Category Archives: Business

Unify Your Financials with QuickBooks

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Now more than ever it is vital for a business to centralize their financials.

As you know, “commerce” now involves both brick-and-mortar stores and selling on multiple channels online. And that’s just the first layer of complexity—this year at QuickBooks Connect, I learned that the average SMB uses approximately 15 applications to manage their business.

Unfortunately, many businesses are still manually entering in much of their sales, inventory, and shipping data into their QuickBooks. But why? This method creates many problems, some of them include:

  • Human error
  • Time wasted
  • Money spent

The good news is, there are several apps out there to move data for you. The bad news is that many of these apps do not communicate with one another. Sure, there is ERP software out there that will take care of it all, but it’s generally designed for the enterprise level business and it’s expensive.Why are so many #ecommerce businesses still manually entering data? There's a better way. #unify Click To Tweet” 

While an ERP may feel like a logical step for a maturing SMB, I would recommend waiting. If you are considering an ERP, it’s likely that you already have many of the necessary tools, but still struggle because those tools are not in sync. When your tools are not in sync, they cause a mess and confusion, which is more manual work. Continue reading →

How to Protect Your Website From Modern Security Threats

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How to Protect Your Website From Modern Security ThreatsFrom the first computer to the latest smartphone, it’s no secret that the world and our nation have made significant advancements in the world of technology. With each new invention or mobile advancement, we have made ourselves extremely reliant on the world wide web as our go-to resource for a plethora of things. However, with this dependency, we also have made ourselves very vulnerable to cyber security threats. Whether it’s a virus, bug, or a skilled hacker, security threats can come from all over the web. From paying our bills to signing up for the next greatest product, we are constantly putting our personal online–risking the chance of identity theft, and more. Big businesses with an online presence face the same threats every day as well.#Ecommerce Sellers! How to Protect Your Website From Modern Security Threats Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, with each major advancement in technology we make, internet hackers will find ways to advance their hacking techniques. Although there’s a multitude of security softwares that will help fight against unwarranted cyber hacks, there’s always the chance that cyber-criminals will find new ways to adapt their techniques and change the way they go about their exploitations. With that being said, it’s very important to keep in mind that getting ‘hacked’ is NOT an inevitability. With the right practices, you can secure your business and your website from modern security threats. Continue reading →

Emerging Tech Trends in Accounting

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Emerging Tech Trends in AccountingWritten by Jim Walsh, Chief Information Officer, Right Networks

As reviewed through time, this is likely to be a fascinating milestone in the evolution of accounting technology and its impact on business. Many working professionals can still remember when technology was burgeoning. From the perspective of accountancy, paper ledgers gave way to spreadsheet applications. CPAs and accounting professionals passed files back and forth from shared drives or emailed them to peers and clients. Then those spreadsheets got more advanced – they were shared in content management systems or stored in the cloud and worked on by multiple people simultaneously. And now applications are becoming transformative in their ability to draw conclusions and anticipate trends based on the information that was once handwritten in books that wouldn’t even fit inside a backpack.Read about emerging #tech #trends in #accounting, by @RightNetworks #Unify #Cloud Click To Tweet

The accounting industry isn’t exempt or unique in the fact that it’s being impacted by a rush of technology advances. Thinking about all of the different ways that technology could impact any industry is as dizzying as it is speculative. It’s likely that we haven’t fully anticipated the ways that conditions and processes will merge to allow for new things. So how can a CPA firm or accounting professional prepare for a future where technology presents an unknown? Continue reading →

Better insights come from seeing the big picture

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Better insights come from seeing the big pictureAs published in Internet Retailer‘s 5 Key Ecommerce Fulfillment Trends

Mountain bike apparel retailer Club Ride recently faced a customer satisfaction challenge. The online company, which was founded in 2008, was growing rapidly, and earlier this year moved away from QuickBooks to more sophisticated tools to manage its fulfillment through its multiple sales channels. But without integration between sales, its e-commerce platform, its customers and its inventory, Club Ride often found itself unable to fulfill customers’ orders quickly—or even at all. As a result, its brand equity was suffering. Read how this apparel retailer adjusted their back-office workflows with Webgility's #Unify Click To Tweet

Club Ride’s dilemma isn’t uncommon among retailers. Many merchants now sell through multiple sales channels—including online marketplaces, their own websites and their bricks-and-mortar locations—and must deliver orders to customers accurately and quickly to compete in today’s competitive retail arena. “While this adjustment increases the seller’s ability to scale, it also creates a new kind of chaos around data management and logistics when it comes to inventory, fulfillment, and shipping,” says Parag Mamnani, CEO of Webgility, an inventory management technology provider. Continue reading →

Holiday Prep Ideas for 2017

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Holiday Prep Ideas for 2017There’s no time like the present to get ready for the selling season.

By creating a strategy now, retailers can take advantage of the holiday  retail peak with optimized cross-channel experiences, initiatives aimed at customer retention, and marketing focused on the entire season (not just a few key days).

According to Justuno, the Holidays are the most important time for retailers. If there’s one time of the year to put forth all your marketing efforts, it’s now. In fact, holiday sales accounted for 24% of total U.S. ecommerce sales in 2016 and are expected to increase by 16.6% in 2017. This is a massive opportunity to gain new customers, drive repeat purchases, and ultimately increase sales for 2017. But this can only happen effectively if you start preparing today. Here are some useful tips and ideas that will help you get started.@ShipStation offers simple tips to help you get ready for the holiday selling season. #Unify Click To Tweet

1.   Build your staff now for the busy period. As we know the holidays can be chaotic for retailers. Even if you are a one person operation, there will likely come a time during this period where you will need help. Even hiring holiday staff for a few months or weeks can make a difference. And there are plenty of folks looking to make a little extra money over the holiday period. Continue reading →