Dear AccountMate Clients,
Several years ago I read an article about small businesses managers often getting so wrapped up in working “in” the business that they rarely work “on” the business.
Simply put, working “in” the business is handling the day-to-day procedures required to keep the operation going; while working “on” the business is analyzing overall performance, setting goals and measuring your progress towards them, sales and marketing, and numerous other activities. Kind of the difference between “tactics” and “strategy”…
Your AccountMate system supports both – and we spend a lot of time talking about the operational details of how to affect transactions working “in” the business, so thought it would be a good idea to cover some of the “on” the business tools available.
Pretty much everyone uses the Income Statement and Balance Sheet (which you’re validating at least monthly, right?) reports, but relatively few of our clients have configured the built-in Statement of Cash Flow report (which shows “where did the profit go?”) or the plethora of Ratio Analysis reports (important stuff like average age of receivables, inventory turnover, liquidity acid test, and much more). It’s a little effort to code the accounts appropriately, but only has to be done once and this is built-in functionality – translation: Free!
You also have built-in functionality for budget creation and reporting – including multiple scenarios such as “best case”, “worst case”, etc. – and reporting against them.
A step beyond that in the financial monitoring arena is building custom reports in Microsoft Excel utilizing F9 as a real-time conduit to your GL data – where we’ve built some AMAZINGLY detailed financial dashboards.
While on the subject of dashboards, if you’d like operational information beyond just financials then AccountMate’s Business Intelligence powered by ClickBase has to be seen to be understood/believed. Far beyond a report writer, I characterize it as a “data doodler” that’s user-friendly for creating whatever interactive analysis scenarios you can dream up – without having to understand the underlying data structures or involve a programmer.
All of the above are tools at your disposal (many of them free!) to allow you to work “on” the business – and when better to start considering these options than when it’s time to start planning and budgeting for next year?
Don’t forget our “Free 15 Minute Telephone/E-mail Support” to discuss how to get started on any these initiatives!
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
Is Your Company Ready for the IRS Requirements on the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)?
As you may know, there’s a new Internal Revenue Service tax reporting requirement that needs to be handled by your company’s accounting software this year. Whether or not you run the AccountMate Payroll module, you need to be aware of the IRS requirements that affect your employee reporting for 2015.
AccountMate has provided the needed software changes to the Payroll module that facilitate this Affordable Care Act reporting. Clients on AccountMate Maintenance will receive this new functionality included as a benefit of their plan.
Learn more:
1. Sign up now for AccountMate’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) Feature Training Webinar for registered end users, which will be held Thu, Oct 22, 2015 12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM Central Time
2. Go to AccountMate’s website for a brief overview of the required reporting: Affordable Care Act (ACA) a.k.a. ObamaCare: AccountMate Solves IRS Tax Reporting Issues
“Early Bird” Pricing for the 2016 Payroll Tax Subscription
Get a 10% discount for orders paid by November 30, 2015.
Payroll Tax Subscription includes a comprehensive update program with the latest federal and state tax withholding tables that are in compliance with federal and state mandated requirements for the tax year. Simply install the Payroll Tax Subscription via a download prior to processing your payroll transactions for the applicable tax year.
2016 Payroll Tax Subscription Pricing for AccountMate
eFiling: If you’re required to submit files electronically or if you want to use eFiling to eliminate a bunch of time spent filling out forms, paperless state and federal forms are built-in to AccountMate’s integration with Aatrix and available at an additional cost during final processing of your W-2s. Complete processing of your W-2s (including mailing of forms to employees) is cost effective even for smaller organizations, and we encourage you to consider it at time of filing! Please inquire and we’ll get you the per-employee pricing for federal, state and/or local W-2 eFiling according to your preference. 1099 eFiling and quarterly eFilings are options too.
Order and pay by November 30 to save 10% off the list prices in the chart above – and cross off an item on your 2016 “To Do List” early while you’re at it! Give us a shout and we’ll get it ordered for you. Reach us at 877.2NexLAN or email us.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Support Ends April 12, 2016
Microsoft recently announced: “SQL Server 2005 extended support will end on April 12, 2016. After this date, no security updates, hotfixes, or Microsoft professional support will be available for SQL Server 2005. Continuing to run the product after the end of support may expose your business to security risks, increased maintenance and operations costs, as well as compliance violations and possibly a fine. To avoid the risks of running unsupported software, Microsoft recommends that you migrate to SQL Server 2014 or Azure SQL Database prior to April 12, 2016.”
If you’re running AccountMate SQL or AccountMate SQL/Express and you’re not sure what version of Microsoft SQL Server you’re running, or you need help planning your SQL Server upgrade, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
Tech Note: Understanding the Inventory Maintenance Cost Fields in AccountMate
Today we republish a still-great Technical Note that contains comprehensive discussion about the various Cost fields in the inventory item record and how each Cost value is used in AccountMate. This document serves as a tool that may greatly help in effective inventory costs management and profit maximization. Click on the article’s title below to access the document.
Article 1232: Understanding the Inventory Maintenance Cost Fields in AccountMate
Technical Tips
Versions: AM9 for SQL and Express
AM8 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM7 for LAN
Module: PR
TIP: You can override the default maximum SUTA wage base amount in the PR Module Setup function by doing the following:
1. Go to the State tab.
2. Select from the drop down list the state you wish to change its SUTA wage.
3. Mark the Override Default Maximum SUTA Wages checkbox.
4. Enter the desired SUTA wage base in the SUTA Wages field.
5. Click OK.
The amount entered in the SUTA Wages field will also update the SUTA wage amount in the State Tax Tables Maintenance function.
■ ■ ■
Versions: AM9 for SQL and Express (AM9.3 or higher)
Module: SM
TIP: The Audit Trail feature is enhanced in AccountMate 9.3 for SQL and Express to add the capability to track creation and deletion of both maintenance and transaction records. The Reference column in the Audit Trail Transaction Log report will show “N” for each newly added or created record. The code “D” is used to indicate voided or deleted records.
Subscription Information
If there is someone else in your office who would like to receive this NewsLine, please email newsletter@nexlan.com. In the meantime, browse through our archives.
If you would like to discontinue your subscription to this NewsLine, please click here.
