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aACE can help you streamline your operations and set your business up for success – learn how in our February webinars. Here's what we have in store:

February 2nd - aACE Basics

If you’re brand-new to aACE, this is the webinar for you! Learn how aACE’s system-wide conventions make it easy for new users to interact with the solution. Check out our video before the presentation to get a sneak peek at aACE’s user-friendly design.

February 9th – Managing Transactions

aACE makes it easy to track each step of a transaction, giving you the peace of mind that comes from having one solution manage every aspect of a sale or purchase. We’ll explore how users manage transactions in aACE using the Purchase Orders module as our example.

February 16th – Sales Leads and the aACE CRM App

Your sales team is moving fast to keep your customers and prospects engaged, and they need a solution that can keep up – even when they're on the go. See our CRM App in action and learn more about how sales leads move through aACE. Check out our sales leads and CRM App feature highlights for a sneak peek before the presentation.

February 23rd – Sales Orders

See aACE's sales order, drop shipping, and special order workflows in action and learn how aACE makes each of those workflows a breeze. Before the webinar, check out our feature highlight for a preview of some of these topics.

We look forward to seeing you in our webinars and answering your questions in real time during each presentation! Register now to save your spot.

Vetting new technology is challenging:

• Do you find the “best” solution on the market and make it work for you?
• Do you find out what’s best for your organization and then invest countless hours scouring vendors, exploring features, watching demos, getting quotes, and then short-listing them?
• How many solutions should you take for a test drive before making a decision?
• How do you find the most budget-appropriate solution that meets your most critical needs?
• When do you need a business impact analysis?
• Does this software facilitate the need to do a risk assessment? 

The list can go on and on.

That’s why, unfortunately, many organizations will forego this process altogether just to not have to worry about the hassle and frustrations, and keep using their old systems and software, regardless of how inefficient or esoteric they may be.

If you’re a small business and you’ve been using the same accounting software for a long time or you have a hodge-podge of manual, people-based accounting processes, the list above represents some of the many reasons why you might be hesitant to begin the journey for a replacement or upgrade. But, when it comes to keeping all the numbers crunched for operational resiliency, it might be time to turn off the adding machines, roll up the ticker tape, and close down those spreadsheets.

BMS for Accounting

Before you begin your journey to choose a solution, let’s take a quick look at some of the many reasons why a business management solution (BMS) may be right for your accounting needs:

• An integrated BMS accounting solution can give you insight like you’ve never had before — comprehensive visibility from sales lead to satisfied customer.
• You can decrease the chance of human error by eliminating duplicate, repetitive data entry. With an integrated BMS, you can enter customer information in your customer relationship management (CRM) solution and share that data across all of your connected operational systems like invoicing and billing, with everything feeding into your accounting solution in real time.
• You’ll always have an accurate picture of your organization’s financials, right in an easy-to-understand dashboard, without having to track down someone to have them update a spreadsheet or print out a ledger.
• You can share key information across teams. For example, how many sales are in the pipeline, who has been billed, who has paid, and whose accounts need follow-up.
• You can quickly pull reports and other data as needed for compliance and audits.
• Have multiple offices or locations? You can manage all of your accounting needs for all of them right in one solution and with a cloud-hosted option, you can ensure team members have access to the workflows they need, no matter where they are. 
• You can quickly calculate related taxes and costs and always be aware of what you need to collect and what you’re required to remit.
• You can align your current expenditures with your budget so you always know how well you’re doing and when and if you need to make adjustments.
• Have recurring processes or transactions? A BMS accounting solution will enable you to automate recurring transactions, like routine scheduled payments, so you always know they're taken care of accurately and on time.

Sounds great, right? Much easier than using a spreadsheet or other software. Now that you know why a BMS accounting solution is a good idea, how do you know which one is best for you?

