When it comes to tools to help a farmer manage an operation, is the most basic and widespread option always the best? Just think about your equipment, the tools you use out in the field. Do you buy whatever is cheapest, or do you like a certain brand or type of equipment? Do you buy the first thing you see, or research everything that is available first? The same logic applies to your Ag software. The software you use is a crucial piece of equipment that can help you stay on track and be profitable. Don’t trust it to whatever is easiest to find or cheapest! Instead, have a careful look at your options and what fits best for your farm. At least then if you decide to purchase the cheapest and most basic package, you will do so with your eyes wide open, and you will know exactly what you are getting. So a good question here is, with so many basic software packages available, who needs Ag software?

Farmers who want information in their own language.

You probably won’t find anything about enterprises, farms, fields, production, or other farm-related activities within a basic accounting program. That’s because those programs have to fit a huge variety of business types. Ag software presents tools and features to you in a way that is familiar and makes more sense.

Farmers who want to know how they are doing compared to established guidelines.

Did you know there is now a software tool available to help you understand where you should be with industry benchmarks? This same tool can also help pinpoint areas of strength and weakness in your farm, so you can increase your profits and reverse negative trends. This tool is ratio analysis, and some Ag software has this as one of its features. Ratio analysis includes guidelines, ratios and indices that are specific to Ag, so you won’t have to guess how you are doing; you can see it for yourself, using the numbers you have already entered into your system.

Farmers who want to plan how much profit they will have, and where it will come from.

Software specifically for Ag gives you tools to track information in the way that is most useful to you, whether it’s by profit center, by enterprise, by account, and much more. Tracking information helps you understand which areas of your farm are profitable, so you can focus on your income generating enterprises and increase your profits. Another helpful tool for planning is the ability to run ‘what if’ scenarios. Doing this allows you to project future sales, cash flow, income states, and assets and liabilities. Once this information is tracked and reported consistently, managing your finances becomes much easier and can become more goal-oriented.

Using an Ag-specific program to run your farm can make your information much easier to enter and understand. No matter which program you choose, make sure it can provide you with the financial information you need, in the way you want to see it.

When a company needs new accounting software, where do they go to do their research? The majority of people these days begin their search on the internet. Yet, when you search Google for the word “accounting software reviews”, the first page of search results do not typically offer you a comprehensive list of accounting software reviews. How can this be? Here are some of the most common myths about searching for accounting software reviews, and suggestions on how to really get the information you need.

Myth #1: Reviews must be unbiased, since they are on the internet.

The internet is a land of fierce competition, where millions of people are competing to show up on the first page of Google. There is big money to be spent and earned in online advertising. So when you enter the search term ‘accounting software reviews’, you will likely find some sites that review accounting software packages. Just because they review a variety of software packages does not mean that they picked all the best ones out there they could find! Many of these sites feature only products that pay to be there. Therefore, the list may not be a comprehensive one. Also, if they are paid reviews, you might not get the most honest results, since the reviewers are being paid and want to keep their customers. This is something to keep in mind.

Myth #2: Google knows what you are looking for.

All of us have been guilty, at some point, of thinking that whatever shows up on Google page one must be the best result for what we are looking for. After all, most of us don’t sit and contemplate how Google retrieves its results! However, Google is not a person, and it doesn’t ‘know’ anything at all! It uses a proprietary algorithm to display the most relevant search results. (An algorithm is a computer program.) Of course, Google’s algorithm is very good, and that’s why the majority of people choose it as a search engine. However, a computer program cannot tell what you really seek. You can enter the term ‘accounting software reviews’ and Google will serve you results based on what it knows. But what it doesn’t know is that what you really want are unbiased results provided by people who have actually used the system in real life. You might not get that by simply searching for ‘accounting software reviews’.

So despite the above, you are still hoping to find some good reviews for your prospective accounting software! Do not despair; there are better ways to get what you are looking for. One great way to find a comprehensive list of accounting software programs is to visit www.Capterra.com. Companies can pay to have top placement, but there is still a comprehensive list of accounting software vendors for you to search through, by feature or simply in list format. There are also customer reviews along with many of the software packages, which are not biased since they are submitted by actual customers. Another place to look for customer reviews is www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com They do a yearly review of accounting and payroll systems, as well as many other systems. They provide extremely detailed and useful information about the features and usability of accounting software systems. One final place to find some of the best accounting software reviews is your potential accounting software vendor. Ask if there is a customer who has a business similar to yours, who is using the product and would be willing to speak with you. Yes this is more work, but you will be talking to an actual customer like you, and they can provide feedback on specific questions you have.

