What can’t you live without? Your answer might be your smartphone, computer, car, or some other gadget. Of course, that’s being a bit facetious because you could survive without those things. But they make life easier and more comfortable, so there’s some truth to their being hard to give up. They’re all about familiarity, convenience, and maintaining a certain lifestyle. More basic things that you definitely require in order to live include oxygen, food, water, shelter, and rest.
What about when it comes to running a small business? What are some things your small business can’t live without? Employees, equipment, vehicles, and storage space all come to mind, but those are all obvious and rudimentary, like air or nutrition. There are other things that go beyond the simple to streamline and add value to a company’s operations. Smart technology has transformed how businesses operate. As a business grows and wants to find new ways to compete, it needs to think more digitally. We’re going to focus on three systems small businesses can’t live without:
- Accounting software
- Inventory management software
- CRM
Accounting Software
Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. You don’t pay your bills with profits, but with cash in hand. So it’s important to have accounting software that quickly generates invoices, allows for direct deposit into your bank accounts, and tracks which payments are due at specific times. You can also integrate your bank accounts together to give you a view of the big picture, as well as the individual pieces.
Whether you have an accountant or you do your finances yourself, you will find accounting software to be an invaluable tool. Pretty much every accounting solution is designed with laymen in mind, so you don’t have to worry about being overwhelmed by financial information. And now there are more options than ever with the arrival of Web-based solutions like QuickBooks Online and Xero. They can get you up and running, and keep you informed on where your money is coming from and going.
Inventory Management Software
There’s very little wiggle room when it comes to a company’s finances, so every little bit helps. That is why many small businesses are turning from Excel spreadsheets to inventory management software to help them make the most of their limited resources. Doing this helps them automate and improve a number of business processes. Rather than overstocking on some items and understocking others, they can run reports on past sales data to identify seasonal trends and adjust their ordering practices accordingly. If they have multiple warehouses, they can transfer items from one to another to make up for shortfalls and overages, and make sure they have the right inventory at each location.
Automatic reorder points allow warehouse managers to quickly see which items need to be restocked without having to do time-consuming walkthroughs and counts. They can either run a report or receive a text message or email with the items that have hit their lowest allowed quantity. Even cycle counts take less time with the help of a barcode scanner. Reducing the need for manual data entry helps to prevent typos and other discrepancies that produce unreliable inventory data.
CRM
You can’t take your customers for granted. And you can’t treat them as a monolithic entity because each one has a unique history with your company, as well as different tastes and needs. A customer relationship management (CRM) solution helps you make and record sales, stay connected to your customers, and cater to them with more responsive customer service.
A CRM lets many types of businesses save customers’ names, contact information, physical addresses, and purchase history for easy access by salespeople. You can also connect it to your ecommerce account(s) so that shortly after you receive a sale online, it will make its way into the CRM. If it’s from an existing customer, it will be added to their profile, and if it’s from a new customer, it will create a new profile for them. If you use Salesforce as your CRM, it can guide you through the process of developing FAQs so that your customers are able to find answers to their questions without having to contact your support staff directly. This saves your employees time and also improves the user experience for your customers because they are in control.
Conclusion
These three systems help you keep the financial, inventory, and customer service sides of your business working together. Depending on the inventory management software you choose, you may even be able to integrate all three of these solutions together through it. So when a sale is made by a salesperson, it gets recorded in the CRM, transferred to the inventory management software for order fulfillment, and then it also gets automatically sent to the accounting software to generate an invoice and be posted to the general ledger. That certainly makes life easier when it comes to running a business.