4 less things to stress over when you go cloud open source for your ERP.

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If your small business is like most businesses, it started off managing its data on spreadsheets and word processing software. This is fine when the transactional volume is not much and the complexity is still minimal, but if the expectation is to grow the business, then a more scalable solution is required. Most small businesses have unfortunately put off taking the decision to acquire a sound ERP software and are surprised why their small business just aren’t growing at the rate they desire or expect. The main reason for this inaction has been the prohibitive cost of proprietary systems but thankfully with the emergence of the cloud, this reason falls away as there is now free open-source ERP software that handles everything from basic accounting/ bookkeeping - to inventory management, ecommerce website, online CRM and so forth. Today we’ll look at four less things to worry about for small businesses when they start on cloud, ERP Accounting software.

#1.Inventory Management.

Most small business start by managing their inventory data on spreadsheets but quickly realise how inefficient this is as they have to constantly update the spreadsheets to correctly reflect past transactions. This is quite cumbersome and is soon neglected with the result being that the business finds itself not being in a position to quantify its inventory holding. The way most small business get around this is to have frequent stock counts which at times are performed daily. This is the classical: working in your business and not on your business. The time spent on this and other similar stock management activities could be better utilised to directly grow the business. With cloud ERP software, stock management is automated with every purchase and sales transactions. This extends to serialised and batched inventory which can be tracked on every transaction, giving greater clarity by answering the most frequent questions asked by small business owners: How much inventory do we have at the moment? How much does the business need in the near future to meet customer obligations and if the business is manufactures its own inventory, then the need to know how much stock is needed to maintain production at optimum capacity.

Mismanagement of inventory holding can seriously dent a business’s profitability in the form of:

With so much at stake, it’s easy to understand why the issue of inventory causes so much stress to small business owners and hence is one of their top reasons for implementing ERP solutions so that they get a firmer grip on inventory management.

Fortunately there is FREE open source cloud ERP software such as ERPNext which efficiently manages inventory far much better than spreadsheets and easily provides finer insight into purchase and sale trends which would otherwise be difficult to pick up. The results of this analysis can be used to negotiate better purchase terms from suppliers in the form of volume discounts, improved settlement terms and other agreements which all together enhance the profitability of the business.

#2. Ecommerce website

Consumers are voting with their wallets for businesses that will be around tomorrow by purchasing from businesses that provide the best value for money and greatest convenience. Ecommerce websites provide the latter to small business owners; they also provide an opportunity to expand their reach beyond the brick and mortar stores Setting up an ecommerce websites can be done in just a few clicks with a FREE open source cloud ERP software such as ERPNext. The ecommerce websites are fully integrated to the company’s inventory and customer accounts which streamlines the entire sales process. With ERPNext, businesses obtain integration to PayPal which is a renowned and trusted payment gateway by consumers.

#3. Online Customer Relationship Management CRM.

In order to successfully grow the business, new prospects must be systematically acquired and converted into paying customers. A business that aims to thrive must have a repeatable process of bringing in new business and not rely too much on referrals. An online CRM is the tool for this that provides visibility into the sales funnel and makes it easier to track critical prospect data in a methodical and consistent manner. By integrating the CRM to an Enterprise Resource Planning Software, you not only are able to track opportunities but are able to quantify the amount of business they provide through detailed sales analytics. It’s only by having a single integrated view of the company that a business can begin to measure the complete effectiveness of its prospect outreach campaigns. Useful trends can be gained from analysing the sales data in relation to the information from the CRM resulting in the company focusing more on those efforts that bring it the most profitable clients at the lowest cost.

#4. Human Resources & Payroll

Human capital management is more than just maintaining employee records and what to pay them. It is about managing the end to end process from when a business seeks a new employee, managing all their HR related activities over their employment period up until they leave the organization. Having a human resources that’s completely integrated to the accounting software results in streamlined business processes with greater efficiencies and overall reduced costs for small businesses.

Cloud ERP softwarewith integrated HR free up administrative personnel from managing mundane tasks such as expense claims because the employees are able to capture the expenses themselves directly into the system as and when they occur. Convenience is afforded to staff because photos of receipts can be taken and attached directly to claims, giving them and the business owners one less thing to stress over when they are out in the field. Leave management and payroll, whilst peanut gallery functionality of human resources management deserve nonetheless to be mentioned as these are typically managed on spreadsheets if managed at all by small business owners. The inconvenience of unavailable staff because of miscommunication and misunderstanding around taking of leave has financial implications to overall profitability of a small businesses