In This Issue

March 14, 2009
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E-commerce is an integral part of any online marketing business. The right program, integrated with QuickBooks, can make it easy for customers to order...and easy for you to track, ship and invoice.

This month, we challenge you to ask yourself:

Do I have the right e-commerce program for my business and is it integrated with my accounting software to avoid double entry and lost orders?

E-commerce case studies feature: PDGSoft, StoneEdge and Zoovy

Looking for a solution to a QuickBooks problem?
We can save you weeks, even months of searching for the right solution to your Quick Books problem through our extensive contacts with add-on software developers.

Managerial Mentor

Which E-Commerce Software is Right for You ?

What is E-Commerce Software you ask? Well, it is more commonly referred to as an "Internet-Based Shopping Cart". You have probably had a shopping experience with E-Bay, Paypal or Amazon, but have you wondered what happens to the data that is collected by these systems?

In particular, think about the business/financial aspects such as: Order Mgmt, Inventory Tracking, Cash Receipts, Customer History, and Targeted Marketing. With all these aspects in mind, it is important to know that
E-Commerce applications offer a variety of approaches (and complexities) to choose from:

Beginners may download or experiment with Freeware (such as PayPal or Authorize.net syncronization tools). Other businesses with 5-10 (or more) products might simply 'rent' a web site and programming services from a web host (or) explore relatively inexpensive Commercial (pre-built) applications, that can be purchased and installed on their own web-server or hosted web-site, in order to expand their internet opportunities. In most cases, customization is available, but you will likely be limited by the terms of its use.

Prices range from hundreds, to thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars if you decide to develope/customize your own proprietary system.

All these factors make it VERY important to start your search by making a list of features you expect or want from your shopping-cart database, as well as the budget you're willing to pay. Do you want:

Customers to be able to track their orders?
The shopping-cart to notify customers when items are "out-of-stock" or "available"?
Vendors to be able to track items items that are "out-of-stock"?
Automatic subscription or order renewal capabilities?
Targeted-marketing broadcasting and other communication tools?
Transactions to be shared (with QuickBooks) on a summarized or transactional level?

Techno-Visor

While it is common for shopping-cart systems to maintain their own database, please take note; that not syncronizing this information with QuickBooks, is a sure-fire way to force employees to duplicate efforts.

It's up to you, to raise concern for heading-off this potential, costly, over-sight, as managers and business owners can only serve their customers well, if they have up-to-date inventory and cash-flow information.

"Orders" and/or "Sales Receipts" should be synchronized with
QuickBooks to keep the accounting department informed of "inventory"
and "cash flow" activity. Without integrating these transactions with QuickBooks, the business cannot keep abreast of inventory needs, bank account activity, or perhaps accounts receivable.

If you choose to add CGI script (for things such as web-forms) then you may also be collecting important customer information that may need to
be shared with CRM or Customer History (but that is another topic in
itself).

Case Study # 1 - PDG Software Testimonials Say it All

Technical Support
"PDG technical support staff has aided us in every endeavor. Indeed, it is not fair to call it technical support. It's more like hiring a full-time team of experts."

Easy to Use
"I love that I was able to purchase PDG Commerce with no HTML experience and use it right away. But now that I'm learning and growing, I can customize my site and the software can grow with me."

Complete Program & Search Engine Friendly
"Many shopping carts give you some of the bells and whistle for a price, but PDG Software seems to have all of them already included in their products...and at a very competitive price.

PDG's claims of being search engine friendly proved true when, within weeks of use, I found that my site had already been indexed and was moving quickly up within the top search engines."

Free Trial
"Just the fact that you are offering a 30 day free (I mean really free no strings attached, no upfront CC number) trial shows that your company itself is well aware of the value and excellence of your product. I just wish I had found you much sooner which could have saved my company a lot of time and money."

Case Study # 2 - Stone Edge Helps Propel Small Family Company into Top Online Retailer

Problem:
Online Stores, Inc. started as a small scale retailer of flags and quickly expanded into six online retail stores. This created a need for better inventory control, order processing and purchase orders.

Part of the problem was the more than 13,000 products currently being sold by Online Stores. A partial list of these products include flags, tea, designer gifts, kitchenware, and baby products.

Solution:
Online Stores selected Stone Edge to help solve the problem because the software fully integrated with their other systems, including multiple web sites, shipping and accounting. (It was not specified in the case history what accounting system is used but the software does integrate with QuickBooks.)

Benefits:
The Stone Edge system tracks inventory, purchase orders, invoices and shipments to customers. As stated by Randy Henderson, IS Manager at Online Stores, "Stone Edge helps us manage all aspects of our business. It keeps track of more than 13,000 products and 100,000 SKUs/sub-SKUs for all our stores in one database."

Other benefits include helping to organize and reorder stock and generate many different types of reports. Also, shipping times and backordered items have been significantly reduced.

"Stone Edge helped us grow from a home based business to a top 500 retailer with a high customer satisfaction rating," commented Henderson.

Case Study # 3 - Zoovy Helps Boost Sales for Scales USA

Problem
Scales USA started in business to provide scales to people selling on eBay. But over the past few years, they've expanded and shifted their focus to more industrial clients along with setting up their own online store. As their business has expanded, so have their bookkeeping and e-commerce needs.

Solution
Zoovy offered them exactly what they needed because their software integrated with QuickBooks. As Ed Walker, USA Scales owner, noted, "Nothing even came close to what Zoovy offers.

"I can list my scales on dozens of different online marketplaces at once and interface with UPS FedEx, DHL and the US Postal Service. I can click a button and create shipping labels and packaging slips. Zoovy saves me a couple hours a day, at least."

Since Zoovy integrates with QuickBooks, Walker can track his finances without having to do the data entry himself. He can export all sales information from Zoovy straight into QuickBooks.

Benefits
According to Walker, "I wouldn't be in business without Zoovy. I was selling so many scales that I couldn't keep track of it all myself. Now I spend maybe two hours a day in the software; the rest of the time I can run my business. The combination of Zoovy and QuickBooks is amazing in terms of time savings.

Leaving You With A Little Humor

A husband and wife, who had their own home business, always started the day checking orders on their computers. But while doing so, they both liked a cup of coffee.

The problem was that both of them thought the other should do the brewing.

One morning, they were having their typical argument. "You should do the brewing," the husband said. "You're in charge of cooking and that's part of your job."

"No way," the wife shot back. "Brewing the morning coffee is the least you can do around here. Besides, the Bible says the man should brew the coffee.

"Nonsense", the husband sniffed. "Where does it say that in the Bible?"

Without a word, the wife got up and brought back a Bible. She slammed it down in front of him, opened it up and pointed to the top of several pages where it did say..."HEBREWS".

FREE TIPS

For our latest tips on setting up your chart of accounts so that you have the processing and reporting capabilities you need for these tough economic times, please refer to http://www.seeclearlyaccounting.com/22/index.html

While you are looking at the tips about your chart of accounts, if you are responsible for the accounting for an estate, you may want to read 22 of the Best Tips for Trust and Estate Accounting. This sets out how we do this work using QuickBooks, with a little help from Excel.