Axsapt News

Keeping your finger on the pulse of your business

2011-03-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

When running a small to medium sized business, it's a good idea to:

have just enough stock on hand to deliver customer orders on time
ensure sales to customers generate sufficient profits to cover all running costs and a reasonal rate of return for your investment
monitor your cash flow, ensuring customers pay their bills on time, and you don't pay your bills earlier than necessary. You should also be aware of any unusual expenses so they can be investigated

To grow your business, you'll need to:

identify and focus your marketing on products and services that generate the most return
increase your capacity to handle the growth of your business without stressing out your team
take advantage of efficiencies of scale, such as higher volume purchase discounts, reduced administration and distribution expenses

You can start to do this by hiring a good management accountant with the skills to extract this sort of information from your accounting system and present it to you in a meaningful way.

Or you could substantially automate this process by investing in a Business Intelligence Centre, that will extract key performance indicators from your accounting system and present it in a series of easy to understand dashboards and management reports.

More information: Axsapt

Document Management

2010-06-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

Why would anyone bother with document management? Quite common in the Legal Industry where multiple documents are associated with each matter and it is important to quickly retrieve information based on key word searches.

Document Management is also growing in popularity where there is a need to quickly retrieve source documents such as proof of purchase and delivery of goods. From an environmental point of view, it makes sense to quickly recycle documents rather than storing them for years in filing cabinets and archival storage.

Many business software systems these days have some inbuilt document management capability. Unfortunately from what we've seen, they tend to fall short on the usability and don't seem to flow seamlessly with the process flow of the host application.

When looking for an appropriate Document Management System, it is important to consider the following factors:

Multi-level security of the stored documents
Ease of use including rapid retrieval of documents in the most appropriate and logical flow
Secure destruction of deleted documents
Compatibility of working with all common document types

The best document management systems are able to be configured to work so closely with existing business software that it would appear to be part and parcel of the host system. For example, when drilling down on a list of customer sales invoices, you can retrieve the customer's purchase order and your freight consignment note.

More information: Axsapt

Taking Stock of Your Accounts

2010-05-06T03:29:00.000-07:00

Most accounting systems can handle general business needs without too much fuss. As long as your business sells straightforward products using a simple pricing model, then it's probably OK to stick with a run of the mill accounting system.

But what if your products have:

multiple units of measure
serial and lot tracking with expiry dates
different costs at each location
more than one stock keeping bin location in each warehouse
barcodes for each packaging unit
the need to track costs by FIFO, Weighted Average Cost and Standard Costs
more than one dimension such as Colour, Size, Season, Width and Depth and the pricing varies for each of these attributes
Volume Pricing or Discounts by date range for both Sales and Purchases
Complex cost calculations that include foreign and local freight charges, agent handling fees, duty, warehousing fees, insurance all allocated on the basis of weight, value or cubic volume

If you're using a run of the mill accounting system and your business has complex stock requirements, you're probably using spreadsheets and word processing and many error prone manual procedures just to get your invoices out the door.

More information: Axsapt

Are Company Procedures Worth It?

2010-04-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

Growing businesses tend to adopt more complex processes over time as the workload is spread among staff to improve throughput.

As more staff come on board they need to be educated quickly on those processes and expectations otherwise mistakes can be made that will affect profits. The bigger the company the more likely that related tasks can be segregated among individuals and teams. The success of projects will ultimately depend on tasks being done correctly and within time constraints.

Many companies adopt formal written Policy and Procedures Manuals, Checklists, Knowledgebases and Flowcharts but to ensure compliance there must be supervision and regular audits and reviews. The success of this approach depends on the clarity and accessibility of these documents and the diligence and personality of the staff entrusted with following step by step procedures.

These days, modern business software systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have configurable workflow that can automate these tedious processes. Workflow helps by breaking down complex tasks and assigning those tasks to staff or teams and encouraging them to perform those procedures in the right order. If a procedure doesn't get actioned in time, Notifications or Alerts are redirected to other team members or supervisors.

The benefits of a Workflow system is that less training and supervision is required and the quality of output should improve as strict standards are enforced and measured against benchmarks.

More information: Axsapt

Examples

How to Grow New Business

2010-03-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

The Rio Tinto / Stern Hu bribery trial in China is a reminder of one way of growing a business that may have risky consequences.

A better approach would be the traditional method of ensuring you have great products (or services) at reasonable investment and back them up with responsive customer service.

With the basics covered, increasing sales involves promoting your product and highlighting the benefits of dealing with your business over your rivals.

To grow profitably it's best to focus on your complementary services and product quality and deep knowledge in your chosen field. Building credibility involves contributing to your industry and associates and providing useful advise to your customers and prospective clients.

