<p><i> Article from www.jump.com: JumpUp is a free website and community from Intuit that helps new businesses get up and running successfully. Written by Betsy Dee, owner of a women’s apparel design/retail shop in San Francisco, CA. </i></p>
<p>In the first few months of my boutique’s operation, I thought it would be a good idea to handle my finances manually, so I could understand what, if anything, I would be automating with financial management software.</p>
<p>Puh-LEASE let me save you three months of agony and confusion and tell you that the sooner you get something like <a href="http://www.quickbooks.com/">QuickBooks</a> (and, in my case, <a href="http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/retail-pos-solutions/point-of-sale-software.jhtml">QuickBooks Point-Of-Sale</a>) software, the sooner you’ll have your sanity back. In fact, I would argue that you should get this stuff before you open the doors, while you still have time to figure it out and put it to work the right way.</p>
<p>Why? Because—especially when you’re not making money yet—you absolutely must know exactly where your money is coming from and where it is going, so you can position yourself to become profitable.</p>
<p>Sure, I had an idea of how I was doing (sort of) – but we small business owners are, by nature, optimists—so when my bank account wasn’t exactly showing a growth trend, I just figured I’d work a little harder and longer and all would be well. Turns out, the actual “what” I was doing was wrong. So doing more of it longer only made it more wrong.</p>
<p>With my accounting software, I discovered that my pricing was way off, my “star” salesperson actually wasn’t, my shrinkage was staggeringly higher than I’d thought, my inventory cycle was just plain dumb—and my telecommunications costs were a joke. (Sadly, that was only the tip of the iceberg.)</p>
<p>I can hear you: You’re saying you don’t need another job right now—and learning new software is work. But it’s work worth doing, and, aside from the benefits to your bottom line, it will save you innumerable hours:</p>
<ul>
<li>All your critical information will be organized and accessible in seconds<br /><br /></li>
<li>Your records will be complete (and accurate--hello) so tax time will be a LOT easier<br /><br /></li>
<li>You’ll make better business decisions because you’ll have the facts<br /><br /></li>
<li>When it comes to getting funding of any type, your lending institution will want those facts. All of‘em</li>
</ul>
<p>Heaven forbid you should ever be audited (yes, I was). With the right software, you'll be prepared for the scariest moment of your life.
<p>The fact is, small business owners are almost always underprepard to manage the financial aspect of their businesses. This isn't because we don't care, or don't want to know. It's because we're busy. So if I had it all to do over again, I'd say </p>
<p><b>A Note to Biznik members from Intuit:</b> If you are interested in starting to manage your finances using software, you can use a free version of our QuickBooks software, <a href="http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/free-accounting-software.jhtml?page=financial">QuickBooks Simple Start</a>. If you are farther along in your business and want to use QuickBooks Pro, we can provide you with a 20% off coupon for Biznik members. Just use the code P59634 on our <a href="http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/small-business-accounting-software.jhtml?lid=left_nav">website</a>by 7/31/08.</p>
</p>
2008-04-10T08:49:08Z
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hard-facts-about-financial-software
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2008-04-10T12:00:29Z
2008-04-10T12:00:29Z
<p>A Lesson Learned the Hard Way: The advantages of getting accounting software sooner than later.</p>
Hard Facts about Financial Software
0
2009-02-24T09:43:47Z