Backroom Posts

Quickbooks Secure Online Login Problem

Posted on April 23, 2010

PersonalMoneyStore.com was one of many blogs and online news distributors that reported Quickbooks having a problem with their secure online login screen this morning. This being the afternoon of the same day, the Quickbooks login screen has been restored by now, of course, but the occurrence did re-spark concerns about using online accounting systems.

Business owners and staff people all around the world woke up to the secure Quickbooks login displaying error messages, according to the full report I saw on the topic. I can only imagine the questions people started asking like, “Is my data really safe?” or “What happens if I wake up tomorrow and can’t login to the accounting system?” or “I MUST have access all the time and anytime to my accounting information! Can Quickbooks guarantee I will have that kind of access?!”

Those are all legitimate questions and concerns people bring up when considering Backroom Management for their web-based accounting and company management system.

Fortunately, to-date, we have not had a single day when our online login was down. But, chances are good that if severe issues like that ever did happen, we would probably know about the problem and have it fixed before any of our clients would discover there was a problem.

No one that I can find has announced reasons as to why the Quickbooks login was down and I’m sure the Quickbooks team was quick to get things running again. The point is that downtime or not, web-based applications are not only the future…they are here right now too. And, they’re so accepted in the world already that even who knows how many thousands of Quickbooks users this morning were willing to endure not having access to their numbers for a while.

The Solution… The 5 C’s of a powerful business information system…

Posted on March 17, 2010

“It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.”

Malcolm Forbes (1919 – 1990)

Unless you answered yes to all 5 of these questions, your system (while providing data) is not giving you the all information you need.

Check List for Success:

Check only those questions where you can honestly answer yes.

• Can you make good business decisions using your existing software?
• Can you use your financial statements as strategic tools to grow your business?
• Do you receive accurate cash flow projections?
• Can you use your accounting system to generate your sales goals?
• Do you feel that you are in complete control of your business?

The first “C”— CREATE…

This is where your information system begins. Remember, information is defined, simply, as the answer to a question asked.

We begin by developing a list of the questions you must have answers to in order to run your business effectively. The answers to these questions must come from the information output of the system and therefore will define the data that needs to be captured.

I’ll use the construction industry as my case study.

Let’s think about some the questions and answers you need to run a successful Electrical Contracting Business and whether these can be answered by an accounting system or require other data. Using the key below we’ll assign a value to each of the following pieces of information or questions an electrical contractor might want to ask:

N = Only non-financial information is required.

F = Only financial information only is required.

B = Both financial and non-financial information is required.

Here are the questions:

• What are the total number of Leads Generated Per Month? = N
• How many leads were converted into customers? = N
• What is my cost per lead? = B
• What does it cost to obtain a new customer? = B
• What is the total amount billed by project? = F
• What is the cost of material used by project? = F
• What is the total labor used by project? = F
• What is my total revenue and profit by project? = B
• How many returning customers do I have? = N
• What are the number of referrals received by month? = N

This is obviously not anywhere near a complete list but out of the 10 questions listed, only 3 could be pulled directly from an accounting system, and even at that, the system would have to have a project accounting program as a component.

A standard accounting system will simply not allow you to CREATE the information system you need to grow your business.

The second “C” —COLLECT…

Collecting the data: remember though, the data to be collected only becomes information when the data is defined to provide answers to questions.

When you have created the list of questions your business needs answers to, you can then define all the data that you need to collect. Let’s take one simple example:

Customer Information: If your business is a 7 Eleven, your need for detailed customer information is really limited. You need to know the number of customers (allowing you to know transaction size per customer) but who they are and why they came in are far less important to you.

On the other hand, in a high-dollar-value/low -volume business, such as an electrical contractor or any construction business, getting to know as much as possible about each customer is invaluable.

The amount and type of data you collect will again depend entirely upon the questions you defined in the first “C”.

The third “C” — COMPILE…

When compiling your data to produce the information you require, you must remember that the output of your system is the information your business depends on.

Therefore it must be accurate and timely.

The COMPILING step is where quality assurance needs to be applied. You have to be confident that the data collected actually produces the information you need.

You must be sure that your bookkeeper and any other data entry specialists are performing their jobs accurately and completely.

The fourth “C” — COMPARE…

This is where the rubber really begins to hit the road. Far deeper than a budget vs. actual review, we must use both a rearview mirror (to see how we are doing against past performance) and forward-looking radar to project what obstacles are coming up in the future.

The rearview mirror provides the ability to measure current performance against historical performance. It also gives us the ability to see if we are on track to meet our goals by projecting current results into the future.

But the real power lies in being able to see a projected dip in cash flow far enough out to change current behavior and eliminate the problem. Or being able to see that you will need an additional sales representative in two months in order to keep up with your sales goals.

This ability to recognize where you are in relation to your past, combined with the ability to see into the future, is what the fourth “C” is all about.

The fifth “C” — CORRECT…

Here is where the real power of a true management information system shows itself. I’m not talking about making a journal entry to correct a GL problem. That’s not even close.

I am talking about being able to use your management information system to help you define the steps required to take irreversible corrective action before things start to slide downhill.

Being able to recognize that your average profit-by-project is slipping early enough to take corrective action is critical to your success.

Your system should provide the information you need to decide whether reducing material costs or reducing the amount of labor used on projects is the best corrective action to take: this is the real power of the fifth “C”.

These are just two of the problems your system should help you identify and resolve.