Posts by admin

You probably know that having a tech disadvantage makes you look bad against your competitors, especially in the eyes of your customers. They know when things work – and when they don't!

But did you know that having a poor tech stack can put you at risk of losing employees? It’s true.

Think about it: If your technology is difficult for your employees to understand, or is outdated, why would anyone want to work for you? If you have bad tech, you won’t be able to attract top talent, and you’ll be in danger of losing the talent you already have. This is especially alarming during COVID-19, when you need good workers more than ever.

COVID-19’s Impact On The Importance Of Tech

COVID-19 has forced offices to close and turned many employees into remote workers. This transition has made IT extra complicated, but also more important than ever. It also became a bigger factor when it comes to employee satisfaction.

Adobe Workfront's State of Work 2021 report found that 32% of workers have left a job because their employer's technology "was a barrier to their ability to do good work," a 10% increase from pre-COVID. Meanwhile, 49% of U.S. workers said they are "likely to leave their current job if they're unhappy or frustrated with the technology they use at work."

More employees than ever are turning down jobs because their tech is out of date or hard to use, while many apply for jobs when they hear the company has a great tech stack for its employees.

So how do you improve your worker IT satisfaction to ensure you retain your top talent? Can you also promote employee growth/success and boost productivity (yep!)? Let’s take a look at a few strategies.

1. Make Sure Your Existing IT Tools Work & Meet Your Needs

Before you even think about rolling out new hardware and software, look deeply into the tech stack you already have. Ask your team if the current stack is meeting their needs through a survey.

Through their feedback, you can identify weaknesses that you’ll want to address with new tech or find areas that aren’t yet being addressed at all. Once you know your team’s frustrations and pain points, you’ll know what your new IT needs to fix.

But don’t just go about making wholesale changes without knowing what needs to be changed! Solving IT problems takes budget, to be certain, but you need to be smart about your tech stack upgrades.

2. Use New, Up-To-Date Technology

As the Adobe Workforce study mentioned above highlights, workers are actively seeking companies that use new technology. The needs of the modern workplace are forcing companies to rethink how they manage IT, including their budget.

You don’t want to make life harder for your employees due to outdated technology. Quite the opposite — your tech stack should be modern and agile to meet the demands of remote workers. Keep your tech stack fluid and you’ll boost productivity and retention.

3. Listen To Your Employees

To retain your top talent, you have to show them that they matter. The easiest way to do this is to regularly engage with them and listen to their feedback. Keep an open forum and take their answers to heart — your team members are the ones who make your machine run, after all.

When you give your team the tools they need, they’re much more likely to perform at a higher level. Modern business management software and IT tools help you manage and support your team no matter where they are, offering the flexibility and empowerment your employees crave and have come to expect.

Summary

When you offer your employees support instead of limiting their ability due to outdated technology, they take notice. That shouldn’t come as a shock!

But when you build a tech stack that helps your workers do their jobs to the best of their abilities, they’ll be much more likely to stick around. New technology doesn’t have to be complicated; it can actually make their lives easier and empower them to be better performers. That’s a win, win for your business.

Check out our feature highlights to learn more about how our powerful business management software can help improve your worker satisfaction and boost your retention.

"I love aACE! I instantly found it very intuitive and user-friendly, especially as compared to our previous software which felt limiting, cumbersome, and NOT user-friendly at all." -Joni Jarnagin, Redd Remedies

We’ve spoken before about how businesses (and small businesses, specifically) can benefit from ERP software.

An ERP can help your business get organized, simplify accounting, improve your customer experience, make better decisions, and scale faster — things any business would agree are, well, good for business!

But there's a catch: these benefits can only be enjoyed if your ERP software is properly implemented into your current stack. You’ll need a keen understanding of your organization’s business operations and workflow. Do it right and you’ll experience unprecedented growth by gaining enhanced data and insight into your operations. Do it wrong and you’ll just waste your time and money.

Here are a few things to keep in mind so you can avoid such a disaster.

