:

1. Purchase our client for a favorable buy versus build outcome.

2. Time to market – We could provide an immediate upgrade path versus eighteen months of development

3. Substantial cost savings – By rationalizing their software platform and reducing the number of supported systems

4. Immediately end customer defections by announcing an actual upgrade path versus years of promises

5. Prevent a more formidable competitor from getting his hands on this technology and causing them some real damage

The good news is it worked and we were able to get our sellers north of $2.5 million. Over a year later it has proven to be a good deal for both buyer and seller.

The healthcare ASP also turned out to be a strategic fit for a much larger healthcare IT firm. This established company had previously delivered their software through a traditional licensing approach where their clients managed their own internal systems. The buyers needed our client’s cutting edge module that completed their suite of products. They intend to use the ASP model as the springboard to launch their entire product suite on the ASP model to complement their licensing approach.

Much of this transaction value was in the form of a well structured earn out. Both buyer and seller feel comfortable that the sales targets will be met and will provide the maximum contractual payment. This will result in a value for the seller of about $2.5 million. The buyer’s customer base of 1400 hospitals are prime candidates to upgrade their current software system (the buyer’s product of course) with this new capability. The seller achieves a 20 times improvement in the sale of their product as part of the large company. The large company increases revenues and uses a portion of that revenue to complete the purchase price obligation. It was accretive from day one.

When it comes to software or technology companies and business valuation, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If the company can identify the right buyers and if they can be positioned as a strategic fit, traditional valuation metrics may not apply.

By: Dave Kauppi

Why Companies Need Business Payroll Software

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:52:42 +0000

No sizable company can function without a number of employees. And where there are employees, there is payroll. After all, employees do not work for free. Payroll is boring, yes, and unglamorous too. But it is also one of the most basic and essential tasks for any organization. Business payroll software is just a way to simplify the onerous tasks related to payroll activities in any organization.

After all, any mess-ups in payroll are likely to get you grief from not just your staff, but might even get you in trouble with relevant government agencies. Business payroll software is a great way to organize those mundane tasks.

Payroll is probably the single most boring aspect of any business, and it isn’t surprising at all if you are reluctant to dedicate a lot of time and attention to the task. And it can be a major financial burden for a small, or growing, business to hire a set of employees just to deal with payroll and related issues.

Writing out one check at a time can work fine as long as you are a one desk outfit with one or two employees. Once you get bigger, a standardized and organized way of handling payroll is necessary. Business payroll software can be the perfect system for processing the company payments.

In smaller companies, where all the employees are in a single location, and where they all get a fairly straight forward salary, it is not such a heavy job to deal with payroll. On the other hand, if your workforce is spread out over many locations, and/or employ workers according to hourly rates or with overtime premiums or different pay structures for different shifts payroll becomes a much more complicated business.

Business payroll software was probably among the first business applications that anyone thought of to automate. After all, it involves a lot of boring but necessarily accurate calculations. In addition, an accurate and up to the minute database has to be maintained to keep track of records and results. Calculating gross pay, taxes, deductions, and incentives can become a major headache even for an accountant, let alone a business owner.

If you have a very small payroll, or want to cut costs, you can get by without any kind of business payroll software. However, if accuracy and speed are important, if your organization is growing, if you don’t have the time or the inclination for pesky payroll calculations, consider some kind of computerized payroll calculation method.

There are a huge number of payroll software options available, and a simple search with your favorite search engine will bring up any number of resources where you can download such software, either paid versions or free.

By: Ian E. Wright

Open Source Software Can Save $1000s for Your Business

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:48:34 +0000

Expensive but necessary software can cut deep into the profit margins of small business. Fortunately, the open source software movement has produced a variety of excellent programs that can fill the needs of your small business without emptying your bank account. Open source software is freely distributed with public source code, for anyone to use or modify as long as they don’t claim copyright.

Office

OpenOffice.org is probably the best-known package of open source software after the Linux operating system. It includes a word processor, a spreadsheet program similar to Excel(tm), a presentation program, a database program, a draw program similar to CorelDRAW(tm), and a mathematical equation editor. OpenOffice.org is already used by many businesses and government organizations, and its files are compatible with MS Office files.