Here are a few suggestions:

• First, do a business impact analysis (BIA) to determine exactly what you need your accounting software to do, not just right now, but as it aligns to plans to scale and grow.
• You may find it helpful, depending on the size of your organization and scale of your accounting department and needs, to find an executive sponsor — someone who can champion this project on an executive level to facilitate the resources you’ll need to select and implement, and also ensure buy-in and adoption across your organization.
• Determine if you need an on-premises solution, a cloud-hosted solution, or a hybrid solution that includes components of both. If you want an on-prem solution, you’ll need to understand all of the hardware and software requirements for set up and installation, so on the next step, when you’re budgeting, remember you’ll need to include those in your costs, too.
• Once you understand what you need your accounting software to do, set your budget. Don’t forget: with many software solutions, additional costs can quickly add up. Even software as a service where there are no hardware or software installations needed may have additional fees for set up, users, data storage and retention, licensing, and more. Look for vendors with clearly defined features and easy-to-understand pricing models. Seek vendors that offer services that can scale and change with your organization, without piling on astronomical costs as you grow with them. Some solutions come with a range of features, but not all of them are always clearly defined from a cost perspective. Ensure that if a vendor is upselling features, you understand all costs related to them.
• Next, seek out vendors whose platforms meet all of your needs. Don’t fall into a trap of being lured in by flashy marketing messages with bells and whistles you don’t need. Refer back to that BIA and your list of needs and requirements.

Here are some key features you may want to include:

• Ability to forecast, track, manage, and update budgets, not just for your organization as a whole, but down to a granular level like department or project-based
• User-friendly, including training and support for your users
• Billing and invoicing options with enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration for streamlined efficiencies like inventory management, reorders, and payments
• Streamlined integration with your point of sale systems
• Customizable reports with a range of options from the big picture, down to a granular level
• Ability to quickly pull required data and documents for audits and assessments
• Both cloud-hosted options as well as mobile access
• Ability to add and remove users and limit user access as needed
• Support for compliance and regulatory mandates
• Ability to automate manual tasks
• Integrations that help you manage sales taxes permits, collection, and remittance
• Simple integration and API access that links your accounting system to other systems and applications
• Security and privacy functionality to protect sensitive data
• Frequent and reliable data back-ups and simplified recovery processes

Once you have a better idea of what you need and how much you're able to spend:

• Short-list vendors that are within your budget and that meet your requirements
• Ask to see product demos
• Ask to speak to existing customers
• Look for solutions that offer reliable customer service (beyond standard business hours) through a variety of communication methods like email, chat, phone calls, and more
• Work with vendors who will let you “try-before-you-buy” so you can get a feel for the software and its core features before you commit
• Consider working with a partner or advisor who understands the complexities of a BMS accounting solution and have them help your team with your BIA, risk assessments, needs lists, and more
  
  

Need help starting your accounting software journey, or are you ready to replace software that no longer meets all of your needs? Register for an upcoming webinar today to see our solution in action for yourself.

There are a number of factors that contribute to how organizations manage their inventory processes. Smaller companies with a single location may find it simple enough to have one employee do a manual check and keep track of updates with pen and paper, or maybe even a simple spreadsheet. While that may “work” for small companies, it’s hardly efficient and, like the old adage of putting all your eggs in one basket, it’s not good business to rely solely on one person to manage all the parts and supplies that keep your company moving.

This can be even more complicated for larger companies, especially those with many locations and where inventory storage spans multiple sites — sometimes across states, countries, or around the globe.

And when we’re talking about inventory, we’re not just referring to your products and the related supplies to produce them, but to everything your company needs in order to do business on a daily basis. That could include everything from paper and ink, to cleaning supplies, to products and more.

So how do you keep track of it all? How can you ensure you always have insight into your inventory — no matter where it’s stored or who is responsible for tracking it — at all times? How can you make sure you have everything you need, both short and longer term, to keep your company resilient?

As we’ve seen with the coronavirus outbreak, we never know when an unexpected supply chain disruption could happen, and we always need to be on top of where our supplies are—and who they’re coming from and when—so we can circumvent issues that could cause stoppages or delays.