The press release at this link describes free live regional events, sponsored by HP, for small businesses to secure new contracts, network and learn.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hp-joins-with-business-matchmaking-to-launch-2012-nationwide-events-for-americas-small-businesses-2012-02-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Accounting software is of course instrumental in helping manage your business finances. And in addition to that, accounting software includes a host of functions that help you organize information and manage processes within your business. The ability to manage inventory in multiple locations is one of those functions. Multiple inventory management can help you become more organized, streamline processes, and even keep your customers happy.

View stock quantities at multiple locations.

Do you have your inventory items in different locations? Maybe you have two different stores, multiple warehouses, or perhaps you keep some of your inventory on a truck. All of these are scenarios in which tracking inventory at multiple locations can be helpful. Above all, tracking inventory by location allows you to quickly see what you have, how many, and where it is. This saves the time of searching for your items, and it also keeps your customers happy by letting them know whether that item is available to them.

Customized pricing by inventory location

Tracking inventory by location lets you set pricing by location as well, especially helpful in the case that your stores have separate pricing schemes. Costing can also be tracked by location, which gives you a more accurate picture of true costs and profitability by location.

Keep track of quantities on order (purchase orders), assigned (sales orders), on hand and sold by inventory location.

When you organize your inventory items by location, your processes can become streamlined in several ways. You will be able to see, by location, which items are on order, which are assigned to sales orders, and which are available and sold. When you can view all of this information by location, it becomes much easier to stay organized, give customers accurate shipment information, and keep just the right quantity of inventory items in stock.

Tracking your inventory by location keeps you organized and because of that, you can also keep customers happy and add more profits to your bottom line.

Accounts payable professionals know that there is much more involved with their job than just paying invoices! There are certain aspects of accounts payable that can be simplified and streamlined with the setup of a good accounts payable accounting software program. Here are some key things to look for in accounting software to help you streamline your accounts payable.

MICR Check Capability

MICR Check printing lets you print checks on blank check stock (with a special ink) instead of on preprinted check stock. This can be useful when the check information changes, such as address changes, etc. With MICR check printing, you simply change the data and print the checks instead of wasting the remaining preprinted checks. This same tool can allow signatures to be printed, rather than requiring a manager to be present to sign checks.

View vendor balance when entering purchases.

Being able to view vendor balances when entering accounts payable transactions can be helpful, since you can instantly see your status with that vendor. If a payment is necessary, you can promptly make one from the system and then process the new transaction.

Flexible vendor sorting

Perhaps you can’t remember the vendor’s name, but you can recall their city or contact name. Having a system that allows you to sort or look up vendors in a variety of ways can be extremely helpful for this reason.

Useful reporting

Accounts payable software is meant to make your job easier and also to pull information out of the system when you need it. Be sure to find a system that can provide the information you and your managers need, the way you need to see it, and in a timely manner. Can you sort credit card purchases from line of credit purchases? Can you move around the fields of information as needed for your accounts payable aging report? Can you sort your purchases by vendor and by account? Not only will strong reporting keep you well organized, it will also keep you looking good when others request details from you, and you can provide them what they need in a timely manner.

By setting up and using a good accounts payable software system; you can make your job so much easier, and also impress your peers with your simplified workflow and reports.

Many of you processing payroll in a wide variety of states face a similar challenge: local payroll tax withholding amounts by work location and by residence for your employees. Here’s more about how it works, and also suggestions for handling it within your payroll software.

Employees who work at several different locations during the same pay period may require a different local tax withholding amount, determined by the city in which the work is performed. In addition, there may also be a local withholding tax for the city of their residence. Without a way to track both of these taxes, you can easily make the wrong calculations or spend hours of time manually trying to figure it out. Here are states with some cities that assess local employment taxes.

Keeping track of these withholding amounts is complex. But there is a way to handle this situation within your payroll software. You can create ‘Local Tax Entities’ within your payroll software, relate the tax entities to the appropriate employees, and then during time/pay entry you can select the appropriate local tax entity assigned to the time/pay entry. This is something not all payroll software programs will allow you to do. It is worth asking your software provider if there is a way to handle it in the program you are using. If not, give us a call. CenterPoint Payroll Software can easily handle payroll local tax withholding, and much more. (PS: if you are a Red Wing Software customer with a current Customer Care Plan, give us a call and we will help you get this set up!)

