Your accounting system is a very important part of your business. Your accounting system allows you to have records of all of your expenses and other financial transactions. These records are important for both personal uses as well as for tax purposes. When it comes to choosing which accounting system you want there are tow choices. You can purchase accounting system software or you can do bookkeeping and accounting by hand. The choice between these two options is really a matter of which system works best for you personally.

Accounting System Software

You can purchase accounting software online or at a local office supply store. These products are usually easy to set up and easy to use. They can be expensive, though prices vary depending on the software company name brand. You can search online or you can speak with a representative at the office supply store for detailed information on each product.

Handwritten Bookkeeping

The uses of books and hand written accounting have been around for centuries. You don’t have to have a fancy journal; instead you can keep track of your finances in notebooks. Keep separate notebooks per area of spending. One notebook for payments another for invoices and so on.

With either of these choices it is very important to input your financial transactions in correctly. If even a slight mistake is made it can cause large amounts of trouble due to just the tiniest miscalculation. If you find that either option leaves you feeling uncomfortable you can choose to hire an accountant. Depending on your budget allowance, will depend on this option is available for you. Do some research for yourself. Look into all three of these options and see which will make your business life easier and which option will keep your affairs in the best order. You can look up more information on home business accounting online or at your local library. There are hundreds of books and websites available to help you know and understand accounting and the system that may suit you best.

Once you know which accounting system you want to use, begin immediately. You want to make sure that past payment information is updated and that all of your spending is calculated and recorded. These records will allow you to know what is being spent, if changes can be made to save money and if you are going to reach your profit goals. Accounting systems keep your business affairs and financial happenings in order that allows you to keep all of your focus on your business and not just the money aspect of it. Once you have your accounting service up and running you will be able to look back and smile. You’ll be glad you made the accounting system choice that you did.

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CRM systems become prominent in the 1990′s and have home a very long way since. A major change in the development of CRM software is that newer systems allow a dialogue between your business and a customer as opposed to a system that is purely geared towards data management and internal communication. The thinking is that businesses do far better if they take customer feedback to heart in sales and marketing process and in product development. Today this interaction is probably one of the most important factors to consider when you choose a CRM solution.

There are four main areas in which a good CRM system can help your business. At the superficial level a basic CRM solution will let you track contact data, automate quotation and proposal generation and allow you to build simple sales forecasts based on sales history and the proposals currently in the hands of customers.

Your marketing function is the next area of benefit because CRM allows you to target specific segments and specific customers using multiple channels of communication in an automated fashion. Without basic contact data, bulk marketing will be impossible whilst segmented and customised marketing can only be accomplished if your business has easy access to detailed customer data. The CRM system you choose needs to be able to facilitate this.

For businesses that often deal with their customers over the phone, the right CRM system can be a breakthrough in efficiency and customer satisfaction. CRM software that is customised for use in call centres both large and small lets you create routing paths that ensure customers talk to the right person quickly, whilst your staff are able to access all the relevant information on a customer with ease, as the calls are handled.

Data integration is one of the most powerful functions of a CRM solution. The ability to give unencumbered access to the information a staff member needs when they need it is a huge boon for productivity and efficiency. The integration of sales, marketing, servicing and support has major benefits in customer satisfaction – benefits that you in all likelihood cannot do without. In this sense your business should make sure that the CRM system you choose to implement is capable of accomplishing this degree of data integration, a system that is good at capturing data and performing analysis will be worthless if it is difficult for staff members to extract the data they need or if it is difficult to send data from one department to the next.

In summary, you need to examine these features when you select your CRM system: sales and marketing automation, good contact management, reporting, data integration and call centre capabilities if required. Aspects of your business that will affect the CRM system you choose include the size of your business, the degree of customisation you require, the security level you need and the project budget.

Going forward, your customers will continue to demand better service and efficiency from your staff members. In addition, your competitors will put pressure on you if they are able to derive greater productivity from their work force than you do. There is no doubt that CRM is absolutely essential for a prosperous business in today’s competitive climate but, because of the range of vendors, solutions and advice on offer, your business needs to choose carefully.

