Bennett/Porter News
Welcome to the newest edition of our Bennett/Porter newsletter! Monthly we would like to update all our valuable clients about what is happening with Bennett/Porter as a whole, as well as, relevant news and updates for each of the services we offer.
As you may have noticed over the last few months, Bennett/Porter has undergone some major visual changes with our new branding and new website. Rest assured though, our team is still as friendly and committed to your success as always; if not more!
NEWSLETTER QUICK LINKS
Acumatica News
Don’t miss this opportunity to see what Acumatica can do for your business. Register for an Acumatica hosted webinar today and take the first step towards a more scalable, connected, and efficient future. Then, when you’re ready, you can reach out to the experts at Bennett/Porter to discuss implementation.
Is QuickBooks Holding Your Business Back?
As your business evolves, the tools you use to manage it must evolve as well. Many small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) begin their journey with QuickBooks. While QuickBooks is a great tool for getting a new business off the ground, its limitations often become apparent as a business grows and its needs become more complex. If you’re starting to feel confined by the capabilities of QuickBooks, then now is the time to consider a more robust solution that can grow with your business.
Why Move from QuickBooks to Acumatica?
Acumatica Cloud ERP is designed specifically for QuickBooks graduates who are ready to take their business to the next level. This powerful, cloud-based ERP solution offers far-reaching benefits that are tailor-made to support the unique needs and growth ambitions of SMBs:
- Enhanced Financial Control: Acumatica provides comprehensive financial management tools that give you deeper insights into your financial data, helping you make informed decisions that drive business growth.
- Greater Collaboration: With Acumatica, your team can operate from a unified platform, ensuring that everyone from finance to sales to support is working with the same data. This connected system fosters better communication and collaboration across your organization.
- Unified Data: Integrating your operational and financial data in one place eliminates data silos and provides a single source of truth. This unity is crucial for scaling operations efficiently and effectively.
What Can You Expect from Upgrading?
Upgrading from QuickBooks to Acumatica isn’t just about enhancing your software capabilities—it’s about transforming your business strategy. Acumatica allows you to:
- Personalize your approach to business management with tools that adapt to your industry’s specific requirements.
- Expand your capabilities with advanced features that support everything from ecommerce to field service operations.
- Improve operational scale and reach, preparing your business to handle increased demand and more complex transactions without a hitch.
Learn from Those Who’ve Made the Switch
We understand that transitioning to a new ERP system is a significant decision. That’s why, if you’re still uncertain, we invite you to join Acumatica’s upcoming webinar to hear directly from recent QuickBooks graduates about their transitions to Acumatica. You will discover how Acumatica was leveraged to not only meet their growth goals but exceed them with increased productivity and efficiency.
Sage 100 News
We’ve got only a couple updates this month where Sage 100 is concerned. If you are a Sage 100 client of Bennett/Porter we recommend reading these updates to see if they are applicable to your business.
UDPATE #1: Clients could have an issue with their UPS shipping account as of June 1 if they are using UPS API’s to transfer shipping information back and forth between Sage and UPS. (We are checking with DSD on the MAS*Ship enhancement to verify you won’t have to do anything – but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear back!) If clients are using StarShip, the developer of StarShip (V-Technologies) is suggesting that folks upgrade to the web version of StarShip, known as StarShip Cloud, to get around the issue. It sounds like FedEx will be following the same process in August of this year.
UPDATE #2: SData is still supported on Sage 100 2024. However, Sage does not recommend using SData for Sage 100 integrations as it has been deprecated and it is no longer being invested in or enhanced by Sage. It is recommended that BOI (Business Object Interface) be used for integrating with the Sage 100 product. BOI is current for all framework modules and provides greater flexibility than SData.
SData in Sage 100 will no longer be supported as of the Sage 100 2025 Release scheduled for April 2025 so you should start making a plan to transition to BOI.
If you would like help preparing for these adjustments with Sage 100, please contact our office with any questions.
People Savvy HCM News
We believe wholeheartedly that every small and medium sized business can benefit immensely by adopting an integrated HR, Time and Attendance, and Payroll software suite. We also know that implementing new technology can feel daunting. Our team’s goal is to replace that sense of, “Ummm…I’m not sure if I…” with, “Hey! I got this!” So this month, we want to share with you a little bit about our implementation methodology, so that you can envision how you might confidently use People Savvy HCM to make your organization an even better place to work.
“So…tell us all about you.”
Phase I: Discovery
During the discovery phase of implementation, that’s who we want to get to know: You. How does your company interact with employees on a day-to-day basis? What are your pay cycles? What kinds of benefits do you provide? Who approves time off requests? What kinds of forms do you use to collect information from employees? What do you wish you could do or know that you don’t do or know today? We’ll ask you to complete a configuration document with these questions and many more.
Then, after carefully reviewing your responses, our team will sit down with yours and make sure we understand everything as clearly as possible. The information we gather will guide us in designing your system.
What you can do to make this phase successful? Know your policies inside and out, and take this opportunity to make any revisions or adjustments. (And enjoy being the center of attention!)
Phase II: Configuration
Remember all that great information we just collected about you? In the configuration phase, our experts use their magic powers to transform that material into a custom version of People Savvy HCM. Just for you! Okay, maybe it’s not exactly magic. But we hope you’ll be impressed when you see the manual processes that you struggle with on a daily basis function in an automated, predictable, and highly efficient way.
