Technology in Practice

Last week I had a discussion with Seth Fineberg, Technology Editor at Accounting Today, on why CPAs need to consider adopting CRM. Courtesy of Webcpa.com, the conversation overview and Podcast is below. Free Download: The Accounting Firm CRM Strategy Guide Customer relationship management has clearly evolved from both a cost and technological This has slowly begun to change as client retention has become more of a priority and CPAs begin to understand what CRM can do for them now and in the future. This interview with Danny Estrada, CRM practice director at Sage Software reseller and technology consultant Net at Work, discusses why CPAs need to consider adopting CRM, the barriers to entry, and the challenges that remain. As he explains, “If a firm is to survive and to thrive, it’s the firm that has the ability to embrace technology in a way that makes them better companies.” [Listen to Podcast] Why CPAs need to Consider Adopting CRM   For more information please visit CRM Solutions for CPAs and Accounting Firms.

The Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 2010 Q2 Payroll Update is now available on Sage Online. This important update includes a new 941 form and provides the software changes necessary to capture and process the required employee information in order for you to comply with the new HIRE Act. The new 941 form is required for Q2 filings for all Payroll customers, even if the HIRE Act doesn’t apply to you. Carefully follow the instructions included on the download to ensure the appropriate calculations. The HIRE Act encourages companies to hire unemployed workers by exempting certain wages from the employer’s portion of Social Security taxes (payroll tax exemption), and by providing employers with a business tax credit if new hires are retained for at least 52 consecutive weeks. For an employer to receive these tax benefits, the unemployed worker must be a “qualified individual”. A qualified individual is anyone who: 1. Begins work for a qualified employer after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011 2. Certifies by signed affidavit (under penalties of perjury) that he has not been employed for more than 40 hours during the 60-day period ending on the date the employment begins 3. Is not employed to replace another employee of the employer unless that former employee separated from employment voluntarily, or for cause 4. Is not related to the employer (under rules similar to those for related individuals in IRC §51(i) ) [ IRC §3111(d)(1) ]. The IRS has drafted Form W-11, Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act Employee Affidavit, to help employers meet the second requirement under “qualified individual”. The form instructions state that the employee must complete and sign the affidavit, or a similar statement, under penalties of perjury, for an employer to receive the tax benefits under the HIRE Act. The Form W-11 requires qualified individuals to provide their name, Social Security Number (SSN), first date of employment, and name of the employer. Additional information can be found on the IRS website, here.

It’s easy to calculate the correct payroll taxes with Sage Abra SQL HRMS Payroll—thanks to quarterly tax updates available for download right from SupportPlus Online. To help you, we’ve provided instructions, download links, and other important information below. Download your quarterly tax update in three easy steps: 1. Visit the SupportPlus log on page 2. Enter your User Name and Password (or register for a new member login) 3. Select Quarterly Tax Updates Available here 4. Select the Sage Abra SQL Q2 2010 Payroll Update download specific to your Sage Abra version 5. Follow the simple instructions to download the tax update Tips for a successful tax update Downloading and installing your quarterly tax update is quick and easy. Here are a few suggestions to help you with the process: Check your software version. The Q2 2010 tax update is compatible with Sage Abra SQL versions 8.4, 8.5, and 10. Set aside enough time for the download. Most of the time, downloading only takes a few minutes. Customers with a dial-up Internet connection may need to set aside about 30 minutes for the file transfer process. {jomcomment}

