604-534-4790

Is Your Company Outgrowing QuickBooks?

November 1, 2022 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

Technology has helped to transform the world around us, supporting businesses in becoming more streamlined and efficient. When it comes to accounting, QuickBooks by Intuit has been one of the most popular software providers for startups and small businesses.

However, while this has helped thousands of organizations to transform their accounting, many find that QuickBooks does have its limitations, primarily the lack of flexibility and scalability to continue to meet the demands of a growing business.

What is a growing business?

When you hear the term ‘growing business,’ the first things that will likely spring to mind are rising profits or an expanding team. However, that is not always the case. Business growth could mean adapting the services and products on offer to meet the ever-changing demands of the modern consumer. It could also mean purchasing new equipment or working to ensure your organization meets new regulatory compliance.

Whatever it might be, growth means change, and while QuickBooks has helped countless small and medium-sized businesses, they can quickly run into various limitations as the basic features no longer meet their requirements. When this happens, it forces these businesses to make the switch to a more comprehensive business management and accounting solution.

Signs you might be outgrowing QuickBooks

If your business is changing and expanding, then you might start to notice signs that your current business management solutions are no longer working as effectively as they once were. There are many signs to look out for which indicate that your operations might have outgrown the capabilities that QuickBooks provide, including:

  • Finding that you have to manually enter an increasing amount of data into your systems.
  • Noticing that you are managing more of your inventory outside of QuickBooks on spreadsheets or via add-ons.
  • Paying for multiple systems or solutions to manage everything.
  • Regularly needing to transfer information from one application or system to another in order to stay up to date.
  • No longer having the flexibility to manage your inventory across your warehouses or easily update things such as prices or inventory counts.
  • Not being able to customize your quotes or manage shipments and backorders as well.

Time for the next step?

If you are finding yourself agreeing with any of the above points, then it is time to start thinking about taking the next step to ensure your business can continue operating as efficiently as possible. While QuickBooks is a fantastic tool, Spire can be the perfect solution for organizations needing greater control over their finances.

Spire is a unique business management tool that has been designed to provide you with the power of ERP software without the hefty price tag. The fully integrated software ensures you do not need to worry about any additional apps or add-ons; instead, your team can focus on a seamless solution for managing your entire operation. The unique conversion tool even lets you quickly migrate your current QuickBooks Desktop information over!

Want to find out more about the Spire system? Get in touch with our friendly team today for your free discovery call!

Spire Feature: Add to Order

September 22, 2022 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

Increase your sales by adding this process to all of your sales calls.

Increase Production Visibility

June 1, 2022 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

Does your business operate within the manufacturing sector? In recent years, the industry has experienced rapid growth, with 2021 seeing global production increase by 9.4% to record highs across the world. However, this increase in demand is also seeing a significant increase in pressure for companies.

Consumers are now expecting high-quality products in the quickest time possible. This means manufacturers are having to maximize efficiency and quality while keeping costs down and improving profit margins.

Here at TriTech, we know how challenging this can be, which is why Spire’s Production Manager has been created to help you meet these demands. How can it help you, though? We thought we would take a closer look.

How Spire can help you

TriTech’s mission has always been to provide the most innovative business management software for our clients. For manufacturing companies, Spire systems can support you in an array of sectors, including:

Simplify your planning

One of the biggest challenges that manufacturers face is accurate production planning. Our unique system can help you to streamline your production through automation and accurately schedule any processes. This ensures that you are able to reduce your lead times and have complete peace of mind that your deliveries will be on time. Spire Production Manager is also able to be quickly adapted, offering custom production as required.

Control your inventory

Being able to understand your current inventory is essential for any successful manufacturing company. However, as you grow and demand increases, it becomes far more challenging to keep on top of this. Spire will help you to accurately track your inventory, allowing you to implement reorder points from sales and production.

Integrated accounting

Of course, it is not just about trying to better manage your inventory. Spire can help you with every aspect of your manufacturing business, including accounting. This is often one of the most time-consuming areas for any small and medium-sized business, which is why we offer complete integration with AP, AR, GL, and Account Reconciliation modules. This will help you to speed up the process, maximizing your efficiency.