Something many companies of today are considering is going with what’s known as a Customer Relationship Management system, or CRM.  The basic principle behind this is to have a database of all the customers of a company, as well as potential customers.

But it’s more than just a standard database.  CRM systems don’t only allow the owners to list things such as phone numbers and addresses and inventory.  It allows them to list things not traditionally captured by software such as the names of family members, hobbies, clubs, networking events and anything else any of the company’s employees might know about these people.  It allows them to figure out relationships that individuals might have with employees, other clients, or even competitors.  And it increases the knowledge base of the entire company because, with training, every employee in the company can have instant access to that information, as well as be a contributing member in gathering that information.

Something else it seems to allow for some of these companies is a way to track whether what they consider as proprietary information is leaving the company and finding its ways in the hands of competitors.  Many companies have their employees sign something saying that either they won’t work with a competitor for a particular length of time or that they won’t try to take anything they learned from a company or any other information with them to a new place.  Sometimes that involves either technology or names of clients.  CRM helps companies determine if someone has violated those rules and gives them the opportunity to sue them for breach of contract.

Some companies hire internal staff to create these databases for them, but there are companies that do this sort of work, including selling the technology to companies and allowing them to input the information on their own, with training.  Probably the best known name in the industry is Oracle, the largest business software company in the world, Microsoft notwithstanding.  They offer both different sizes of CRM software based on company size as well as internal and external data management, which includes web content and document management.

There are many companies on the market that offer this type of software, however, so the best thing to do is shop around and compare both prices and services.  And, if you don’t have the staff to do it, you can probably get a pretty good deal by hiring a company to create and maintain this program for you.  If yours is a large company, or one with specialized needs for your consumers, having a CRM database is imperative for the survivability of your organization.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems provide a formalized system gathering, organizing, maintaining and manipulating customer and contact information. With an effective Microsoft Dynamics CRM in place, business owners are provided with a powerful tool to successfully manage and develop their business.

Why a business should adopt and implement a Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be readily appreciated by considering some of the benefits provided. An effective Dynamics CRM, properly implemented and adopted will greatly help to maximize sales and reduce costs and time while management who have a better view of what is actually going on a lot faster than without a Dynamics CRM, are far better placed to manage the risk to their business.

Managing the sales cycle is expensive and time-consuming, so knowing where you are with a contact or set of customers is important if you intend to maximize the results of your business generation activities. A Microsoft Dynamics CRM will provide accessible information at your fingertips which means that a business owner can look at the “Big Picture” or macroscopic view while at the same time break business performance down to see what activities and customers are contributing to the bottom line. This allows business owners and managers to see where to concentrate their efforts to maximize sales and minimize costs.

Generating new business is the most expensive part of the sales cycle, and because a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system provides the ability to categorize contacts and identify which are suitable prospects for a particular sales and marketing campaign, a business can most effectively deploy resources. Knowing which prospects are likely to buy, when they are likely to do so and where the prospects are geographically will help your sales team to maximize their efforts, reduce wasted time and money, and provide a greater return on the investment of time and money in acquiring that customer base.

Existing customers are most likely to buy from you again, and because a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system will provide a business manager with the ability to manage, maintain and develop the client relationship this means that a business is likely to generate greater revenues from understanding a customers requirements better and produce overall cost savings as a result of improved customer retention rather than chasing new ones.

As a Microsoft Dynamics CRM software solution provides a repository for all your client information, including sales history, seasonal variations in sales, and improved ability to forecast turnover from repeat sales, business planning and goal setting is simplified and there is an additional benefit in saving staff and management time searching for information which is readily available. Reducing the time required planning your business activity and development allows more time to be spent on generating business and managing activity where the sales revenue is actually created – with your customers.

A Microsoft Dynamics CRM will provide a business owner with the ability to see at a glance what is happening with their sales and customers. We live and operate in a fast changing world where trends and tastes change, sometimes overnight, and the ability to see how these variations affect our overall business performance allows management to quickly adapt to changes in trading conditions which under more traditional reporting methods may not be observed for some time. With a Microsoft Dynamics CRM providing accurate and up-to-date business information on results and activity, business management is better placed to take advantage of trading opportunities while also minimizing business risk by alerting management of adverse trading conditions.

