Business Software

Accounting is the process of collecting, summarizing and analyzing the financial data of your business. Every business needs do keep on top of their accounts to ensure proper management of revenues and expenses. Failure to do so could cause your business to fail.

There are two ways of keeping accounts for your business, one is enlist the help of an accountant and the other is to buy some accounting software and manage the accounts yourself.
Lots of people are worried about accounts and tax and would rather pay for an accountant to do all the work for them, however this might suit some people but not everyone. With hiring an accountant this will be quite costly and the cost will depend on the size of your business and the amount of financial data it generate. If you are just starting up a business you could collect all of the information and hire an accountant once a year. Most accountants work on an hourly basis so depending on how long it take them to work out your accounts will depend on how much you have to pay them. If you keep all receipts and invoices in date order this could keep your accountant fees to a minimum.

Another option is to invest in good accounting software. You do not need to have any knowledge about accounting as most good software is very easy to use with simple steps that anyone can follow. More and more business are using accounting software as the price of an Accountant can be quite steep whereas accounting software is a one of payment. There are lots of different types of accounting software for small and larger business and for lots of different types of businesses. Some accounting software can work for all size businesses with modules that you can add as your business grows and your accounting needs grow.

Some of the many benefits of having accounting software are:

Saves time

Saves money

100% Accuracy

Up to date accounts always available

Quick access to information


They are just a few of the reason why accounting software is best option for any business. Accounting software will make your business management much better, much more efficient and easier. You will be able to access the up to date data with a simple click of the mouse giving you the competitive edge that all business need to have in this day and age.

Choosing the right software is a very critical. You should always do your research before you buy any accounting software. With the internet it is not a problem as you can find reviews, websites and talk to users of software to find the best one for your particular business. I would talk to many different users and read many different reviews and then weigh up the benefits of each. Once you have chosen the right one then your business can grow and expand without any worries about finances. The software will free you time up so you can get on with your job.

By: Carolyn Clayton

Sometimes businesses need to pay their employees with cash, verses issuing a paper paycheck. There are a couple reasons the business may want or need to do this:

The business is having cash flow problems, and paying employees from cash is easier to manage. The employee may not have a bank account. Cashing a paycheck is difficult and/or expensive, and direct deposit is not an option.

Businesses should never simply hand employees cash for work performed. There must some type of paper trail to prove:

in what manner the employee received the funds when the employee received the funds how the gross pay was computed what employment taxes were withheld from the pay; gross pay vs. net pay.

Every single one of these is a potential issue that could arise in the event that the employee disputes the pay, or in the event of a employment tax or work comp audit.

Here is how to pay employees with cash, while still protecting the business from potential problems:

1. The business must be set up with some type of payroll service. Either QuickBooks must be enabled to perform payroll, or an outside service should be used. Either way does not matter, but somehow payroll taxes, etc., must be computed correctly.

2. Generate a paycheck in the normal way, using the checking account to draw from, or a special checking account for payroll, if you have one.

3. Have the employees endorse the checks – he/she is signing it over to you.


4. Pay the employees cash. It must be the exact amount on the checks, to the penny. No fudging here! This is important, because the cash paid out must reconcile to the check amounts. If the amounts are not exact, it will be difficult to reconcile them.

5. Take the checks to the bank and deposit them back into the checking account. Don’t void them in the software. Although voiding them has the same net effect on the bank balance, the accounting software cannot compute the gross pay and payroll taxes correctly if they are voided.

Another alternative is to simply create “dummy” checks on blank paper. Make sure the employees put their signatures on them. Pay with cash, to the penny.

The employee’s signature on the paycheck or “dummy” check is crucial – this way, the employee cannot claim he/she was not paid.

Following this method, you are simply cashing the employee’s paychecks for them. This leaves a very good paper trail for your accountant or auditor to follow. Everything is clean, above-board, and easy to understand.

My thanks goes to Suzanne Mead, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor over at http://forums.quickbooksusers.com/index.php, for this excellent tip. Thank you Suzanne!

By: Jennifer A. Thieme

So, if Business Intelligence can increase profits, pinpoint marketing efforts, streamline processes and monitor employee performance – how does it work?

How your information is stored

There are nearly as many different types of business software as there are businesses, but each one behaves in a similar way, taking in the information entered and storing it on a database. A database is a collection of tables which hold related information and are linked together by common strains of data, or keys. A customer table may look something like the one below, the second table is an example of how customer contacts may be held. So if a customer has two people who are your contacts, it will display the information like this: Most databases comprise of a minimum of twenty or thirty tables and many can be more than a hundred, but the theory stays the same.

