INTRODUCING A BETTER WAY:
Ditch the Spreadsheets
In the journey of business growth, it’s vital to recognise when certain processes start holding you back from reaching new heights. The most common being a reliance on spreadsheets. A heavy dependence on this outdated method can inadvertently impede your operations and hinder your progress and path to success.
Kissing spreadsheets goodbye
You didn’t come this far just to be held back
In the vast landscape of business tools, the humble spreadsheet has always been the trusted adhesive that holds everything together. From sales and HR processes to managing email lists and tracking inventory and assets, spreadsheets have been the go-to solution for many businesses.
If spreadsheets are making you feel worse than this guy looks, read on.
As your business grows, the limitations of spreadsheets become apparent. The adhesive starts to wear thin, and challenges arise. Maybe too many users updating a central spreadsheet, or the accuracy and real-time nature of data become crucial for efficiency across different business areas.
We’re all too familiar with the consequences: extended delays in critical cashflow areas like invoicing, setbacks in material procurement or inventory management, and uncertainties surrounding profit margins from one job to the next.
Spreadsheets will always hold their popularity as a business tool, but for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), relying on quick fixes can unintentionally sabotage their operations and hinder their growth.
That’s where the most successful businesses set themselves apart—they consolidate spreadsheets and disparate applications into a single, interconnected platform.
By doing so, they automatically reduce the need for copy-pasting information from various sources into spreadsheets or paper.By reducing the reliance on spreadsheets, businesses can significantly reduce friction and operate smoothly even as they expand their team.
This blog dives into five common areas where businesses heavily rely on spreadsheets and explores the impact they have on day-to-day operations. Furthermore, we’ll show you how transitioning to a unified system can revolutionise your business. All while optimising efficiency and productivity.
The time to bid farewell to the limitations of spreadsheets is now! Say goodbye to outdated processes and hello to a new era of streamlined operations.
You can’t excel with Excel
A cheap joke, but true
Accurately tracking staff working hours is crucial for service businesses. It directly impacts profitability and ensures proper billing to cover payroll expenses.
However, relying on traditional pen and paper timesheets incurs hidden costs and leaves you unaware of job targets.
Real-time visibility of hours worked allows proactive project management, adjusting resources to stay within budget or negotiating for increased scope.
Modern business systems offer convenient options like mobile apps or browser interfaces to record timesheets enabling holiday requests and tracking time across multiple projects.
Streamlined processes eliminate manual data entry, providing visibility against budgets and seamless integration with payroll calculations.
Furthermore, customisable approval workflows ensure efficient timesheet management. Embrace digital transformation to enhance efficiency and accuracy.
Impact of ERP:
Did you know that eliminating the delay between writing and recording timesheets can have an immediate impact on your cashflow?
Many businesses face the challenge of waiting for staff to type up their timesheets, resulting in delays of up to a month before invoicing their customers. By leveraging online timesheets, you can bid farewell to this lag and experience a significant improvement in your cashflow. No longer will you have to endure the time-consuming process of manual data entry. Instead, you’ll have the power of instant updates at your fingertips. Online timesheets provide you with real-time visibility into everyone’s capacity.
You can effortlessly track each person’s progress on a project and determine when they will be available for the next assignment. This invaluable information allows you to optimize resource allocation and maximise billable hours. The more hours you can guarantee work for your employees, the greater the number of billable hours and, consequently, the higher your profits.
Don’t let administrative bottlenecks hinder your cashflow and limit your profitability. Embrace the power of real-time online timesheets and experience the immediate benefits. In our upcoming articles, we’ll delve deeper into the advantages of adopting digital timesheet solutions and explore how they can unlock your business’s full potential.
Inventory
Inventory Management never looked this good
Discover the true potential of inventory management, beyond the limits of a complex spreadsheet. While Excel offers flexibility, it can become cumbersome as complexity grows, making it challenging to comprehend and maintain.
At the core of effective inventory management lies a set of essential questions:
+ Are the formulas accurate?