Here are 7 tips to help you streamline and automate all of your inventory processes to ensure operational resiliency and improved efficiencies:

1. Toss the spreadsheets: Adopt and implement inventory management software that enables you to track, monitor, re-order, and process all of your inventory from within a single solution.
2. Inventory your inventory: One of the biggest challenges for most organizations is no real insight into what inventory you have, what you need, and where it’s all stored. Begin with doing an inventory of your inventory. But this isn’t just a list of the who/what/where. You should also categorize all of your inventory for simplified management. Here are some of the areas you could consider:
   1. Item criticality: How critical is this item to your operations? What is the impact on operations if you run low or run out of this item? If this item is a critical item for resiliency, you should categorize it to reflect that.
   2. Cost and usage: You could also categorize your inventory based on cost and usage level. For example, one category could be lower-cost items that you use frequently and require routine or frequent re-orders. Another category could be items that are mid-level in costs, that need re-orders but not as frequently as the first category. A third category could be those high-priced items that you need, but do not have to frequently reorder (and which also may require a different level of review and approval.)
3. Track your inventory: Once you’ve identified and classified all of your inventory, now it’s time to track it. There are a number of efficient ways you can do this, but you may find it beneficial to include the following information for each item for tracking:
   1. Product name
   2. Product type
   3. Lot and/or serial number
   4. Barcodes or near-field communication chips
   5. SKUs
   6. Vendor name, location, and contact information
   7. Location of inventory storage
   8. How/where item is used within your operations
   9. Responsible party
   10. Last order date
4. Routinely re-inventory your inventory: How often you check your inventory levels may depend on a number of factors. While some organizations do it once a year, or once a quarter, you may find more routine re-checks to be more beneficial, for example, at the end of each month. With inventory management software, especially one that integrates with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, you should always have insight into all of your inventory in near-real time. This makes inventory audits a breeze, and you can even create and share reports about inventory status at any time for more insight.
5. Understand your sales lifecycle: Managing inventory only works well if you know how much you need at a given time to meet customer demands, including when to anticipate peaks and valleys. Take time to get to know your company’s sales lifecycle, including company and industry trends for sales and lead times. You can also improve inventory management by integrating your inventory management software with your customer relationship management tool, that way you’ll be able to make better data-driven business decisions and ensure the inventory you need is always available when you need it.
6. Evaluate your suppliers: While many companies have good risk analysis strategies for their core functions, few remember to include suppliers in their risk evaluations. Each time you’re looking for a new vendor – or when you’re renewing or extending contracts with existing ones – you should do a risk analysis of each supplier. Just as you earlier determined which of your inventory is critical for operations, you’ll need to understand who supplies those critical parts, what risks those suppliers face for delivery, how they’re mitigating risks, and whether they meet all of your compliance and regulatory standards. If any of the vendors in your supply chain exceed the level of risk deemed acceptable by your company, you should replace that vendor with one with a more acceptable level of risk.
7. Automate reorders: It’s frustrating, and sometimes downright confusing, to check your inventory and wonder why you have so much of a product you rarely use and so little of a product that you need most often. That’s often a result of people-managed inventory, where there’s incomplete or inaccurate communication about needs and objectives, or sometimes even just a missed entry on reorder. By adopting an integrated inventory management solution, you can eliminate the possibility of human error by configuring your inventory reorder parameters within the software and then letting the system notify you when it’s time to do a reorder — all based on preset conditions you can modify or update at any time. You should also use a solution that can alert you when products are on backorder so you can quickly adapt and use a different supplier as needed.

There are a lot more benefits of using an inventory management solution to take control of your inventory management tasks. From improving efficiencies, to saving you money, and reducing errors, you can always ensure you have the right products you need when you need them, and reduce overspending and overstocking for good.

Do you need help managing your inventory or would you like to know more about how you can integrate inventory management with your other critical business operations? Register now to save your seat in one of our upcoming webinars.

2020 has been an unprecedented year and for many businesses, the move to a remote world for staffing, sales, and services has been a vital component for success and endurance.