Do This:

ERP implementation might seem like a simple process. After all, some solutions promise that all you might have to do is download the application and voilà — you’re off and running with enhanced data.

Not so fast, my friend!

Proper implementation involves selecting, buying, and installing your ERP system. This includes training your team on how to utilize the new system as well as adapting to any workflow changes it may cause.

Of course, the hope is that your ERP software will make life easier and better for your entire team and workflow, but there’s a bit of a learning curve.

That’s because ERP software implementation is an ongoing process, not a “one and done” type deal. Your data must be nurtured, monitored, and studied for it to be a powerful tool.

That being said, here are a few things you can (and should) do to ensure success.

Do Your Homework

Don’t choose the first vendor you land on. Make sure to do your research in the competitive software vendor landscape to find the partner that best suits the unique needs of your business. No vendor is one-size-fits-all, though some may claim to be!

Train Your Team

From your project managers to key stakeholders and even your users, everyone that has touchpoints in your new ERP software must be trained on how to use the system. When everyone understands the data, you can harness its power.

Migrate Your Data Into The New Database

Map, correct, and verify all of your data. Running off an incomplete database would defeat the purpose of your ERP and could render the system useless. You may have to pull data from several different digital libraries, but putting it all in one central location will be well worth the effort.

Test It Out

You did the vetting and training, now it’s time to put your system and team to the test. Ensure the quality of your ERP software by making sure regular employees are able to run through real scenarios that could have a big impact on your business operations. Here you can identify potential problems and make changes before the system goes live.

Create Employee Buy-In

You can expect to run into some team members who may be less than pleased with change. But you can help them open up and buy into the idea of ERP software by incentivizing training and implementation. Let them voice concerns and frustrations and help make things as smooth as possible. Measure performance and reward results. This gets everyone on board and puts an honest effort forward.

Avoid These Pitfalls:

Of course, doing things right also means avoiding costly mistakes. Here are a few common pitfalls to avoid.

Cutting Corners

It’s tempting to look for the easy route, but the path of least resistance isn’t the best option here. Properly implementing ERP software takes time and money — there’s just no way around it. Here, focus on the potential gains in the long run over short-term returns. This is the path to sustained success.

Getting More Than You Need

All ERP software is not created equal, which is why we mentioned above how critical it is to choose the right vendor partner. Many may have features you don’t need or even purposely try to sell you those features to make more money off of you. These are partners to avoid. Take the time to find a vendor who has your best interests in mind — your success is their success, after all!

Not Fully Integrating Your Business Processes

Your system won’t succeed if you only go in halfway. It takes a full commitment to ERP software to achieve success. From your C-Suite to your end-users, everyone needs to buy into your ERP system. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the software from the top down and you’ll see the results.

See If aACE Is The ERP Software You Need

If you want to find a great ERP software partner, aACE is a great place to start. aACE offers not just ERP, but also accounting and CRM support for a full suite to optimize your workplace. Want to see what ERP software and aACE can do for your business? Get in touch with us today.

"aACE has created straight-forward interaction between departments and gives us a faster and more accurate picture of everything that goes on." - Theodore Fotopulous, Operations Manager, Raydoor Inc.

Wouldn’t it be nice if your business could manage all of its important data in one, centralized location?

You can! All you need is an Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP solution. Let’s walk you through what it is and how it can benefit your business.

What Is ERP?

ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning, is software that helps your business manage its back-end processes. From finance to accounting, supply chains and inventory, and even tasks like scheduling, an ERP is a centralized program that can handle all of the essential functions that make your business run.

ERP software keeps all of your organization’s crucial data in one safe, organized, and accessible place. With an ERP in place, your organization only needs one program to keep track of all of the moving parts. Nothing will get lost in a spreadsheet. The ERP gives you a complete picture of your day-to-day operations.

What Can An ERP Do For Your Business?

