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From 2004 to today, there have been a number of dramatic data breaches, as shown in this interactive data visualization from InformationIsBeautiful.net. Organizations as varied as AOL.com and the 2016 Clinton presidential campaign have had records stolen.

In this climate, Avalara is working to ensure your records remain secure.

One of the upcoming Avalara security changes is to switch the trusted certificate chain from SHA-1 to SHA-256. These chains are used for encryption to protect your communications with Avalara services. The changes will be finished by May 18, 2017.

Avalara has organized this upgrade so most customers won't see any change in stability and access to their AvaTax system. However, the company is being proactive to reach out and work with customers, ensuring a smooth transition. They have set up test URLs where your IT team can verify they have made the needed changes, so service will continue without any turbulence.

Details for your IT team (including the new certificate chains and the test URLs) are available from the Avalara Help Center.

With new leaders coming to office in the U.S. and around the world, 2017 may be a year of sharp changes. Some of these new arrangements will certainly impact American small businesses.

But each small business owner must still plan for company growth. DirectCapital polled a number of these entrepreneurs, seeking to get a perspective on what SMBs have lined up for 2017. The results are freely available and they include some interesting patterns:

Overall, there is a strong optimism about the U.S. economy during the next four years. A clear majority of the respondents (82%) said they are looking forward to changes in the economy that will benefit small and mid-sized businesses. And when it came to expectations about their own company, even more people felt positive about the future. A strong 92% noted that they expected their company to grow during the year. This consensus seems to coincide with other analyses. Although each economic forecast differs in its predictions, there is a general sense that things will be improving for American businesses, especially for manufacturing companies.

The business owners surveyed shared some of their high-level plans for investments into their organizations. There is a fairly even division regarding the dollar amounts they plan on investing, with those funds ranging from under $25,000 to over $100,000. In contrast, there is a distinct interest in a few of the possible investment choices. A good 70% of the people who replied identified equipment upgrades as a priority for their funds this year. Following at almost 50%, marketing investments were the next most common. Spending on inventory, headcount, and remodeling are also in the works this year for a number of businesses. Even if these kinds of investments won't be in your company's immediate future, there are more ways you can direct your resources to maximize growth.

Following on from questions about marketing, the survey also asked about the social media efforts each company is using. Facebook was the clear favorite (60%), with LinkedIn at second place (35%), then Google+ (28%), Twitter (24%), and YouTube (16%). Today's business wisdom frequently notes the value of social media efforts. But as a savvy entrepreneur, you also want to know how much value you're getting back from those efforts. The gurus at Buffer have some detailed suggestions on how to measure your social media ROI. Even though digital outreach is important, be sure that it's not your only effort to connect with people. It's fine if you don't want to upgrade your marketing software because you can still invest time and energy in ways that can be just as valuable.

Of course, the specific decisions that will implement your plans should be grounded in good information and careful analysis. Small business owners said that they get information about their industry from four main sources: the Internet, trade publications, email newsletters, and associations. But the Internet is a pretty big place and the quality of content ranges from solid data to mere rumors. To help you get better input, SmallBusinessBonfire.com has listed some of the most reliable online sources.

At aACE Software, we'd be glad to help with more focused questions about business productivity software. If you have plans about ERP or CRM, accounting or inventory modules, give us a call.

Here's an often overlooked fact about your taxes: not only can you be audited based on income tax returns, but states can also investigate a company's sales tax compliance. And sales tax regulations can be every bit as complicated as the rules for income tax--especially at the state level.

Nobody wants the attention that comes with an audit. Marketing folks might say there's no such thing as bad publicity; however, being identified for a tax audit comes pretty close. And on top of any PR issues, there's the time used preparing for the audit, which could have been spent on something to help grow your company.

The tax experts at Avalara have identified 5 steps you can take to help ensure you stay out of the tax audit limelight. Some of them might surprise you:

Be Punctual - file your returns on time: Individual state governments set the deadlines for when you will file; this is their way of ensuring consistent communications about tax matters. And you know how it looks when someone doesn't return your calls. Besides the suspicions it might raise there's also the small matter of late penalties, so be sure you know the dates for each state where you conduct transactions.

