Business management software?

glitch · 21 Feb 2012 at 11:04

A non-technically-minded friend has asked me to look into a solution to aid his business, or more accurately sort out the bloody mess that he's got himself into with systems.

The business in question is a B2B wholesaler and currently resides somewhere around the Stone Age when it comes to the technology employed in running the operation.

At the moment they are using a very broken version of Sage to run the invoicing matters and process orders, but this has little or no information regarding stock levels, prices or anything else that would be useful - this information is technically seen as being 'variable' depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Consequently, they've got no idea what stock they've actually got to sell customers until the orders are recorded on Sage and printed off and sent down to the warehouse for picking. Stock isn't allocated, so the last few boxes of something might get promised to one customer and then taken by another, prices are all over the shop and any consideration for CRM is, er, not considered.

So far, so typical for a small business, eh?

What he's looking for is a solution that will manage the three main aspects of the business: Invoicing/Accounts, Inventory/Stock Control and Sales/E-Commerce.

Is there anything out there, which is both affordable and not too complicated for someone that's not particularly technically-minded, that will manage the three aspects of the business and, if possible, link them all together so they can share information easily?

Feel free to fire any and all questions at me to try and narrow down the options - I've probably missed out vital information somewhere in this little preamble.

Paul11 · 21 Feb 2012 at 13:18

i cannot recommend this enough.. I use it everyday and it really is the dogs bits and pieces

www.kashlfow.com

does everyone you want

and it lets you have multiple log ins so differen people can log in and use the same data

Participant · 21 Feb 2012 at 13:50

Paul11 said:
www.kashflow.com

Look at the video on the main page of that website...what's he doing at 2:08?

glitch · 21 Feb 2012 at 14:21

Paul11 said:
i cannot recommend this enough.. I use it everyday and it really is the dogs bits and pieces

My only concern, if that's the appropriate term, is that there seems to be rather a lot of functionality missing from the basic package.

As an example, if you want to connect Kashflow to an e-commerce site you have to use one of a number of third-party add-ons. The same goes if you want to link it up to some form of CRM module.

Is that generally the norm with these sorts of things, or am I being somewhat naive with how I think it ought to work out of the box?

sidethink · 21 Feb 2012 at 14:32

Various versions of Sage (and just about any other Financial Management suite) will do all of this. It sounds to me that technology wont be the answer on its own though. It really sounds like the business owner needs to change or improve on his methods/routines/processes and bolt on a better financial system on top.

He may need to consider bringing someone in to tidy up and document his processes and then consider getting his Sage setup properly to map to those processes. This doesnt have to be overkill but it sounds like someone needs to give him a nudge in the right direction.

glitch · 21 Feb 2012 at 14:51

sidethink said:
Various versions of Sage (and just about any other Financial Management suite) will do all of this. It sounds to me that technology wont be the answer on its own though. It really sounds like the business owner needs to change or improve on his methods/routines/processes and bolt on a better financial system on top.

Sage does seem to do most of the essential tasks but relies upon being kept updated, which is something that said MD doesn't seem particularly keen on doing - part of the reason that it currently doesn't accurately track inventory is that said MD gets stock delivered and doesn't tell anyone about it.

He's one of those people that considers calling one of his suppliers and having a load of stuff delivered without any paperwork is the same as raising a PO on the system, printing it off, allocating stock and receiving inventory once delivered.

sidethink said:
He may need to consider bringing someone in to tidy up and document his processes and then consider getting his Sage setup properly to map to those processes. This doesnt have to be overkill but it sounds like someone needs to give him a nudge in the right direction.

The ultimate solution would be to get rid of the MD and implement some sort of order amongst the general chaos that is the day-to-day running of this business. Alas, that's not going to happen.

Something that can be immediately done is find an easier, smarter and generally better way of running things so the staff can run the business without having to involve the MD too much.

I personally like the idea of something that is stored in the cloud and doesn't rely on a central server to be operational so the business can run - Kashflow seems to tick that particular box, but it also requires a fair few additional bits to be bolted on before it can do everything.

Paul11 · 21 Feb 2012 at 17:03

i dont see the issue with taking the basic kashflow functionality and bolting on extra bits that you need.

i dont think you will find any one solution that will everything you want in one "out of the box" package.

TigerUK · 21 Feb 2012 at 18:15

he needs sage training, sage has all the stuff in built. just needs to use it properly.

glitch · 22 Feb 2012 at 09:42

Paul11 said:
i dont see the issue with taking the basic kashflow functionality and bolting on extra bits that you need.

One immediate issue I can see with Kashflow is that it doesn't seem to handle large volumes of individual products with their own little intricacies.

I'm used to systems such as Sage where you can create products; assign prices, stock levels, product codes, weights, packs sizes, etc; and add those to your chosen invoice/order.

Kashflow doesn't seem to work like that, or at least as far as I can see.

Paul11 said:
i dont think you will find any one solution that will everything you want in one "out of the box" package.

Bugger.

TigerUK said:
he needs sage training, sage has all the stuff in built. just needs to use it properly.

The MD needs dragging out into the street and shooting, but that's not going to happen. He'll go bankrupt long before that if things go as they currently are!

Mark M · 22 Feb 2012 at 14:01

At the higher up range of the budget you have BrightPearl. Fantastic bit of kit and Ive implemented it into small businesses which has saved them having to employ an admin/bookkeeper.

Stay clear of Sage, if it isnt kept bang up to date by someone with a decent knowledge of the system you will end up in a worse mess.

Xero and Vend HQ might be worth a look at too.

glitch · 22 Feb 2012 at 17:05

Mark M said:
At the higher up range of the budget you have BrightPearl. Fantastic bit of kit and Ive implemented it into small businesses which has saved them having to employ an admin/bookkeeper.

Now that looks like the business - on paper it seems to do everything you'd want it to.

Naturally I'm suspicious of such an ideal solution; are there any glaring issues with Brightpearl or would you give it an unequivocal thumbs up?

Mark M · 22 Feb 2012 at 17:28

Its brilliant mate, have a look through some of the companies that use it and its speaks for itself. API from eccomerce and Ebay works a treat too.

As I said though its not cheap but all the companies I have put it into end up thinking its a small price to pay what it does.

Set up a free 30 day trial and have a play around with it and speak to them if you are unsure on anything as they are incredibly helpfull.

Matt_Hirst · 22 Feb 2012 at 20:18

I think, your problem is the MD, it doesn't matter what system is implemented, if people don't work how they are supposed to with orderring and booking in then you are throwing money at something that will never work.

My adviice would be to get them to hire a business Analyst who may be able to wade through all the differing processes and come up with a plan from all the issues with the existing systems. Then look at implementing a suitable replacement software system.

Have heard BrightPearl reccomended by a few other people but still feel if you implement it you will end up with garbage in garbage out - which you currently have.

Matt

Paul11 · 23 Feb 2012 at 08:44

brightpearl does look good, but look at the price :eek:

burns · 23 Feb 2012 at 09:45

Dynamics NAV would be the Microsoft offering in that market. It's not especially cheap but would do everything you need in one package and it's also nicely customisable if you need it to do something it currently doesn't do. Usually you would buy it through a reseller who handles the installation and support so the complicated bits are not his problem.