Seminars, Trade Shows, Newsletters and other useful communications are great ways to educate your marketplace about your expertise in recommending and implementing your time and money saving products or services.

Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) systems are excellent in managing your promotional activities and measuring the success of each campaign so that you can successful replicate what works well and ditch what doesn't.

More information: Axsapt

Are Your Manual Systems Up To Spec?

2010-03-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

Changing over to a new accounting system is often considered a good way to improve cash flow and profitability. For example, tighter stock control and better forecasting will result in lower stock holding costs as just enough stock is held to avoid stock outs and reduce the incidence of stock shrinkage.

Great in principle, but before implementing a new software system, you should ensure there are adequate internal controls in your manual systems to complement the software systems. Examples include:

Transport registers and security checkpoints at the warehouse gates
Cheque and cash received registers

Segregation of duties is also important with medium to large organisations. This is where the custody of assets (stock, cash, debtors, fixed assets etc) is a separate function to the authorisation of transactions involving these assets. Examples include:

sales order takers and stock control
cash receipts and sales invoice/credit
cash payments and creditors control
payroll and human resources

Other areas that will reduce risks include:

Providing "blind" Stocktake Sheets and Cash Count Sheets i.e. without expected values
Surprise cash counts of random tils and petty cash
Random stock counts of specific product lines or location.

Axsapt Business Software Consultants can help you identify the potential risks within your business and recommend appropriate changes to your systems (both manual and computerised) to reduce those risks.

More information: Axsapt

Sybiz Roadmap for 2010

2010-02-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

This week, Sybiz Business Partners from around the world attended the Sybiz International Conference at the Seaworld Resort, Gold Coast in Queensland.

Sybiz this year celebrated 35 years in business and showcased 2010 product releases including Advanced Job Invoicing, Genesis BRM (Business Relationship Marketing): a CRM for small to medium businesses and Visipay 10.0 a powerful multiuser Payroll and Human Resource Management System.

The new Vision.Net, Sybiz's next generation release for it's Flagship Vision Accounting System was also announced. The initial core release is expected 2nd quarter 2011.

More information: Axsapt

Business Intelligence

2009-11-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

A good Business Accounting System will help you accurately record your business transactions such as revenues and expenses, assets and liabilities. You do this to ensure that all your income is properly invoiced and collected and you maintain control over your expenses.

You also have a statutory responsbility to accurately calculate profits for tax purposes and keep track of withholdings from your employees to remit to the Government.

In the process of running your business and recording all these transactions, wouldn't it be nice to analyse your past activities to alert yourself of potential problems and identify opportunities to improve your business profitability?

A Business Intelligence ("BI") system will help you make sense of your business activities and transactions by:

Presenting results into easily understood tables and graphs
Calculating Key Performance Indicators ("KPIs") that highlight inefficiencies with inventory, customers, suppliers and other areas of your business
Categorising your customers, products and services and comparing the results achieved by sales representatives over time and across similar categories to identify potential opportunities

A good BI tool will work with disparate business systems in your organisation and eliminate the need to rekey information into Spreadsheets.

The ultimate aim of BI is to make more informed business decisions.

More information: Axsapt

Stock Management Reviews

2009-11-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

If your business sells products, then it's worthwhile reviewing your stock management systems to see if you can improve your efficiency and reduce your procurement and holding costs.

Areas to consider in your review include:

sales forecasts
lead times and quantity buy prices from each supplier
similar products that can be substituted for out of stock products
special storage needs (such as temperature control)
customer preferences (for example: whether partial shipments are allowed)
efficiency of the warehouse layout

What are the signs of an inefficient system? Lost sales due to stock outs, Cancelled orders due to missed delivery dates, Stock Shrinkage, Damaged and Expired Stock.

Modern stock management systems aim to minimize stock holdings without compromising customers' requirement for on-time stock delivery. They do this by basing the procurement process on current stock holdings, customer reservations, customer orders in the system and sales forecasts, with regard to the lead times from various suppliers and economic order quantities.

The Pick and Pack process can also be improved by printing picking slips based on customer required delivery dates and stock availability. When there are insufficient stock levels to satisfy all orders, a good system will allow you to reallocate orders from lower to higher priority customers.

More information: Axsapt

Can you Personalise your Accounting System?

2009-11-05T02:36:00.000-08:00

There's nothing wrong with buying an off the shelf accounting, payroll or CRM system if it meets most of your current needs. If, however you feel your business will grow over the next few years, you should consider the configurability of your business system to avoid the high changeover cost.

There are varying levels of business systems out there from rigid entry level systems like Quickbooks and MYOB to fully customisable packages such as Sage CRM and Sage Accpac ERP.

Typically all small to mid size systems will be relatively quickly to implement provided you accept a best practice template, but as a business evolves, it's needs may result in inefficiencies in processing day to day activities.