Alongside this integration, we can also support you with an array of comprehensive information, including giving you complete access to your vendor history and information, ensuring your team always knows what is happening. To help ensure the smoothest process possible, you can also add purchase orders and sales to each specific job.

Improve your costing

Incorporating our system into your business will allow you to accurately track all purchases and labour costs alongside the raw materials you need. This will help you to accurately cost your manufacturing, helping you to increase your profitability. Our system will also allow you to create more accurate scrap and yield factors, ensuring you can enjoy higher profit margins.

Comprehensive insight

Finally, our Spire will provide you with comprehensive insight that will allow you to make better business decisions. You will be able to increase your production visibility, ensuring you can make far quicker decisions.

Alongside our real-time information, we also provide in-depth reporting tools allowing you to accurately monitor all key indicators.

Want to find out more?

Are you looking to find out more about Spire and our unique solutions? We have decades of combined experience in implementing powerful business management software for small and mid-sized businesses, ensuring we can always find the perfect solution for you.

We aim to provide you with the necessary tools to take your business to the next level, so get in touch today to find out more! Start your free trial today!

How Traceability Can Support Canadian Manufacturers

February 24, 2022 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

In this fast-paced world, technology is continuously transforming how businesses operate. For manufacturers, it is not only helping to improve efficiency and maximize productivity but also enhances traceability.

How is technology improving traceability?

In the highly competitive world of manufacturing, organizations are under increasing pressure to keep up with the demands of consumers. Improved traceability is helping them to manage quality, identify areas of inefficiency, and reduce the risk of recalls.

Tracing is essential in helping manufacturers prevent contamination and ensure that materials are exactly what they claim to be. In certain sectors, such as pharmaceuticals and food and drink, traceability is also a legal requirement.

Investing in traceability software can help provide a wide range of benefits, including:

  • Supporting to meet all regulatory compliance
  • Help with product recalls
  • Improve efficiency
  • Provide insight to improve decision-making
  • Monitor stock and material levels
  • Build stronger relationships with suppliers

How Spire can help you

Here at TriTech, we know how important tracking software and traceability are to your manufacturing business. That is why we are a proud reseller of a comprehensive software called Spire that is designed to help you transform your operations.

If you are struggling with quickly checking product information, are still manually checking inventory, or cannot track products from the manufacturer to customer, then we are here to help you. Spire’s Lot Tracing will help to give your business the edge over your competitors, helping you to:

  • Make recalls quick and efficiently
  • Comprehensively track product information, ensuring expiry dates are no longer a concern
  • Improve your communication with both suppliers and customers
  • Boost your productivity by removing manual batch tracking
  • Save time, effort and money.

Want to find out more about our inventory management and lot tracking software? Check out our service page or sign up for your free demo today!

The Top Three Pains That Your Current Accounting Software Is Causing Your Business

February 7, 2022 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

There can be no denying that technology has transformed the world we live in. From effortlessly communicating with clients to automating time-consuming tasks, businesses have never been more efficient. However, when it comes to accounting software, certain options on the market are still lacking in certain areas.

Three of the most common pain points that finance teams find include:

Tracking inventory

One of the most common areas that frustrate businesses is the inability to clearly track their inventory. Accounting software often lacks the ability to clearly record serial numbers, lot number tracking and knowing when you need to reorder more inventory. A very common issue that arises with businesses looking for new software, is the cost of over-stocking warehouses with inventory they do not need.

Real-time data

While technology has helped to automate many aspects of our work, a lack of real-time and up-to-date data can be a major pain point when it comes to finding the right accounting software for your business.

User accountability and permissions

In this fast-paced world, teams are often changing, and remote working is only serving to make things more challenging. A lack of ability to assign permissions or track accountability will only make things more complex.

Solution

At TriTech, we know how frustrating these software pains can be. That is why we are a proud reseller of Spire; a unique software designed to help you transform your operations. The business management and accounting software is every controller’s dream.  It automates accounting processes with greater accuracy and efficiency, tracking your business performance in real-time so you can always see the latest information at the touch of a button.

Spire also gives complete control of your inventory, helping you to have a clear overview. You will have the ability to:

  1. See how much inventory is in stock at any given time.
  2. Create automated purchase orders from within your reorder points.
  3. Track a lot number or serial number within seconds.

With this information, you can cut costs and improve your profit margins and always be informed on how your business is running. Alongside supporting you with increasing your profits, Spire also offers complete accountability for users and differing permissions, helping you to eliminate manual workflows and bring in new employees with ease.

Don’t have the infrastructure to run a full accounting system? Ask us about the option to host your Spire data on the cloud.

Watch this video on how lot tracing works in Spire:

Want to find out more? Get in touch today!

How to Manage Accounts Receivable with Spire

December 14, 2020 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

<Video Tutorial>

Business Accounting Software Can Help Boost Your Profit Margin Like Never Before. Learn How!

October 28, 2020 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

According to Statista reports, nearly 64.4% of the business owners use accounting software to boost their profit margins. With an ever-increasing number of businesses harnessing the power of accounting software for various purposes, the global business accounting software industry has been predicted to grow rapidly by $1.64 billion between 2020 and 2024.

Dozens of factors, both internal and external, can impact a business’s net profit margin, out of which some of them may be completely out of your control. But that doesn’t imply that business owners should sit back and do nothing about it. There are many ways to make a difference; one of the most effective ways to increase net profit margin is by implementing a business accounting software like Spire. This will help you automate the accounting processes, optimize inventory levels, reduce shortages, improve operational efficiency and do so much more.

Some of the most common challenges that businesses who don’t use an accounting software face, are outdated management accounts, unused business reports, lack of real-time information on the profit margin, unrealistic decision-making, uncertainty on business financial conditions, and record-tracking problems.

In this article, we will be taking a look at how implementing a business accounting software, like Spire, can help you boost your profit margins.

6 Ways Business Accounting Software Can
Help Businesses Boost Your Profit Margins

Here’s a quick overview of what’s to come:

  • Understanding the Costs
  • Analyzing the Profit Margins
  • Controlling User Access and Capabilities
  • Monitoring Business’ Financial Health
  • Real-Time Reporting
  • Automating Special Offers & Promotions

Understanding the Costs

Businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on inventory, marketing, equipment and other day to day expenses. Everything they spend their money on is counted as a cost. The biggest problem businesses face is not being familiar with managing these costs in their accounting software. Do they use weighted cost, average cost, FIFO, LIFO, or something else entirely?

It is essential for your business to have a system in place for calculating costs in real-time. By using a business management software like Spire, where your inventory and costing is real-time, you can see where your costing is at with a touch of a button.

Analyzing the Profit Margin

How can business owners expect to boost their profit margins without being familiar with their actual gross profit margin?

This is where business accounting software comes into play. By implementing accounting software, businesses can determine the gross profit margin on each and every one of their products and services at any given time. They can also analyze their gross margins over various product categories, business divisions, customer categories, etc.

This helps businesses identify which inventory items are bringing in a loss in profit, and which products bring in the highest profit for their business.

Controlling User Access and Capabilities

Businesses with multiple sales personnel face a hard time monitoring every single sale they make for a given time period. Different people in the sales department play different roles with different levels of responsibilities. Hence, it is important to control what products or services they are selling and the discounts they are handing out. Most businesses can’t afford a new joinee handing out a 50% discount on a specific product or service. Hence, it is essential to control the percentage or amount of discount different people in your sales department can hand out depending on their responsibilities. 

For instance, businesses can allow senior sales operatives to hand out higher discount rates than the ones that can be offered by the junior ones. This can be done by controlling user access and capabilities by setting up user-based permissions giving authorization on pricing in a business accounting software like Spire.   

Monitor Business Financial Health

Monitoring the health of your business should always be at the top of your priority list. What if too much money is being spent on various expenses without having a good cash influx? Lack of monitoring is the biggest reason why business owners struggle to increase their profit margins.

With business accounting software running efficiently, you will be subject to detailed accounting at the touch of a button, helping you monitor your business’ financial health and learn whether your company is failing or succeeding.