Are you a driver or a passenger? I read quite a bit, and it seems a lot of the things I’ve been reading and observing lately are related to this question. I’ll give you a few examples of what I’m talking about.

In a book that I just finished reading, a group conducted a study in which participants were to watch a video and afterwards would be tested on what they had seen. While they were focusing on the subject of the video, a person in a monkey suit walked pasted in the background. When they were tested on what they saw in the video, almost no one remembered seeing the monkey. As a driver, you need to be focused on the task at hand, but also need to be aware of what’s going on around you.

To support one of my hobbies, I subscribe to over ten aviation publications that come at least once per month, and in many of the publications there are summaries of accident reports. I read these religiously, because in this case, I would rather learn from the mistakes of others, than learn from my own. In one case, an airplane with two pilots crashed when a warning indicator light came on and in an attempt to troubleshoot the problem, both pilots focused on finding the source of the failure, and neither pilot remembered to fly the airplane. The result wasn’t pretty.

Here’s one we all see every day. Someone “driving” down the road while talking on the phone, sending a text message, eating, you name it. They clearly are not aware of what’s happening around them because they don’t maintain constant speed, they wander about in their lane, don’t go forward when the light turns green, or any number of other obvious non-driver acts. I argue that many of these people are passengers in a car with no driver.

One last example that hits close to home. My mom recently told me that when she and another person are traveling together, one person is behind the wheel and the other is driving. I’m not sure what to think of that one.

My point to all this is; when running your business (driving), and while focusing on the task at hand, don’t forget to pay attention to your peripheral vision. You might regrettably find that the task you’re focused on is being handled very well, while the business is crashing around you.

- Ken Hilton, President

Since we are a software company, we work with customers nearly every day who are moving to a new system, and are often bringing some information over from their old system to the new one. (This is referred to as ‘migrating’.) Of course, we all have our own opinion when it comes to migrating. Your company may have migrated with great success and had no issues, and another may have run into some problems along the way that left a bad taste in their mouth. There are so many variables involved in migrating your software, all of which can affect the success of your migration. Here are some statistics from a survey taken by real customers of Red Wing Software and customers of other software products. Understanding the experiences of others who have been there can help you make your own migration successful.

The most important factor for a smooth migration is the support team. This answer got 59% of the responses - more than double that of any other choice selection! There are many things that can help with your software migration: training, help documents, videos, and more. But the support team is probably your most helpful resource during a migration. Anytime you have an issue or question, or need to know how to do something, you can just pick up the phone and give them a call. That’s why using support should be a big part of your plan to get the software up and running. You may feel like you are calling too often or bothering the support team, but that is their job, and they deal with the exact things you are dealing with every single day. Every call you make is an investment in your future with your new software.

36% of respondents said training was the number one thing they could have done to improve their migration experience. If you are thinking of getting training prior to migrating, you might want to consider this number! Once you start the wheels moving in the process of your migration, it’s hard to stop it and get training at that point. So think ahead when it comes to training. If you or your staff don’t know anything about the software and need to familiarize yourselves, plan to either attend training, or at least do some online tutorials, well before the actual migration process begins. Then you can get all of your questions answered and understand processes, which will greatly reduce your stress level once you start using the software.

Only 9% of people said they had a plan to help them stay organized. You might think you are far too busy with everything else involved in your software migration to come up with a migration plan. But just think about it, how lost would you be in your daily life without a calendar to keep track of what there is to do. Even if you just jot down some notes on paper, it’s a good idea to put a plan together for your migration. Key components to include are: who will do what, how long each step will take, and what will happen if one of the steps falls through or is completed late. When you are prepared for whatever happens, the migration process will go much more smoothly.

You know you have to make the switch from your old program to something newer! In the end, your company will reap the benefits of newer technology. Why not make your migration a successful one by heeding the comments of those who have been there and done that?