In short, a lot! An ERP is a powerful business management software that can give you a 360º view of your business. An ERP can seamlessly integrate sales, operations, accounting, and more, to save your team valuable time.

ERP software can increase the speed and accuracy of your daily operations in one convenient solution. You’ll easily share information between departments without duplicate data entry, boost your efficiency, and impact your business where it matters — your bottom line.

Benefits Of An ERP Solution

Let’s break down a few of the benefits of an ERP:

1. A Single Database For Every System

Your accounting, your sales, and your operations, all in one place. Don’t waste time tracking down your departments for numbers. Keep it all there in one place where you all have access to accurate, up-to-date information. Your ERP solution can break up information logjams, help your team make better decisions faster, and let them get back to work on more high-value priorities like growing your business.

2. Simplified Accounting

Accounting tasks that traditionally take hours can be handled in an instant by ERP software. No longer does your accounting staff need to waste time consolidating financial information across your systems through numerous spreadsheets. Your ERP will store all of your financials in a single database, ensuring your accounting staff never needs to cross-post information or manually reconcile data again.

3. Improved Customer Experience

Managing your sales, inventory, and customer data separately can create problems across your company. It can also cause a poor customer experience. The last thing you want to do is develop a reputation for poor reliability and service.

An ERP gives all of your staff access to the same, real-time data, helping customer-facing reps answer questions about order and shipping status, payment status, service issues, and more, without having to put anyone on hold.

4. Make Better Decisions

When your organization has real-time data to work with, you’ll be able to make difficult decisions faster and easier. The up-to-date data also ensures you’re making the best possible decision, whereas a company without an ERP won’t have the same advantage. The ability to remain agile and respond to changes in your business environment is an incredibly powerful tool.

5. Scale Faster

An ERP system makes your business more flexible and functional, which can lead to scalability and growth. Armed with improved data clarity, your staff can shift their attention to manage the increasing volume of business while your ERP handles the dirty work of data. Your ERP helps you manage growth without ever feeling disorganized or overwhelmed.

Summary

When you have an ERP that seamlessly integrates with your business, sales, and accounting operations, all in a centralized location, you’re sure to see improvements to your business workflow. When manual data tasks are removed, your team can focus on customer relationships, scalability, and growth.

If you’re ready to see what ERP software can do for your business, check out our feature highlights.

"Having aACE in place will eliminate the necessity to run our business off of Excel spreadsheets, eliminate the majority of human error when making calculations, eliminate recreating-the-wheel every time we have a repetitive process come up in the course of our business, and, most importantly, it will allow my team to concentrate on building our business instead of just trying to keep up with it." –Jasmine Crandall, Midwest Custom Bottling

Technology has always moved at a rapid pace, but the pandemic has kicked things to another level for businesses of all types. To survive in today’s economy, businesses must be able to make things safe and convenient for their customers, which means adopting the latest technology to stay afloat.

While customer-facing technology is relatively easy to install, an internal shift in mindset is a bit more complicated. While technology is nothing new overall, COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated the adoption of technology across all industries.

One survey found that 77% of CEOs sped up their companies’ digital transformation plans. Another found that COVID-19 accelerated companies’ digital communications strategies by an average of six years.

The problem with the rapid acceleration of need is that digital transformation efforts are challenging and often unsuccessful. Many organizations take the DIY approach and boost their staff and budget rather than seeking help from reliable business management software.

For a transformation to achieve sustainable success, it needs to start at the top. Your CEO, CFO, CMO, etc. must be on the same page for strategy and willing to adapt to change. It takes forward-thinking and to move into the digital age.

Here are five tips to help your C-suite adapt to the digital era.

1. Keep The Big Picture In Mind

Change is hard for any organization in any situation. And a big issue with a technology overhaul or adoption is the common thinking that by the time your team gets used to the new technology, you’ll just have to change it again.

This is a bit of a nature of the beast situation, but it's also an attitude that will leave your business behind while others continue to march forward. As long as you plan for long-term success and work with the right technology partners, your business can keep up — or better yet, stay ahead.

