 |
|
|
 |
|
Solution
Overview
Customer
Profile
Bookkeeping Firm,
supplying bookkeeping services to small or
single person operations.
Most customers are not IT experts and simply
want to concentrate on working in their
business.
Scenario
Most Small
Businesses and Trades people have neither the
need nor money for a full-time bookkeeper or
accountant. Yet they still need to know what is
happening with their finances, especially with
the introduction of GST. While most don't use a
computer system to run their business, they all
have a fax machine.We needed an ability to reduce the
cost of providing our on-site bookkeeping
services to these clients, while not requiring
them to purchase computers, or accounting
software.
VillageMall
Services Used
 |
WebLedger Accounting
Services |
Benefits
VillageMall provided a completely
integrated, full feature, Accounting solution that encompassed
the services required to run a small business,
with anywhere, anytime access. We can now
perform fully electronic off-site data processing, and have
recently outsourced some data entry tasks to
work from home contractors. This has
significantly added to our bottom line and has
allowed us to take on new clients with existing
staff.
Additionally for selected clients we were able
to offer VillageMall's' very simple cashbook
program, while we had access to the full
accounting services for BAS preparation, and
reporting. We can even customise which accounts
are visible within the cashbook screens.
Native integration between traditionally
separate modules such as general ledger,
payroll, timesheet BAS processing provided a
cohesive management platform for our clients.
Without exception,
this is the first time we have had an
accounting system that required no software
installation or new hardware at our offices.
|
 | |
|
|
|
Brisbane based bookkeeping Company uses
VillageMall® WebLedger to service existing and new small
business clients in record time and
at minimal cost. With VillageMall WebLedger we can
bridge the technology gap for our clients, they can
continue to use existing manual systems, and we process
their transactions for them.
VillageMall solved the on-site off-site file
transfer dilemma
allowing us to expand our client base, and increase our
incomes without any capital expenditure. In fact we may not have
stayed in the increasingly competitive bookkeeping
business without VillageMall.
Overview
Most Small Businesses and Trades people have neither
the need nor money for a full-time bookkeeper or
accountant. Yet they still need to know what is
happening with their finances, and meet the growing
compliance requirements. Especially with the
introduction of GST, BAS, and superannuation reporting
requirements.
Our business is to give back time to these people, by
providing the skills and resources to perform the data
entry and compliance reporting activities. We also
provide a business major cost savings by skilled data
processing completing the majority of the tasks prior to
handing the information to an accountant.
In the past two years there has seen significant
growth in the Bookkeeping business, but this has also
been an associated fall in hourly rates.
Business Challenges
The ability to take on and solve the problems for our customers has always been our differentiator.
Currently the most significant cost is associated with
our onsite data-entry. We also need to be able to take
advantage of part-time staff which ideally would like to
work from home.
In order to keep our prices within reach of our
clients we simply have to be more efficient. The challenge is to have a incremental solution
that would grow with us, and not require a significant
outlay in either time or money. We needed to keep
earning income, and stay profitable.
|
|
|
|
|
| VillageMall WebLedger is the
only platform capable of meeting the range of
client requirements, due to its support for
full feature accounting services.
Additionally we established the WebLedger
solution using existing computer equipment, and
the new system was up and running within two
days. But best of all there was no additional
costs incurred for supporting remote access from
multiple
locations with VillageMall.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Why WebLedger
When we searched for a solution, we found many
accounting programs, but few that have been developed
specifically for the Internet. Also most were very basic
or cut down versions of desktop applications, which
limited the ability of our clients to grow without
significant future costs.
It become obvious, that at a minimum, we would need to change
our existing desktop accounting system, so one of the key requirements
was the ability to get the new system up and running in
days, not months. As we do not have a dedicated IT
support we did not want to spend capital on new
computers.
With the basics completed, we began the process of
selecting technology solutions. After evaluating several
offerings, we determined that the Australian developed
VillageMall WebLedger service provided the best possible
combination of features, security, and integration. We
found that VillageMall WebLedger was the only internet
based platform to offer a completely integrated suite of
services. Its offerings range from a simple cashbook,
though to full featured accounting functions
including a fully integrated Payroll, all in a single
service. We liked the fact that their cashbook, and Web
Payroll are only sold via channel partners. There was no
third party integration required, and we could change
features without any service disruption. In addition
WebLedger incorporated the latest
Australian Tax Office compliance forms
and even supports the latest superannuation reports, in
fact payroll tax tables are fully managed by VillageMall staff
transparent to us. We also found that they were listed
in the Australian Tax
Office registered products directory, signifying
that they had passed all the
Australian Tax Office testing requirements.
We also found that
VillageMall is one of only two accounting systems, and
the only Australian system, registered as meeting the
requirements of the Australian Tax Office for “Storage
of Paper Records in Electronic Form” this is an absolute
requirement, to ensure the stored electronic records
will be accepted as part of any future audit.
We required, and VillageMall supplies a
security architecture that was bullet-proof without
being a burden for our data-entry staff, or clients to
use. VillageMall applications look and feel just like
the commonly used desktop applications, which meant we did not
need to retrain our staff.