For instance, you may need to record aspects of attributes of customers that just won't fit in any of the available fields within your CRM system. Some systems anticipate common expansion requirements by preallocating an number of "unused custom fields". The better systems allow you to define your own fields and map them to screens without much effort. Custom workflow can also be defined that controls when these variables appear and alerts others of required activities when concern conditions are met.

These sorts of systems are often more cost effective than performing manual external processes with spreadsheets for instance or rekeying duplicate information across disparate systems.

More information: Axsapt

Are you suffering from Shop Blindness?

2009-10-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, Scott Huston from my office, told me about how in his previous job as a Manager of a Woolworths Liquor Store, he and his team would regularly act as customers and walk the aisles of their stores and stand in front, rather than behind the sales counters.

Why did they do that exercise? To change their perspective and wake up from "Shop Blindness" where you become oblivious to problems in your environment such as signage mistakes and inefficient stock positioning.

Could you be suffering from Shop Blindness in your business? Very likely.

Another way to look at this is to accept that there are aspects of your business you could easily improve but only if you knew there was a problem to fix.

At Axsapt we come across this whenever we run training courses for our customers. We're amazed at the inefficient processes people use in their businesses when their current software can often automate complex processes.

On some occassions our customers ask us to review their systems and without fail we are able to recommend improvements to their processes that can save them money in some cases and nearly always time.

More information: Axsapt

Human Resources

2009-10-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Without any doubt, your most important business asset is your personnel and it goes without saying you should look after your team.

Most businesses use a Payroll System but in our experience very few small to medium businesses use a Human Resources system.

What does a HR system typically record?

Aspirations
Credit Cards
Disciplinary Actions
Grievances and potential hazards
Staff Groups such as Profit Sharing, First Aid, Social Club, OH&S Committees
Medical Details such as Blood Groups, Allegies and Dietary Requirements
Languages spoken
Licenses held
Locations
Occupational Health and Safety (details of injuries)
Performance Reviews
Positions held by each employee since commencement
Motor vehicles, Notebooks, clothing, phones and other property held
Qualifications and Skills
Training Courses available and attended

There are some good dedicated HR systems but the best option is to use one that is fully integrated with the Payroll system to avoid having to re key employee details in twice.

More information: Axsapt

Looking after your assets

2009-10-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

Probably the most neglected accounting aspect of small to medium sized businesses is the recording of fixed assets such as Manufacturing Plant, Office Furniture and Equipment, Motor Vehicles, Fixtures and Fittings, Leasehold Improvements and Buildings.

Typically a business relies on their external accountant to maintain their depreciation schedules for them on an annual basis. Not that there is anything wrong with that, except that with minimal investment in a good Fixed Assets system, the business can produce meaningful reports on demand and reduce the risk of losing valuable assets.

A good fixed assets system will link into the base accounting system to minimise rekeying of data, such as monthly depreciation entries and profit and losses arising from disposals/sales of assets. The system should also track both Accounting and Tax depreciation rates and calculations on the basis of Prime Cost or Straight Line and Diminishing Values.

When selecting a fixed assets system, ensure that it supports Asset Pooling, where low value assets are often allowed to be depreciated as a group using the diminishing value method.

Some fixed asset systems go even further and track service history and scheduled maintenance requirements.

More information: Axsapt

Branch and Activity Accounting

2009-10-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

One area entry-level accounting systems don't handle particularly well is a segmented General/Nominal Ledger.

Most larger businesses operate over a number of regions, branches or departments and within these are multiple activities. Accounting for these sorts of businesses is usually handled within one legal entity's accounts by segmenting each general ledger account as follows:

CCCCCC-BB-AA

where CCCCCC is the Chart of Accounts, BB is the Branch and AA is the Activity.

The Chart of Accounts represents the standard representation of the summary ledger accounts that form the basis of the company's Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet.

The Branch is typically a distinct business owned by the company with a similar business model as other branches in the group.

Activities are business units within each branch, such as Sales and Marketing, Administration and Finance.

Where there are business expenses incurred that relate to multiple branches and activities, some accounting systems have the automatic capability of allocating these expenses to each branch and activity on the basis of a pre-defined proportion.

Reporting is another area that is handled better by segmented accounting systems. For example, you can usually produce a Profit and Loss Report and Balance Sheet for

Specific Branches for all Activities
Specific Branches for Specific Activities
All Branches for All Activities
All Branches for Specific Activities

The most common benefit of adopting a segmented accounting system is the production of more meaningful results to enable Management to assess the relative success or failure of individual business units and regions.

More information: Axsapt

Lot Tracking and Shade Matching

2009-09-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges faced by ceramic tile and other building products distributors is ensuring each product type supplied has exactly the same colour shade.

