Small businesses need a lot of assistance. Technology, in the form of software solutions, is one of the better ways for a small business to acquire the assistance they require. There are a lot of software businesses that produce products particularly for the small business. A few of these businesses are Intuit; Intellisoft; Everest Software, Inc.; Microsoft; and Small Business Software Solutions, Inc. Each business has a product that will assist the small business.

Intuit provides a broad array of solutions for small business owners. Every business, small or not, needs a web site. Intuit Web site Services provides a three-step procedure to get a small business up and working. You first pick out from 2,000 professionally designed web site templates. Then you customise the contents of the templet by adding data specific to your business (textual matter, logos, photos, videos and colours, for example). And then you click on the “Publish” button to get your business on the World wide web.

Intuit’s Quickbooks accounting software is easy to apply and can be customized to your business type. There are multiple levels of the product available as well: Online, Pro, Premiere, Accountant, and a version for Macintosh users. There is still a free, stripped edition that can be downloaded off of the Net and used locally on your company PC. This software program allows you to input your sales, revenues and expenses; categorise each transaction; and create customized reports for future planning and expanding upon. For retail companies, Intuit also provides a point-of-sale (POS) application program that works seamlessly with your Quickbooks software program. You can update pricing, make P.O.s (buy orders), create sales reports and see how your company is doing with the click of a few buttons. Intuit also provides payroll solutions and check and company supply services.

Small Business Software Categories

There are various main categories of small business software. To keep your company working smoothly and efficiently, it’s crucial to pick the ones that meet your needs based on what your business does.

Billing and accounting software is essential for a small business. After all, you can’t make any cash unless you bill your clients for work you’ve done. Billing software allows you to send out invoices, collect incoming payments and keep track of what’s owed. You can also figure bills, list bank accounts and look at financial statements.

You will also require software that allows you to make documents. A standard business office computer program bundle commonly consists of a program to create spreadsheets, typed or written pages and presentations. Spreadsheets can assist you keep track of various tasks and customer lists, while presentations are frequently essential for sales pitches.

Small business process software enables small businesses to automate common tasks, such as creating an action or routing a service request to the appropriate person or group who can solve the issue. A business action consists of related and organized tasks that an individual or department follows in order to create a certain result, service or product.

Team@Work is a web-based project planner and work flow software program. It comes with a integral workflow engine, Designer, which lets small businesses improve existing business processes or produce new ones. Team@Work also has another feature called TaskManager. This displays the lists of tasks each team member will have to execute. The software provides real-time reporting of completed and current projects. Team members can get the status and detailed info on any project. Team@Work supports multiple operating systems, including Linux, Microsoft Windows and Unix.

ProcessMaker, another web-based software, enables business users to promptly create work flow maps without having to experience computer programming. It also comes with a Dynaform Builder feature, which lets you use a drag and drop user interface to produce forms. According to Colosa (the software developer of ProcessMaker), tech-savvy users can enhance forms with HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE or JavaScript for a more than tailor-made approach. ProcessMaker also comes with a point-and-click editor program tool that lets small businesses make their business rules and logic for better control over processes.

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software, business software service, Inventory Management Software, Small Business Inventory Software, Small Business Software, Small Business Software Reviews

Back with more news for you today. It’s amazing how much good information there is on this stuff out there if you know where to look. Three in particular that I found really valuable were…

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That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software

The difference between bookkeeping services and accounting may be unclear to the uninitiated while both are of vital importance to financial success. Bookkeeping is an important part of the accounting function and is essentially the record keeping of the financial transactions. Accounting is while incorporating the record keeping also includes the presentation, interpretation and financial control functions including interpretation of the numbers for the financial health of a business of which taxation can play a major part.

Bookkeeping stems from the recording of financial transactions and the accounting term for a business accounts as books. In effect the accounting function prepares a record of the monetary affairs of a business and stores the information in files called books. Hence the term bookkeeping often misspelled as book keeping which is the function of a librarian not that of a bookkeeper.

The financial affairs of a business involve many aspects and start with the recording of what is termed the prime documents. The task of a bookkeeping service which some businesses outsource is to record the prime documents, those prime documents being the sales, purchases and cash/bank transactions. All small businesses do bookkeeping and the most successful use the bookkeeping records as a basis for an accounting function to generate a more efficient financial service.

