The key to running a successful business is consolidation, meaning it is better to have a single software system that helps run and keep track of your business, than it is to use many different systems for different functions. One of the key areas where you can do this is to purchase commercial screen printing software that fulfils accounting needs in addition to business functions. ShopWorx is one such system.
Useful Accounting Software Solutions
• Tax: As a business owner, you have many different tax elements to keep track of throughout the year. These include withholding enough money from your employees’ paychecks, making monthly tax payments, figuring out your own taxes and the business’s taxes, and more. You also need to make sure you are being extra careful when you do your taxes throughout the year, because the IRS targets small businesses for audits more often than they target individuals. Business software helps make sure you are withholding and making monthly payments exactly on time each month and that all of your other accounts are in audit-ready, perfect order.
• Cash Flow Analysis: This accounting software function is particularly useful in making sure you are using your resources as effectively as you need to be in order to maintain a healthy business. This type of analysis can show where you are spending money too much and how you can cut back.
• Budgeting: A computer program is much more capable of keeping track of your finances than your brain is, so it is much wiser to enter all of your information and create budgets for your business season, certain projects, months and more, with the help of Apparel ERP software, rather than estimating. Call us at 800-526-6702 with any questions you have about our business accounting software solutions.
One of the most important parts of owning a commercial screen printing company is purchasing reliable software solutions for business. Your software should, among other things, help you monitor your screen printing equipment, keep track of old jobs, track job progress by machine, employee or department, store pricing and matrix information, and more.
• Print estimating software functions are important, as they allow you to automatically calculate selling prices based on different variable markup percentages, labor costs, material, setup and supply costs, and more. This function also helps provide an incredibly accurate estimate in little to no time. Software systems can complete these tasks much more quickly than people can, with no possibility for human error.
• Your system should be able to store matrix information for size, ink, fabric and more. This way, when you enter future jobs, you will be able to select these modifications for your template.
• When dealing with so many different machines and different kinds of equipment, it is important to be able to monitor the individual progress of each machine and department. Your system should be able to do this, thus allowing you to pinpoint problem areas quickly and make adjustments to correct the errors.
• Your system should also act as your filing cabinet, and should store all of the information for past jobs. This way, you can pull up information on past jobs in seconds, allowing you to replicate successful jobs or correct errors quickly.
Cutting costs is always a good idea, but what better time is there to make sure you are being cost-effective than the holidays? Everyone can use extra money near Christmas-time, and for many businesses, it is the extra spending during these months that can help make up a deficit in other months. Here are some tips to help you cut costs without cutting corners this Christmas:
• Make sure your software solutions for business are as current and efficient as possible. For instance, if you are a custom clothing company, you should have up-to-date apparel ERP software or screen-printing equipment software. Having software that was designed for award companies or another industry will end up slowing down your workflow and costing you money in the end.
• Go to Walmart, Costco, Target or Sam’s Club, when you need office supplies fast, instead of going to Staples or Office Depot. While these office supply stores are guaranteed to have what you need, they usually charge more for the convenience and larger selection. If you need a larger resupply, buy items in bulk from a discount store. Also make sure pencils, pens and other small items aren’t getting lost or stolen.
• As far as larger office equipment goes, like copy machines, screen-printing equipment, and other machines, you need to make sure you are able to run your business efficiently, but you shouldn’t buy new pieces just to update. Use your machines until they are unusable, and if you only copy things a couple times a month, put it in your budget to copy at Staples, instead of buying a new machine.
Creating more customers is a challenging endeavor for many businesses. The best way to approach the issue is to find out what is making current customers unhappy. If the problem is turnaround times, order management, and the ability to know a project’s status, this can be remedied with software solutions for businesses.
Software solutions come in the form of a streamlined approach to order management. Instituting an integrated system allows the business to keep track of all parts of a project. In keeping track of a project, the business can keep customers updated on manufacturing times, shipping times, and project length times. This keeps the customers in the loop and makes them generally happier.
These solutions do more than help the customers feel at ease. Using integrated systems will save the business money. Less employee hours, supplies, and time will get wasted with some sort of management system in place. Other benefits are increased productivity, accurate estimates, and faster turnaround times. These benefits also make customers happy.