Seriously, Be Punctual - make your payments on time: If not communicating is a signal of trouble, you can imagine what it looks like to not deliver funds. Payment is often due at the time of filing, but just as often it involves a separate step, whether paying by check or electronically. An important detail to be aware of is whether there are any processing delays for your payments--even if it's all digital. If you submit payment on the due date but there's a delay in processing the payment, you could be liable for a late penalty.

Be Precise - double-check the math: Miscalculations or variations on amounts that should be identical make number-crunchers raise an eyebrow. Then they look a little closer. Sure, it might be an innocent clerical error. But what if it's not? For the auditor's peace of mind--and your own--plan in enough time to verify your calculations.

Be thorough - document all sales tax exemptions: There are a variety of reasons why you are perfectly justified in not charging sales tax on a purchase. Governments use these policies to promote valuable transactions and to keep things fair for resellers. Tax examiners know this, but they'll want to see certificates that justify your actions. Ideally you'll be able to obtain each exemption certificate right when you conduct the sale, but even if that's impossible, you need to make sure the documentation is complete by tax day.

Be alert - verify the locations for sales tax rates: Don't trust zip codes. They are not reliable marks of tax jurisdictions. One of the most striking examples is the situation with Englewood, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, and Greenwood Village in Colorado. These cities all share zip code 80111, but there are distinct differences in the sales tax rates across the area. The best way to ensure you're getting the numbers right is to use geo-location tools for where your transactions take place.

This might seem like a lot to manage. Unfortunately, the options are to a) make it happen, or b) show up on a tax examiner's computer screen. You can get assistance though, including powerful software for tracking all the rates and percentages and time-frames. If that seems like a useful investment to you, explore more of Avalara's solutions. And to really increase the velocity of your business, learn how your tax automation tools can integrate with other inventory, accounting, and CRM automation features of aACE 5, the best-kept secret in business software.

If we backtrack from a perfect user experience to find out what made it happen, what do we find at the starting point?

A mindset in the business owner, in many cases. More specifically, a belief that his team should be free to leverage every piece of information they have to support that perfect customer experience. This mindset shows up when the company's operational data is made available to the marketing and customer support groups. This decision for internal transparency transforms the addresses and purchase orders and complaint tickets into a unified customer identity--an individual or company that your personnel will feel empowered to help.

At MyCustomer.com, they have elaborated on this decision. Areas they highlight include making sure the that people on your team who are in charge of customer satisfaction (i.e., your entire staff) have a view on key interactions: product quality surveys, product returns, delivery updates, and maintenance requests. As an example, they raise the question of what your team could do if everyone knew that a delivery was being delayed. Answer: they can gather information about the solution and get it to the customer proactively.

How would that affect your customer satisfaction ratings?

There's an underlying assumption here though. You've probably already spotted it. In order to sustain this level of customer experience quality, you must have software that 1) integrates CRM data with ERP data and 2) allows you to surface all the relevant information to the right people.

However it's no small task to synchronize customer master data across your entire organization, especially on the tight constraints that many small and mid-sized businesses have to maintain. And it's even more challenging when you have different software tools in place for different aspects of your business.

Whatever your current CXM situation though, there is a way forward to the holistic customer support that will be key for loyalty, growth, and achieving your goals. Leveraging the capabilities of aACE 5, you can establish quote-to-cash visibility on the people engaging with your company right now. aACE 5 offers seamless integration between sales, operations, and accounting to provide your customers with a smooth experience from start to finish. Learn more today.

No entrepreneur running a small or mid-sized business has time or funds to waste on the wrong ERP system.

The problem is that so few of us have the time and funds to thoroughly examine every offering in the enterprise resource planning field. To help solve this problem, the experts at FindAccountingSoftware.com have spent over 15 years monitoring the field. They have assessed the strengths of many software providers and seen many implementations. From this wealth of experience, they offer some great advice on how to find the best ERP software for your SME:

1. Assess your processes - It's hard to decide which way to go until you know where you are. In their roadmap for the selection process, FindAccountingSoftware highlights 12 questions you should answer to get a sense of the lay of the land. They recommend a thorough SWOT evaluation for each point. And this preparation is too important to skimp on. If you think you're in Los Angeles but you're actually in NYC, traveling 20 miles east will have vastly different results.