Finally, an often overlooked benefit of all Customer Relationship Software is found when looking at implementing such a solution to begin with.

Implementation of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution invariably forces business owners and management to reconsider their business and how they are managing it, not to mention the benefit that is derived from a thorough review of the overall business goals and objectives. Often this has not been done for some time, if at all, and considering how a solution will be tailored to fit the business frequently breeds the realization that things could be managed better.

This doesn’t derive from the customer relationship software itself, but from planning how to implement and adopt such a solution; owners and management are compelled to confront their current business practices and perhaps revise them. This is probably the greatest insidious benefit to be derived from a Customer Relationship Management solution for a business.

Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:TARO) completed the successful implementation of Priority WMS in their Israeli operations, migrating from the WMS system they had in place for recent years.

Priority ERP, from Eshbel Technologies, was first implemented at the Israeli branch of Taro in 1995 with the help of Eshbel partner Medatech.

According to Tzvi Tal, the Vice President of Information Technology at Taro: “I believe that ERP software should meet the needs of the business, and not that the business should accommodate itself to the software. For us, Priority ERP is the solution which meets that criterion. Priority includes a wealth of functionality, has excellent support, can be customized with relative ease and the customizations carried over from version to version with smooth transitions.”

In the recent years Taro used one of the Best-of-Breed WMS Solutions available, in parallel to running Priority for their ERP needs. “Even if a stand-alone WMS is excellent,” says Tzvi Tal “it’s better to compromise a bit on functionality and do-away with interface protocols and integration. Taro invested time and effort in building interface protocols that run every few minutes in order to synchronize inventory transactions. Despite the quality of the interfaces, it was very difficult to achieve full synchronization between the two systems. When the interface protocol would indicate there was a problem all other protocols would be delayed until the problem could be identified and resolved. An integrated solution resolves these issues.

Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is a multinational, publically traded, science-based pharmaceutical company, manufacturing prescription and not prescription pharmaceuticals along with active ingredients, all in conjunction with accepted manufacturing processes. Taro is dedicated to meeting FDA and SOX standards, and has validated their workflow as implemented in the Priority ERP and WMS Software solutions. For more information, please visit http://www.taro.com

Founded in 1986, Eshbel is a leading Israeli-based ERP company focused on developing, customizing, implementing and supporting ERP and WMS solutions. Having accumulated more than 20 years of experience in multiple industries worldwide, servicing over 3000 customers with a combined user base estimated at over 200,000 Priority users, Eshbel has achieved worldwide recognition for its strong track record of providing reliable services to businesses in multiple industries worldwide.

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems provide a formalized system gathering, organizing, maintaining and manipulating customer and contact information.  With an effective Microsoft Dynamics CRM in place, business owners are provided with a powerful tool to successfully manage and develop their business.

Why a business should adopt and implement a Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be readily appreciated by considering some of the benefits provided.  An effective Dynamics CRM, properly implemented and adopted will greatly help to maximize sales and reduce costs and time while management who have a better view of what is actually going on a lot faster than without a Dynamics CRM, are far better placed to manage the risk to their business.

Managing the sales cycle is expensive and time-consuming, so knowing where you are with a contact or set of customers is important if you intend to maximize the results of your business generation activities.  A Microsoft Dynamics CRM will provide accessible information at your fingertips which means that a business owner can look at the “Big Picture” or macroscopic view while at the same time break business performance down to see what activities and customers are contributing to the bottom line.  This allows business owners and managers to see where to concentrate their efforts to maximize sales and minimize costs.

Generating new business is the most expensive part of the sales cycle, and because a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system provides the ability to categorize contacts and identify which are suitable prospects for a particular sales and marketing campaign, a business can most effectively deploy resources.  Knowing which prospects are likely to buy, when they are likely to do so and where the prospects are geographically will help your sales team to maximize their efforts, reduce wasted time and money, and provide a greater return on the investment of time and money in acquiring that customer base.