There’s a revolution among top management roles underway as more needs emerge in the modern workplace. Sometimes, it becomes clear that the wrong leaders are in place to move an organization forward. Suitable successors are needed and a tremendous amount of turnover may be on the horizon.

We’re at a place where tech-savvy should be the priority over traditional roles. Duties can be fluid, and there will surely be some skepticism and resistance to the changes. But if you’re able to show the transformation in a bigger context — one that is natural and essential to serve your customers better moving forward — your board will see that it’s the only way.

You’ll be able to solve day-to-day problems while you better prepare your company for success for years to come. You’ll create a bold vision that brings your entire organization together — one that your C-suite leaders can embrace, buy into, and use to motivate.

2. Visualize - What Does The Change To Digital Look Like?

Previously, business communication was slow and multi-channeled. You had to connect a bunch of dots just to schedule a meeting. Now that you can communicate openly with your entire team on a central network, things are much more convenient.

You can use your communications network to move projects and ideas forward, faster. Time-laborious meetings are becoming a thing of the past. The information flows, and so does your team’s productivity.

Leadership that embraces these modern enhancements to your company’s efficiencies are the leaders you need. They are digitally fluent and advocate for the team-forward approach. They’re able to show, rather than tell, what change looks like because they have the digital fluency in addition to business fundamentals to present a vision, then bring it to fruition.

3. Create A Culture Of Change

Once a vision is in place, it’s time to create buy-in.

The best way to get your team on board with the transition to the digital era is to get them involved in the conversation. You need to create a culture that is open to change. When you engage with your team and gather their input, you’ll create an innovative culture of change that will reinforce technology-driven shifts.

A change to digital, after all, will touch every part of your business, from the board room to your IT department. To truly benefit from these innovations, your entire organization must feel like they are part of the journey rather than dropping it into their laps and saying “figure it out.”

Embracing new technologies is hard, but when they are part of the process, they’ll be more open to learning and you’ll build a team that will develop the necessary skills to thrive.

4. Implement & Execute The Plan

You’ve already dreamed a dream with your company vision, now it’s time to take that idea and turn it into action. You can expand your C-suite from a traditional structure to include officers that will help take your company where you want to go. You’ve identified new areas of need and figured out the skills and personality you require to fill them.

With your team in place, you discuss, scrutinize, and fine-tune every level of the plan to embrace digital, then execute. It might be uncomfortable at first, but together, you’ll find a way to move forward, make more informed decisions, and embrace the change.

When your C-suite is involved and informed, you’ll have a specific, cohesive approach and a shared commitment to revenue, growth, and profit.

5. Measure Progress & Results

But a plan is only a good one if you can measure the results!

Digital initiatives fail or stall when there is no proof of a measurable return. Pull reports from your business management software regularly to see how your digital platform is performing. Use that data to make changes and better decisions.

Show your C-suite these results to show them where to best invest your company’s resources and move your organization toward those goals you’ve outlined above. Use that data to push innovation and opportunity. Develop support across the organization.

Summary

It’s important to be open-minded when moving your C-suite to the digital era. A data-driven approach helps use real data to make informed decisions rather than relying on intuition.

If you utilize a powerful business management solution to oversee your accounting, customer relationships, and resource planning, you’ll save countless man-hours and truly make the most of your digital transition.

The affordable, enterprise-level tools provided by aACE might just be the solution your team needs. Check out our feature highlights to learn how aACE can help your business increase visibility and improve your bottom line.

"aACE software is easy to use, intuitive, logical, and easily customized. It is clear that the architecture of aACE has been very well thought out. We were able to automate some previously manual processes that is resulting in literally hundreds of saved labor hours each month." – Daniel Chapman , Founder & CEO, Redd Remedies

Looking for an easy way to keep your sales organized and accounted for?

