5 Ways Your Accountancy Practice Can Change For The Better

5 Ways Your Accountancy Practice Can Change For The Better

Article credit: Sage 

What do you think an accountancy practice will look like in 2030? That might sound like a long time away but it will be here before you know it.

To create a reference point, you might look back at how you worked 10 years ago. By comparing things then to the way they are now, you might feel you can determine the rate of change moving forward.

Back in 2009, Barack Obama was the US president. The big news event was the ditching of Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River, while James Cameron’s Avatar was delighting movie goers.

See, 2009 doesn’t feel like very long ago. So, you might think that the rate of change moving forward is likely to be gentle.

In the Practice of Now report, where Sage surveyed more than 3,000 accountants worldwide, we found that 90% believe a cultural or evolutionary change is occurring within their profession right now. This can’t help but have a profound effect in the coming decade.

Put simply, things are changing.

The cause is a perfect storm of external influences converging on the profession of accountancy at the same time – everything from increasing client demands and legislative burdens to generational changes.

The business landscape is changing too, in response to the same factors. Millennials and Gen-Z for example, are coming increasingly to the fore as business owners. They bring with them a unique set of values.

Is your practice ready for this?

Based on the research in the report, we were able to make five predictions about how a practice is likely to look in 2030. Here they are – and how your practice can change for the better.

1. Say goodbye to manual data entry

Data will flow automatically from clients and their bank accounts into the systems of their accountants. Manually keying data will become rare. Of course, for some more progressive accountancy practices, this is already turning into a reality.

There are perhaps two factors driving it.

The first is the aforementioned millennial and Gen-Z business owners and operators, who are digitally native. Technology is their lifelong companion – and using it is second nature.

Their process of forming a business starts with technology and they’re as likely to create a Facebook page as they are to incorporate their business with the relevant authorities. As a result, they also implicitly understand that accounting is best done digitally.

Another factor driving this prediction is down to the increasing demands that legislation places on businesses, such as the digitisation of tax and payroll.

It can seem as if governments worldwide woke up one day and realised that technology was a useful way to enforce compliance and avoid tax shortfalls.

So, in several countries around the world, businesses have no choice but to use accounting software for certain aspects of their accounting. They generate the necessary data whether they like it or not.

What you can do to prepare

You need to ensure your half of the equation – the software you use in your practice – is ready to hook into the panoply of data sources that businesses will increasingly offer.

2. Build real-time relationships

The relationship between an accountant and their client will be near-instant. The accountant will have a real-time view of their client’s business and will be able to interact with that client in real-time.

The accountant will be a trusted adviser or even a constantly present companion.

Considered in hindsight, accountancy has until this point been prone to incredibly annoying delays. If a business operator wanted to see a list of aged debtors over 120 days, for example, then they might ask their accountant to create a report.

That might take a few hours to complete in a busy practice, or perhaps even a day or two.

As such, businesses lack the ability to respond to events in an agile way, while accountants lack the opportunity to be truly responsive and helpful.

With the liberated, instant flow of data between client and accountant systems due to the initial prediction above, the relationship between a business and its accountant can’t help but fundamentally change.

From an accountant’s perspective, this visibility can drive a whole host of new service offerings that will start to erode the perception that the role of an accountant is simply for tasks such as compliance or auditing.

A whole new world will be out there waiting for accountants – provided they’re ready to take advantage.

What you can do to prepare

Ensure your practice has the correct range of skills and experience to be able to build these kinds of relationships. You might look at training your existing staff, or look for these skills when recruiting.

Indeed, a finding within the Practice of Now was that 82% of accountants say they are considering recruiting from a non-traditional background. Furthermore, 43% of respondents say new accountants joining the profession should have industry experience outside of accounting.

Don’t leave preparations until too late. Start considering the necessary changes to your practice now.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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How Retailers Can Keep Customers Informed From Purchase To Delivery

How Retailers Can Keep Customers Informed From Purchase To Delivery

Article credit: Sage 

The world of commerce is rapidly changing. More so now than ever before, the shopping experience needs to be on the terms of the customer or your business risks losing them.

We are in the ‘now economy’.

And once a customer has made their online purchase, they want to know where it is at any given moment.

Read on below to find out how you can keep your customers reassured and informed at every step of the purchase journey.

Understand the wants and needs of your ecommerce customer

When designing elements of your online retail experience, it’s important that you understand the wants and needs of your customer. After all, consumers want their purchasing to be on their terms.

With new innovation ploughing ahead at the rate it is, why shouldn’t they? One-click purchasing, mobile payments and payment wallets are just some of the developments in recent years that have further shifted retail in favour of the consumer.

Using a good payment provider can help you to keep up with these tech advancements as you do your best to keep your customers happy.

