Proactively addressing potential issues in your business can prevent future problems, and inventory is especially important, as it is your biggest asset and represents a significant investment of company cash. 
First, what is inventory? Inventory is your … stuff. The stuff you have to make things, the stuff you sell, the stuff you use to run the office – basically, all the things that you use in your business to generate revenue.
Here are two tools to evaluate efficient inventory management.
Topics: inventory management, inventory, john shepperson, oates co, tools, turnover rate, obsolescence, purchasing policies
When you first launched your small business, almost all of your focus was on increasing the turnover of your current assets. You had a product and you wanted to sell it. Now, as your business has begun to grow, you find yourself making long-term investments in fixed assets. Making value determinations on these fixed assets can be much more complicated than valuing your current assets.
Topics: oates, Sage, fixed assets, sage fas, john shepperson, oates co, small business
Small and medium sized businesses often find themselves in the unfortunate position of needing a small, simple enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution but only finding large, complicated options. For a long time the only real choices in this situation were to go without an ERP solution and continue to deal with frustrating inefficiencies or buy into a way bigger solution than was needed.
Topics: ERP, Sage, sage erp x3, efficiency, integration, X3, john shepperson, oates co, quickbooks versus sage erp x3, customizable
Whether you are a small or a large enterprise, fixed asset accounting is an unusually complex task, always seeming to take more time and dedication than you actually feel it deserves. Inaccuracies and misinterpretations of rules can cause errors that can compound over time, affecting both financial reporting and tax planning. A good comprehensive asset software will lighten the work load and accommodate the unique situations arising in individual companies.
Topics: fixed assets, john shepperson, oates co, asset valuation, easy to use, fixed assets tracking, comprehensive software, ease of use
Software developers are one of a technology company's greatest assets, but it's easy to waste their potential. Mistakes in project management, complicated revenue tracking, and problem clients can waste developers' time and resources. Here are three tips on how to get the most out of your developers' time and effort:
Topics: technology, john shepperson, oates co, software developers, project tracking, deadlines, feature creep, man hours, deliverables, time tracking
Have you heard great things about Sage’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system known as Sage ERP X3? Are you in the market for a new ERP system? At Oates & Company, we strongly suggest using Sage ERP X3 for its superior capabilities and its potential to make your processes more efficient, make your employees’ jobs easier, and improve your bottom line.
How? By serving repetitive make-to-stock, make-to-order, and process modes of manufacturing. It offers tools like dashboards, alerts, and workflows – all of which can be personalized, customized, and automated. And because Sage ERP X3 stores all of your data in one central database, it offers a clear view of business transactions for every department as well as real-time data updating.
Topics: ERP, Sage, sage erp x3, enterprise resource planning, X3, john shepperson, oates co, reviews
Social media is the new way to build a following in the community. The beauty of social media – and the internet, of course – is that now your “community” can be worldwide. No longer are you relegated to local customers attracted with yellow pages ads, billboards, magazine spreads, and TV commercials. The number of social media platforms available is large: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the most well-known, but there is also Instagram, Pinterest, Yelp, and many others. If you aren’t using at least one of these forms of social media, you’re missing out on valuable business opportunities.
Before you start blogging, tweeting, and post to Facebook, however, make sure you’ve done the basic foundational work that is necessary to ensure your social media success.
Topics: Blog Posting, customers, john shepperson, oates co, twitter, facebook, pinterest, instagram, social media, prospects, community
Small businesses face big odds, but despite the risk, many determined entrepreneurs take the plunge to go into business for themselves. If you are considering starting your own business, you are going to want to avoid common pitfalls and make sure you are as prepared as you can be to succeed in this tough environment.
Topics: Sage, customer relationship management, billing, enterprise resource planning, inventory, john shepperson, oates co, human resources management, payments, tools, new business
Even though the goal of your business is expansion, big upsurge in your growth can land you in some situations that you’re not quite prepared to deal with right away, especially if the influx of growth catches you off guard.
The good news is these growing pains can be managed with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that will make your small business thrive – and be prepared to deal with more and more growth and you become more and more successful.
Topics: oates, automation, billing, software, inventory management, inventory, Sage 100, Sage 100 ERP, john shepperson, oates co, manufacturing, payments
As we like to say, our current economy certainly doesn’t make it easy for small businesses to survive out there. Despite the fact that you’re well aware of this, however, there might still be mistakes that you’re making in your business model that could eventually end up costing you “big time” down the road.
Are you making these mistakes?
Topics: oates, marketing, john shepperson, oates co, consumer, marketing campaign, economy, mistakes, mass merchandiser, customer loyalty