Why is this important? Imagine walking into a large hotel foyer and noticing a difference in the shade of floor tiles from one side of the room to the other.

Even though Quality Controls ("QC") processes ensure consistency within and across multiple production runs, there will often be very small variations in the colour dyes used and overall shade due to the variability of clay, sand and other natural components. The QC process ensures products are graded and packaged into similar shades and identified with a batch number for tracking purposes.

To ensure customer orders are supplied with product manufactured from the one production batch (and shade), distributors adopt either manual warehousing records or an accounting system that handles multiple lots/batches across each product.

Some more powerful accounting systems even identify the actual bin location or aisle and level on the pick list to speed the warehouse pick and pack process.

More information: Axsapt

Audited Systems

2009-09-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

One key area that distinguishes entry level systems from more capable mid-tier systems is the auditability of the system and in-built system controls to restrict and detect major fraudulent activity.

For instance, it is possible for accounts payable officers to change the BSB and Account Numbers of supplier records, then make a payment run and electronically transfer funds to their own bank accounts. They can then cover their tracks by changing the BSB and Account Numbers back to the original values.

At Axsapt we provide Audit Logging Utilities that record changes to supplier records and trace them to the user and even the workstation they logged on when the change was made. An Audit Report can be produced at any time that lists a change log.

If required, any unauthorised changes can be alerted to key management as soon as they occur.

More information: Axsapt

Middleware - Bridging Disparate Systems

2009-08-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

As businesses evolve they tend to adopt more than one software system to manage their varied transaction flows and processes. Examples include:

Financial Reporting
Debtors and Creditors
Inventory
Manufacturing Systems
Job Costing
Time and Billing
Payroll
Human Resource Systems
Point of Sale/Cash Registers
Debtors Ledgers
Procurement Systems
Sales Force Management
eCommerce and Web Sites

There's nothing inherently wrong with multiple systems, but every so often, it's a worthwhile exercise to review these systems with a view to identifying inefficiences. It may be possible to adopt or develop middleware software that will automate the communication between disparate systems.

Examples include transferring timesheets from Job Costing or Time and Billing Systems directly into the Payroll. Or polling Point of Sale Cash Registers at regular intervals to provide turnover and profitability reports at head office.

There may come a time in the business lifecycle however when the benefits of building additional middleware outweigh the costs of migrating to comprehensive integrated Enterprise Resource Planning ("ERP") Systems.

More information: Axsapt

Who said: "There's no accounting for style?"

2009-08-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

When it comes to Accounting for the Fashion Industry, there are very few business systems that really nail the way Business Owners and Managers deal with the unique aspects of their stock in trade.

Many systems are "bolt-on" after-market modules that merely add Colour and Size attributes to each existing inventory items. This method is only useful to retailers that sell single quantities of each garment or shoe.

However, when it comes to wholesalers that sell many quantities of each Style in various combinations of colour and size, only a Matrix type Accounting System like, Axsapt Matrix or Noble Matrix can handle rapid data entry and logical invoices and reports.

In the above image, each Style item is represented in a Matrix or Grid with the Colours along the left hand side and the Sizes along the top. With Axsapt Matrix there are up to 30 sizes and an unlimited number of colours able to be assigned to each product.

When selecting an Accounting System for the Fashion Industry, make sure that all essential sales and stock reports are also represented in the easy to read Style/Colour/Size Matrix. And if you are dealing with Electronic Data Interchange ("EDI") or Retailers that will sell your products through their Point of Sale Systems, ensure your Matrix accounting system allows you to assign a unique barcode to each combination of colour and size.

More information: Axsapt

Torturous Training

2009-07-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

This week at Axsapt, we threw out our perfectly good SAP Business One Accounting System and replaced it with Sage Accpac ERP and Sage CRM.

We've been using SAP B1 for 4 years successfully and it was time, yet again, to put the A-Team through the torturous process of kicking over to another system.

Over many years we've used a variety of accounting systems including Attache, Arrow, Nexus, Sybiz, Advanced Business Manager, SAP and now Sage. All good systems with their specific strengths and weaknesses that are not obvious until you have used them for a while.

Our journey with Sage started just over 12 months ago, during which time we have been steadily learning this comprehensive Enterprise Resource System. Although we have learned well from the excellent training resources available, we've found that the deep knowledge that we require as Business Consultants, can only be achieved by first hand experience.

This knowledge stands us in good stead with any business wanting an appraisal of their current business systems.

More information: Axsapt

Marketing your business - What works these days?

2009-07-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

My involvement with running a "business" goes back to 1978 when I was selling Cycling Helmets whilst studying at the University of New South Wales. I placed a small strip ad in the Student Newspaper "Tharunka" and was thrilled to see over 100 orders stuffed in my post box.