But before you worry about the evolution of despatch, delivery and customer surveys, you need to make it as easy as possible for your customers to make their purchases. And once a payment has been made, it’s important they know where their goods are – at every step of the way. You can do this with Sage Evolution.

Send a confirmation email post-purchase

There’s always an element of trust associated with purchasing goods online, as a lot of the control a customer would have at an in-store environment has been relinquished.

One of the key things you need to send to your customer once they’ve made their purchase – if you aren’t already – is a confirmation email. This is essentially standard industry practice.

Your confirmation email should contain:

  • A salutation
  • A breakdown of your customer’s order (including total cost)
  • A thank you message
  • Their order reference number.

This email will do a great deal towards dispersing any worries a customer may have about your business, especially if they are new to your online store.

Your email should also contain a customer service contact number, so if anything needs to be changed, altered or cancelled, your customer doesn’t have to spend time searching for contact details.

During busy sales periods such as Christmas and new year sales, your customers are likely to be making lots of purchases. Having confirmation emails sent to them will help them to keep track of the things they’ve bought.

And send despatch notices to your customer with Sage Evolution

An equally important part of the customer journey after the purchase stage is sending out a despatch notice.

Sadly, these emails aren’t yet considered standard practice like the confirmation email is. However, they provide you with a great opportunity to get in touch with your customer and let them know their order is being processed in a timely fashion.

An effective despatch notice should be consistent with the design of your confirmation email and contain similar information, including a salutation, brief order breakdown and the total cost.

The key difference is that this email is only sent when the order has been shipped.

Ideally, the extra information it should contain would be an estimated delivery date and a link to parcel tracking if the shipping service you’ve used offers that as a feature.

Don’t forget customer feedback surveys

The best way to understand how your customer feels about their experience is simply to ask them.

Arguably, the easiest way to ask your customers for feedback is sending them a survey. There are a handful of effective and free email survey design and distribution software tools that will do most of the hard work for you.

All you have to do is plug your questions in and send the email. It’s best to keep your surveys short and sweet – and you may consider incentivising people to fill them in too.

Closed questions are key in these surveys, as simplicity is the best tactic to ensure that customers are stay engaged and complete it.

As you’ll be asking fewer questions, it’s imperative you extract information that will be of use to you. You want to understand how easy the purchasing process was for your customer and how well optimised your site is.

Conclusion

Customers are in control of modern retail. By getting in touch with them at every given opportunity using the convenience of Sage Evolution, you can improve the chances of offering them a positive experience.

This will, in turn, likely lead them to become regular customers as they form a strong relationship with your business.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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Missing Project Number On The AR Or AP Enquiry Screen

Missing Project Number On The AR Or AP Enquiry Screen

Article credit: Sage 

This article explains how to resolve a missing project number  on the AR or AP Enquiries grid even if a Project Number has been used on the default project field on the processed Sales Order / Purchase Order screen.

This is the Sales Order screen as captured with the Default Project field populated:

And this is the AR Enquiry screen where the Project number field is blank for the above posted sales order:

REASON AND SOLUTION:

On the Inventory Defaults | Entry Options screen, it could be that the Post project per Line option has been selected. Therefore, to ensure the Project number appear on the AR / AP Enquiry grid, ensure that the Post Project per Document option is rather selected.

Please note, only for new documents being processed going forward will Evolution post the Project number correctly to the AR / AP Enquiries screen.

Disclaimer: These articles refer to possible solutions and a platform to share information. Each article describes a method that solved a query (knowledge gathered from previous sites) and how Sage Evolution should operate. These articles make reference to a specific Sage Evolution version, however the thought process can be generalised. Please note the information contained in these articles should be treated as guidelines and adapted to accommodate differences in business processes and IT environments. Articles may not be applicable to all environments. If this article did not resolve your query please contact Kiteview Technologies Support Department on:  (+27) 010 005 6678.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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3 Business Tech Predictions For Manufacturers In 2020

3 Business Tech Predictions For Manufacturers In 2020

Article credit: Sage 

As businesses look ahead to the business trends of 2020 to plan their strategies for the coming year, we know technology will continue to play a pivotal role in how we do business as newer, more powerful innovations become available.

We predicted in 2018 that 2019 would be the year of the integration boom for core business areas such as funding, payroll, HR, and accounting. Digital transformation across the globe has fuelled this change as businesses move toward more agility, better flexibility, and doing more with data.

Now we’re zooming in on 2020 for the UK manufacturing industry and the heavy activity from a political, legislative and social perspective that will occur.

How will technology help CFOs and CEOs in the manufacturing space to navigate emerging complexities? What are the other factors that business leaders need to consider as they plan for growth and expansion?