Accounting software is clearly an important part of your business. If you have ever searched for an accounting software product and a company to work with, you have probably noticed that there are so many accounting software companies available. Do you choose a basic, mass-marketed product like Intuit’s QuickBooks? Maybe you will opt for a large-scale customizable product like Sage MAS 200? Or maybe your business is a perfect fit for mid-market accounting software such as Red Wing Software’s CenterPoint Accounting. The process of narrowing down your search to a few vendors can be grueling if you don’t have the right tools. Answer these questions to help you decide which type of vendor and product is right for your business.

Who am I comfortable working with?

There are so many accounting software companies. Some are very large, with their support call centers in several countries, and you likely won’t speak with the same person twice. Others are smaller, with fewer technicians, where you get to know their technicians and they get to know you. Both systems have their own set of benefits. A larger company may be available longer hours or even 24/7, while the smaller companies may have a more limited support schedule. Consider which type of service you want for your business.

How customizable is the product for your business?

In the accounting software world, there are really two kinds of ‘customizable’. The first is open source code, where the actual code of the software can be altered in nearly any way. Changing source code can get expensive, and you might have problems finding support if your programmer is unavailable. On the other hand, having open source code can provide precision features to be created to fit your business processes exactly the way you want. The other type of customization involves the changing of features within the software to fit your own needs. Many businesses can fit their processes very well by simply editing features within the accounting software to meet their needs. A system like this does cost far less than an open source system as it is likely less expensive to support and keep up. Ask your potential vendor if they provide open source code, or customizable features, as this can make a big difference in cost and processes.

Do the training options fit my needs?

Some people prefer to learn about their new accounting software at their own pace, others would rather attend a live training session, and still others simply use the online help within the system. Each software company offers their own set of training options, so it’s important you find a company who offers training in a manner that fits your company best.

Consider these questions early on in your search for accounting software companies, and you will have a much easier time weeding out the companies that are not a good fit for your company, and focusing on the ones that work best for you.

A huge number of businesses use Google Analytics to monitor the activity on their Web site. If you are not one of them, you may wonder what all the fuss is about, and whether you are missing out on something useful. Well, without knowing you or your business, I can venture a guess and say ‘yes’ you are missing out on some very useful and important information if you are not using Google Analytics. You can gather some amazingly useful information with Google Analytics, which can inspire you to take important action!

Have a reference point.

Your Web site can be an extremely useful tool for your business, no matter what type of business you have. But if you don’t know who is visiting, how they got there, your number of daily visitors, or anything else, you won’t know if any of your marketing efforts are making a difference. Even if you install Google Analytics now but don’t look at it right away, you can always go back and look at the data later on. By using Google Analytics even in the most basic way, you will start to understand how many people on average visit your site and how they got there, and you can also begin to see how the things you are doing impact the visitors to your Web site. Here are just a few examples of how it can help!

Know how people find your site.

Google Analytics allows you to see which keywords or Web sites people used to find your site. When you know which traffic sources are working, you can try to increase the traffic from those sources. For example if a large number of people are finding your site by searching for the term ‘blue widgets’, you could create a whole Web page about blue widgets. You could write useful articles about blue widgets and post them for people to see on Facebook and Twitter. You could submit that same article to your blog and to a free article submission site (like www.ezinearticles.com) with a link back to your Web site. Knowing how people find you is a great start to something that can be extremely useful in enhancing your marketing efforts.

Know which pages are sticky.

You put the time and money in to building a Web site. Now, how do you know that people are finding what they are looking for? You might be thinking “people would let me know if they couldn’t find the things they need on my Web site.” This is not true. Web searchers will not tell you anything at all; they will simply go away and look someplace else. Analytics will show you how much time people spent on each of your pages, and also where they came from and where they went next. This helps you understand whether your Web site is effective! For example, if people came to your site, viewed the home page for 20 seconds and then left your site, you should probably question whether things are easy enough to find.

Discover which call to action works best.

Do you know which action you want people to take on your Web site? Every business is different, but you should always have your call to action clear for people to see. Maybe you get the best response from having people fill in a form, or a request for proposal. Well then, that is what you should have as a call to action on your Web page(s)! Using Analytics can help you track and understand the actions people are taking on your site, which can in turn help you decide which actions result in the most sales.

I doubt I have even seen anything as useful as Google Analytics for such a low price: FREE! The biggest cost you will incur is that of your time (or your webmaster). It’s basically just a matter of signing up, and getting a piece of Java script code added to all the pages you wish to track. Install it today and open up a whole new world of data to help your business focus on what works!