B/P Impressions

These days, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software vendors tend to focus either on ease of user experience or the functional benefits of their products. Rarely, if ever, do you find a vendor touting both advantages in a single solution. Those pushing functionality tend to use trendy language like “Cloud-enabled” or “Cloud-friendly”, by which they often mean that the ERP system can be hosted somewhere other than on a computer inside your organization. In that sense, "Cloud-whatever" is mostly about marketing and has woefully little do to with the qualities of the technology itself. True Cloud software means something more than where you install it.

Moving your business online can be a daunting undertaking. It requires careful coordination to bring back office functions together with an attractive and relevant online presence. One of the advantages of an advanced Enterprise Resource Planning system is its innate ability to bridge these two realms and automate much of what transacts between them. Trying to connect them manually will lead to endless time spent - and errors made - in simply moving the data from place to place. Conversely, an ERP system can ease the amount of effort and improve precision in synchronizing your administrative and accounting efforts with your storefront website. Towards that objective, here's a free infographic that provides an overview for taking your business to the internet and lists the benefits of embracing ERP capabilities.

Not all compensation is as simple as an hourly wage or a set salary. Following are some pay types that may cause questions and confusion.

Piece Rate Pay

What is “piece rate” pay? This is an alternative system of pay that may benefit both the employer and the employee. Employees are paid based on the per unit of quality work completed rather than an hourly rate. This approach has the dual advantages of helping to increase productivity while providing employees with rewards for extra effort. This form of pay is commonly used in construction and agriculture.

Interviews are no longer just for potential new hires. A lot of employers are choosing to implement stay and/or exit interviews. The difference between the two is that stay interviews are kind of like preventive check-ups; making sure everything is good and, if it's not, finding a resolution. Exit interviews, on the other hand, are performed with employees who are leaving an organization, and, while it may be too late to be beneficial to the departing employee, they may help the company realize the need for change.

Excel's IFERROR function returns a custom specified result when a formula generates an error, and it presents a standard result when no error is detected. IFERROR is an easy way to hide formula errors without using more complicated and nested IF statements (blech!).

Are you constantly updating and changing the date on your reports? Just because time keeps going by doesn't mean that you should have to do a bunch of manual changes (or worse...forget to do them). There are several different date functions built to save you time.

As a technology solutions provider of business management software, we - and our software manufacturing colleagues - often get excited and jump right into the super awesome features and functionality of the products we offer. But sometimes you just need some background about a technology as well as some idea of why it exists to begin with. So when we came across this brief, informative video about payment processing from our partners at Century Business Solutions, we thought we'd share it with you, our readers, who might benefit from the overview. We're coupling it with a free checklist about choosing a payment gateway, just in case watching the overview leads you to the need for research.

Here's a super simple one that can yield super results. Do you ever watch advanced Excel users zip around their spreadsheets so fast that you have no idea how they are doing it? Well, instead of navigating with your mouse and selecting items from the menu there, is probably a keyboard shortcut that can save you time and give you this same super-Excel-ability.

Let’s play a game called 'How much do you know about workplace injuries?' According to the Bureau of Labor Statics:

1. How many fatal work injuries occurred in 2016?
A. 1,500
B. 3,507
C. 5,190

2. How many non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses occurred in 2016?
A. Nearly 100,000
B. Nearly 1,000,000
C. Nearly 2,900,000

3. Which of the following is NOT a leading cause of non-fatal workplace injuries?
A. Falls
B. Exposure to harmful substances
C. Slips/Trips
D. Struck by object or equipment

The cost and consequences of a hectic workday pose a significant challenge for finance professionals trying to ensure business continuity. Fortunately, advances in AP automation bring refreshing news. Of course, automation reduces AP processing errors. But the even better news is that this simple-to-implement technology saves you time and improves productivity - especially during month end! We're providing you with this free eBook, 16 Ways AP Automation Can Improve Your Workday, which outlines how automation can create efficiencies for your AP department. By downloading it, you'll learn about these topics and more: