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Is Your Company Outgrowing QuickBooks?

November 1, 2022 Christine Wells
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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!

Increase Production Visibility

June 1, 2022 Christine Wells
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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!

Budgets and Forecasts

April 6, 2022 Christine Wells
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Spire Updates

How Traceability Can Support Canadian Manufacturers

February 24, 2022 Christine Wells
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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!

Spire Update: 3.8

February 23, 2022 Christine Wells
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Spire Updates

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

February 7, 2022 Christine Wells
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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
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Software

<Video Tutorial>

How to create a customer in Spire.

December 1, 2020 Christine Wells
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Spire Updates

<Video Tutorial>

Close more Sales with Spire.

August 17, 2020 Christine Wells
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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!

Protecting your small business from fraud

May 15, 2018 Christine Wells
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IT

For many small business owners, fraud has become an increasingly important issue, from both a risk management and legal perspective. By failing to take the right steps to secure your business from both internal and external threats, small business owners could be exposing themselves to both financial and legal risk.

Internal Threats

Although it can be hard to imagine, there are plenty of ways that your own employees can commit fraud without you even realizing it. One of the most popular ways is by padding employee expense reports. A lack of receipts accompanying an expense report could be a red flag that costs have been artificially inflated, with employees pocketing the difference between the real costs and the reported costs. As a result, be sure to put into place a way to monitor employee expense reports.

The same logic applies to vendor invoices. Business fraud experts warn that some employees may collude with vendors to submit falsified invoices in the hopes of splitting any profits from paid invoices. And some employees might take this type of fraud a step further by completely making up a “false vendor” and making sure that any vendor payments go to bank accounts that they control.

It is important to set apart your employee’s duties.  As an example, the person responsible for collecting cash, should not also be responsible for reconciling the receipts.  As a business owner, your accounting software should make it easy for you to spot check your accounting processes.  Spire allows you to do this by running a quick report, or by instantly viewing your entire GL at a glance.

External Threats

With the fastest-growing type of external threat being ransomware, it is important to secure your IT infrastructure. In the classic ransomware attack, an email sent to employees at your business will encourage them to open up an attachment or click on a malicious link. Once the link is opened, malware will get installed on the computer and spread to the network and the company will receive a ransom letter demanding that a payment be made or the data will be deleted forever.

Many of the most common fraud threats can be avoided with these steps:

  1. To prevent phishing attacks, employees should be told to check the source of incoming emails to make sure they are legitimate. That’s because many hackers try to “spoof” the name or identity of a legitimate business in order to get people to open their emails.
  2. Make sure all of your computers are up to date with the latest version of the operating software.
  3. Use reliable antivirus products
  4. Make sure all passwords are at least 15 characters using numbers, upper and lower case letters and symbols.
  5. Clear internet temp files on a regular basis.
  6. If you are connecting through an RDP connection, make sure it is through a gateway.

Despite all precautions, nothing is guaranteed.  It is best to be prepared by having automated backup in place so that you can essentially “reboot” your system from data stored in a third-party location.

If you have been an unfortunate victim of fraud, it needs to be reported.  To find out how, please visit the Canadian Office of Consumer Affairs.  For help in recovering your data, the Tri Tech service department can do their best to assist you.