In a modern eCommerce landscape, traditional manual processes no longer cut it. In a world where next or two-day shipping has become the expectation on nearly any product you can imagine, you’ll lose business if you aren’t able to efficiently communicate and quickly ship products to your customers.

Your customers expect to see when their product will arrive the moment they drop it into their cart. If it’s longer than they’d like, chances are they’ll abandon the sale. Your business needs modern technology to improve your efficiency and transparency to build trust with your customers.

Order management software is your solution.

What is Order Management Software?

Order management software will help streamline your sales process to help you meet these modern customer expectations.

This software organizes multi-channel orders into a single, central, organized system. With order management software in place, your ecommerce orders will run smoothly from the moment your customers place the order until they receive their products.

Order management software stays on top of your inventory, incoming orders, payment processing, and more. You’ll be able to use real-time data based on your customer’s location to get them their product as quickly as possible. You’ll manage your orders from start to finish and keep your entire team – and your customers – on the same page.

Most of all, you’ll wonder how you were able to manage your sales without it.

To dive a little deeper, here are seven benefits of order management software.

1. Product Options & Alternates

Having software that will suggest product options and alternatives is an incredibly powerful tool for your sales.

Let’s say you have a product that goes out of stock. It happens! With order management software, you’ll be able to automatically suggest similar products that may meet your customer’s needs. It also provides you an excellent opportunity to sell additional products your customers may not have been aware of.

It puts these product options and alternatives in front of your team right at the moment of sale. You’ll never have to place a customer on hold again. Whether it’s a substitute or an add-on, the ability to instantly show your customers additional products is something your team could never do manually. Your order management software can.

2. POS Payment Entry

When you empower your sales personnel and order writers with the ability to take payments, you eliminate the possibility of lost payments due to delays and callbacks.

Traditional payment methods are error-prone, time-consuming, unsecure, and inconvenient for your customers. But with order management software in place, you can seamlessly (and securely) process your customer payments via point-of-sale payment entry. Save time, keep your customer’s sensitive data secure, and minimize the potential for errors with fully integrated payment processing.

3. Automated Payment Processing

You can even automate the entire payment process from charging your customer’s card on file for deposits, when goods are shipped, or according to a progress billing schedule. This frees up your A/R staff for higher-level activities while shipment and invoicing is automatically generated.

You and your customers will be able to check on the progress in your system and receive notifications to stay on the same page.

4. Sales Tax Automation

Let’s face it — tax calculations are tricky, but with order management software, you can leave the complex calculations to your tools. Now, you can easily and accurately collect sales taxes without turning it into a chore.

There’s even an optional geolocation integration to pinpoint your customer’s exact tax rates, helping eliminate any surprises during the sale and making it easier to file your taxes later on.

5. eCommerce Integration

The integrations of order management software are truly endless for your eCommerce business. You can integrate with platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and Amazon, to automate your entire order.

This enhances your online ordering from top to bottom, ensuring your sales process is streamlined no matter where your customers find you or where they place the order.

6. Credit Management

When you have full accounting integration with your order management software, your entire sales team can see your customers’ current A/R balances in real-time. This ensures your customers stay up to date on their invoices – and will not allow them to place new orders if the tool finds they have exceeded their credit limit.

This can help you improve relations with your customers if you notify them of a payment issue they were unaware of and helps you avoid the bad situations that emerge from working with customers who have poor credit.

7. Accounting Automation

When you can auto-generate your invoices and purchase order records you eliminate the majority of accounting-related data entry. This saves your accounting team time and helps prevent data-entry-related errors and delays. As a bonus, you’ll also free your accounting team up to focus on planning and cash management for your business.

Summary

Surely you can see the value in having order management software if your business has multiple warehouses or sells on multiple sales channels. Order management software is imperative to ensure that your order fulfillment is seamless on every possible platform.

Your sales likely come in from a wide variety of channels, making the process of keeping up more complicated than ever. Order management software ensures a sale never gets lost and that you’re able to manage them all together, in one place.