Real-Time Reporting

Most business owners are forced to analyse outdated financial reports, because they received it either late or when they were burdened and struggled with their other business activities. That’s not how it should be. Instead, you should have access to all the reports they need at all times. By implementing Spire, you don’t have to wait until the end of a month to run your financial reports. These can be run at any time of any day, and you will have the real-time information available to you.

Not having access to these reports on time ultimately leads to you not being able to make accurate business decisions due to lack of information.

Highlighting Remarkable Offers & Promotions

People love discounts and remarkable offers and promotions. That’s the reason people end up buying most of their stuff during promotions and sales. For businesses who love running offers and promotions, they should note that even a little administration delay can have a major impact.

Your systems need to reflect your offers and pricing accurately and automatically. With the help of business accounting software like Spire, you can automatically control pricing and offers by adding in the offer start and end date, helping them make sure that there is no room for errors.

Conclusion

Business accounting software has been driving the way forward, helping businesses, especially the small and medium-scale ones, control their costs, increase their profits, and carry out various accounting-related activities with ease and accuracy.

Spire has been one of the most remarkable business accounting software programs of it’s time. Right from automating accounting processes to efficient sales management, Spire can turn out to be a game-changer for businesses just like yours.

So, what are you waiting for?

Upgrade your business TODAY!

Why Are BusinessVision Users Switching to Spire?

October 1, 2020 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

TriTech has supported Sage BusinessVision users for years, and back in its day, it was the most robust and reliable business management software. But, times have changed and so has TriTech. One of our core values at TriTech is to be progressive and to constantly enhance our knowledge to create or source better products and services. As an advocate for our clients, our goal is to provide the best options for their business needs. After many years of standing behind Sage BusinessVision, TriTech made the decision to become an authorized reseller of Spire accounting software. Keeping in mind that not everyone is ready to switch over at the same time, we still hold strong in supporting our clients who choose to keep on running Sage BusinessVision and BVEssentials.

Is Your Sage BusinessVision Going to Stop Working This Year?

If you are still using Sage BusinessVision and haven’t updated for a few years, you may be out of luck come December 31, 2020. Unless you are paying the annual software assurance to Sage, you will not be able to input data beyond December 31, 2020. Yes, you heard it alright. Sage BusinessVision will actually stop working! The only way to bypass this bug, is to pay Sage for the bug patch. Be sure to consider the consequences of investing into a software that hasn’t had new features added in years, or if it is better to invest in a platform that is moving forward with technology and customer demands.

Why Should You Choose Spire Software?

Easily Migrate to Spire Accounting Software

The majority of our clients are switching from Sage BusinessVision over to Spire software for a number of reasons, with one being a straight forward process of bringing your data over from Sage BusinessVision with the built-in migration tool. BusinessVision software users can convert virtually all of their BusinessVision data right into Spire, allowing you to keep your sales history, user setups, customer database etc.

Spire Has a User-Friendly Interface

The data in Spire is presented with a grid format. Not sure what we mean? Here is a screenshot of what the Sales Manager module looks like in Spire:

With the ability to see each column header at once, you can use filters to be selective on the data you see on your screen. For instance, if you are a bookkeeper and only want to see all of your orders that are ready to be invoiced, then you would select: Filter > Status > Shipped. This view shows you all shipped orders that are ready to be invoiced and can be sent by email directly from within Spire. Or, if you are the type of person who likes to study the data a bit more, you can click export, and analyze the data in Excel at your convenience. (Note: This is permission controlled, and can be done in any module, not just sales.)

The amount of information available is abundant, and may look like information overload to some.  However, you also have the ability to be selective on what columns you’d like to see, and it will remember that for you the next time you log in.

Email Directly From Spire

Emailing from your business management software seems like something that is so simple, but is also so powerful. Tired of printing invoices, and pasting them into an email to each individual customer? With Spire’s built in email function, you can highlight the list of invoices in the sales order list that you wish to send or run your monthly statements (or both together), and then email them directly from the accounts receivable module using a saved template with your message added automatically. It will send each customer their own statement with one click, so there is no need to send multiple emails out to each customer.