Due to the state of the economy, a big factor in a winning business is the ability to prove that projects can be delivered on time and on budget. These two things are not possible without business solutions. If the left hand does not know what the right is doing, you will not have success in meeting deadlines or budgets. This means that your customers will not be happy. And unhappy customers do not bring in more business, nor do they continue to bring repeat business.
For more information about how integrated software can help your business, contact us at ShopWorks.
In our last blog, we discussed the first three reasons why the different versions of OnSite 7 make it a perfect apparel software solution. Here are three more features that make the software an ideal solution for companies at all stages of the apparel industry.
1. The embroidery business software also features applications that allow managers and project leaders to schedule jobs, track their production and see the labor costs per job in any department of their business.
2. The screen print business software includes a size matrix that can be used for apparel items and features that allow managers to track production rates of individuals and departments and monitor the progress of jobs similarly to the applications in the embroidery business software.
3. If you sell apparel products that have been pre-produced, several of our different software solutions for businesses allows companies to download supplier pricing directly and provide quick quotes for customers over email.
There is a lot more to being a good manager and leader than first meets the eye. Most obviously you need to manage tasks and your staff well, and you should also be technologically savvy so you can choose the right software solutions for businesses to ensure that the office runs as smoothly as possible. Just as importantly though, managers need to value their employees, and this includes several things.
• One of the best managerial tips we can offer is to listen to your employees. If they have concerns, are having a difficult time with something or have any questions, make time to hear them and ensure you really listen. They are a valuable part of your business, so you need to respect them by giving them the time and attention they deserve. If you do, they will respect you in return and work hard for you.
• Ask your employees questions. Studies have shown that asking questions makes your employees feel more valued and confident. This also gives you a better picture of where things stand.
OnSite Classes: Business Management Software Training
If you are looking to introduce your managing staff to your new onsite software systems, or you want to become more proficient with how you are using your software solutions for business, the best thing you can do is utilize one of our management software training opportunities. We have a training program to meet every company’s needs, including onsite training classes, ShopWorks University, webinars, and training center events.
New training center programs have been planned recently, and more are currently in the works for the new year. The next event we are offering covers Core Training, and will take place from Wednesday, January 29, through Friday, January 31, from 9 am to 5 pm, each day.
The course costs $495 per attendee, and the price includes the classes you will be attending, the necessary materials, and breakfast and lunch for all three days. As a price break for the new year, each additional employee from the same company will only cost an additional $350.
This course is perfect for customers who are new to the OnSite 7 apparel management system, or for customers who want to implement or update their system. If you have been using OnSite 7 for several months or years, and are relatively familiar with all of the basic functions, this seminar would be repetitive for you.
Once you complete this seminar, you will know everything you need to know to set up and begin using your system effectively. If you still have questions or want to delve deeper into your system, look into further training opportunities past the training center seminar.
Accounting tasks, from keeping your books current, to entering a customer’s address on a quote, take up a large amount of time. One of the fastest, easiest ways to cut down on business costs and time is by investing in a well-developed accounting software.
When searching for theright software solutions for business, start by listing small business accounting features that are integral for the smooth operation of your business. Some that you may want to consider including on your list are inventory management, the ability to manage customer contacts and work with any current software you have, sales tracking, budgeting, estimates, payroll, business tax reporting and merchant account support for accepting credit cards. You may also want to look for accounting or software that was designed specifically for businesses in your industry, like commercial screen-printing software or print estimating software, since it was created to run smoothly for businesses with issues like yours.
Next, consider important questions, such as: will the software help grow your business, and does your bank support the choosing accounting software you consider purchasing? If you are unable to download transactions from your bank straight into your system, you might as well continue doing your accounting tasks by hand.
You also want to find out if you can restrict access to your system for some users, if the software comes with a free trial so that you can find out how it works before committing time and resources to installing it, and if it is an online or desktop software. Many companies prefer online software, since it can run on multiple computers simultaneously, and is safe since it runs through an internet browser.
In structuring your business, there are two main areas of design that you need to consider and both are very important. The first is ensuring that you have the correct software solutions for businesses so that the business side of your company is designed efficiently, and the second is the physical design and layout of your office. Studies have shown that both need to be well designed for your employees to work as efficiently as possible.