Your business needs an order management system to handle the volume of orders coming your way to avoid bottlenecks, improve your vendor relationships, customer experience, and, of course, boost your sales.

Reliable order management software from aACE is here to help you manage your sales more efficiently. Check out our feature highlights to see what aACE can do for you today.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) still have a long way to go when it comes to digitization. While the big chain retailers and restaurants allow you to pay through your phone, some small businesses are still cash only. While online ordering is becoming the norm, some don’t even have a website.

Simply put: These businesses won’t last. The power of convenience is taking over, and digitization makes it possible. But for many of these SMBs, digitization seems like a daunting task. Whether they think it’s too expensive or too time-consuming to integrate (or both), many businesses hold onto their old-school mentality.

However, this thinking is outdated. In fact, many of these organizations are going through some form of digital transformation without even realizing it. Maybe it’s finally launching that website or accepting new-age forms of payment. There are many ways to move forward and be relevant in today’s marketplace to meet customer demands and expectations.

The best news is that it’s not the incredible task many believe it to be. And the ROI? Try this — digital SMEs grow revenue and profits up to twice as fast as their offline competition. The bottom line is pretty simple: Go digital to drive revenue and growth.

But there’s no one right way to move into the digital age. You don’t want to go for it all at once — take baby steps, but the right ones. Here are a few strategies your SMB should keep in mind when going digital.

1. Adopt The Technology You Actually Need

Whether it’s installing barcode readers or credit card payment swipes, you can go as tech-savvy as would best suit your particular needs. But having a customer need to find an ATM to complete their purchase is definitely archaic and not providing a good customer experience.

The first thing to do is to consider what technology your business needs. Every company has unique needs and goals — step one is to write them down. Then, prioritize what you need to optimize your customer experience. Whether that means improving delivery times, spending less time at the check-out counter, or handling orders online, you’ll figure out how to easily implement technology to improve your processes and drive revenue.

2. Think Of Technology As Your Ally, Not A Burden

Technology isn’t the enemy! When used properly, technology is your friend. It will make your life easier, improve your customer experience, and drive greater revenues. Aren’t those the three hallmarks of any thriving business?

No matter the size of your enterprise, technology can help you reach a bigger audience.

If you've already adopted basic technology but aren’t taking advantage of the data, we can help. You can define what processes need to be updated and optimized via automation. Then, you can spend your valuable time actually working on your business. Develop new products, spend more time engaging with your customers, and improve your all-around operations with a little help from your friend: digitization.

3. Go Beyond The Website

A digital presence is more than just having a website, and you will need a bigger digital footprint and impact to be competitive in today’s tech-savvy market. Don’t just throw a website up there for the sake of it — optimize it so your name actually shows up in search results. Introduce your customers to the sales funnel and turn a site visitor into a loyal customer.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly as websites are not one-size-fits-all when it comes to our devices. You have to cater the experience to the increasingly-mobile crowd.

And digitization means installing modern tools in your office or shop as well. Card readers, scanners, pay systems, and more will make your check-out process more convenient.

4. Let Your Data Work For You

The digital age is really based on data. What can you learn about your operation from your sales numbers? Are you using your numbers to your advantage or just logging them for the sake of it?

With digital tools, you can analyze your data in real-time and make better business decisions. You’ll gain insights into your customer behavior and preferences. You’ll learn what to push and what to eliminate. Your business will surely benefit.

Summary

Digitization should no longer be scary for SMBs. On the contrary, it should be embraced with open arms for its sheer power to turn profit. You can harness the power of digitization and ride the wave of a stronger revenue stream.

And you don’t have to do it yourself — find a trusty partner like aACE business management software to help move your company into the digital age. Learn how to manage your operations in a single platform and see what a modern solution can do for you today. Let’s connect!

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software exists to help businesses manage, collect, store, and communicate data across all functions of your organization. ERP solutions work for many different types of businesses and manufacturers, but for this piece, we’d like to talk specifically about distributors.

How can distributors benefit from ERP software? Let’s take a deeper look.