Expect configuration to take more or less time, depending on the complexity of your policies and procedures (though not much surprises us anymore). We also like to test. And test. And test some more to make sure that we’re getting expected results. So that may take a little while as well.
What you can do to make this phase successful? Be patient, but also be ready for the occasional question.
Phase III: Data
We’ll admit it. We’re data nerds. We love getting data. We love reviewing data. We love importing data (especially when there are no errors).
During the data phase, we’ll send you several Microsoft Excel spreadsheets – we call them templates – that ask for various types of employee information. Your job is to fill them up using whatever source(s) you currently store all of that data in. Our job is to take the templates you return to us and import the data into your configured system.
You’ll have questions. We’ll have questions. There will be phone calls. Which is great! Because the more we talk about specific information, the better we can understand how you see and do things, which leads to better support down the road.
What you can do to make this phase successful? Provide the cleanest, most current data you can.
Phase IV: Training
Ready for some long, boring sessions full of dry material? No? Good! Because we aren’t, either. Instead, you should be ready to be impressed, because training sessions are where you’ll see everything come together for the first time. Each module expert on our team will meet with the key people on your team in order to show you around your new system and teach your folks how to use it like a pro. By “your folks,” we mean the people you designate to own functional areas and train others. After all, this is your system.
Between all the “oooo-ing” and “ahhhh-ing,” we expect that you’ll have questions. And maybe even some concerns. Don’t worry. Nothing you see is etched in stone. We expect there to be tweaks to the configuration. A valuable part of the training process is observing how you respond to the user experience so that we can make those fine-tune adjustments. And we will, so that you can get back to being excited.
What you can do to make this phase successful? Keep an open mind and be candid with your feedback.
Phase V: Testing
Now that you know everything (wink, wink), we want you to put the system through its paces. Is overtime calculating correctly on that timesheet? Do all expected deductions appear on that pay statement? Does that employee’s enrollment process look good? Did the right approvers get that notification? And perhaps the test of all tests: Is that payroll accurate?
We don’t go live until you say we’re ready. But we also don’t want to linger in testing mode, which is quite labor intensive for everyone involved. For that reason, the testing phase is very interactive, as we work to resolve outstanding issues as rapidly as possible.
What you can do to make this phase successful? Be diligent. Be vocal. Be responsive.
Phase VI: Go-live
You start using People Savvy HCM as your system of record. Everyone was prepared, so that’s about it.
What you can do to make this phase successful? Bask in the glory of all you have created and enjoy your extra time.
Phase VII: Turnover to Support
Just kidding! This isn’t really a phase! The same people who have been guiding you through your implementation will continue to support you. There are no call centers. There are no automated phone systems. We already know each other, so why mess up a good thing?
What you can do to make this non-phase successful? Reach out when you need something.
Still have concerns? Don’t let worries about implementation keep you from making life easier. Give us a call, and let’s talk about what’s holding you back.
Managed IT Services News
Did you know that YOU are the most important layer of defense in the battle for cybersecurity? In a recent blog post written by our very own IT department, our readers learn there is no one-size-fits-all approach to end user engagement in cybersecurity. That being said, here are some general principles and strategies that can help your organization become a powerful force against the threat of being digitally compromised:
- Start from the top. End user engagement should be supported and modeled by the senior management, who should communicate the importance and the value of cybersecurity to the organization and demonstrate their commitment and involvement. If senior leadership is flouting the rules and requirements, front line employees aren’t going to want to deal with them either.
- Assess the needs and the gaps. End user engagement should be based on a clear understanding of the current level of awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of the end users, as well as the challenges and the opportunities for improvement. You can’t fix what you don’t know is wrong or weak.
- Design and deliver tailored and relevant training. End user engagement should include regular and ongoing training that is customized to the specific needs, roles, and contexts of the end users, and that covers both the technical and the behavioral aspects of cybersecurity. The training should be engaging, interactive, and practical. No one wants to sit through a four-hour seminar on URL patterns.
- Provide feedback and recognition. End user engagement should involve providing feedback and recognition to the end users, both individually and collectively, on their progress and performance in cybersecurity. Feedback and recognition can help to reinforce positive behaviors, correct negative ones, and motivate and reward the end users for their efforts. The incentive for doing the harder work needs to be better than the “reward” for taking the shortcuts.
- Encourage collaboration and participation. Collaboration and participation can help to create a sense of ownership, trust, and accountability, and to leverage the collective intelligence and experience of the end users. This also minimizes people not wanting to report mistakes or issues because they’re afraid of being called out or reprimanded—which can lead a breach to fester and get even worse.
End user engagement in cybersecurity is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that requires constant monitoring, evaluation, and improvement—just like any security layer. By engaging SMB end users in cybersecurity, IT managers and security professionals can enhance the security posture of the organization and improve user experience, satisfaction, and loyalty. Sometimes there are hard choices to make between security and usability. Collaborating across your company can help people understand the why and the how rather than making every security layer feel like a punishment. Protect your security investments by making users feel like they’re part of the solution instead of finding ways to get around the solution.
CLICK HERE if you’d like to read the entire blog post titled “The Most Important Cybersecurity Layer is YOU”. We’re here to help educate your team and proactively protect your business! Just another one of the excellent aspects of working with Bennett/Porter’s Managed IT Services.