Multiple Windows

Each module can open a new window in Spire. This allows you to view multiple modules at the same time. You can have your customer on the phone, with their open sales order on one screen and the built in Spire calendar on the other screen to consult your calendar and book their order in the Spire calendar. This is an effective way to manage your sales and service department allowing you to supply your customers with reliable customer service at the touch of a button.

Integrated Modules

All of the modules in Spire accounting software are totally integrated. For example, if you are in Accounts Receivable and your client tells you that they are missing a copy of an invoice, you can access that invoice, and email it all from within the Accounts Receivable module without having to close it down and open sales history. Or, if you add a part number to a sales order and see that it is almost out of stock you can simply add it to a requisition within the sales order, and it will automatically add it to a purchase order the next time a requisition is posted.

How Does Spire Compare to Other Business Management Software?

While TriTech recommends Spire accounting software as a top contender to implement in your business, we understand and encourage our clients to always research what would be the best fit for their business needs. Here’s how Spire compares to Sage BusinessVision and Sage 300 (also known as ACCPAC).

Features Sage BusinessVision Sage 300 (ACCPAC) Spire
Core Account Modules
Inventory Management
Requisitions    
Lot Control  
Point of Sale (POS)  
Surcharge Calculations    
Payroll (Canadian)
Payroll Tax Updates
Advanced Searches and Filters    
Excel Import and Export  
Calendar      
Multi-Currency Optional add-on Optional add-on Included
Production Manager (Add-on)    

Service Manager (Add-on)    
Customizable Templates  
Data Conversion from BusinessVision Not applicable Master Files Only
Familiar Workflow to BV Not applicable  
No Additional Fees for extra companies on the same server Extra Fee per company
Monthly Subscription Plan
Developed with Modern Technology  

Is it time for you to upgrade your accounting software? Contact TriTech to download your free trial of Spire accounting software today.

Close more Sales with Spire.

August 17, 2020 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

One of the most effective tools found in Spire is the power of filters. If you aren’t using these yet, now is the time to start. Using Filters and User Defined Fields, you can create your own modified Sales Pipeline, giving you the opportunity to stay on top of your upcoming sales opportunities.

How to create a Sales Pipeline using Filters:

  • Open Sales Orders
  • Add a new User Defined tab to the Sales Orders with the following:
  • (see instructions here)
  • Once you are back into the Sales Module, click <Filters>
  • Choose “Type” =  Quote
  • Next, select columns you wish to see: (right click on a column header to choose)
    • Order No
    • Customer No
    • Customer Name
    • Customer Phone number
    • Order Date
    • Required Date (this can act as your projected closing date)
    • Total Ordered
    • User Defined file – Notes
    • User Defined File – Last Contacted
  • Click the down arrow beside <Filters> and then <Save Preset as…> and whether you want it to be just for yourself or for everyone in the company. Call it “Sales Pipeline” and check <Show in module list> and <Save column state>

Sort your column by required date, and see what sales are coming close to your projected sales date. By highlighting these customers and clicking Mail Merge you can remind them about your upcoming promotion that is about to end.

Export your filtered list to Excel and calculate how much you are expecting and when (remember we used the required date as a projection closing date).

There are endless ways of using the filters in Spire; this is just one!
Here are few more ideas to get you started:

  • Inventory requires ordering – Filter = ‘Suggested Qty” is not equal to 0
  • Inventory not sold in 2 years – _Filter = _“This Years Units” is 0 + “Last Years Units” is 0. Then set the “Match if” to All
  • AR over 120 days – Filter = “Over 120” is not 0
  • Sales Order with margin less than X – Filter = “GP %(Average) is less than X
  • Purchase orders received in full – _Filter – _ “Remaining Amount” is 0

For more information on Filters, contact us at support@tri-tech.com and we’ll be happy to help!

How to create email templates in Spire.

July 7, 2020 Christine Wells
0 Comment
Software

One of my favourite features of Spire is the ability to create email templates for various modules within Spire. The ease of creating something as simple as an email signature, or by creating a template that automatically adds the invoice number and contact name, is something that we definitely need during this time of contactless delivery and social distancing.

Watch this video, on how to create email templates in Spire and see how you can make your job more efficient by taking this simple step today.

If you still need some help, send us an email to support@tri-tech.com and we can help you get this setup right away!

1 2