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking at Microsoft in New York City. As a person that deals with customer facing technologies on a day to day basis I had been asked to discuss how small and medium size companies can make their businesses more like Amazon.com. The funny thing is that the things that make Amazon.com successful are their processes and the mandate to be “obsessive” about their customers. So their success is not about what goes right during their orders and shipments but how their systems enable them to manage challenges and overcome them. If you sat down your customers for a focus group what would they say about your “Customer Experience”. View my comments in the video below and/or read the transcript that follows. What are people’s actions in relation to their transactions with any business? Let’s take a look at Amazon, Mr. Estrada suggests. Amazon’s style of selling attracted a lot of customers. In order to engage in customer relationship management, you don’t just need one thing but an entire DNA structure, created from you and everybody else that works for your company, Mr. Estrada says. It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is. It is the approach toward your customers that really matters. What about the customer’s experience? One of the things that Amazon understood early on was the fact that you need to be obsessive about the customers and what their needs and their wants are. The only way to do that is to develop a customer relationship management system. In the world of online technology, the great thing is that you can present to your clients the desired best image of your company that doesn’t necessarily reflect the real situation in your real office. The fact is that it doesn’t matter how your customer interacts with your company. What really matters is that your customer gets a common, predictable [and good – excellent] experience. Your organization is only going to have the perception of customer relationship management with your customers as far as the weakest link in the performance on the service, sale or execution side. Was Amazon’s biggest problem the way they should create their web-site or the way they should start selling products? Is it about you and your partners in fulfilling customer expectations? No! Actually their main issue is that when you’ve finished ordering from Amazon’s web-side you are no longer in a relationship with Amazon, but with the real product provider. If your company is dealing with external providers, you need to make what your customers are feeling in relation to them as strong as what you do internally. In this situation the external provider is becoming the weakest link for your organization. Now your customer’s opinion stems from this as well. In the end the people that you’ve satisfied will tell one person. If you make somebody angry, he or she will tell fifty. Make sure your providers deliver the type of experience to customers that you want them to. What does make Amazon successful? You can always get in touch with Amazon – from home, from outside, or while visiting your friends. Accessibility is a great advantage. As a technology vendor, when you deliver products from your web site it should be user friendly and not requiring special software. Frustrating the customers with hard access to your goods doesn’t give you good points. Michael Dell said that the people that are going to be most successful in the world are those who are going to bring together value and community. You should find a way to make it repeatable and gather a community out of this. Beside accessibility, another advantage of Amazon is accountability. Their focus is on people and process, not on the actual technology delivery system. That’s what puts them over the top, Mr. Estrada says. Something you should keep in mind is the mantra “if it’s not written, it’s not strategic.” Whenever somebody calls you and reports an issue but it remains unlogged, or when you cannot obtain some customer experience information you have a customer management relationship problem. As customers our expectations are that the provided tools give us the ability to do whatever we want, when we want, where we want. Providing your products anytime anywhere gives you a big boost. The CEO of Zappos told his employees – find a way to say yes; do not find a way to say no. That’s the difference between a good organization that people love and one that is not so great. Amazon knows that a good thing for them is providing convenience to their customers. Their clients (or customers) feel like Amazon can predict their wishes. You have to know what it is that your customer needs and and what is their level of expectation. What is it that provides you with competitive advantage? Using the same technology that everybody is using makes it harder for you to pull away from the pack. It is your people, it’s your process, it’s what you do and how you do it that ultimately provides that unique business value that gives you the ability to deliver something that others call profit, Mr. Estrada says. How can I use my relationship to the customers and build it as an advantage. You should not let yourself get lost in the technology world and let software and apps control your communication with clients. In organizational behavior you learn that you’ll never change the way that people behave over a long period of time until you change the way they think. When you think about Amazon.com and about the way technologies perform as you expect them to, think about the last phone conversation you had with organizations like Amazon and Zappa. They sound very similar. They both have the right customer attitude and they have this culture of saying “yes”. Whatever technology you are using, you should add a customer feedback mechanism. Until the day you close the doors of your business, your CRM implementation is never going to be completed. It’s because the market, customers and technology keep changing. What should you do to be successful? First of all you should be clear about what your value is, what is it that you are trying to execute for the business. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end somewhere else. Next you should ask yourself what technology do I have and what are my business’ objectives. You have to deploy technologies that’ll make your people better and don’t be afraid to invest in their training. Always give a chance to the customers to express their opinion about your company and the way you interact with them. Never stop looking for the changes that happen around you. Be who you are, let your customer experience be predictable, be sure that the technology you use works for you. Be like Amazon – be obsessive about the customer.