Tests in office space layout by many different companies have found that successful office spaces in the future will look nothing like the stiff, blocky cubicle layouts that are common today. Having a combination of individual and group work spaces that are functional yet still flexible gives employees the freedom they need to approach issues creatively and work up to their best abilities. Focus on comfort more than traditional ideas of efficiency in your office layout and you will see even greater returns than you imagined.
If you’re like many small business owners, you’ve been running your business at least partly out of Excel spreadsheets. And why not? Excel makes it easy to browse, add, edit, copy and present data—not to mention simple formulas, flexibility and integration with other office software.
However, Excel soon hits limits once you start using it for larger, more complex data entry. The “educated guesses” that Excel (and other spreadsheet applications like Google Docs Sheets, Open Office Calc. etc.) attempts to make about what your data means and how to format it can make your data inconsistent and messy quickly, especially since each cell is an island to itself. Excel also finds it tough to work with multiple datasets in combination, answering detailed questions about the data, and it doesn’t scale well—if your spreadsheet grows too big, performance suffers. Finally, it’s difficult to collaborate—there’s little concept of a “master set” of data or version control (the ability to go back and compare versions from past dates or from different collaborators) for everyone to reference.
Let’s give a concrete example of this process.
Imagine that your T-Shirt printing (or laser engraving, or screen printing) business has grown to the point that multiple orders are coming in each day. You’ve been tracking orders from the sale phone call to shipping in Excel, and so far it’s been good to you. Any problems that have come up have been easy to fix, and, after all, you or one of your employees have been the only person entering data.
But now you’re growing, the spreadsheet is bulging and you just hired on a new office clerk and accountant. Problems start popping up:
Oh, our customer Edgewood Industries just changed their address and hired a new buyer—why can’t we easily change the shipping address and contact record in a central place? By the way–which orders have the current customer address and which ones have the previous one? Is column 84 an absolute value or a formula result? Why is column 145 formatted differently in some cells than others? Whoops! Who ran the sort function just on the customer’s last name without selecting the rest of the table? You mean I have to scroll al the way to row 876 to find George’s order? I just had to run the n+1 function several times just last week to make more columns for extra order notes! Why is there so much redundant information? Surely we don’t need to mention our home town on every single order except for that small handful of orders outside town, do we? I just can’t get this report to come out straight…we never decided on a naming convention for our most popular products or our pricing format. Why is that order from two weeks ago entered twice? Grrr…Ed’s in there editing something and I need in there right now—if I copy it and make changes, then we’ve got TWO spreadsheets to deal with…
Relational Database Structure Example
If you find yourself dealing with any of these situations, it may well be time to look at a database business solution. A database stores large amounts of data easily, thanks to it’s highly structured approach. Relational databases are the most powerful solution because of their ability to link tables of related information together instead of simply storing tons of redundant information. Databases also force consistent data entry, thus allowing it to be easily, quickly and consistently retrieved for reports, invoices and other uses.
The only “disadvantage ” to a business database solution is that databases are for storing data, not displaying it. However, many applications are built to stack on top of databases, retrieve their data, and display it, as well as offer an easy interface to add, update or delete data.
OnSite – a database business solution
Our flagship product, OnSite, is built on the database-driven FileMaker Pro platform, thus allowing a robust interface with all the power and simplicity of a database and no “double-data entry”. It’s business software made specifically for the promotional products, apparel printing and related industries. Check out its features here and schedule a demo to find out for yourself.
Big Data and Small Business
Big Data—large amounts of data that can be sifted through (or “mined”, to use the industry buzzword) to find trends, missed opportunities and better processes—are growing ever more accessible to small businesses. Cloud technologies, mobile technologies, social media and ever more affordable and easy-to-use ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems now allow small businesses to stay on top of marketing efforts, sales, orders, shipping, accounting, cash flow, budgets, balances, inventory management, project management, fleet management, human resources and more. All this information, if processed and analyzed well, can be invaluable to make real-time decisions that have huge benefits for small business. Database-driven solutions can handle or generate this big data beyond anything a spreadsheet was designed for, making your company database the perfect solution to track and run every aspect of your business.
Call us at 800-526-6702 with any questions you have about our database solutions for small business.
