Kathy Vickers

We can all remember when we were little kids and the nightmares we had.  The Boogeyman, vampires, ghosts and goblins are all monsters that made us not want to turn the lights off and go to sleep.  Let's fast forward to our adult lives.  We all can admit that we still have fears but the types of fears can be very different. Leading the charge for one of the things that makes adults and especially small business owners shake in their boots is the California State Board of Equalization or other state sales tax authority and the chance of being audited.  And with good reason when the average audit penalty is $35k per company, especially if you have online ecommerce sales from your website. When dealing with monsters you protect yourself with garlic, crosses, silver bullets and holy water just to name a few. When dealing with an audit, your best defense is a good offense, which is the transaction-checking protection of AvaTax. The Attivo Group can arm you with AvaTax which is an automated sales tax solution that streamlines error prone sales tax compliance processes and reduces the risk of loss or penalty in case of an audit.  Simply put, by using AvaTax, the State Board of Equalization will walk in your front door and out the back faster than you can say Avatax! So small business owners, no need to be afraid anymore... Avatax will solve your audit worries and let you sleep easy at night!

Over the past couple of months I have been watching some "old school" TV reruns.  You all know them and believe it or not, they are still really good!  The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy are two of note.  These shows are based in the 1950's, and the first thing that jumped out to me was the lack of modern conveniences they had.  No cellphones, no cable TV, no internet.  Heck, many people did not have a standard dish washer. I also noticed that when somebody wanted to purchase something they had a couple ways to go about it.  You would either go to the store, order over the phone or maybe buy it from a mail order catalog.  It's crazy to imagine a time when your couldn't order something over the internet. Lucky for us it's 2011 and we have BirdDog eCommerce to make our lives easier!  BirdDog eCommerce allows you to use the web to grow your business and sell your products online in an efficient, cost effective manner.  By turning your website into a high functioning eCommerce web shop, you can deliver a high powered, easy to use, personalized experience to your customers. Times have changed and we now have amazing new ways to sell our products and spread information and news about our companies.  And though our parents look back at this time with fond memories, it shouldn't mean that we don't take advantage of the technology that we have at our fingertips.  After all, we don't play vinyl records anymore and we don't make calls from rotary phones.  No reason we shouldn't be leveraging the internet to sell our company's products!

Versatility is something that is extremely important in today's world.  Let's be honest, who likes something that only does one thing?  Do we want our phones to only have the ability to make a simple phone call?  No, we want a phone that is all in one... phone, camera, day planner and web browsing device.  Sounds like something that would cost a fortune right?  Well, as we all know there are quite a few smart phones that are available at an affordable price. The same can and should be applied to business software.  What owner wants to have an application that only allows him to do the financial accounting?  He would want an application that is much more flexible and something thats gives him the ability to grow as his business grows. This is what you get with QuickBooks Enterprise Suite.  QBES gives you an affordable solution that goes well beyond accounting. Reporting, inventory management, sales and customer management and payroll are all things you can manage with QBES.  And with the Intuit Marketplace you can find a wide variety of third party applications that will allow you to take your business in many different directions! So as we kick off 2011, start thinking about the future and where you want your business to head. With QuickBooks Enterprise Suite, your options are endless which is important in the fast paced world we live in!

Affordability and price is something that is important to all of us.  Whether we are shopping for new clothes or looking to buy a car, cost is always a factor.  But to what extent does price matter?  I think the old saying; “you get what you pay for” has a lot of merit to it.  Buying an inexpensive product that doesn’t work well does not make sense to me.  That is why I believe the main goal to purchasing anything is getting a lot of value for the money you spend. This is especially true when it comes to purchasing a manufacturing, distribution, or accounting software application for to run your company.  Business software can be expensive but we certainly don’t want to put something “cheap” in place when it is going to handle the way our business is running day to day.  When you find an application that works well and is affordable to boot, you have a platform to grow your business successfully. That is what you get with Sage’s MAS90 Extended Enterprise Suite.  Along with being very affordable for the value you receive, Sage will offer 0% interest on 3-5 year financing.  And don't forget that there are other affordable applications that The Attivo Group can offer at 0% interest for 3-5 year financing.  The Attivo Group will also work with you on the payment for the implementation services.  How great is that for a small to mid-sized company looking to grow their business! Purchasing Sage’s EES is like buying a car that is pretty, gets good gas mileage and is reliable every day of the week.  And doesn’t buying something like that make it even sweeter when purchasing that product won't put us in a financial bind!

I am the type of person that likes having control over the situation that I am in.  Does that make me a control freak?  I would say no, but it is very possible my friends and family might have  a different answer for that question.  That being said, it stands to reason that if I owned a business I would want to have control over the data, security, confidentiality, and the location of where my business information is stored. Control is what you have with a client server application.  Access, resources, and data security are controlled in your own environment.  Upgrades are done when appropriate and are not forced upon you like they can be with SAAS applications.  Some even make you upgrade every 6 months! (cough Netsuite!) Less control is what you have with a Software As A Service model, also referred to as "cloud computing".  With SAAS you have little to no control when it comes to handling your data and information.  This alone makes it a bad fit for certain businesses out there because you may not have access to the tables in which the data is stored.  You are also depending on a third party to ensure your security and confidentiality.  And as I mentioned above, upgrades are often forced upon you. (cough Netsuite!) Another myth regarding SAAS is its low cost of ownership.  What people don't realize is with its frequent upgrades, which commit time, money and resources, along with reccurring costs, it may end up costing you more money than a client server application and will cause you a huge headache! If you are a person with your head in the clouds, (no pun intended) and don't need to have full control over your business information, then by all means choose a SAAS model for your company.  However, if you are like me and freak out when you have little control over things, then it is not wise to trust the "cloud" or SAAS model!