Existing customers are most likely to buy from you again, and because a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system will provide a business manager with the ability to manage, maintain and develop the client relationship this means that a business is likely to generate greater revenues from understanding a customers requirements better and produce overall cost savings as a result of improved customer retention rather than chasing new ones.

As a Microsoft Dynamics CRM software solution provides a repository for all your client information, including sales history, seasonal variations in sales, and improved ability to forecast turnover from repeat sales, business planning and goal setting is simplified and there is an additional benefit in saving staff and management time searching for information which is readily available.  Reducing the time required planning your business activity and development allows more time to be spent on generating business and managing activity where the sales revenue is actually created – with your customers.

A Microsoft Dynamics CRM will provide a business owner with the ability to see at a glance what is happening with their sales and customers.  We live and operate in a fast changing world where trends and tastes change, sometimes overnight, and the ability to see how these variations affect our overall business performance allows management to quickly adapt to changes in trading conditions which under more traditional reporting methods may not be observed for some time.  With a Microsoft Dynamics CRM providing accurate and up-to-date business information on results and activity, business management is better placed to take advantage of trading opportunities while also minimizing business risk by alerting management of adverse trading conditions.

Finally, an often overlooked benefit of all Customer Relationship Software is found when looking at implementing such a solution to begin with.  

Implementation of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution invariably forces business owners and management to reconsider their business and how they are managing it, not to mention the benefit that is derived from a thorough review of the overall business goals and objectives.  Often this has not been done for some time, if at all, and considering how a solution will be tailored to fit the business frequently breeds the realization that things could be managed better.  

This doesn’t derive from the customer relationship software itself, but from planning how to implement and adopt such a solution; owners and management are compelled to confront their current business practices and perhaps revise them.  This is probably the greatest insidious benefit to be derived from a Customer Relationship Management solution for a business.

First of all what does CRM stand for?  CRM = Customer Relationship Management.

The concept of CRM has been around for a long time. The original form of CRM was a manual card system kept by a sales person that usually sat on the sales person’s desk or alongside them in the car.  These client cards sets were very valuable to the sales person as this is where they kept important customer information such customer contact details, key contacts in the company, a running commentary on their activities, personal and product preferences, buying patterns, business connections and so forth.  Each card was a dossier on each client.  To successful, well managed sales people, their client cards were gold.

However, often times, this vital data resided with the sales person alone. The company, the sales person worked for, did not have ready access to this important information and when the sales person left the company more often than not so did the client information, client relationship and sales did as well.

The ‘softwarising’ of CRM for businesses is seen as a major breakthrough in being able to capture important client information and better manage client relationships.  CRM promises faster customer service at lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, better customer retention and ultimately customer loyalty and more sales.  However many companies still believe that CRM is simply software, or technology and the full benefits of CRM are not being fully realised by business.  CRM is much more than just a data-mining tool.

CRM is not (just) technology.

CRM is a business strategy!

Your CRM has the potential to and should be your corporate memory.  It can be the  archeological record of your business.  In fact, if introduced and applied correctly, one of the most significant benefits of having and using a CRM in your business is being able to fully realise and map the true value of your clients as company assets.  Besides the obvious benefits to you and your business, if ever you chose to sell your business, having a CRM with all this valuable information tracked and mapped can be valued and sold for premium.

This trail of information becomes a real asset in itself. A potential buyer can see your business in real client terms and understand the value of the client relationships to the business.  Therefore instead of the wisdom and knowledge going out the door with the previous owner it can be captured and retained with the new owners to be further cultivated and developed.

NB: Not  all data is good data. You must make sure you have the right information in place.  Too many CRM’s are filled with rubbish data and the wrong stuff making them a liability not an asset.

As a CEO, you can’t make the right decisions if you don’t have the right data/information foundations in place.  If you are going to get the best benefits from a CRM strategy and CRM tools you need to know how to you are going to align your key business objectives between your clients, sales people, suppliers and the rest of your business so every piece of relevant information and action adds value to the client fulfillment process.