As we’ve seen throughout much of the year, the pandemic has prompted an increasing number of consumers to say no to brick-and-mortar. Many are rapidly adopting online shopping for everything from household goods and clothing, to groceries, pharmacy, and more.

It’s expected that before the holiday season wraps up, we’ll continue to see an increase in online consumerism. One report from Adobe Analytics estimates this year will reflect a 33% increase in online sales just for the months of November and December compared to the same time last year. What’s that look like when you convert it to dollars? How about a whopping $189 billion!

While many were optimistic the U.S. government would approve another $1,200 per person stimulus push before the holidays, as the year begins to wind down it appears Congress has settled on half that – roughly $600 per person, which likely won’t appear in bank accounts until after the holiday shopping season. The good news is that this puts some much-needed cash in consumers' pockets as we move into the new year.

While holiday shopping is soon to be all wrapped up, it’s not too late to ride the online shopping wave into a thriving 2021.

Here are some ideas you can apply to be sure you’re all set for a happy new year and a successful 2021:

It’s All About the Experience

When it comes to shopping these days, whether it’s in store or online, experience is what it’s all about. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to fine-tune your online experiences for your customers. When was the last time your online storefront had a refresh? Are all of your products up-to-date? Do you know exactly what you have in stock and where it is?

Few things are as frustrating as finding the perfect product or service you want, adding it to your shopping cart only to find out at checkout that it’s not available or to expect a delay. Make your customer experience the best it can be by ensuring you always have what your customers want in stock, when they want it. Consider integrating your online sales portal with your existing customer relationship management (CRM) system to deliver customized experiences – then go one step further and integrate it with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. That means you can easily track your inventory, no matter how large or small your operations are, and you can make timely changes and updates to your online sales system that reflect your product availability.

Monitor Your Supply Chain

While we’re talking about that customer experience and frustrations that come with product unavailability, consider using an ERP not just for inventory management, but to help facilitate better supply chain management. As we’ve seen during COVID-19, one issue around the world can have a cascading effect on businesses around the world, leaving you in a lurch if you haven’t kept an eye on what’s happening across your supply chain.

Competitive Prices, Happy Customers

Think again like a consumer when you’re looking at your organization’s online shopping experiences. What do you like? Great prices and amazing products from trustworthy companies, especially to build a repeat consumer base. And most customers don’t like unexpected product price increases. Often, that happens with the lack of insight into your supply chain we just mentioned. If you are unaware of changes within your supply chain, and haven’t been keeping an eye on your supplier prices, you might be forced to suddenly (and what might feel unexpectedly to your customers) up your prices to cover your increased costs. An ERP will help you track your inventory costs and with customizable reports, you’ll never be caught off guard by an incremental price increase that went unnoticed, saving you from frustrating your customers when you suddenly mark your prices up.

Decrease Shipping Delays

Hopefully by the time the new year is upon us, most mailing and shipping companies will have caught up and packages will have made it home for the holidays. But even during less busy times of the year, a sudden influx in shipping and mailing (like we’ve seen during the pandemic) can cause unexpected product delivery and delays. And what happens then? You guessed it: bad customer experiences. Did you know, however, that you can help improve your customers’ shipping experiences by using a business management software (BMS) platform to track your sales processes from beginning to end? For example, by integrating your BMS with your CRM, you can get immediate notification of a sale, activate steps for invoicing and billing, collect payments, get your shipping processes started, and even track your products after they’re on their way to your customers. With this insight, you may even be able to anticipate possible delays or backlogs, communicate that to your customers, and offer alternatives or assurances to ease their frustrations. While you’re at it, if you have a product-return policy, be sure to make that clear to your consumers before purchase and help make your return processes as simple and user-friendly as possible.

Be Friendly – Especially Mobile-Friendly

If your website and online sales portal aren’t mobile-friendly, then you may be missing a huge portion of available consumers. According to Adobe Analytics, this holiday season more than 40% of all online sales will be on mobile devices, representing more than a 50% growth compared to last year. With more than 275 million smartphone users in the United States in 2020, it’s a smart move to be as mobile-friendly as possible as soon as you can. And the growth for mobile engagements isn’t expected to slow down. By 2024, for example, there will likely be close to 300 million smartphone users in the U.S. Don’t miss out on your slice of this market potential.