What Is Distribution ERP Software?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems allow businesses to share real-time data across all departments and manage their back-end processes. This can help streamline your operations and automate common, time-consuming tasks. An ERP solution does that by putting all areas of a business, such as product planning, development, HR, accounting, supply chains, inventory, manufacturing processes, sales, marketing, and more, into one complete enterprise system.

ERP systems are intimately tied to the manufacturing and distribution industries. With an ERP distribution system, all of your organization’s data will be kept in one safe, organized, accessible space. One program keeps track of all the moving parts and gives you a clear picture of your day-to-day operations.

When we’re specifically talking about distribution, this is helpful for order quantities and volume. Depending on the size of your enterprise, you may deal with small or large orders and therefore have a different volume to manage.

Your distribution ERP software can help you through every step, from placing the bulk order with the manufacturer to selling the smaller quantities to stores or end-users. Your ERP will help with logistics and marketing that are difficult and time-consuming to handle in-house. These are vastly different areas of your supply chain, but the right ERP will be flexible enough to manage these needs.

You’ll also be able to take advantage of tools that provide insights into your customer buying habits in addition to ways to optimize your end-to-end solutions. Distribution ERP software can help with inventory management, fleet management, marketing, shipping, and more.

Why You Need Distribution ERP Software

Your distribution ERP software will streamline your processes into a single database and be there to catch issues before they spiral out of control. No matter where an error occurs, whether it’s product issues, shipping, supply chain, or fleet management, your ERP system will alert you to a problem and help you take immediate action. This response time could save your company thousands of dollars.

Your ERP software can also help you manage pricing and forecast changes in your marketplace, helping your business to stay competitive in the rapidly-changing distribution marketplace.

Here’s a quick rundown of the many benefits of having distribution ERP software in place:

• Keep everything in one place — accounting, sales, operations — everything! Stop wasting time tracking down all of your different departments and moving parts. Let your ERP keep you organized and make faster, better decisions.
• No more data errors/redundancy — When your data is all over the place, repetition and mistakes are common. But when you integrate an ERP into your distribution business and gain complete visibility into your operations, you can greatly decrease the opportunity for human error.
• Increase revenue and scale faster — You can use real-time sales and revenue data to make better use of your resources and manage cost variances, leading to increased revenue. When revenue grows, you’ll be able to scale fast without feeling overwhelmed, focusing on managing the increased volume while your ERP handles the data.
• Improve your customer experience — An ERP allows your team to use accessible, real-time data to better serve your customers. Keep your customers up-to-date without ever putting them on hold.
• Make smarter decisions — By now you see that an ERP solution helps you make difficult decisions, fast. Not only faster, but armed with real-time data, you’ll also consistently make the best possible decision. That’s a powerful distribution tool.

See How aACE Is The Distribution ERP Software You Need

Want to learn more about how an ERP can benefit your business? Check out our success stories to learn how real customers have been able to take their businesses to the next level with aACE.

If you operate a retail or wholesale business, you could assuredly benefit from inventory management and accounting software.

When you’re able to take full control of your inventory and finances, you’ll be well on the right path to optimizing your business performance and profits.

Just what are inventory management and accounting software and how can they help your business? Let’s take a look.

What is Inventory Management & Accounting Software?

Inventory management and accounting software are vital components of a high-performing retail or wholesale business. Those that have them installed already know, but those that don’t yet will wonder what they’ve been waiting for.

Your inventory management software will track how much product you have on your warehouse shelf, in your store, or sitting with other retailers and distributors. When you know your stock amounts, you ensure you have the right number of units in the right place, at the right time, for the right price.

Effectively tracking and controlling your physical inventory helps you know when you’re running low on certain items and replenish your stock in order to keep sales moving. Busy business owners need to be able to do this at a quick glance, or better yet, with automated software that does it for you. That’s what inventory management software does.

