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Posts covering best practices, trends, and insights.

Battling the pandemic on the Cloud

Running a business is never easy. When dealing with a global health concern, this difficulty rapidly expands and forces many business owners to adapt in order to survive. We have seen many changes made by business owners and have helped many others transition towards a system which allows organizations to become more efficient – even in such trying times.

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Moving Forward

 

There is an old quote in business that says, “even if you are on the right track you will get run over if you are standing still”. In these challenging and uncertain times this is still very much true. If we stop moving forward as a business and all steps to improve, we will be faced with the huge force of inertia when trying to start up again. By standing still, will we lose talented employees and risk losing our share of the market to the competition who likely isn’t standing still? What can we do to keep moving forward? How do we keep our employees, customers and vendors safe during this pandemic? The logical answer to these questions, I believe, is through technology and using it effectively to your advantage.

At Asyma Solutions we have been championing the use of the web, remote access and effective automation in businesses for many years.

For construction companies this involves real time field and other data collection with project management access. The field staff are not required to manually prepare daily field reports, safety documents, employee or equipment time and then deliver them to the office administration.

For non-profit organizations and other types of businesses, technology allows for anytime access to management information from anywhere and provide field data collection for health care or other field staff. How does this help? You can continue to work with limited contact to others but maintain complete access to your information to effectively management your organization/business.

But what happens if you have a small business system like QuickBooks/Sage 50 or are not using a system currently that will allow for that type of access and functionality? The question then becomes, is your glass half empty or half full? We prefer to believe that the glass is half full. In business, we are all used to the continuous changing situations and issues both economic and social. This pandemic will eventually pass and go away. What can you do now?  The answer again is technology. Things have slowed down and you finally have some time to breath for a change. You have employees who are home, likely bored and looking for something productive to do. Why not keep moving forward and start looking at working on your business instead of in your business?

Our team at Asyma Solutions believes in using technology and have been promoting it to our customers for years. We utilize this technology ourselves through remote conferencing and hosted system access capabilities. We can provide hosting or full cloud accounting solutions like Sage Intacct to streamline operations.

The biggest issues and problems with implementing a new system and the related procedures involves the lack of time and focus of the customers internal staff. With the current situation the whole world is facing, contact and unnecessary face to face interactions can be greatly reduced through technology and therefore a perfect time to improve your organization for the future.  You have the time and the resources available and with the use of technology you can continue to move forward.

For more information about how technology and improved procedures can help your organization check out our web site www.asyma.com.

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Taking your Organization's Pulse - Measuring What Matters

Let’s face it -- accounting information is almost completely useless unless you have the reporting tools to help you measure what really matters to your non-profit organization. This applies to all non-profits; from educational institutions, faith-based and ministry organizations, to health and human services agencies. How can the executive directors or management possibly understand the complexity of their overall operations and make sound decisions without good reporting?

We are in an age of increasing demand for transparency/accountability and are looking for ways to generate and demonstrate successful outcomes. We must have simple, easy to understand metrics that can quickly take the pulse of an organization and assist with decision-making.  We must have metrics reporting that never loses focus on what is important and what truly matters to management and stakeholders.

A modern, non-profit accounting solution will consistently track your data by key components and give you instant insight, empowering you to proactively manage funding, programs, students, members, and more. These systems can provide access to both financial and statistical data that allow you to automatically calculate key metrics to measure what matters. These metrics can report on critical information such as financial (revenue), statistical (students), or any number of combinations (donations per attendee).  Sage Intacct is such a software solution that was designed to provide real-time visibility into all components of your organization. 

As management of a non-profit organization, consider the potential immediate and long-term value to your organization of real-time & accurate reporting. Think about the benefits of being able to easily generate and clearly demonstrate successful outcomes to all stakeholders including funders, board members, or donors. How could you improve the health of your organization by having real-time visibility into funding, programs, donations, expenses and more?

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Why Real-Time Reporting Could Make or Break Your Construction Business

When it comes to construction reporting, timing is everything -- the closer you are to real- time reporting, the better your opportunities to respond to emerging project issues.  Success in the construction industry is dependent on timely, accurate reporting that gives you a wide-angle view of your operations with zoom-in capabilities.  As a construction owner or manager, how can you consistently make good decisions without real-time reporting? If you are using QuickBooks or Sage 50 for your accounting, you are likely using Excel or some other stand-alone solution to track your projects, resulting in decisions based on outdated, inaccurate data. These decisions could result in significant project issues which could break your company.

Construction-specific software makes it easier than ever to make informed, timely business decisions. Getting the financial big picture is no longer a big hassle -- and no detail escapes you because all details are integrated in a central system with a single source of project data truth.

You can keep key project personnel in the loop by capturing and sharing valuable site-specific data; and that information is accessible even when you’re not in the office, keeping you more in touch, and more in control, than you’ve ever been before. How improved would your decision making be if you had accurate, timely information at your fingertips whenever you wanted it? How long can your business survive when project cost overruns occur due to your inability to respond to issues as they are happening?