+ Is the data reliable?
+ When was it last updated, and who is responsible for updates?
Now, envision a business system that automates inventory updates with every sale, product creation, or delivery. No more manual entries. Instead, visualise an inventory screen as the hub for effortlessly viewing up-to-date records.
Integrated business management systems utilise a unified database to seamlessly record ecommerce sales, point-of-sale purchases, and stock management.
Say farewell to reliance on staff for inventory updates. Your warehouse staff effortlessly update inventory by recording new stock arrivals, guided by generated purchase orders based on minimum stock levels.
Efficiency becomes the norm. Break free from the complexities of spreadsheets. Embrace a comprehensive business system, paving the way for automated inventory management.
Impact of ERP:
You can revamp your cashflow instantly through effective inventory management. This also unlocks the potential of your business by reducing capital tied up in raw materials and eliminating excess stock on your factory or shop floor. Tighten your supply lines and bid farewell to outdated or discounted inventory.
For manufacturers, optimised inventory management offers even greater advantages. Gain valuable insights into the wastage generated with each product. Accurate measurement of wastage empowers you to embark on experimentation and fine-tuning processes to minimise it. Witness the immediate impact as every reduction in wastage translates into improved profitability.
Scalability
Because nothing screams “fun” like trying to expand an ERP system
Expanding your business to new locations is a true sign of success, but it can also be difficult.
To ensure a seamless expansion, three critical activities must be prioritised: training, reporting, and monitoring.
However, relying on clunky systems with manual processes can hinder these essential tasks. Establishing streamlined systems for each activity is vital to preserving margins at your new location.
A telltale sign of a business lacking systemisation is the need to hire additional accounting staff every time a new office is added to cope with the surge in transactions.
While this may work initially, escalating back-office costs can swiftly erode the profits generated by the new front-office revenue.
Implementing robust systems is key to scaling revenue without incurring excessive operational expenses.
Swift and effective staff training is a crucial skill for successful expansion. To achieve this, a well-defined set of processes must be established, ensuring that your new staff can replicate them flawlessly at the new office.
Without this foundation, it becomes challenging to assess whether the new location will generate sufficient revenue to offset the added salary expenditure.
Timely reporting is another crucial aspect. With a manager now in place at the satellite office, it is imperative to track their progress towards targets. Monitoring goes hand in hand with reporting, encompassing processes that ensure employee and customer satisfaction, while upholding company culture and standards. The challenge lies in simultaneously and swiftly establishing training, reporting, and monitoring systems for the new office.
The popularity of cloud-based software is driven by its ability to expedite deployment. With cloud software, opening a new office becomes seamless as you can instantly access the same program without the need for setting up a server first. Furthermore, using the same cloud software across your business enables new employees to access and share data with the head office, fostering stronger communication channels and knowledge sharing while maintaining a cohesive company culture.
Impact of ERP:
By harnessing the capabilities of a unified platform, you gain the ability to design seamless workflows across critical departments such as sales, marketing, and finance. With customised rules and automation, an action initiated in one department can effortlessly trigger corresponding actions in others. This interconnectedness creates remarkable efficiencies, empowering your back-office to effortlessly accommodate the growing number of employees in the front-office.
But that’s not all – there’s an additional advantage to utilising a single platform: new employees only need to master one interface to operate your business systems. Bid farewell to the complexities of multiple interfaces and embrace streamlined onboarding. With fewer interfaces to navigate, new staff can quickly adapt and contribute, ensuring a faster return on investment for your new office.
Ready to witness the benefits of MYOB Advanced
We know what you’re thinking – Perfect, just what I need, another riveting video of watching some sales guy navigate through mind-numbingly tedious screens and pretending to be excited about making numbers add up.
We promise this interactive demo is anything but that. See the processes that matter to you, in a simple, easy to follow manner that makes sense.
The best part? Aside from being FREE and available to view right now, it actually shows you the key to empowering your business to survive, thrive and achieve success.
Click below and you’ll see.