Magazine ads also served me well from 1984 when I launched a new business publishing and distributing the DeSmet C compiler for the PC and Mac. Many of my ideas for marketing during this time came from John Caples book, "Tested Advertising Methods", where I learned of the importance of measuring the results of each ad placed. My advertising budget was quite low and I found that after a number of years the return on investment of the ads was diminishing so I tried direct mail for a while with very little profit.

My first attempt at fax marketing was in 1992 when Microsoft Access 1.0 was released. The faxes were personalised and targeted at C programmers and resulted in over 150 orders. Fax marketing worked well for a few more years but then the profit return started to drop and frustration from unwanted faxes was growing.

I gave email marketing a go for a while, but never experienced the good results of the early magazine ads and personalised faxes. Since 2004 with Axsapt, our focus has changed from selling product to providing business consulting services and we tried seminars, trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing all with very limited success.

We continue to send out infrequent email newsletters primarily to keep our customers informed of important software patches and new releases. The difficulty is that everyone is swamped with "spam" and very few people have the time to read emails these days.

Until about 2006, most of our new business was sourced through leads received from our suppliers and referrals from our existing Customers, Accountants and Business Coaches. In recent years however, we've noticed a substantial drop of leads from suppliers so we experimented with a 3 month campaign with Google Adwords through Reachlocal. Although impressed with the professionalism of ReachLocal and the Adword mechanism of measuring results, we felt it didn't suit a service based business like ours.

Referrals have always impressed us as the most effective source of business primarily because of the low cost and minimal effort to progress the sale due to the "trust" factor. And so, we decided 3 years ago to try Business Network International ("BNI") to improve our referral rate. So far our experience has been quite positive in more ways than just increased sales. We've used the trusted services of fellow BNI members to improve our own business and have referred quite a bit of business to other members along the way.

This morning, I attended the BNI Conference in Townsville and the keynote speaker, Dr Ian Misner, the expert on referral marketing and BNI Founder, reminded us that building a referral network such as the BNI model takes a significant amount of effort. The secret, the "Givers Gain" philosophy, is to focus on helping other BNI members, and in time, you will receive referrals once your credibility grows. I have to agree as it took almost 2 years to receive our first sale, but now I notice we're receiving good quality, substantial leads and the future is looking very promising for our investment in BNI.

Growing any business is a rewarding journey and so far I've learned that you need to adapt to changing circumstances in order to thrive. Marketing is certainly an important aspect of most businesses and especially for service based businesses, I can highly recommend you consider BNI.

I'd be interested to learn about your experiences in growing your business. Please let me know if you agree or disagree with me. Is there another form of marketing that works for you? Click on this link to let me know.

Rick Polito

Axsapt Pty Ltd

Managing the Production of Food

2009-06-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

Some of Axsapt's customers are well known Australian manufacturers of mass produced food products such as Cakes, Pickles and Chocolates.

What are the special needs of these sorts of industries?

The most important from a health point of view is traceability of all products produced from a single production run or batch. If a product recall becomes necessary, it's important to identify all customers who have purchased the faulty product. This extends right down to the components used in the recipe as well.
Raising purchase orders to suppliers to ensure that raw material components arrive just before needed so they are in peak condition. Perishability and Local availability are the key factors that determine the lead time of delivery.
Shelf life/Use-by Dates needs to be recorded on both raw materials and the finished product. This will help the warehouse pick the oldest products first to minimise the likelihood of stocking expired products.
Keeping stock levels at optimum levels by predicting factory production based on seasonal sales forecasts, actual orders received, current stock in the warehouse and the practical production capacity of the machinery and labour force.

Selecting a good Manufacturing System can be quite onerous as you must map the production process including all the stages of manufacture. You need to consider stock locations, outsourced manufacture, phantom bills (such as bread dough) which exists only as a temporary component in the process, resource capacity, wastage, the production of by-products etc.

More information: Axsapt

Profitably Managing your Services

2009-05-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

If you're in the business of selling services (with or without materials) over an extended period of time, you'll be faced with the following challenges:

estimating the job accurately based on expected costs and margins
keeping track of your staff and sub-contractors and managing cost blow-outs
ordering materials for direct delivery to a project
progressive billing based on the percentage or stage of completion (work in progress)
managing warranty retentions, including automatically invoicing retentions when they are due
calculating the profit or loss on a job

A good Job Costing system will be seamlessly integrated into your Payroll System so that staff time booked on projects are also used to process the payroll payments. Inventory should also be linked so that estimates can be quickly prepared, accurate purchase orders raised where there is insufficient stock on hand for the job or where materials are always dropped shipped to the site.

Many businesses would benefit from a powerful Job Costing system, including Construction Companies, Airconditioning manufacturers and many Service companies (such as Software Developers).