As we talked about in an earlier post, New Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations are in effect as of July 1, 2010. In addition to standards for your accounting software these standards also cover other areas of business processes. If you process credit cards, there are questionnaires you are required to complete.   About PCI/DSS The PCI Security Standards Council was created as a collaboration between major card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and others) to prevent credit card fraud. The first PCI/DSS standards were set in 2004 and first round of regulations released in 2005. The current compliance document was published in October 2008, and requires all organizations who process credit cards to be in compliance as of July 2010. Risks Of Non-Compliance Of course you can hope that you never experience a data breach. However, if you do any time in the future and you have not gone through the steps to ensure that you comply with the standards, you could incur some major costs. Non-compliant organizations experiencing a data breach can expect to pay any and all of the following: Investigation costs Remediation costs Non-compliance fines from each card Card re-issuance costs ($20-30 per card) Ongoing compliance audits Victim notification costs Becoming compliant with the standard is a good idea in any case. It helps provide your organization with protection against fraud, offers ideas for best practices in data security, and is applicable to other audits and assessments. In completing your evaluation, you will better understand your systems and understand where data assets reside on your network. You can check your compliance by completing the appropriate questionnaire and then submitting it to your acquirer as proof of compliance. An acquirer may be your financial institution or other payment processing provider. The questionnaire you need to complete depends on the number of credit card transactions you process and the method you use to process them. You can tackle this complex process on your own and find the questionnaires at: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org An easier option is to get assistance from the experts. Trustwave is a leading provider of on-demand data security and payment card industry compliance management solutions to organizations throughout the world. The company can help you identify the correct questionnaire and explain how to answer the questions based on your organization’s situation. You can access this service at: https://pci.trustwave.com If you have questions or concerns about PCI-DSS and your systems please contact our Helpdesk.

The Net at Work Web Development team recently launched a website for our client NYFF Events, an established player in providing corporate and private event planning in the New York Tri-State Area. NYFF had been utilizing their Joomla! Based Content Management System (CMS) site for a few years, and although the site served its purpose for its day, its presentation of the company, and its core offerings, was out of date and did little to showcase their high level of event design, entertainment offerings and impressive list of clientèle. Focusing on these concerns, as well designing a more visually driven site as a whole, we worked closely with the NYFF team to completely re-imagine and re-structure the new site. In addition to offering several design concepts and revisions we were involved in a rigorous photo selection process to ensure each photo best represented their brand. Several customizations were made to the website’s existing CMS to handle new layout types and provide multimedia support. One larger addition was an integrated email marketing tool (using the SM2 extension), allowing NYFF to manage their mailing lists and construct promotional emails within the Joomla! CMS. Net at Work handled all the analysis, project management, design and development of the new site. Be sure to visit the revamped NYFF website. And If you haven’t yet had a chance, check out our team’s capabilities at http://web.netatwork.com. Net at Work / Web Development We provide advanced solutions including full e-commerce systems, content management, custom tools and rich-media flash productions, for a broad range of clients. Click here to visit our web development website

This morning’s news that Oracle reported a 14% gain in new software license revenue may tell us a few things about where the market is headed and what companies are thinking about the speed of the economy in coming quarters. This is the third straight quarter of improvement in this area for Oracle and the trend signals a few things that we should be looking for in the coming months. Spending on software by larger organizations generally means they are preparing for growth. Companies that sell to larger organizations will usually start to see the uptick in products and services more rapidly as the business expands. When businesses cycles start to increase the improvements in systems and processes made over the past 2 years should accelerate profits for your organization. Since I work on the CRM side what this really tells me is that my customers that are making improvements to their sales, marketing and operating processes now will be primed for profitability when things take off.