All business involves buying or selling something and the consequent function of receiving or paying money to the value of those transactions. Recording these transactions in larger business organisations is done by accounts clerks who work under the supervision of the accountant.

Invariably medium and larger businesses use a double entry system for recording transactions. Double entry accounting evolves from the fact that every transaction as a double effect on the business of which these are prime examples.

A sale is made. That creates a record of income for the business which is taxed on that income the other side of the financial transaction, the double entry, is the fact that the organisation who was sold the goods now owes the value of that sales invoice to the business. That is the double entry, record the sales income and also record the debt due from the customer who is now called a debtor.

Someone who owes the business a debt is called a debtor.

A purchase is made. That creates a record of expense for the business which can be deducted from income and lowers taxes and the other side of the financial transaction, the double entry, is the fact that the organisation who supplied the purchase on credit is now owed the money. That is the double entry, record the sales income and also record the credit due to the supplier who is now called the creditor.

Someone who has supplied goods on credit is called a creditor.

The third type of prime transaction is the transfer of money between the debtors and creditors and the business.

When a debtor pays his sales invoice the double entry is to add that amount of money to the business financial records and the opposite double entry goes to the debtor account to reduce the amount owed to the business since it has now received the cash.

When a creditor is paid the amount owed the money is recorded as reducing the cash resources of the business by for example deducting the money from the bank balance and the double entry reduces the amount the business now owes to the creditor account since it has reduced the credit received.

The bookkeeping function is to record these prime transactions. Since every financial transaction has an equal and opposite entry in the books there has to be a mathematical check that both sides of the transactions add up to zero. This check process is called a trial balance where both sides of the entries should be in agreement and normally the point at which the bookkeeping service is deemed to be complete.

Double entry bookkeeping is required for all businesses that require to produce a statement of its assets and liabilities. This statement of assets and liabilities is the total of all the balances from the trial balance and is called a balance sheet.

Many small businesses do not require a balance sheet. In the UK the production of a balance sheet is optional for every self employed business as it is not an obligatory requirement of the self assessment tax return form. A self employed bookkeeping system is not required to produce a balance sheet because the business effectively belongs to the owner and is that owners personal business.

Limited companies must produce a balance sheet under various financial acts and submit the balance sheet to both Companies House and the tax authority each year. The different rules applying to a limited company is because the accounts including the balance sheet are public records available to the members of that company and not necessarily the property of a single individual or partnership.

The self employed bookkeeping system can be simpler being produced from a single entry style of bookkeeping rather than double entry. Single entry bookkeeping makes a single entry for each financial transaction which is sufficient to produce an income and expenditure account, a profit and loss account, but does not make the reciprocal entry that establishes the value of the assets and liabilities.

Single entry can be as simple as making a list of the sales income and the purchase expenses. Such a bookkeeping system is valuable to the smaller business as it requires little or no bookkeeping or accounting knowledge. A smaller business can produce its own accounts without the need for a bookkeeper or accountant particularly if it has access to bookkeeping templates through bookkeeping software to produce the accounts in the accounting format required.

About The Author

Terry Cartwright,qualified accountant and CEO at DIY Accounting in the UK designs accounting software http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/smallbusinessaccounting.htm on excel spreadsheets providing complete single and double entry bookkeeping systems

http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/bookkeeping.htm

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Managing rentals of residential properties is a big job to handle. You have to keep track of everything from rental payments to work orders. With the help of technology you can now manage your apartments, condos and other housing with ease using rental manager software. If you are considering using rental propperty tracker for the first time, or finding something more suitable for your needs, you are on the right track by reading this article. We will help you determine the best rental property manager software.

First, you must know your needs. What are you looking for in a rental property management tool? What are the functions, abilities or features that you are looking for? Second, do you need a desktop application or a web-based program? Third, is the software user-friendly? Fourth, how affordable is the rental property accounting software?

Common features of residential rental software applications are:

Keep track of rent payments for tenants which include utilities and other charges such as late charges. Accept partial and government subsidies.

Record important information about all of your tenants and rental units

Display your appointments, deadlines and other important events in Daily, Weekly or Monthly Calendar formats.

A way to add misc. charges and record full and partial rent payments and print rent receipts.

Record all your expense payments and travel deductions. View deposits and debits for any number of expense reporting accounts.