2. Develop criteria - With a candor you can respect, FindAccountingSoftware acknowledges that the bottom line might be the top priority. High-quality software providers will work with you on financing options, though. This frees up some space to consider the most pressing needs in your company--the places where an ERP suite will give you the best return on your investment. In addition, the roadmap points out 9 other aspects of a software upgrade that you definitely want to bear in mind.

3. Find matches for your needs - This is the tough one. And this is where FindAccountingSoftware makes their strongest value proposition. They have the means to give you some general suggestions after a single, free phonecall. Of course, for more support on finding the best ERP match for your company, you can invest a little more into their services.

4. Have a friendly conversation - The initial contact with the ERP vendor might give you a lot of information about whether you want to pursue things farther. You're not merely purchasing software, you're starting a business relationship with another company, so try to get a sense of their culture and approach.

5. Make a shortlist - Or a spreadsheet. Or a chart. Just something to help you rank each of the current candidates. Comparing what you need (that prep work from steps 1 and 2 is vital here) to what they offer will help you quickly identify the tools that are serious options.

6. Schedule demos - Talking about functionality and features is well and good, but before you make a decision about such an important element in your business, you definitely want a test drive. Whether you or their representatives steer the mouse, you'll get a much better sense of what the system offers. Take time to explore the areas of the software that address your company's current weak spots.

7. Get into the nitty-gritty questions - Investigate the details around the software too. You'll need to find out about implementation processes, training, documentation, support services, updates, and more. FindAccountingSoftware feels this conversation is so important that they have prepared a separate post to help you.

8. Check proposals and references - Ask your top candidates to come forward with the fine print and the track-record. The final decision might come down to what exactly is spelled out in the proposal, but you should always get in touch with the vendor's past customers. Ideally you'll be able to contact a new customer who can speak to how the vendor is working right now, plus an older customer who can tell you how the long-term relationship actually works.

9. Decide with confidence - A pitfall at the end of this process is to start thinking that none of the candidates are "perfect" matches. While that is likely to be the case, you also need to balance the long-term costs of not improving your business processes. As your company grows, are those trouble-spots just going to go away? To quantify these kinds of details, FindAccountingSoftware offers a helpful ROI calculator.

This quick overview can help you get started in finding the right ERP software for your company and a free call to FindAccountingSoftware representatives could help even more. If you already have a sense of what your business needs, we invite you to compare what aACE 5 offers in our comprehensive, yet elegant business software suite.

Of course you have a website for your company. It's 2017, after all. But is your company site doing its job as front-line sales rep? Is it just a polished landing page or is it helping customers make the best decisions about their purchases?

Jennifer Polk, a research director for Gartner, turned her talent for analysis onto her own experience of purchasing a car online. And even though you might not be selling cars, or even though people like Jennifer don't shop for your light manufacturing product, her insight is still relevant.

As Polk points out, even for businesses selling industrial equipment, your customers are going to take advantage of online tools. Their experience with shopping on Amazon conditions them to expect comparable information and service from other businesses with an online presence--including yours.

The only question is whether they're going to research, compare, evaluate, assess, apply, or order using your e-commerce tools or your competitor's.

The statistics that Polk references point in this direction. More satisfied customers are those who can travel to the sales site to efficiently close the deal. And this is possible because they could search at their leisure (in their comfy clothes).

The benefits accrue on both sides though. Yes, your customers get what they want, but you also get a shorter sales cycle, more insight into your customers' behavior and preferences, plus a clearer measure of how your marketing efforts are working. And let's not forget the value of a satisfied customer.

To get this ROI for your e-commerce site, Polk explains 3 vital factors that you need to have in place:

1. A buying process that the customer controls

2. Digital content that enriches the customer's decision-making

3. A sharp, unified CRM system

The first item begins with a mindset, where you no longer approach customers as targets but as people you want to support. The second factor is one way you can support their goals and simultaneously build your reputation as a business they can trust. The third point is a matter of finding the right tool: a software suite that will support YOU in your efforts to earn customer satisfaction. Read more about the CRM functionality in aACE 5.

With these competencies and technologies in place, you can feel confident that your front-line sales force is working hard for you.