Joe’s Garage uses ‘Service-Station-Op’, which, although it was produced by an obscure and now defunct software house, is a reliable database, and holds details of customers, completed jobs. It is more than capable of storing all of the data Joe needs to operate and expand his profitable enterprise.

A special programming language exists specifically for extracting this information and summarising it in different ways. This language is called SQL (Structured Query Language) and is the core of all Business Intelligence reporting.

Report writing software

SQL can be written long hand to produce lists of data, but doing this can be tedious and the results make complex viewing! Thankfully, software programs exist which provide a high level of control and fast development times. The market for reporting software is dominated by Crystal Reports. Over the years it has deservedly become the de facto standard, and is regularly updated with new revisions that provide ever more sophisticated tools whilst retaining the straightforward user interface which makes it so attractive to users of all levels. This is the development tool of choice for the majority of BI consultants (myself included) and produces robust, accurate reports within extremely quick development timeframes. Naturally, the more popular a software package is, the greater the availability of specialist consultants. However, the ever increasing popularity of Business Intelligence means that the best BI consultants are highly in demand.

Joe has recently enjoyed considerable success after he stumbled across the concept of BI and hired a consultant, Patrick, to explore some potential marketing ideas. Patrick recommended Crystal Reports because he believes that it will be a worthwhile investment for Joe it is user-friendly enough for Joe to learn the basics over time, and has the capacity for Patrick to develop it to deliver on every one of Joe’s demands.

Crystal Reports is not always the right choice and other options are available, such as Actuate and Sequel Server Reporter. Crystal Reports is, in my opinion, far superior in report production but the other options do have advantages when it comes to distributing reports.

Distribution Software

Once a report is developed and filled with data it must be communicated to the people who need to use it. For many small businesses this is not an issue as only one or two people need to the view the results and this can be done by simply using the software used to create the report. For example, on the left is Crystal Reports in “design mode” and on the right, displaying the report with data.

A free report viewer is available for Crystal Reports, but reports still need to be manually emailed to the recipient and stored on a network they can view. This is usually an ideal and cost effective solution for small to medium businesses. But distributing reports across a large company requires a different solution, particularly if the recipients need to see various variations of data on an ad hoc basis. The owners of Crystal Reports (SAP) provide several solutions for distributing reports, the most useful being Crystal Server which allows reports to be viewed online, and also to be automatically scheduled and sent to whoever is licensed to receive them.

This can become quite an expensive approach when distributing across a large company, but other independently developed alternatives are available with a much smaller price tag. The other reporting software options also come with their own distribution software, both pricing and functionality vary. Most Distribution Software is licensed by how many users receive reports, but shopping around can save a lot of expense.

Joe is the only person who needs access to the reports, and only at one location, his office. Because Joe’s initial Business Intelligence requirement was for a one off solution, Patrick recommended using the free demo of the latest Crystal Reports. By the time the 30 day demo has expired Joe has realised the value of BI and is happy to pay the reasonable amount for the licence (which he claims back as a business expense on his tax returns). As his business expands, all the data for his other garages are also held on the one system, but Joe likes to have to freedom to view information while at the other garages and so installs the free viewer and carries a copy of his reports on a memory stick.

My personal experience is that Business Intelligence is usually implemented first for one department, and once the benefits are realised, an extended reports library is eventually adopted across the entire company.

“Cheap” BI solutions

Programs like MS Excel, Access, or similar, can be used for BI purposes and may seem like a cost effective solution if they are already installed for other uses, (although if being purchased specifically for BI they are around the same price as report writing software). But, to tailor this type of generalist software to your specific BI needs will eat up significantly more precious development time, and is likely to work out more expensive than buying specialist software. An added disadvantage to this cheap approach is that you become reliant on the person who developed your reports, as the system becomes ever more convoluted. Whether you become dependant upon a permanent member of staff who may become too busy with their other duties, or a consultant who may increase their prices, further development may be a problem.

Exporting data into a spreadsheet directly from a database is a popular solution, even in big companies with specialist BI departments. The time it takes to export the data and format / summarise it in a spreadsheet takes at least as long as it does to create a report using the correct software. And if the same data is needed next month the whole process begins again, whereas a report just needs the date to be changed or can even be programmed to run automatically. This brief journey through the technical side of Business Intelligence should have enlightened you sufficiently to ensure any future discussion with your BI professional is tightly focused on achieving your goals!

By: Jason Dove