More information: Axsapt

Cebit Sydney Surprises

2009-05-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

Cebit this week wasn't as impressive as last year's pre-recession event. Gone were the giants of small business accounting: MYOB and Quickbooks. Other notable "no shows" were Microsoft, SAP and Sage whose stands last year probably cost as much as a small house.

Surprisingly I discovered some gems including an Australian web based fully featured Accounting and Payroll solution priced from less than $45 per month for an unlimited number of users. My first impression is this system is more capable than the hyped up Xero from New Zealand.

Another stand out was a powerful web based work flow engine from the USA for only $50 per month per user. I've seen clumsy and less capable systems for 30 times that!

Also from the USA was a powerful low cost document management system with no compromise top-level security access and a portable storage model with seamless integration into any accounting system. This is the first such system I've come across that will make document management a reality for small to medium businesses.

Over the next few weeks we'll investigate these products in detail so we can see if the "show hype" holds up and they really are of benefit to Axsapt's customers.

Explosive Accounting

2009-05-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

With such interesting concepts as Future Income Tax Benefits, Amortisation, Consolidations, Minority Interests, Internal Rate of Return, Provisions, Contingencies, Depreciation, Revaluations, Debits, Credits, and dare I say: Double Entries, there's plenty to keep young Chartered Accountants thoroughly engaged.

And just when you thought there was no where else to go, along comes accounting for BOMs for the Australian Defence Force and other Axsapt customers.

A BOM is a Bill of Manufacturing or in the case of the Defence Department, Recipes for meals served at their Officers Mess, Sergents Mess and OR's (Other Ranks) Mess. With thousands of personnel eating in Messes every day, Axsapt's accounting systems ensure that the right number of ingredients are ordered for delivery to the kitchens.

Apart from Food, BOMs can also be used by other Manufacturers from Electronics to Shoes and Clothing. The benefits to manufacturers of using these sorts of systems is that stock holdings for components/raw materials are kept to a minimum, there is less wastage and more intelligent pricing decisions can be made because costs of finished goods are more accurate.

For more information: Axsapt

AWAs - Automation, Workflow and Alerts

2009-04-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

One way to significantly reduce costs for SME businesses is by:

Automating tedious processes, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly recurring sales and purchase invoices and general ledger accounting entries. Another example is automating complex payroll processing with penalties for overtime, early shift starts, meal breaks, and various allowances.
Implementing Workflow which controls the process of completing data entry screens and documents. Workflow ensures that tasks get done in the right order and within a set time.
Management can improve their productivity by adopting Exception Reporting or better still by being Alerted when things go wrong, such as running out of stock, a blow out of your debtors or even if an important order is not processed within their expectations.

A good referral for Axsapt for AWA is any organisation that is at risk of losing significant money if tasks are not completed correctly or within time or where there are complex and often tedious manual processes.

For more information: Axsapt

Thrive not Survive

2009-04-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

Australia has joined the rest of the world in slipping into a deep recession. No longer can we feel complacent in riding on the back of China and India's strong demand for Australia's resources as both of these economies are now experiencing severely decreased economic growth.

The natural tendency with economic unrest is to slash costs wherever possible and this is now evident with significant increases in both local and overseas unemployment.

To assist our customers in planning to keep their businesses on track for success, Axsapt have consulted with International Business Coaches: Shirlaws, to host a practical workshop.

The content for the Thrive not Survive presentation will include:

How to keep on track towards achieving your business growth vision through an economic down turn
What are your growth strategies and when do you apply them?
Exploring how to improve the efficiency of your resources to support growth
How to understand and manage your business through its entire business life cycle; and why this is important.
How to sustain growth in your business and discover the differences between growth in profit, margin and capacity.

The investment for this seminar is only $55 including GST which covers venue hire, drinks and canapes. I urge all Axsapt clients to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to improve your knowledge during these difficult times.

Click here to find out more and to register for this event

For Corporate links (general information): Axsapt and Shirlaws

Dash for Cash

2009-03-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Everyone in business knows that cash is king in a recession.

You'll first notice not a drop in sales but a decrease in your bank balance or increase in your overdraft. To survive you should focus on one or more of the following:

Improve your debt collection process, ensuring it is systemised and consistently applied
Reduce the amount of your resources consumed in servicing slow payers
Allocate scarce inventories and services to your best customers
Clear surplus inventories
Extend trading arrangements with your suppliers
Trim your expenses

The difficulty with this process is easily identifying and substantiating the potential problem areas that could be tackled. Business Intelligence (BI) Reporting, including Dashboards provide you with real time information that compare current results in the form of Key Performance Indicators. KPIs are simple metrics (such as Stock Turnover, Days to Collect Invoices, Liquidity) that you can compare against a benchmark (e.g. your own past results or an industry standard).