Keep track of all the appliances, furniture, etc. that are included with your rental units.

Send promotional materials or other form letters to all of your guests, vendors, family, friends or any other contacts

Create Work Orders for any repairs or maintenance, track vendors, schedules, work completed and amounts paid.

Track of all your income and tax deductible expenses and generate tax form reports.

Keep track of deposits, payments to accounts, and other income sources. Generate registers for your income reporting accounts

Some landlord management software will also keep track of schedules, generate form letters to be mailed or emailed, and provide other tools to help you streamline your business. Consider these additional features:

Create To Do Lists with room for notes, deadlines, priorities, etc. with project management software.

The best housing software also includes tools which allow you to look up where area codes are, calculate time zone differences, and has a universal calculator that adds or subtracts numbers, dates and times, converts length, volume and weight measurements, computes discounts, sales tax, foreign money exchanges and loan payment amounts.

One major thing to consider is, should it be a desktop application or a web-based application? Here are some differences between the two:

A desktop application is an application that runs without the need of an internet connection. A web-based application, which includes any software you log on to a web site to access, requires a fast, reliable internet connection.

Desktop software is generally much faster and easier to use than web-based software. If you do not have a very fast internet connection, it could take you several times longer to get the same amount of work done.

A desktop application, if backed-up regularly, is more secure and reliable than a web-based application. If your web connection goes down, or the company’s website were to go down, or the company went out of business, you will no longer have access to your data if using web-based applications.

With desktop applications, you generally pay just once, and technical support is often included. With web-based applications you rent the software, paying monthly fees and often get only email support.

Would you rather pay less on a monthly basis for web-based software, which will add up to much more over time, or pay one reasonable amount up front and get the features, speed and reliability of a desktop application?

As a solopreneur, I’m sure you would rather find ways to save money and at the same time have the features and capabilities you are looking for in a property manager software?

With these things in mind, you can now determine what would be the best rental management software for your need. The best residential property management in my opinion is Rental Property Tracker Plus. It is a reasonably priced desktop application that is easy to use and is available for most Mac and Windows computers.

To better understand ease, comfort and productivity, and download a free trial today, visit http://www.productivity-software.com/rental/index.html for more details.

About The Author

Garth Catterall-Heart has been creating productivity software for self-employed professionals and rental property management software since 1999. Download your free trial for Mac or Windows at http://www.productivity-software.com/rental/index.html

Jonathan Victolero assisted in the writing of this article.

You may reprint this article only in its entirety with this bio.

©2010 Garth Catterall-Heart

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software

Back with more news for you today. It’s amazing how much good information there is on this stuff out there if you know where to look. Three in particular that I found really valuable were…

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Technorati Tags: Accounting Software

Accounts Payable Departments are a critical component to the long-term success of companies in our new “new economy.” With overhead costs being analyzed for every possible savings, Accounts Payable, or AP, is one of the first places that companies can look. Many times, the process is submerged in inefficiencies, and the application of some simple technologies and proven best practices can deliver tremendous results.

Typical AP Processes feature a staff of trained professionals who manage the company’s expenses and invoice processing. Often, this is accomplished using accounting software, such as Quickbooks, SAP, Oracle Financials, Microsoft Dynamics, or any of the hundreds of software packages designed to help manage a company’s finances. These software packages, typically referred to as ERP Systems, provide a great level of detail and fantastic functionality to help companies manage the data associated with their transactions, whether they be payables, or receivables.

The real challenge, however, is entering data from paper or PDF-based invoices and managing the three-way match and approval process associated with the AP Lifecycle. Many companies rely on significant human resources to provide manual data entry of invoice data into the ERP System, and this can often result in significant expense for the business. In addition, Manual Data Entry is often followed or preceded by a detailed approval cycle, where physical paper invoices are passed throughout an organization for review and approval.

These manual steps for AP Processing will often result in overpayments, duplicate payments, and sometimes missed payments, which result in penalty charges imposed by vendors for not meeting the agreed upon terms. In addition, Invoices are often lost or misplaced while being routed through the approval cycle, and hours of time are spent by staff reviewing and approving invoices from paper.

With the addition of some additional technologies and proven best practices, however, organizations can begin to quickly drive down the cost of Accounts Payable. In fact, most companies who invest in an Automated Accounts Payable Solution realize a return on their investment within the first three to six months of use.