We had two great mornings last week at our New York City and New Jersey MAS 90 MAS 200 user groups! Both had good crowds with over 20 end users from a range of industries and versions. I was particularly excited to see the folks from one of our clients who traveled from the Albany, NY area – meeting in person is so nice after talking on the phone! Here are some highlights from both groups: Day 1 – New York, NY Brian Poole, Net at Work Consulting Manager, started the group with a round of introductions. We noted the different versions before starting the discussion of the quarterly product update process from Sage Software, and which titles will be rolled in from the extended solutions. We had some good conversation about the new ability to record wire transfers with the wire transfer tracking #. There were some questions about transfers between companies’ own accounts and how bank code maintenance is set up. Authorized purchase control caused some smiles from several clients, as did the invoice # search in cash receipts. It was noted that you still can’t search by dollar amount in cash receipts but you can in AR Invoice history. We also discussed how cash receipts can’t handle one check for multiple related customers but that the add-on for National Accounts can. There was a lot of discussion about checking duplicate customer PO’s in sales order entry. It was noted that you could check for duplicate PO’s in sales order now if the previous order hasn’t shipped, but in version 4.4 you have an enhanced lookup that will look in history files too. ACH and Positive Pay will be coming in the next release. The ACH will do the e-mail to the vendor advising that the ACH has occurred. We discussed that you can set up Sage Online to be notified you when there are product releases, but you need to make sure there is no conflict with 3rd party add-ons and customizations. The FRx topic was a hot one! Brian explained how FRx is being phased out from 2012. A good portion of the group was affected and there ensued lively discussion: how long can we use FRx for and should we move to Alchemex (new Sage MAS Intelligence tool), as well as what features will be standard with the new tool. We ended the morning with a look into the new custom office for version 4.4. The new scripting and user field options were well received. Kudos to Brian – Great job! Day 2 –Newark, New Jersey Brian started again with introductions similar to yesterday. The companies present at the group were using versions ranging from 3.71 to 4.3. Two of them mentioned that MAS “runs their business” and they are always looking at new features. Brian reviewed the extended solutions that are slated to be bundled starting in version 4.4. There were several functionality questions about standard AP functionality and lots of smiles when Brian showed entry of cash receipts by invoice #. There were no payroll or lot/serial users in the group so those enhancements were skipped. Some side comments on bank reconciliation enhancements – about half the group is currently using bank reconciliation module and see the benefit. ACH and Positive Pay were also a big hit and many people indicated they would like to take advantage of those new features when they upgrade. Brian discussed FRx and its planned replacement of Alchemex, but only one company in the group uses FRx and the representative will pass the information along to the financial group. For Custom Office Brian discussed how the new changes allow for the use of scripting without putting a button on the screen. Several expressed that they liked the rule-based security Brian set up with scripting. The vendor allocation also got a few smiles. We finished up with open questions from the floor. There was a lot of back and forth within the group and paperless office, as well as the ability for database alerts (KnowledgeSync), were hot topics. We finished off the morning with requests for further classes on custom office as well as the possibility of Net at Work packaging some of the previously written scripts. Great groups – thank you again to Brian and all the end users who came. We’ll be announcing the dates for our next groups very shortly. I hope to see you there.