You should consider BI Tools that have both a financial and sales KPIs to help you identify missed opportunites to grow your business. Why? Because to Thrive in a tough market you need to grow your market share at the expense of your competitors. The best way to do that is to surround yourself with smart people and systems so you make powerful informed decisions to take your business beyond the pack.

For further information: Axsapt

Accounting for Hard Work

2009-03-18T23:25:00.000-07:00

Accounting is hard work... ask any Accounting Undergraduate.

It takes a long time to fully grasp the principles of accounting to the extent that debits and credits make sense and transactions are correctly recorded in groupings (Revenue, Expenses, Assets, Liabilities, Equity) to produce meaningful reports to guide Business Managers.

There are many areas of accounting that rely on the judgement of the practitioner, such as revaluation and depreciation and amortisation of assets. Other examples are calculations of provisions for bad and doubtful debts and the estimation of contingent liabilities.

In my many years of business consulting, I'm surprised by how many mistakes are made in operating accounting systems and the lack of understanding of basic accounting principles. Only this month I was asked to explain why a client's accounting system produced an incorrect Business Activity Statement (BAS).

When faced with this sort of problem, I usually go back to first principles and perform a manual reworking of the computerised report to compare against. The first thing I did at this client was scan a listing of Sales for the month for unusual entries.

Near the top of the list was an $800,000 transfer from the customer's bank for the funding of a piece of equipment. This amount should've been treated as a loan but was incorrectly coded as income! A very costly error as profit and tax payable would've been overstated had the error not been detected.

The Axsapt help desk seems to be overwhelmed at times by operators confused by Bank Reconciliations. In many cases, errors made are "corrected" with entries that make the problem worse. In some cases, we recommend our customers prepare a manual bank reconciliation for comparison purposes, but very few people these days remember or have ever known how to do this?

When faced with these sorts of problems, operators should acknowledge their limitations and post unusual transactions to a Suspense account rather than often guessing incorrectly. In this way, the Company Accountant can review and advise appropriate postings rather than spending even more time and money fixing errors.

More training is also a great investment. Classroom courses will help new staff come up to speed much quicker and will help experienced users make better use of their systems. "One-on-one" training sessions are also recommended to help operators really nail complex aspects of their operations.

For more information: Axsapt

Modular Accounting Systems vs ERP Systems

2009-03-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

Growing companies that find they are straight-jacketed by their current accounting systems, typically are faced with the difficult decision of upgrading. They can choose to implement either an all encompassing system or bolting on smaller applications to add capabilities to what they already have.

The first approach, typically an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, deals with every aspect of business: from controlling marketing campaigns and sales reps, order collection, product warehousing and distribution, payroll and HR, workflow, reporting, financials and more. ERP systems are excellent but be prepared for long and costly implementation projects.

The second method: adding functionality to a core accounting system, is usually much less stressful and costly to implement. The pitfalls may include: duplication of data (such as customer records) which may be overcome with newer systems designed with seamless links. In many cases, the modular approach ends up a better solution as the individual modules are purpose built with more capabilities than ERP systems.

Which approach is best? Firstly you must list and prioritise your requirements and note which are not adequately achieved by your current solution. The modular approach is only ever a viable option if you are relatively happy with your core accounting system and there are a range of available bolt on applications (to satisfy the missing needs) that link seamlessly with it.

In evaluating both options include all costs including additional hardware and system software costs, data conversion, configuration, testing, training and on-going support and maintenance costs.

The selection process is complex and often risky especially in recessionary times like today. You may choose to seek the advice of a Business Consultant with deep knowledge of a number of popular Modular and ERP Business Accounting Systems.

For more information, please contact: Axsapt

Servicing Equipment and Warranty Tracking

2009-03-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

Many of Axsapt's customers are in the business of installing equipment such as air conditioners and then providing a warranty service and preventative maintenance services to ensure the equipment is operating efficiently.

You can use standard Job Costing systems to account for the initial implementation of the equipment, but typically you will need a purpose designed Service Management solution that knows about your Technicians and their skills, their availability (in terms of territory and idle time). A good Service Management system also knows about the Models of equipment you sell and service and allows you to maintain a Knowledge Base of common faults and solutions.

Other aspects to consider include automating the recurring billings, recording of equipment usage (for example, photocopiers and some coffee machines have meters that need to be polled to determine service charges).

Hand held devices are very popular with service organisations as they allow new jobs to be sent immediately and invoices to be generated on the spot. Another benefit is stock levels are more accurate as van stock allocated to the job is recorded at the time the job is done.

Another area to be aware of is that Service Management systems should be fully integrated into the base accounting system of the customer, otherwise you end up with a reconciliation nightmare where Customers, Suppliers and Inventory just don't match up over time.