Automated Accounts Payable Solutions enable organizations to eliminate the need for manual data entry of information from invoices. Instead, they rely on advanced OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, technologies to accurately identify the key data elements from invoice documents and deliver this information to an ERP System. This eliminates incorrect keying of information, and these systems can even be configured to automatically apply GL Coding for Invoices based on some predefined rules.

In addition to the elimination of Manual Data Entry and reduction of errors, an Automated Accounts Payable Solution provides companies with the tools to electronically route invoices through the approval cycle.

This means that instead of receiving a stack of invoices to approve, manager and staff will receive an email notification and use their browser to click to approve or reject the invoices that they need to review. This eliminates lost or misfiled invoices, and also helps to ensure timely response from all participants in the approval lifecycle.

It is critical for senior management to understand that Accounts Payable Automation is not a replacement for an existing ERP or Accounting Software System, but rather a key tool to help enhance the value and reduce the costs of the Accounts Payable Process. AP Automation Solutions also provide the flexibility to work with multiple ERP or Accounting Systems, so they will continue to pay dividends if and when the organization chooses to switch from one software package to another.

In addition to the costs savings derived from an Automated Accounts Payable System during the Invoice Lifecycle, there is another inherent benefit to leveraging this type of system – Compliance. When an organization experiences an audit, these systems will provide a clear trail of approvals, including date and time stamps, to indicate who approved or rejected certain invoices. In addition, copies of these invoices can be retrieved with a few mouse clicks, as opposed to manually poring over stacks of physical files.

Whether your company is faced with challenging economic conditions or not, further exploration of AP Automation may be a key factor in the overall health and profitability of your operation. If you’re not sure where to begin, many companies who offer these solutions can work with you to provide a detailed Return on Investment (ROI) analysis to target specific costs savings and metrics that can help improve the health of your business.

About The Author

Michael Thomas is the Director of Solution Development for Digital Storage Solutions, Inc. Digital Solutions, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Long Island, NY. The company provides professional document management solutions.Visit http://www.digitalstorageinc.com/accounts-payable.htm

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software

Being a commercial rental property manager is not an easy task. What if you don’t have the necessary tools that would be of help in your work? If you’re a solopreneur who owns or manages commercial rental property, and are looking to make your life easier, why not look for the right tenant software for your business. A commercial property management software that would have all your necessities packed in one. In this article we will help you determine what property management system software is best for your needs.

First, you must know your needs. What are you looking for in accounting software for rental properties? Second, do you need a desktop application or a web-based program? Third, is the software user-friendly? Fourth, how affordable is the commercial real estate software?

The common features of a commercial property management software are:

Keep track of rent payments for tenants which include utilities and other charges such as late charges. Accept partial and government subsidies.

An easy-to-use database that tracks all the information about your tenants that you will need.

Organize your tasks and easily create lists of things to do.

Record important information on all of your rental units.

Send promotional materials or other form letters to all of your guests, vendors, family, friends or any other contacts.

Generate rent receipts, statements, and keep track of payments.

Track of all your income and tax deductible expenses and generate tax form reports.

Keep track of any appliances, furniture, etc. that is part of the rental unit with this component.

Record all your expense payments and travel deductions. View deposits and debits for any number of expense reporting accounts.

A way to add misc. charges and record full and partial rent payments and print rent receipts.

Keep track of all your work orders, and scheduled repairs.

Display your appointments, deadlines and other important events in Daily, Weekly or Monthly Calendar formats.

Create Work Orders for any repairs or maintenance, track vendors, schedules, work completed and amounts paid.

Keep track of deposits, payments to accounts, and other income sources. Generate registers for your income reporting accounts.

Some building management software will also keep track of schedules, generate form letters to be mailed or emailed, and provide other tools to help you streamline your business. Consider these additional features:

Create To Do Lists with room for notes, deadlines, priorities, etc. with project management software.

The best commercial real estate property management also includes tools which allow you to look up where area codes are, calculate time zone differences, and has a universal calculator that adds or subtracts numbers, dates and times, converts length, volume and weight measurements, computes discounts, sales tax, foreign money exchanges and loan payment amounts.

One major thing to consider is, should it be a desktop application or a web-based application? Here are some differences between the two:

A desktop application is an application that runs without the need of an internet connection. A web-based application, which includes any software you log on to a web site to access, requires a fast, reliable internet connection.

