Small business Software Ecosystem

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January 01, 2020

by a searcher from University of Virginia-McIntire - McIntire School of Commerce in New York, NY, USA

Closing on a small business and looking for suggestions to bring systems up to the 21st century that mesh with one another but not redundant. Primary areas are as follows:

Accounting - quickbooks?
HR / Payroll / Benefits - Zenefits? Gusto? ADP?
Customer Management - Salesforce?
Logistics - Pacejet?
Outsourced book keeping or cash management tools for fraud prevention

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Reply by a searcher
from University of Dallas in Houston, TX, USA
1) QB / Xero / Freshbooks should all be appropriate options - we use QB for 3 entities. Matter of preference really.

2) Payroll / Benefits / HR
Avoid gusto and get a local CPA firm that makes use of intuit's software or some other large providers suite and charges the same rate. If they are reasonably organized the cost and quality should be lower cost and BETTER service than gusto / ADP for your business. We used gusto and it was a nightmare. They've grown too fast to maintain quality - so we fired them. Huge issues with them around benefits and tax filings. Service should be better with a modest sized CPA business that is established - they will also understand your particular tax situation much better than gusto esp if you are multi entity like we are.

3) Customer management - we used salesforce but ended our contract. Use www.tryoncourse.com - has all the CRM / sales automation / phone dialer / email automation / sms automation / document management built in and they are churning out a ton of new features in 2020.

3) No idea

4) Cash management - you should simply have your bank setup automation and limits for moving money into and out of accounts (1) to avoid fees and (2) you can set rules on withdrawal so people cant write themselves blank checks - all checks over a certain amount require approval etc. Your job should be managing the books. Have your accountant / book keeper automatically generate reports for you to look at cash and expenses daily. Your eyes are the best ones to prevent fraud / issues.
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Reply by a professional
from Temple University in New York, NY, USA
Bringing your operational and financial software up to date is extremely important. I would also advise getting a clear baseline of your current IT assets and security posture should be a prerequisite. Small businesses are also in jeopardy of unlicensed software fines to the tune of $150,000 per incident. My firm, Strategic Generation, supports searchers with IT audits and technology roadmap alignment to your business goals. We act as your outsourced CTO. Let’s schedule a chat: redacted | https://www.linkedin.com/in/nnamdiosuagwu/
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