The interconnectedness of clients to your business can begin to be truly mapped and you will then see how everyone in your business can affect the retention and growth of your clients, not just your sales people.

According to Mark Parker, MD of www.SmartSelling.com and expert in CRM’s and Customer Systems:

“Sales reps often represent the “face” of your company. In order for them to do their part in driving outstanding sales results, they should be empowered to put their best foot forward when representing their company. To do this, a Sales Automation or CRM needs to be in tune with their needs.  Putting their best foot forward is going to mean many things.“

Further to this I would like to add that a CRM should also be in tune with your customers needs helping them have the best experience they can have with you.

What does an effective CRM system look like?

An effective CRM system should be what your strategy needs and wants it to be.  These days you can get access to open source CRM software where you can configure what you want in your CRM so you do not have to be tied to proprietary CRM’s that cannot be customised to your needs.  Also CRM’s do not have to be prohibitively expensive either. Many people have put off getting CRM’s in the past due to their high cost and focus on big corporations.  But now good CRM’s systems are available for SME’s and home based businesses at very cost effective rates.  For instance we use SugarCRM at Barrett which is an open source system we can configure to suit our business needs.
This means you need to think carefully about what you want your CRM system to do and be and who you partner with to make it work for you.
A good place to start is to:

Know your business  strategy and key outcomes you want to achieve and work backwards from there. Know your customer, their needs, wants and motives and your path to market Appreciate the length, width and depth of the relationships between the customer and your organisation Understand how you properly manage of all interactions with your customer Know what your sales and service people need to do make sales happen in your business. Aim to build a business system that manages prospects, clients and projects.

Look at what data, behaviours, and outcomes you want to track:

Client data, sales person activity data, product sales data, effectiveness of marketing initiatives including your website, direct mail/email campaigns, etc. What behaviours do you want to encourage and reinforce in your sales and service teams as well as your clients and prospects? What do you want to measure by way of lead and lag sales indicators? How do you want to communicate data internally and externally?

Important point: you do not want you CRM to turn your salespeople into glorified desk jockeys.  We need to make sure any CRM is easy to use, doesn’t take necessary time away from vital interpersonal sales activities.  If you think your CRM can replace your sales team you will fall short in your efforts.  If your business needs to be in personal contact in some way with your clients you need your CRM to enhance these relationships not replace them.
Here are some ways a CRM system can serve you well:

Provide immediate insight into prospect and customer leads originating from any channel Provide deep visibility into the sales pipeline and opportunity details which quickly produce accurate sales forecasts. Allow for a consistent, informed, and personalised customer communication approach i.e.  automated emails relevant to the specific customers Give sales people and everyone in your business access to a consolidated view of the customer across your organisation – this will allow everyone in the organisation to know how they can help play their part in taking control of every opportunity and managing it to a successful conclusion Encourage, enforce and track best-practice sales methodologies you want in your sales  teams i.e. logging of Lead Indicator Activities such as: # of prospecting calls made, # of client meetings had; # of real deals in the pipeline, # of sales made: # of cross sales made, # of sales made with new clients, # of sales made with existing clients, # of follow customer service enquiries, # of service calls, etc. Encourage, enforce and track best-practice service methodologies you want in your customer service and support teams i.e. logging of Lead and Lag Indicator Activities such as # of follow customer service calls made post sales, # of service calls made, # of customer service calls and complaints received, etc. Monitor and map effectiveness of have automated sales and marketing activities that are specific to the customers and markets Steamline and automate those customer activities that can go online i.e. confirmation emails, automatic emails sent out at periodic intervals for things like renewals for instance Map work in progress with clients and staff allocated to client projects Have the ability to integrate with your website and keep track of web activity Support your entire frontline sales and sales lead management team with the right information they need to quickly and efficiently fulfill all of their daily requirements. Deliver knowledge at the point of action Keeps vital customer data in the business whether the sales person stays of leaves thus creating a valuable company asset.