Make Your Online Shopping Cart Hassle-Free

If you’ve gone to a store during 2020 and needed to use a shopping cart, you know an already frustrating experience is even more complicated now. Do you sanitize your hands before, during, and after using the cart? Do you trust that someone else has wiped it down before you grab it? Where are those sanitizing wipes? Should I pick up that spray bottle? Who else touched it? While real-life shopping cart experiences are frustrating during a pandemic, your online payment and checkout methods shouldn’t be.

Did you know that early on in the pandemic, back in March 2020, Statista reported that more than 88% of online shopping carts were abandoned — with items in them — before the customer completed an online purchase. Ensure your customers’ check-out options are easy to understand and easy to use. Make it as quick and intuitive as possible. Consider integration with your CRM. If you do, and you allow your customers to sign in, you can go ahead and fill in a lot of the customer information you already have — like contact information — to speed up the process for happier, return customers.

These quick ideas can help your business ride the wave of online shopping into the new year. If you like some of these tips, but aren’t sure exactly how to apply them to your current business model, contact an aACE advisor and we can give you more insight into integrations and streamlined sales processes. And to learn more about how aACE can help you take your business to the next level in 2021, register for an upcoming webinar today.

"There’s nothing that we’ve come across that aACE hasn’t been able to handle." - Lane Carter, Co-Founder, Southwest Auto Accessories

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered lives around the world. With social distancing and mandatory “stay home” orders, business of all types have had to adapt to new ways of doing business. Unfortunately for many brick-and-mortar locations, that means slower business, and, for far too many, permanently closed doors and shuttered buildings.

There may, however, be a bright spot, and that’s with online sales and ecommerce.

According to Statista, for example, in May 2020, 52% of survey respondents said they were shopping online more frequently. Household and hygiene products saw an uptick in purchases, led primarily by a surge in online shopping for groceries. There were also increases for health and medicine, and other retail components such as furniture and home decor purchases.

There’s also been a noticeable increase in delivery services, through companies like DoorDash, enabling consumers to enjoy their favorite foods and beverages without having to leave the safety and comforts of home.

These increases in digital sales are great for a number of businesses that already had online sales portals, and likewise forced those who had been more hesitant to adopt an online retail presence to move forward with those options to stay afloat. And it’s not just in retail. We have also seen more digital-services offerings across multiple industries. For example, some businesses had not yet enabled digital bill-paying technologies for their websites, which have since been enabled, bringing benefits to both consumer and company.

The Sales Tax Conundrum

While an upswing in online commerce can be great for survivability during a pandemic, it also increases headaches, frustrations, risks, and liabilities for some companies, especially those who are not familiar with the changing and evolving laws related to online sales taxes.

In the early days of the internet (and for much of the span of online retail) most states in America did not collect sales taxes for goods purchased online. That was great for consumers because without the addition of a sales tax, they could purchase similar goods for less cost. It also helped fuel a growth in online sales because online sales brought a global market right into consumers’ homes.

But there was a downside to this approach for state governments, who often depend on general sales taxes to help fuel their annual budgets.

According to a report published by the Urban Institute, in 2017, for example, sales taxes fueled about 12% of state and local government revenue. With an increasing number of shoppers moving to online sales, it meant that those governments had a lesser chance of collecting the sales dollars for revenue support.

A Change in Direction

There is a general misconception that the internet has been a “tax-free” zone. In the U.S., remote and online sellers have been subject to state sales taxes within states that collect sales tax and where companies had a nexus (or connection) within that state.

In 2016, legislators in South Dakota passed a law that would allow it to collect sales taxes for online retail purchases made by residents, regardless of whether the seller had a nexus to the state or not. While there were some parameters, it enabled the government to start collecting taxes on sales it was otherwise unable to reach.