Here are the details as per Sage Software: The second Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.4 Product Update — 4.40.0.2 — is expected to be available by mid-July. Delivering additional features and functionality and product enhancements as an additional on-plan customer benefit, Product Update 2 delivers value across the system and in a range of modules including Bank Reconciliation, Accounts Payable, and Paperless Office. Many of these enhancements are the result of incorporating the main features and functionality of select Extended Solutions into the core product, and others are totally new customer-requested features that solve pain points. Also included in Product Update 2 is a new Pre-Installation Data Scan utility that will help identify data issues prior to installation. *Remember to please verify this update is compatible with your installation before installing! New features available to you and 4.4 customers are: Bank Reconciliation – Automatically Reconcile Checks (similar to BR-1005) Efficiently and automatically reconcile check information you download from your financialinstitution. Use the new Auto Check Reconciliation Wizard to create the proper check settingformat for your financial institution per their specifications. Or, your Business Partner can configure the setting in their office, export the file, and then import it into your system. Bank Reconciliation – Enforce Tighter Controls over Bank Reconciliation Adjusting Entries (New) Further refine and control who is allowed to enter modifications to the Current Balance in Bank Reconciliation using a new option in Role Maintenance, Common Information. For banks defined in Bank Code Maintenance, you can specify the users who are allowed to access and make adjusting balance entries. Bank Reconciliation – Enter Checks, Deposits, and Adjustments On-the-Fly (New) In Reconcile Bank, you have instant access to enter checks, deposits, and adjustments through a quick link button to bring you directly into Check or Deposit and Adjustment Entry for that bank — without navigating all the way back to the main menu to open a data entry screen, or existing your Reconcile Bank screen. Bank Reconciliation – Conveniently Use Recalculate Outstanding Entries Totals Utility (New) To improve workflow, the Recalculate Outstanding Entries Totals Utility is available from the Bank Reconciliation module, via the Utilities Menu. This utility allows you to recalculate the totals of all outstanding check, deposit, and adjustment entries that have not been marked as cleared. Bank Reconciliation – Positive Pay Export (similar to BR-1004) Deter check fraud using the new Positive Pay features in the Bank Reconciliation module. Positive Pay assists your financial institution to monitor against suspicious check activity using a file you create and submit for comparison and verification. The Positive Pay file contains key information, such as check numbers and dollar amounts, to identify only the June 2010 checks you have issued and authorized for payment. Components of the check must match exactly, or the check will not be paid by the financial institution. Checks sent to the bank using Positive Pay are identified with an Exported check box In Check, Deposit and Adjustment Entry. Bank Reconciliation – Positive Pay Export Wizard (New) Use the new Positive Pay Export Wizard to create the proper export file format specified by your financial institution, for comparison of the file you send with the checks that are presented for payment. To help you understand and translate formatting requirements, we’ve included a reference document that outlines the most commonly used field formatting and export details required by financial institutions. And, if your financial institution updates their specified file format, you can also use the Positive Pay Export Wizard to make the necessary changes without depending on a programmer to re-format it for you. Bank Reconciliation – Expanded Comment Field (New) In Check, Deposit and Adjustment Entry, the Comment field has been expanded to 2048 characters to allow you to add information to track why the adjustment was made. Accounts Payable – ACH Electronic Payments (similar to AP-1063) Increase your efficiencies, improve your cash management, reduce operating costs and lessen the risk of lost or stolen checks by paying vendors electronically using an ACH file created from the Accounts Payable module. Enable ACH electronic payments, define how they will be handled by your company, and the type of information that will be transmitted to your financial institution. You have the flexibility to select and set up one or more financial institution(s) for your electronic payments, and for each one you select, define the format and layout of the ACH file. The feature includes pre-note functionality, and flexibility in your electronic payment distribution, including options to allocate amounts between one or more accounts. ACH information on processed payments, historical information and vendors paid electronically is available on AP Reports. They can include auto checks, manual checks, voided checks, reversals, credit card transfers, electronic payments, wire transfer information in any combination. Paperless Office — Accounts Payable Checks, Extended Stubs, and Electronic Payment Remittance Advices (similar to AP-1095) Save time, money, and the environment by utilizing Paperless Office to process, send and retain electronic copies of Accounts Payable checks and extended stubs, and remittance advices created for ACH Electronic Payments in PDF format. Add a unique message to include when emailing or faxing electronic remittances. The PDFs you create are also available to email and fax, retrieve and archive. Easily access PDFs using the Vendor Viewer from Paperless Office or the Checks panel in Vendor Maintenance Inquiry. Product Update Pre-Installation Scan Feature (New) Utilize the Product Update Pre-Installation Scan to ensure good data integrity during the installation process of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 4.4 Product Updates. Conveniently add this maintenance step to your normal process whenever you install a new product update to ensure your data is sound. Determine your data’s health during your routine Product Update installation, and utilize Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Library Master Utilities for corrections as needed. Prevent spending hours correcting data from a power outage or other natural or human-induced disaster.