Read this article for three business tech predictions worth considering when planning your strategies for 2020. And below are three tips to help you tackle business complexities that may try and stand in your way.

1. All eyes on intellectual property and e-commerce

One topic that is picking up speed within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the risk of the moratorium on e-commerce expiring, enabling some countries to start imposing a customs tariff on intellectual property. Adam Prince, Sage’s VP of Product Management, explains how this might impact business.

He says: “Between trading goods and trading services, most free trade agreements only relate to goods. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) estimates that 80% of the value of international trade is in services because some form of intellectual property will be involved.

“Even a loaf of bread is probably made with genetically modified grain, so the grain itself has an intellectual property component.

“The moratorium on e-commerce was first introduced in May 1998 at the second World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference (MC2) and was a temporary ban on adding new tariffs or trade barriers to ecommerce in all its forms.

“Since then the moratorium has been renewed almost every two years, but is coming under increased scrutiny due to digitalisation and the corresponding reducing in value of physical goods that can be taxed via traditional customs procedures.

“The reason is even today, many items such as films, music and news are no longer shipped as physical assets. If you fast-forward to the future seeing how far 3D printing has come today, the market for 3D printing will allow us to print virtually any part or object.

“We can already print biologicals and plastics. This isn’t science fiction. The only hurdle here is the economy of scale. At some point, most of what you need in theory could be downloaded as a pattern and printed locally.”

Prince continues: “So, when I send that design pattern electronically, how do customs agents know the true value of that good? How do you tax goods that go across the border when they’re intellectual?

“The moratorium says not to tax them because every time you implement a customs tariff, you add another frictional barrier to global trade.

“Now the moratorium is under threat. South Africa, India and a few other countries are unhappy with it and are looking to veto its renewal.

“I think in the future, as we recognise where intellectual property lies in within the supply chain, we’ll start to see the argument that less should be facing customs tariff because of the value of the physical goods.

“And more should be treated as a service that is only taxed indirectly via VAT or US Sales and Use tax depending on which country you’re in.”

2. More impact from data privacy laws

Data protection legislation has two very distinct but interwoven flavours: data flow and data localisation.

Data flow legislation restricts what data can flow out of a country and typically exists to protect personal data.

Data localisation legislation requires that a copy of any data must remain in a country even if the data is also shared (or flowed) to other countries, and may be linked to governments wanting their courts to be able to access financial, tax or other information.

Globally, data privacy regulation has been a continuous conversation over recent years as technology improves and individuals demand more control over who has access to their data.

The biggest evolution among the personal data protection legislation (i.e. data flow legislation) took place in 2018 with the implementation of GDPR across the European Union, followed by PSD2 in September 2019 and LinkedIn’s recent appeal denial in California, which let stand an August 2017 preliminary injunction that required LinkedIn to give hiQ Labs Inc access to publicly available member profiles.

More than 80 countries and independent territories – including nearly every country in Europe and many in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa – have now adopted comprehensive personal data protection laws.

Data localisation legislation is also evolving, with one example being Australia. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) requires any system that sends high risk or high volume tax information about Australian businesses or individuals to keep a copy of the data in Australian territory or gain permission to store it elsewhere.

This is similar to legislation that has existed in Germany for many years. Russia is another example where a copy of data about individuals must be kept in Russia even if it is also exported elsewhere.

The differences in these laws may pose a challenge for manufacturers who want to store data on multiple individuals in different countries.

“If you’re responsible for managing information security, this can get expensive as your company looks to expand,” Prince explains.

“Global trends toward data protection are great for the individual but the differences in legislation means manufacturers can expect to continue to need resources to navigate through those complexities.”

3. More mid-market businesses reaping SaaS benefits

According to research from Eurostat, more UK manufacturers are investing in cloud computing services to run their software, manage customer relationships, manage their finances and accounting, and for database hosting too.

For 2020, Prince advises manufacturers to invest in predictive modelling and planning technology that integrates with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

He says: “For organisations that want to be on the leading edge, look at sales and operational planning tools. That way, you can better predict sales and account for seasonal fluctuations.

“You can define the factors that impact your sales – whether it’s weather or holidays – and link them to different scenarios to see their impact. It can be as vertical-specific as you need.

“Then you go on to the operational planning, which is what do you need to optimise fulfilment. That includes, whether it’s process or discrete manufacturing, thinking about everything you need in the process, including human resources.

“For example, if you’re in discrete manufacturing and make big machinery, you’ll need people who can install, train and maintain it. Those services would be added to your sales and operations processes as well.”

Investing in sales and operations also improves lead time planning. Depending on your business management software, you could have all the factors impacting your sales cycles in every region in one place.

This will give you a better understanding of the geographic mix of your customers and suppliers and a better perspective of what could impact lead time.