Current construction-specific software solutions are able to provide real-time reporting that can make or break your construction business.  Sage 100 Contractor is one construction-specific solution that features user dashboards, custom alerts, and over 1,200 built-in reports. It gives you that complete wide-angle view of your operations with drill-down, zoom-in capabilities to the details.

https://www.asyma.com/sage-100-contractor

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Smarter way for non-profit budgeting

A Smarter way for Non-Profit Organizations to Plan and Budget

Let’s face it -- spreadsheets are not automation. They can help with some calculation, but they can cause more headaches than they solve. To achieve organizational goals, you need financial budgeting and planning that’s effective, collaborative, and strategic, but many organizations don’t have the solution to work that way; instead, they’re trapped by time-consuming, error-prone, unsecured spreadsheets. The general rule is that if you have been using a spreadsheet for more than a year there is a 100% chance that there is an error in it somewhere.  So why do so many organizations continue to use them? Maybe it’s time to look at real budgeting and planning tools that are easy-to-use, powerful, and built for smaller businesses and organizations.

Imagine a budgeting world where you have control; where everyone works on the same current version; and where all changes are tracked. Think about the time savings that could be realized with collaboration and secure access to detailed information by all managers and department heads involved in the planning process. Imagine a dashboard that gives you all the critical information you need at a glance.

These systems are available.  They’re not that complicated, and they can easily pay for themselves within one budgeting cycle. Say goodbye to outdated and dangerous spreadsheet budgets and plans and move to a smarter way to budget. Freeing ourselves and our managers from the time-consuming tasks associated with spreadsheet budgets to focus on the more important strategic planning and management decisions may be the smartest decision we make.

Look at some of the options available and decide for yourself it they are a smarter way to budget:

Sage Non-Profit Financials/Budgets Click Here

Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning Click Here

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Cloud Computing

Information Collision

Operational Visibility

Information discovery and analysis is arguably the bedrock of human endeavor. It provides us with the necessary firepower to embark on business ventures, protect our assets, and build our spheres of influence. Good leaders will do well to seek out good information.

Thereafter, a book entitled Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times by a gentleman named Donald T. Phillips outlines the habit Abraham Lincoln had of “running into” new information. Lincoln strode around the White House listening, as well as taking time to interview several townsfolk in the White House while he was in office. The result was he would often collide with new ideas, leading to thought generation and often influencing his interactions as a leader.

The same is true of our business. A dominant reason for meeting with clientele is due to the process of idea generation. New intel leads to fresh thought – And potential innovation thereafter, all resulting from the literal collision of individuals with data. This underscores the importance of regular face-time with our clients: It provides the basis for providing superior service thru understanding and recognizing the needs and challenges of those we serve. Thus, take the time to be present and collide with new information – Both for the sake of good business and good service.

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Construction Animation Guy

Throw out your QuickBooks software

Many companies are continuing to use generic accounting software such as QuickBooks and Sage 50 (Simply Accounting) for their construction and Oil & Gas services operations. These systems are a good starting point for many start-ups, but they can only handle very basic project costing and don’t offer any project management functionality. Even with the many third party add-on project solutions you are missing critical integration and project management components. With these generic systems you are running your projects like driving using only the rear-view mirror. You are always looking back at revenue and costs that can be months old. Service/Project management is the backbone of every contractor’s business. You must have a single accounting/project management system that’s capable of meeting all your crucial specific needs to be effective.

Is there too much back-and-forth miscommunication between your project team members? Is project and services reporting always available with timely information about your projects? Generic software simply can’t handle these issues without developing spreadsheets; or using third party applications which require manual double entry to handle the weaknesses. 

Sage 100 Contractor is an easy to use construction-specific accounting solution that can perform all of your advanced construction accounting requirements as well as manage your operations.  Sage 100 Contractor can give you the confidence you need to run your business, and your projects effectively and accurately. Why continue to use generic systems when there are specific construction and service solutions available? Your best option, which will likely improve profitability, might be to throw out your current generic software and move to something built specifically for your industry.

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Strategic Leadership Association – What I learn every retreat

I have been attending the SLA (Strategic Leadership Association) retreats for years now.  Each one has given me some new tools and techniques to better my business. The topics are always something useful to the business world but not why I attend.  I attend because of the wealth of knowledge in the room at each retreat.  The room is filled with business owners and managers that have a combined knowledge far greater than anything I could have imagined.  Being able to hear how they have improved their businesses, what has worked, what hasn’t worked and where they plan to get to in the future and how they will get there has been immeasurable in terms of value.

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Eliminate the Paper Chase

How many hours do we all spend looking for documents that we desperately need? How many countless dollars have we wasted on administration maintaining paper-based document systems? Document Management technology can solve many of these problems and save significant administration costs. Paperless office might seem difficult and a time-consuming task to move over to electronic format; the reality is that the value paperless provides in terms of time and cost savings far outweighs the initial costs and implementation time associated with changing procedures.

For construction businesses, you would gain control over your project documents with an easy way to store, retrieve, and route documents electronically throughout your business. You can automate your project routing and approval workflow processes to the correct individuals to improve communications on all jobs. Think of a document system where you can access all your project documents anytime, anywhere; including contracts, certificates of insurance, drawings, invoices and more. Think of the time and energy that you will be saving.

All businesses have documents, the way they store and retrieve these documents can be the difference between dominating their industry or falling short on customer service and ultimately letting work walk out the door. These same document management systems can link to your all your accounting transactions, such as purchasing and sales. You can manage invoices and other critical documents with efficiency and confidence.

We may not be able to completely get away from paper, but it is in our best interest to reduce the paper as much as possible. Both economically and environmentally.

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