Dear AccountMate Clients,
A few clients have asked why I’m always discussing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – and if you haven’t heard me bring up the topic, then it’s probably because we just haven’t chatted lately! <grin> Simply put, I believe the most important ingredient for business success today is an accounting-integrated CRM solution.
The two most important assets of a company are their customers and their employees. Not surprising since the purpose of a company is to bring together people (employees) to meet the needs of other people (customers) – and what a CRM system does is brings these two things together so that multiple people can understand the details of the relationship for each case.
I discussed “Mining Your Customer Base” in the March edition of our NexLAN/AccountMate NewsLine, but would like to add some even more compelling reasons:
- Quite a few of our clients have picked up new customers as a result of their competitors going under. How do you quickly cement that new relationship and transfer knowledge amongst your staff about the new customers? CRM… so that every one of your employees gets up to speed on the new customers fast and you don’t lose these prospects while they’re “in play”.
- Many companies are getting “price pressure” from their customers, as those customers are now shopping for new suppliers. How do you keep in contact with your customers as competitors are scrambling for them? CRM… to ensure regular follow-up to your quotes and you see results from your focused marketing efforts.
- The retiring of baby boomers has many implications to our society, not the least of which is how critical they are to companies which have them in key positions – probably in key positions in your company. How do you ensure the knowledge transfer of the 22 million employees expected to retire over the next 10 years – plus normal employee turnover? CRM… so that their product and customer knowledge doesn’t walk out the door with a gold watch.
Can you imagine a mid-tier business today trying to operate without a computer-based accounting system for purchasing, inventory control, customer invoicing, payables, payroll and general ledger functionality? Once upon a time, they did – but those companies either adopted the modern processes, or folded…
It’s just as quaint to imagine a mid-tier company that operates without a computerized CRM system, integrated with their accounting, to track customer contacts, proposals and quotes outstanding; to conduct focused marketing campaigns and track the results of them; and to put key information in the hands of salespeople and management outside of the core of accounting.
The successful business ten years from now will be the ones that have connected their employees with their customers and leveraged that relationship to the benefit of all involved!
On the running front, have really been enjoying the record cool temps here in the Midwest. Running in July is usually brutal with temps in the 90s, but have been about 10 degrees cooler all month and that’s been just great. My next race is a “timed” ultra-marathon – eight hours around a loop a little over 3 miles – on August 8th. If the temps are cool, should be able to hit 50 miles.
Most exciting run I have coming up, though, is a solo run across Illinois planned for late September. Plan is to get dropped off at Hannibal, Missouri and then run 240 miles “west to east” across the wide part of Illinois back home to Danville on the Indiana state line while pushing a jogging stroller with water, food, changes of clothes/shoes, etc. Going to run this as a “stage race” though – doing only 40 miles per day for six days – and have my route planned so that I get to a hotel/motel every night. While I’ve run numerous races farther than 40 miles, have never done such high mileage for so many consecutive days so I’m sure it’ll be a challenge after the first couple days. Yes, I do plan to stop at the NexLAN/AccountMate clients on the way – so if you’re in Central Illinois then expect to be hearing from me soon!
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
Free AccountMate Vertical Solution Webinars
AccountMate continues to offer webinars on vertical solutions to improve your business. Please take a look at the below list, and it’s always free to look! If you would like to attend please contact us, by <replying> to this e-mail to sign up for the webinar.
Clickbase – Wednesday, August 5 or Wednesday August 19 from 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm CDT – highly integrated add-on module that provides real-time, customizable Business Intelligence functionality. It was designed for the casual-user with an easy-to-use interface and facilitates ad hoc queries to provide decision information in real-time.
Info-Alert – Thursday, August 20 from 10:30 am – 1:30 pm CDT – this business-alerts module has simplified management and their employees’ lives by alerting them to those critical and important-to-know things going on in their business.
Tech Note: Understanding How AccountMate Reverses the Costs of Cancelled PO Receipts Involving Average Cost Items
There may be times when users have to cancel PO receipts recorded in AccountMate. The reasons for doing this will range from the need to correct an erroneously recorded PO receipt to returning substandard purchased items. No matter what the reason is, canceling a PO receipt will invariably lead to a reversal of the related purchase costs. Companies that carry their inventory at average cost face the possibility that the canceled PO receipt’s purchase costs differ from the average cost at the time of cancellation. How AccountMate reverses the purchase cost and how it handles any possible cost variance that results from canceling a PO receipt are the focus of this TechNote.
Tech Note: Effects of Holding a Payment or Check in AccountMate
AccountMate gives users the ability to put a vendor on “hold payment” status. It also allows users to put an AP check on hold. Although they may sound similar, these are actually two very different features. This TechNote discusses the differences between these two settings and explains how each one affects various Accounts Payable and Bank Reconciliation functions. Click the title of the article below to access the document.
Article 1121: Effects of Holding a Payment or Check in AccountMate
Technical Tips
Version: AM7 for SQL and Express
Module: AR
Q: I generated a Customer Statement report for a Parent Account; however, I noticed that the Customer Statement included the Subsidiary Account information. I had unmarked the Consolidate Statement checkbox in the Customer Statement function. How do I generate a Customer Statement for the Parent Account only?
A: The Customer Statement report for a Parent Account includes the Subsidiary Account’s information if the Parent Account in Customer Maintenance is set to Consolidate Statement. To generate a statement for the Parent Account only, be sure to unmark the Consolidate Statement checkbox in the Customer Maintenance\Settings tab. The Consolidate Statement checkbox is activated if the customer is a Parent Account and the Check Parent Account Status in the AR Module Setup function is marked.
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Version: AM7 for SQL, Express and LAN
AM6.5 for SQL, MSDE and LAN
Module: AR
Q: When I perform the Record Bank Deposit function I see negative values in the grid. What do the negative values represent?
A: The line items with negative values in the grid represent cancelled customer payments or refunds that have been recorded as deposits in the bank.
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