Preparing for business complexities in 2020

With factors such as Brexit, tariff wars and customer demands challenging the industry, you should focus on three areas for the fluidity needed to navigate to the future:

1. Replace legacy applications

Even if you’ve already digitised manual processes, new capabilities and functionality make now a good time to see what else is available.

Modernising applications can simplify IT and reduce the time spent on management. There are also the benefits of cloud-based applications, as explained earlier.

2. Unify operating systems and create one rich ecosystem

Streamlining an environment rather than dealing with multiple systems will reduce complexity. This also future proofs your organisation and will help your company to adopt new technologies quickly.

Look at how your company can seamlessly move data across the business and share it with your partners.

This will need a platform that allows you to draw out the insights to create the new revenue streams that point the way forward.

3. Deploy automation and artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies

There are opportunities to increase productivity and efficiency through automation and AI tools, and technology across all types of manufacturing. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is already used widely in several industries.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

Contact Us

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Understanding The Benefits Of ERP Add-On Modules

Understanding The Benefits Of ERP Add-On Modules

Understanding ERP Add-Ons

Many Small Businesses depend on accounting software to organize their operations. Simple ERP solutions, with low total cost of ownership and high return on investment, offer the tools that these businesses need to get started in streamlining processes, managing business growth, and reducing costs. These solutions accomplish this by increasing visibility into company operations and laying down a procedural backbone that organizes and tracks the ongoing activities of a business.

Smaller ERP systems often depend on third party applications to deliver the complete suite of functionality that benefits a business. This can offer a good alternative for companies to attain additional functionalities necessary to run their business. On the other hand it can also lead to issues of integration and companies becoming more dependent on a variety of different providers for support and upgrades to their solution.

History of ERP Add-Ons

Not long ago, ERP was the luxury of large companies that developed systems in-house or had them customized by a major provider of ERP and CRM. Things have changed, and now many small and midsized businesses also enjoy the functionality of ERP systems. Solutions with added modules like sales, customer management, manufacturing and distribution applications, connected to the accounting-based systems, gave small and medium businesses a complete set of tools to manage operations with.

Much of this functionality was delivered by add-ons developed by third parties, bolted to the existing system, from providers with various degrees of relationships with the main ERP system provider. Add-ons provide additional functionality for companies that have already invested in expensive systems. Instead of overhauling entire information technology strategies, these add-ons could be used to support specific activities of a business unit.

Operating systems with multiple add-ons created specific problems though, particularly with data integration where applications needed to work together, and support activities like updates and upgrades. To address these pesky issues, and thanks to advances in technology, ERP systems, and the industry as a whole, are moving towards all-inclusive solutions, with modules and applications delivered by the main provider.

Integration With Multiple Add-Ons

The hardest and most problem-prone part of any ERP system is data integration. Taking data from different software applications that service independent business units can be troublesome. Data from these applications must in some way connect to the financial, accounting, and other core modules of the systems within the ERP. This communication of data between third-party add-ons and the central ERP system has to happen seamlessly and continuously. When a business’ systems do not integrate properly with its applications, it will have additional costs due to managing data in multiple databases, customizing applications, upgrades, and hiring personnel to oversee integration within all the business’ systems.

Updates, Upgrades, and Support With Add-Ons

ERP systems will get multiple updates a year, leaving add-on providers to ensure their solutions still work with the updated system, and company employees to deal with any downtime that may arise.

Issues of Add-On support can also arise. ERP systems are generally supported by third parties as it is. Providers, such as Sage and Microsoft, rely on a network of resellers that are also in charge of supporting the solutions sold to customers. This is good news for users, as resellers, like The Answer Company, normally service the solution from its beginning – implementing and supporting both the ERP and any add-on applications. The quality and degree of support offered for add-ons will be determined by the reseller’s experience with the applications. If a reseller can’t provide support for an add-on, a company is left being supported by several providers, consequentially adding to the costs of running an ERP system.

More issues arise if the company does not keep up with the maintenance of their systems. Although not advisable, companies with existing ERP systems may at one point or another forego ongoing support for their ERP systems. These companies face problems when they return the marketplace to fix, update, or upgrade their solution, along with the add-ons they have ran their businesses on, which can be difficult as these solutions advance quickly.

For companies in this situation it is worth looking at the bigger picture, and re-evaluating their system focusing on ownership costs and ongoing support costs. It may be that a better quality of software is available, with easy migration paths, at a lower cost than updating or upgrading their small business accounting systems.

To upgrade or add modules to help optimize your system so that your business is in a better position to hit the ground running next financial year, contact us for an obligation free quote today.

With Sage 200 Evolution  add-ons, you can find solutions to extend and build on all aspects of your business. 

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

Contact Us

For An Obligation Free Quote

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