The digital age has brought us an abundance of technology like never before. This is especially true for businesses that now face more options than ever for achieving success. So it behooves every business out there to stay aware of their options and leverage the ones that make the MOST® sense. One example of a digital option that can make a difference for MOST® companies is back office software. While not all versions will be the same, the following general characteristics are what make this kind of software such an attractive option.
Automatic Time Notation
One great thing about using back office software is that it automatically captures the time it took for individual operations. This may seem like a casual benefit hardly worth mentioning, but nothing could be further from the truth. Studies have shown that people are notorious for underestimating how long certain business operations took. Underestimating how long it took to handle one function, even just by a few minutes, adds up over time and could cost your company thousands of dollars throughout the year.
With automatic time notation, this error can no longer happen. You have an objective ledger of how long it took to handle different operations. There are plenty of options out there for tracking computer systems or even communication devices like your office or mobile phones. In either case, you can then make decisions based on accurate information. Plus, if you ever implement a new process with the goal of saving time, you’ll have an objective standard to judge it against.
Paperless Billing
By 2016, it’s expected that more bills will be delivered electronically than handed out in paper form. Those companies who fall behind in this area are not just looking at a more inconvenient option. They’re also ensuring it takes longer for their company to get paid—never a good thing.
The right back office software will greatly streamline this process. That means automatically generating a PDF of the bill and emailing it to the appropriate party. You can even program this process so that an accompanied letter is sent with it. This would include your customer’s name, invoice number, order description, etc.
Best of all, paperless billing makes it simple for you to retrieve important receipts when necessary. This makes everything to do with accounting so much easier. It also helps when a customer claims they lost a bill or never received it in the first place. For one thing, you can actually verify this with electric billing. However, it also means you can quickly issue them another.
Online Payments
Speaking of clients and bills, you’re missing out if you aren’t accepting online payments. In the above example, you could easily issue a bill and get paid within minutes if you accepted money online.
Obviously, this is all but a necessity for any company doing business through the Internet. However, those companies that may offer more traditional services might have been able to get by this far by using outdated payment systems from yesteryear. Again, this just means waiting longer to get paid and hoping your customers don’t mind this inconvenient method.
Credit Card Processing
Back office software that helps process credit cards makes it even easier to move money from your customer to your account. Those handling credit card transactions manually aren’t doing themselves any favors. It costs them more money in the long run and more time with each one. Allowing software to automate this necessary function ensures higher efficiency for the company.
Don’t get stuck losing to competition that has learned to adapt. Instead, adopt back office software for your company and improve how business is done.
Source:
https://www.americanbar.org/publications/gp_solo/2012/march_april/ten_things_you_need_know_back_office_systems.html
