When time is money, any business process that keeps you away from expanding your business, finding new customers and bringing in more profit can be extremely costly.
With time such an important resource, your priority is to avoid wastage. Using ERP or business management software systems can effectively maximise your efficiency and save you a whole lot of time.
Here are just some of the ways:
Automate repetitive tasks
Your business systems should, where possible, automate all repetitive tasks to save you time, increase productivity and improve your bottom line. Things like your statements, invoices, payment runs, reporting and invoicing should all be automated so that your people can spend more time focusing on more important aspects of your business. It will also reduce the likelihood of human errors! Here are 6 specific business process automation tools you can use to streamline your business
Preparing Management Accounts
We know many outdated accounting and business management software systems incorporate multiple programs to perform basic business activities like your accounts and financial reporting.
And we know that many businesses still carry out much of their accounting and reporting in Excel, which is slow and laborious.
You can save a lot of time by preparing your accounts in an fully integrated business management software system which automates many of the processes you may have previously spent days on.
Find relevant information quicker
Business software is an essential aid for management decision making. This can only be achieved when equipped with instant access to up-to-date, accurate information. A fully integrated business software & ERP system will not only help you to make sound business decisions faster (by offering access to real-time data) but can also push relevant information out to the right people at the right time, saving hours (and days in some cases) searching for it.
Today’s modern ERP solutions offer dashborads or control desks that make it really easy for you to keep an eye on your KPIs. You can set up your on-screen control desk to automatically show individual users’/department/role KPIs upon opening the system. Updated in real-time, this is an unquestionable time saver.
Margin Management
Managing your margins is crucial to your bottom line and fuel for your business. Your accounting and business management software should provide you with instant, accurate margin management to empower your employees to quickly and easily achieve your company’s margin goals. Learn how to improve your margins in this useful article on ‘Losing Margin? Put your software to work for you’.
Reduce reliance on Excel spreadsheets
Unfortunately, even with today’s advancements in technology, you may still be relying heavily on Excel to carry out much of your analysis reporting. This is often because you are working on an aging system or juggling multiple systems and staff have implemented workarounds in order to carry out their jobs.
When end-users start to improvise, things can get messy. While Excel has its advantages, working outside your system for analysis purposes is costing your business valuable time and resources. A fully integrated business management software system can easily save you days when configured to suit your particular business nuances. We discuss the 4 essential analytic tools for smart businesses in this blog.
Prepare and distribute reports automatically
A valuable time saver is to configure your system to routinely produce reports at scheduled intervals and have them automatically e-mailed to a pre-set list of recipients. This can aid timely reactions to a set of parameters and/or focus attention on areas that need consideration.
Through pre-configured alerts and workflows, you and your team can focus on any areas that need action rather than wasting time sifting through data, reports or emails to find the critical information you need to know.
And thankfully, many of today’s modern ERP/business management systems, have made setting up these alerts and workflows effortless through easy to use inbuilt tools for your system admin.
Reduce number of credit notes, re-stocking & dealing with customer issues
In order to streamline your business you must have a well-functioning stock management system. Accurate, real-time and up to date stock control is critical to your business.
Your business software is key to managing this aspect of your business. By knowing accurately what stock you have, you should avoid time consuming processes such as issuing credit notes, dealing with customer queries and re-stocking.
And with the right technology and tools available you can then put in place the rules, procedures and policies that will enable you to implement an effective stock management strategy.
Credit Control
Credit Control is a key part of any business software system. Having access to any overdue accounts listing is crucial to enabling your accounts staff to be more efficient with their time. It enables them to identify who to contact to chase payment whilst also ensuring to record each interaction.
Today you can make it even easier for your customers to do business with you and also enable them to manage their own accounts. Customer account management portals are fully integrated online systems that ensure your customers have easy access to accurate, up-to-date information about their account. Some customer portals also facilitate repeat ordering.
Payment Run
Instead of trawling through your suppliers invoices to see who needs to get paid, generate a payment run which highlights the accounts requiring payment, automatically posts a payment against their account and even generates a report to submit to your bank electronically. Simple!
Tailored End-User Screens/Menus
Modern business management software packages can be configured to allow users priority access to the functions they require on a daily basis. This facilitates streamlining processes within your business and provides end users with job related screens/menus.
It also enforces your company’s policies and processes across all departments. Ultimately, it is designed to help increase productivity, ease of use of the software and allow exceptions to be quickly brought to the attention of relevant managers rather than having to trawl through information or permanently policing your system.
In an age where employees are expected to multitask (and accomplish more in less time) having an accounting and business software solution that makes important/repetitive tasks quicker and easier is a must.