Desktop software is generally much faster and easier to use than web-based software. If you do not have a very fast internet connection, it could take you several times longer to get the same amount of work done.

If your web connection goes down, or the company’s website were to go down, or the company went out of business, you will no longer have access to your data if using web-based applications. A desktop application, if backed-up regularly, is more secure and reliable than a web-based application.

With desktop applications, you generally pay just once, and technical support is often included. With web-based applications you rent the software, paying monthly fees and often get only email support.

The next thing to consider is how easy is the software to use? Is it easy to understand? Are you comfortable using the software? Can you get technical support easily and quickly, both by phone and by email? Does that support cost extra?

The final question is, how much are you willing to spend for this software? You must also consider cost-effectiveness. You must analyze if the money you’ll pay for the best commercial real estate management software is worth it.

As a solopreneur, I’m sure you would rather find ways to save money and at the same time have the features and capabilities you are looking for in commercial rental management software?

With these things in mind, you can now determine what would be the best lease management software for your need. The best property management software in my opinion is Rental Property Tracker Plus. It is a reasonably priced desktop application that is easy to use and is available for most Mac and Windows computers.

To better understand ease, comfort and productivity, and download a free trial today, visit http://www.productivity-software.com/rental/index.html for more details.

About The Author

Garth Catterall-Heart has been creating productivity software for self-employed professionals and rental property management software since 1999. Download your free trial for Mac or Windows at http://www.productivity-software.com/rental/index.html

Jonathan Victolero assisted in the writing of this article.

You may reprint this article only in its entirety with this bio.

©2010 Garth Catterall-Heart

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software

I hope you’ve been enjoying my posts lately. I thought I might do something different today and rustle up a few bits of info from around the WWW. These are some of the news items and blog posts that have been popular over the last few weeks. Leave me your thoughts.

Sally Newall tastes success with Simply Ice Cream

About 44% of women cited the ability to work from home as a key reason to set up their own company, research by accounting software provider Intuit showed. …   Read More…

Kaseya Acquires ObjAcct, Inc., Makers Of The ObjAcct XML Accounting Suite

ObjAcct, Inc., founded by Lee Mellinger in 2003, is a leading edge accounting software company and the developers of ObjAcct Suite, the world's first XML …   Read More…

Xero struggles to get NZ investors onboard

Online accounting software firm Xero, whose stock has soared to a record high, is struggling to get New Zealand's fund managers and analysts to buy into its …   Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software

What this means is that a manager or authorized employee can go to their PC, activate a Web browser, log in to the system, and access telecom reports right from their desk. This can be a tremendous time saver, especially at companies that have many branches. Of course, unauthorized persons have to be prevented from accessing the information, but this is a fairly simple matter with adequate user name and password protection. For executives to have immediate real-time access to needed reports can be of great benefit.

Instant access is but one advantage of a web-based call accounting software system. In this day and age most employees have a personal computer with e-mail capability and web access on their desks. This means that they don’t need to have any special software installed to be able to access the needed reports, nor will they need costly upgrades. All that is needed is to provide them with the required login username and password.

Some employees may require limited access privileges by excluding more sensitive information that does not concern them. Normally, this can be coupled to the person’s login by the system administrator, but it is important to choose a call accounting system that provides this capability.

Fraud detection is an important aspect of call accounting. This is especially the case, after the Sarbanes-Oxley act was passed in Congress in 2002, following fraudulent operations by companies, such as Enron and WorldCom. With fraud detection, it is important to have rapid access to call detail records (CDRs) in order to track down the culprits. A web-enabled call accounting system that can be programmed to issue alerts on detecting suspicious activity can be of great benefit. When shopping for a call accounting system, look for these features.

A further advantage of web-enabled call accounting is that the information can be accessed simultaneously by different users without placing unnecessary stress on the system. In particular, this is of great advantage to international enterprises that have branches in different countries. With web access, executives can obtain the needed telecom information anywhere in the world by using any web-enabled computer and logging in.

For more information on Call Accounting, visit Telsoft Solutions.

About The Author

Peter Verhoeff writes articles on the business benefits of call accounting and call detail record technology. More information can be found at http://www.telsoft-solutions.com.

Technorati Tags: Accounting Software