Once we decided that WebLedger was the right choice,
it actually took less than an hour from the online application
request to having an operational accounting system, this was
due in part to VillageMall not having to install any
Software on our premises. We did have to upgrade one of
our workstation Web browsers to
the latest version security patches, but this was a fee download from the
Internet. VillageMall software detected the out of
date browser at logon time and redirected us to the
Microsoft download site.
We decided to move our internal accounting to
WebLedger as the first step. We transferred our existing
client records from our desktop accounting system to WebLedger, using
their import facility. By the end of the day we had a
fully working system which supported the process flow we
had been aiming for.
Starting from $20 per month, we also found WebLedger
a most financially
attractive solution, for us and our clients; in fact
this price is less than the yearly fees for tax tables
for our existing accounting software. The ability to alter the fees
for our clients to
met their changing conditions will be an ongoing benefit.
The VillageMall Solution
Once the basic accounting system was set-up, using WebLedger
"Quick start" we
imported the existing Clients from our existing
Accounting system.
Setting up chargeable items, WebLedger support
a wide range of item types, we entered a set of
non-inventory chargeable items for each of the
bookkeeping tasks, these were entered using the
predefined "services" item type. Service items will
appear in selection lists within the employee timesheets.
For our part-time staff we entered the charge out
and also the employee payment rates for each job, and
also the accounts that will be used for tracking costs,
and reporting profit s etc. Different tax codes can be
applied to each of the rates to handle even the most
complex taxation arrangements.
We added some additional General Ledger accounts to
the WebLedger defaults to give us the right level of granularity.
Providing Internet Access, as each company
within VillageMall has a completely separate database,
there is a need for each person to be given explicit
access to company information. In fact the access is
totally under the control of the company and can be
disabled by checking the "inactive" box for
each Employee. The VillageMall account
details are entered against each person requiring
Internet access to the company.
How it Works
Villagemall advised us on how to turn one of our
local workstations into a Electronic Fax machine for
only $35.
Clients: Clients send us their bills,
invoices, and payment details via fax on daily basis.
Processing: These faxes are received on our
electronic fax service and processed locally or emailed
to one of our remote workers for processing. An added
bonus from our Electronic fax, is that we now have a
fully electronic file of the original business records
which we can use for any future activity such as audits.
The transaction details are entered into the client
company accounts, the details of the work activity is
entered into our timesheet-tasks to allow us to record
and track the time spent on each client.
Review: The company activities are reviewed,
any issues are actioned or advise is provided to the
client. We find that we can now perform a daily review
of our client companies, which enables us to catch those
problems before they become a major issue.
Compliance/Reports: The end of period
compliance activates are processed such as GST/BAS/IAS,
payrolls, superannuation reports etc.
Standard profit & Loss, balance sheet, and cash flow
projection reports are faxed to the client, with our
recommendations on any required action..
Summary
We can access our or our client accounts anywhere,
anytime, in fact we are looking at why we need an
office? Our first client systems are operational, and
have taken well to the offsite data entry. Selected clients
now fax the paper records to us, which we process
and send them faxed reports and statements. We believe
exploiting VillageMall technologies is our competitive
advantage and we are well positioned to become a market
leader in the bookkeeping area.
We are working with our first clients on using
VillageMall cashbook for their own data-entry, while we
will prepare their compliance returns and provide
business reporting, this activity is improving the
hourly rate we can charge as well.
Each client company
has their own independent database, but VillageMall
single sign-on allows us to access all our client
companies with a single VillageMall account. VillageMalls'
true multi-use features allows us to work with selected
clients online, and in real-time. Best of all
VillageMall allows us to offer a range of services from
a single VillageMall service, we can now get rid of the requirements
to support multiple accounting programs. The robust integrated accounting services supplied by
VillageMall, proved to be the perfect out-of-box solution
for our Bookkeeping business. We only hope our competitors don't
move as quickly onto this solution as we have.
|
|
|
|
|
| We have been extremely
pleased with the ease of implementation and minimum time taken
to get a working solution, it typically takes
longer to install a windows operating
system onto our computers. The entire
solution was implemented without a single major
set back.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
We have found a significant change in the way we work
with our clients, we now spend 10 to 30 minutes
per day rather than the end of month or quarter rush
processing, this has allowed us to better us our
resources, and also to provide timely advise to our
clients. We find that we our onsite time is spent
working on the business with the client rather than
entering data. We believe this is developing a stronger
relationship with our clients.
We see an improving bottom line, and have
the option to pass the savings on to our clients and
improve the hourly rates for our staff. The VillageMall distributed architecture allows
use to grow and select services that match our clients
business needs. The significant reductions in
administrative overheads will allow us to look at
increasing the clients
that we can service with our existing staffing, while
taking advantage of local part-time staff. Also we only
need to make additional expenditures when we achieve
additional income, VillageMall even allows us to reduce
our costs when things get tight in the industry, this
approach is more like a partnership than service
supplier.
For More Information
For more information about VillageMall products and
services, go to: http://www.villagemall.com.au/ | 