Word of caution: Before you even think about integrating Twitter or Facebook into your data mix and CRM, which is a hot topic at the moment, make sure your current data is clean and relevant because if it is not then you will be piling more garbage on an already big garbage heap and there’s no value in that.

Remember CRM systems are tools that should support, enhance and grow the customer relationship by giving your sales team and others in your business access to vital information they can act upon with purpose and in the easiest manner possible.

A CRM should not be an imposition on anyone, a CRM should be a part of your vision to continually improving the relationships with your customer, your sales team and everyone in your business.

CRM is a strategy and way of life not a piece of technology.

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So for the past 15 years you have been managing your inventory through paper and pen, and for the last 2 years you have moved to an Excel spread sheet to do the same job. Now you are ready for a full blown CRM solution that can update your inventory instantaneously to your website, and get instant traffic and sales calls. But you are not sure which CRM solution to go with? If you have thought about this transition, you have probably realized you have out grown your spread sheet. Now you are ready for more, more than just recording the year, make and model of your inventory, more than just selling price and how many days this car has been in stock. Generally speaking if you have more than 3 sales people employed for your company, you should have some kind of customer relationship management software specifically build for the automotive industry to help you run your business. Why? Because you can track their sales performances, inventory turn over ratio, tracking 1-800 phone calls, and above all effectively manage your inventory that is tightly integrated with your web site.

After been in the automotive industry for the past 8 years I have encountered many so called total CRM solution for your dealership. They usually consists of some poorly developed web site or portal where all of your transactions are based on the page refresh, and it is surprising even with these CRM solutions in place a dealership still relies on the old spread sheet to keep their inventory up to date. What that translates to me is inadequate system support where used car manager still feels the need to have their “holy bible” of used car inventory separately from their CRM system. And the CRM system is incapable of producing a real live inventory that can be accurately captured and delivered to the sales floor. If you are currently running on a system where you need to rely on external source to keep your inventories up to date then you are certainly using the wrong CRM software.

Many of today’s CRM solutions are proprietary technology where they refuse to integrate or work with other systems. For example does your CRM solution export your inventory with ease to Microsoft Excel if that is your preferred method of reproducing your inventory list? Can your currently CRM solution export your sales performance report to a spread sheet so it can be easily emailed to your superior? In another word when you finally settle on the right CRM solution for your dealership, make sure it is flexible and compatible with other existing technologies. Because after all your CRM solutions suppose to help you run your business more effectively not to create more technological obstacles in your path.

Thank you for reading this article it is brought to you by Dealer Elite CRM, for your affordable CRM and DMS solutions please visit us online at http://www.dealertemplate.ca or http://www.dealerelites.com

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What is ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning

What is ERP is a widely spread question when it comes to business. Basically, this is a system for integration of business management and modern technology. This system has the ability to integrate with the core business processes to a specific business and to accomplish specific business objectives. In other words ERP is a wonderful mixture of Business Management Practices, Specific Business Objectives and Information Technology.

On an universal platform there are two operating processes – one, which acquires information from the selected applications and one, which supplies information to these applications- this is consists the core of ERP.

The large business organisations often keep their information on many different servers,  kept in different functional units. These types of info islands may service one functional unit, but it is useless in enterprising wide performance, speed and efficiency.

The term ERP was originally created to describe the way in which a large organisation planned to use its resources. These systems were used mainly in industrial types of companies. However, today this term can be applied to any type of company, no matter of its kind or magnitude.

Today`s ERP software can enterprise many functions and integrate them in a single database. These functions can be Human Resources, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Finance, Manufacturing, Warehouse Management and Logistics. Previously these functions were supported by separate software for each of them, which was e prerequisite for mistakes and slowness, but today is different – they can be united under the ERP Systems.

If a system can provide the business with a range of functionalities and features like widespread, finest business processes, flexibility, modularity & openness, this software system is considered ERP.

ERP Systems are one of the best business solutions for every  company type

Microsoft CRM | ERP Solutions | London

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Double entry bookkeeping is an accounting technique to record the financial transactions of a business where every transaction is entered twice, equal and opposite transactions. Double entry is required for all businesses that must produce both a profit and loss account and a balance sheet.