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

Compare to: Microsoft Office(tm) with CorelDRAW(tm)

You save: $340-500

Image Editing

For image editing, try The GIMP, an open source program very similar in capability to Adobe PhotoShop(tm). GIMPshop, a modified version, even has menu commands structured like PhotoShop. Although GIMP handles color slightly differently and might not be the perfect choice for a professional graphic designer, it’s more than sufficient for most small business needs.

Available for: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Compare to: Adobe PhotoShop(tm)

You save: $500-700

Web Design

No knowledge of HTML but you want to build a website? Try Nvu (pronounced “N-view”), an open source What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) web editor. Nvu is designed to be very easy to use, including for the novice web designer.

Available for: Windows, Mac OS X (pre-Intel chip), Linux

Compare to: Microsoft FrontPage(tm), Macromedia Dreamweaver(tm)

You save: $250-400

Content Management and Blogging

Using a content management system is becoming increasingly popular for business websites. A well-designed and set up content management system (CMS) makes updating a website easy and quick, even for people with few technical skills. Custom CMSes can run thousands of dollars, however. Fortunately, there are several excellent open source CMSes which can readily serve the needs of a small (or large) business. Two of the most popular are Mambo and its spinoff Joomla! Both are very customizable, and add-on modules can add or enhance a huge variety of functions, from blogging to shopping carts.

Available for: All platforms

Compare to: Custom CMSes

You save: $100s-10,000s

Blogs are hot for businesses right now, and blogging platforms can also act as simple content management systems for small websites. They’re easier to learn how to use than full-blow CMSes, but still offer a range of functions. One excellent open source blogging platform with a wide range of add-ons is WordPress, but there are many others.

Available for: All platforms

Compare to: Movable Type

You save: $150+

As you can see, depending on the particular software needs of your small business, open source software can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And because open source software projects are constantly being developed and upgraded, you rarely have to wait years for bug fixes or new features. Many projects even encourage users to suggest features to be added.

So if you’re tired of expensive software and paying extra for infrequent upgrades, maybe it’s time to give open source software a try.

By: Melissa Barton

Project Accounting Software – Finding the Right Software Solution For Your Business

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:29:11 +0000

Effective project management is essential for organizations to achieve excellence and prevent wastage. The right project management software will also help bring down the cost, manage resource utilization effectively and increase the operating margin for the project.

In order to find the right project accounting software, it is important to have a complete understanding of the organization’s needs and goals. The product must be the best fit for your business requirements. While it should contain all the features needed to effectively manage and account for the project, it should not contain more features than is needed. More features than necessary will only add to the cost and make the product more complicated and difficult to master for your staff decreasing its efficiency and costing you money rather than increasing profits as intended.

The ideal project accounting software should help you manage all of the key aspects of project management vital to your company. It should be able to

Setup the project Maintain the project Track all changes Process claims and invoices Generate reports

It is also essential that the software have some of the key features necessary for smooth functioning. This includes

A robust security management Ability to integrate with other software A friendly, easy to use interface Reliable application support Good value for money

A well informed research and analysis needs to be carried out to find the perfect fit for the organization in terms of features, scalability, reliability, speed and cost. This will help run a tight ship in terms of project management & accounting.

By: James K Murray

What is Business Continuity Planning Software?

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:05:08 +0000

Disaster recovery plans will diverge greatly for unique enterprises depending on size and sector of the organization. A decently laid out business continuity manual will allow an organization to resume actions as soon as possible after an unpredictable pause. A disaster restoration program will want to address various important factors.

First, the ideal disaster restoration planning software management system should be one that is an economical preventative solution that can counterbalance the costs of maintaining the organization continuity program with the potential loss that your business can suffer in the case that organizational processes are cut off.

Do all organizations demand a business organization restoration design? All commercial enterprises regardless of scale should have a process for recovery should disaster strike. There is a good reason that all business enterprise organizations, not only big organizations demand to have a continuity of business program in place in case of a disaster.

More than 75% of enterprises fail to recoup after a long term emergency. Many businesses have disbanded because they failed to design ahead. Tools are on hand to aid professionals and small business organizations draft a feasible business organization recovery program. Some of these answers are:

1. Continuity of business enterprise guides
2. Disaster restoration planning software packages
3. Data recovery planning software packages

While hiring an expensive business continuity specialist or consulting service may not be right for a business of your size, a software management system that addresses all the requirements of your organization may be the right solution. There are many business continuity plan software solutions that can draft manuals from templates for organizations in various industries and for various risks including natural disasters, power outages, and disease outbreaks.

By: Tom Middleton