This new law ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case of South Dakota v. Wayfair. Interestingly, South Dakota’s move was contrary to the 1992 Quill Corp v. North Dakota U.S. Supreme Court case, which determined that because of the Dormant Commerce Clause in the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, states couldn’t collect sales taxes on resident-based purchases on out-of-state vendors that didn’t have a nexus in that state.

But a June 2018 Supreme Court ruling for South Dakota v. Wayfair overturned the Quill decision and gave states the ability to collect sales taxes for online purchases made by residents within the state, even if that business doesn’t have a physical location within the state.

Today, 43 of 45 states that collect sales taxes now also collect those taxes from online and remote sellers.

Understanding the Impact of the Wayfair Decision

As a result of the Supreme Court ruling, companies must now take a look at sales tax laws on a state-by-state level and properly collect and remit sales taxes for each state, where applicable.

Unfortunately, many companies – especially smaller ones – are not aware of the Wayfair decision and may not be accurately assessing those taxes as required by state law. For larger companies, the vast volume of state regulations, depending on reach, can make it challenging to accurately collect and remit those required taxes on time to avoid penalties.

If you’re new to this process, here are a few tips that can help ensure success:

First, you’ll need a sales tax permit or license in your nexus state. Whether or not you need additional permits for state and local sales tax collections in all of the areas where you may do online sales depends on a variety of factors, so be sure to check with each state’s department of revenue for specific requirements.

Next, you’ll need to collect sales taxes from your customers as determined by state and local law.

Finally, you’ll need to report those taxes and file them by a specified deadline. Again, each state and local government may have different requirements, so you’ll need to consult each for specifications.

Simplify Collecting and Filing

Instead of doing manual research and filing for every state where you’ll need a tax profile, you can simplify your tax collection processes by using a software that does the work for you. For example, aACE enables you to easily set up tax profiles for every state and individual jurisdiction where you do business. And for more complex requirements, our integration with Avalara AvaTax uses geolocation for precise, up-to-date tax rates every time you make a sale. aACE’s out-of-the-box tax tools make it easy to collect and remit applicable taxes right through one streamlined program.

To learn more about the aACE+ AvaTax integration, check out our feature highlight. And to discovery what else aACE can do for your business, register for an upcoming webinar today.

We've finally made it to the home stretch of 2020, and after such a tumultuous year you may be wondering how you can position your company to thrive in 2021 and beyond. Join us to learn how aACE can help you streamline your operations and take your business to the next level. Last month we covered topics ranging from the very basics of aACE to sales leads and accounting. Here's what we have on tap for December:

December 3rd – Tax Profiles and the aACE+ AvaTax Integration

Tax season isn’t anyone’s idea of the most wonderful time of the year. Fortunately, aACE has you covered through our out-of-the-box tax management infrastructure as well as the aACE+ Avalara AvaTax integration. Check out our feature highlight before the presentation to get a preview of how aACE takes the guesswork out of tax time.

December 8th – Shipping and the aACE Pick App

Your customers depend on you to get them the right products at the right time. Learn how aACE streamlines the pick, pack, and ship process with our Pick App and shipping integrations, and take a sneak peek by checking out our feature highlight.

December 10th – Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable

Take a deeper dive into aACE’s accounts receivable and accounts payable features. We’ll review the tracking, delivery, and follow-up tools in the Invoices and Purchases modules. We’ll also explore customer and vendor payments, deposits, and scheduling recurring transactions.

December 15th – Inventory Replenishment Management

Ensure you always have the right number of products at the right time with aACE's smart inventory reorder management tools. And to get a sneak peek at this powerful feature, check out our feature highlight.

December 17th – Production and the aACE Job Shop App

Your production process has a lot of moving parts, and your business depends on keeping them all running smoothly. Learn how aACE can help save time and reduce data entry errors with our robust production tools, including the aACE Job Shop app. Before the webinar, check out our feature highlight and demo video to get an advance look at the app.

We look forward to seeing you in our presentations! Register now to save your seat.