All limited companies are required to produce a statement of assets and liabilities and maintain a system of financial control and invariably need to adopt a system of double entry bookkeeping usually using an accounting software package.

The same rules may not necessarily to self employed business that does not require to produce both a profit and loss account and a statement of assets and liabilities as the final product of the financial accounting. In the UK a balance sheet is an optional requirement of self employed business.

There are advantages and disadvantages in preparing financial accounts using self employed bookkeeping. The main advantage being the simplicity with which accounts can be produced requiring a much lower knowledge of accounting systems. The main disadvantage of single entry bookkeeping is the absence of financial control due to limited detailed records of asset and liability accounts.

Preparing accounts using single entry bookkeeping involves recording the prime financial transactions once rather than twice. Prime financial records include sales income, purchase expenses and cash or bank transactions.

As the accounts do not require to produce a trial balance and balance sheet then when using self employed bookkeeping recording cash and bank transactions is not strictly necessary but highly recommended to provide additional financial control. While cash and bank transactions are movements of assets or liabilities and not part of the income and expenditure account accurate cash and bank records are useful since cash flow is a highly critical area for small business.

In the absence of a double entry bookkeeping system the small business has less control over the debits and credits of the business. That being the amounts owed for sales invoices from customers who are called debtors and the amount owed by the small business to suppliers who have supplied goods and services on credit and are called creditors.

What is required from commercially available single entry bookkeeping software is not just an accounts package that produces the profit and loss account but also has additional facilities to assist financial management and control of the business by providing optional areas for cash, bank, debtors and creditor accounts to be maintained.

Mismanagement of small business finances is a major area which can drive a small business into liquidation and bankruptcy. The first lesson an accountant might learn when studying accounting and financial control is that the business must always have sufficient cash or availability to cash resources to trade the next day. Bank records and maintaining a positive cash flow is important as without liquidity the business cannot trade..

In a similar vein control over debts owed to the company and owed by the company is also important for the smooth operation of a small business. Bad debts from clients can cripple a small business in fact high levels of bad debts can cripple any size of business as evidenced in recent times with the so called credit crunch. Lack of control over unpaid purchase invoices to creditors can result in serious disruption and higher costs since suppliers stop supplies and may charge recovery costs and relentlessly chase up the debs taking up valuable time.

The conclusion then is while single entry bookkeeping is a viable option anyone who adopts a self employed style of bookkeeping to simply produce a profit and loss account, or income and expenditure account should also have supplemental systems to control assets and liabilities. Bookkeeping software can produce a solution by adding additional financial control.

The advantage of using a single entry bookkeeping system involves the simplest form of keeping records of financial transactions. Essentially the small business makes two lists, one of income received and one of expenses incurred. Using single entry might involve virtual zero accounting or bookkeeping knowledge.

When recording the financial transactions in the two lists of income and expenditure a small amount of extra detail can have magnificent effects on the quality of records produced by grouping together items of a similar nature.

When entering sales invoices or income received to produce the sales turnover total a small amount of analysis can save much time and produce a more sophisticated result. For example the sales can be listed in one column to produce the overall sales turnover but also analysed to a small number of additional columns in which could be entered different types of sales income.

The additional columns might be for different types of product or sales from different sales channels, sources, or perhaps used to separate out interest received if tax differently to business sales income. Some analysis of purchases is usually essential as only the tiniest business would get away with lumping all purchases together as one total.

Single entry bookkeeping would involve making a list of all purchase invoices for goods and services. The analysis of those purchases then achieved by listing each invoice again in an analysis column according to the type of expense incurred. Bookkeeping software should include a simple expenditure analysis.

Having produced the list of sales and the list of expenses all the information is then available to produce an income and expenditure account. Enter the totals from the single entry bookkeeping sheets on a separate sheet with sales income at the top, a list of expenses under each purchase expenditure category. Take the total expenditure from the total sales and the result is the net taxable profit. Bookkeeping software should automate this process.

The financial accounts based upon a single entry bookkeeping are complete and a net taxable profit produced for the tax authority.

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