Читать книгу Cloud Accounting - From Spreadsheet Misery to Affordable Cloud ERP - David Russell W. - Страница 4

“How many hours? There’s no way he worked that many… he took a day off last week.”

On the way to her car Esther was already back on the phone with her office, dealing with timecard issues. Her company was growing by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately growing to over 50 people was causing the software development company’s small business accounting program to burst at the seams:

•Due to inefficient reminders and management checks, employees often forgot or procrastinated recording their hours worked on their spreadsheets until the end of the week. As a result, employees often guessed and recorded hours incorrectly on a weekly basis instead of accurately on the day the work was done.

•Expenses were not properly assigned to the correct department because those spreadsheets could not be integrated with the company’s small business accounting program.

•The tracking of hours and work done by sub-contractors could not be properly integrated nor consistently tracked with the company’s present software.

The company was hemorrhaging money due to these inefficient processes and its back office software. As a result, profits were dropping even though the firm was growing.

Esther loved facing problems head on. As a verbally outgoing and persuasive person, she could be thrown into a group of people and become everyone’s best friend in a matter of minutes (and forget all their names five minutes later). Juxtaposed to James, she was an extrovert who tended to miss details. She made up for this weakness by hiring people who naturally caught things she overlooked. She valued achieving results, learning, and finding better ways to do things.

This is why her company’s consistent problems with their accounting software infuriated Esther. She enjoyed problem solving, but what was the point of growing rapidly if your profits could not expand with your company?

Esther continued to think as she took the exit off the freeway. She looked forward to discussing this problem with James and Peter over coffee after their board meeting. Esther knew James’ company was growing like hers. She wondered if James was experiencing similar headaches and had possibly come up with any solutions.

Esther sighed as she parked her car and started walking towards the non-profit’s offices. It frustrated her that she could not resolve this problem immediately herself. As iron sharpens iron, the only comfort Esther had was that her ideas often became more defined and she made better decisions after talking with James and Peter to draw-out more details.

Esther thought about why she needed a solution fast. If we can’t find effective methods for tracking hours logged by employees and sub-contractors, it’s going to be more difficult to turn a profit, fund company growth, and maintain the trust it took us years to develop with clients. Without a solution we’re headed for a brick wall... if not a cliff.