For more information, please contact: Axsapt

The future for Payroll Officers is Bleak

2009-02-26T20:12:00.000-08:00

Did you know that you can forge a career out of only handling payroll in medium to large companies?

This is because with WorkChoices dead and buried, our Awards still include Penalties, Overtime, Bonuses, and Allowances based on mileage and engine capacity and Rates calculated on the time of day worked, the State you work in etc. Even terminating a single employee can take a competent payroll operator up to 1 hour to prepare.

These complexities require careful data entry to ensure that employee entitlements are correct. Mistakes can mean crippling fines and disgruntled staff. This is why until recently, medium to large organisations require competent staff that are trained in looking up and interpreting the specific rules of each Industry Award.

Now the good news... Axsapt’s clients typically take less than 30 minutes each week to process their payroll. Complex terminations take only 5 minutes and even McDonald’s Stores with around 500 employees on over 30 awards and hundreds of rates and penalties each week, take only up to of 2 hours per week. Oh and the Payroll Officer for a McDonald’s store is usually the Licensee’s wife!

Not all payroll systems are capable of achieving this type of intelligent processing. Most payroll systems require the operator to still understand Awards and interpret the time worked into rates and penalties. At Axsapt, we have selected a number of powerful solutions that once setup correctly, the operator need only import or type in starting and ending times for each employee and the pay slip is correctly interpreted and prepared.

More information: Axsapt

How do you know if you’re outgrown your accounting system?

2009-02-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

Some of the telltale signs are:

With more people using your system, it seems to be sluggish or in some cases won’t even let 2 people do the same tasks at the same time.
The types of reports you need as your business grows are not available or you lack confidence in the reliability of the figures.
You are relying on reports prepared from Excel which are manually input from more than one source.
Payroll takes more than 30 minutes each week.
Customers and prospects are recorded and updated in more than 1 location, e.g. Accounting System, MS Outlook and a CRM system.
You are nervous about fraud as sales invoices have mysteriously disappeared from your system.

Consulting

2009-02-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

What sets Axsapt apart from many of our competitors is we often act as Independent Consultants, walking through a client’s business, identifying weaknesses and recommending improvements that can be implemented.

In many cases, it's not financially prudent to replace an existing Accounting, CRM or Payroll System when real value can be extracted by implementing powerful reporting systems.

Where the problem is duplication of information (customers and contacts are typically entered in custom subscription systems, CRM and Outlook). A good option may be to implement manual procedures and possibly developing inexpensive middleware that will automatically synchronise data across disparate systems.

As consultants we are mindful of avoiding or at least minimising the significant implementation and training costs accompanying new systems.

SFA - Sales Force Automation

2009-01-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

If you have 1 or more sales persons in your organization, then you will need to keep stats to play the sales game and win. Remember: “Sales is a Contact Sport and the more contact you make the more success you will have”.

A good Sales Force Automation system, which is usually part of a Customer Relationship Marketing system (CRM), not only keeps stats on your reps but helps you plan structured and targeted marketing campaigns. It will help you send personalized letters, faxes, SMSs and emails to prospects and customers that have identified a specific need or have a type of behavior that are worth recording for future communications.

CRM and SFA help you systemize your business so you and your staff communicate with your customers and prospects in a consistent, professional manner. Recording every contact with your customers and prospects ensures that problems are addressed and any revenue opportunities are followed up.

As part of our consulting assignments, we recommend, implement and support an excellent Australian CRM called Legrand CRM which works seamlessly with MYOB, Quickbooks, Accpac, Attache, Sybiz and other accounting systems at an inexpensive investment of around a dollar a day.

More information: Axsapt

Hands-on Sybiz Alliance

2006-02-27T04:20:00.000-08:00

Effective from the 1st February, 2006, Hands-on Systems and Axsapt entered into a strategic alliance to provide consulting and training services to the majority of the Hands-on Systems Sybiz Customers. Hands-on Systems has had considerable success in the last 5 years with Microsoft Navision and Microsoft CRM and has decided to focus its attention on these products.

The purpose of forming this alliance is to ensure the Hands-on Systems' Sybiz clients, can obtain ongoing support from a company that has all the necessary Sybiz skills as well as adequate staff resources to provide responsive support services.

In brief, Axsapt is dedicated to dealings with organisations in the SMB (Small to Medium Business) market. In addition to having a number of Sybiz certified support staff, Axsapt is a Sybiz Certified Training Centre and provides training, consultation services, application development and support services. For more information please visit http://www.axsapt.com.au/

Welcome

2006-02-02T04:41:00.000-08:00

At Axsapt Pty Ltd, we aim to empower businesses in realising their goals and taking advantage of opportunities as they arise.

How do we do this?

Our point of difference is helping organisations improve the performance of their accounting and business systems, taking them beyond what they can expect from entry level accounting systems.