Meanwhile, full-featured accounting software integrated with your CRM and ERP handles many business owners’ least favorite task — working the books. Accounting software allows you to track a sale from the lead to the balance sheet without duplicate data entry.

Accounting software defines the current standing of your business while inventory management maintains your inventory health. You can see why each is a must for a business of any size. They will give you a competitive edge, minimize risk, save your money and make your business more efficient, smart, and profitable.

Here are seven ways how:

1. Maintain The Proper Stock

When you optimize your inventory, you can maintain customer satisfaction and avoid wastage. When you have too much stock, excess inventory will become costly as it becomes outdated or obsolete. Excess inventory costs your business money just by sitting there. Likewise, a shortage leads to missed sales opportunities and disappointed customers. This can be harmful to both your bottom line and business reputation.

Inventory management and accounting software will maintain accurate inventory by providing accurate, up-to-date counts at all times. You can use data to make sales forecasts to help predict when you require more or less stock to avoid running into any shortages or overages.

2. Eliminate Missed Sales

You never want your business to lose a sale because you don’t have the item in stock. An accurate inventory report helps you never run out of products and miss out on sales. Clearly, it’s a much more efficient system than relying on your memory or a warehouse visit to determine what you need.

Your inventory management software will allow you to set minimum inventory levels for each item, automatically generating purchase orders for more when you hit the determined threshold. You’ll always be on top of what you need before you need it!

3. Use Your Money Wisely

Having the right amount of inventory is essential for retail success. Remember, your inventory is an investment, and buying the right quantity of each product ensures you keep sales going and avoid outages. It also ensures that items don’t just sit on the shelves and increase carrying costs.

Accurate inventory reports help you quickly identify slow-moving products, mark them down, and clear them out to free up cash and make room to invest in new products, marketing efforts, or whatever else your business may require.

4. Catch Problems Early

When you have inventory management software, you’ll always have an eagle eye on your inventory levels. This enables you to catch problems immediately rather than months later during your annual inventory counts. By then, the discrepancy may have already cost your business a lot of money!

Sometimes, steps in the warehouse process can be missed or errors have been made on sales orders. You need to catch these errors as quickly as possible so they don’t become bigger problems. Bullet-proof inventory management is the way.

5. Make Your Customers Happy

When you have exact inventory reports, you can provide better customer service. How?

Let’s say a customer claims they haven’t received a product they ordered. Rather than just checking in with your supply chain management, you can check your inventory report and see whether or not you have one sitting in the warehouse. You’ll also be able to catch incorrect shipments sooner.

When you’re up to date with your purchase orders, you can sell customers on the products they need because you’ll know inventory is on the way. That kind of upfront communication gives your customers confidence that they can trust you, an incredibly valuable asset for any business.

6. Reduce Your Costs

Labor and warehouse expenses can add up quickly. Relying on staff to manually keep track of your inventory is a costly and time-consuming endeavor. When your inventory management software handles it, it saves you loads of time and money.

And when your staff isn’t wasting time counting your inventory, they can be grabbing product and shipping it out your door, bringing more sales revenue into your business. Accurate inventory levels and accounting software help you optimize your warehouse and reduce labor costs.

7. Provide More Accurate Reports

All businesses must check their inventory stock with accounting data to avoid discrepancies. Your stakeholders and investors rely on you to provide accurate reports and accurate financial statements for tax purposes. When discrepancies become the norm, it tells your stakeholders that you aren’t running a tight ship.

You also need to be able to manage your balance sheet and have a good handle on your cost of sales. These will be vital to management decisions. Accounting software removes complications and helps you provide the accurate reports you need.

Summary

When you’re able to automate each of the above processes, your business will operate much more efficiently. Your staff will be freed up to work on other more important tasks, and your business will always have accurate inventory and accounting numbers.

This is why integrated inventory management and accounting software is so important for the performance and health of your business. They’ll help you assess your needs, optimize your sales, make smart decisions, and make plans for future growth.

Ready to get started? Then see how aACE can streamline your business today!