While many of the costs of running a paper-based operation are obvious, such as:

• The time spent by employees processing, filing, faxing and routing documents.
• The amount of money spent on storage.
• The hard cost of paper and ink. (Estimates show that the average office employee uses 5,000 – 10,000 sheets of paper per year!)

Other costs are a bit more obscure. For example it can be a little bit tricky to measure the cost of paper-intensive and repetitive tasks in regards to paper-management. However, many companies find that they are able to greatly increase employees’ output by automating laborious paper-intensive tasks and save substantial amounts of money as a result. A good example of this is in regards to faster invoice processing.

It is calculated that for best in class companies, or the top 20% of companies, it takes approximately 4.4 days and costs $4.60 to process a single invoice. The time and cost vary by company and can take up to 34.4 days and cost $55.00 to process a single invoice in some less efficient companies.  A document management solution allows you to reduce the time and cost involved within your invoicing process and will not only save you money internally, but can also give you the ability to take advantage of early pay discounts and improved financial close cycles.

Document management systems offer further benefits by allowing for compressed cycle times, driving costs down through integration to your ERP application. By leveraging information already known in your ERP system, document management systems reduce data entry steps, improve accuracy and strengthen your accounting controls.

Learn more about document management by downloading our informative whitepaper today.

A rapidly growing business requires efficient processes – with no room for information gaps. Sage ERP X3 business ERP software integrates all of your company’s management processes into a worldwide database and enables users to access this information within a standardized system. This gives all employees access to all the information whenever they need it. Integrating resources, know-how and expert knowledge is not only efficient. It is also the best way to quickly react to new market trends.

Adapt the business ERP software system to your changing environment.
Who knows what your business will be tomorrow? By choosing Sage ERP X3 software, you ensure that your existing and future business processes will be supported by your business ERP software system. Simple parameterization of the system allows you to change or define new information flows and procedures very quickly, without additional development. But, should the need arise, the provided development toolset also allows you to create a fully customized routine. Sage ERP X3’s open architecture makes it easy to connect new applications to your system when growing.

The Sage ERP X3 development toolset.
Sage ERP X3 business ERP software offers the possibility of integrating custom developments without altering the standard functions’ ability to evolve. Realized with the aid of the integrated development environment (IDE), these developments can be integrated into the standard product and activated or deactivated at will. They are reusable and permanent, even when the software package version changes. The development toolset is provided as part of the core Sage ERP X3 package.

Contact us today to learn more about how Sage ERP X3 can help you grow your business.

The world’s gone social
What’s even more astounding it the rate of adoption. There are over 2 billion Internet users in the world, according to Internet World Stats. But according to recent statistics, almost half of them are Facebook users and Twitter users who log hundreds of millions of tweets every single day. People view pages at YouTube 92 billion times per month! Out there–among all the tweets, status updates, and viral videos–is important information about how your company is viewed by customers, partners, and the public.

How can your organization benefit from so much social data?
Many companies have spent the past year or two “catching up” with the social media whirlwind. Unless your organization was an early adopter, you may have only recently embraced a social marketing strategy or adopted social media as a form of customer feedback in customer service and support. Perhaps your organization is considering social media to provide effective collaboration tools for internal use across the enterprise, or you are using it for recruiting and engagement purposes within your human resources department.

Where does all of that data go? How can it be leveraged for more powerful purposes? You’ll find the answer in business intelligence (BI) applications. Today’s BI tools are starting to incorporate data streams from social media platforms. Expect much more of this functionality to evolve with future application development.

Social analytics will empower your organization to better understand how your customers behave, what they like about your products, how they view your business and your brand, and what they recommend to their friends and colleagues. As your organization is better able to capture and leverage this information, you can use it to help make decisions about sales approaches, marketing promotions, public relations efforts, product development, and more.

• Making a mistake on an employee’s W-2 not only puts the business at risk for costly fines and penalties, but also creates a great deal of extra work to fix.
• In addition to the compliance issues, there is also the matter of the effort and costs required to print W-2 forms and mail them to employees.

Complete W-2 e-filing services can eliminate most of the pain associated with processing W-2s in-house. In the past, these services were provided by payroll service providers and were often expensive. The addition of complete e-filing services to many payroll software solutions has made this option very affordable and offers significant efficiencies for small and midsized businesses.

Minimum requirements for an effective e-filing solution
When determining whether a complete W-2 e-filing solution is the right choice for your business, there are several features to look for:

1. The solution should be native to your payroll solution and automatically convey your payroll data directly from your payroll entries. Manual entry of your payroll data opens the door to transcription errors and lost time trying to locate and fix errors.
2. The solution should include automated error checking that complies with, at a minimum, the standards set by Accuwage and eVerify.
3. It should provide the ability to save a history file of each filing and print file copies, if desired.
4. It should include all filings required: federal and state copies including the federal W-3 and any state reconciliation forms.
5. It should automatically print and mail employee copies directly to your employees.
6. It should also host employee copies to a password-protected website so terminated employees who have address changes can access a copy of their W-2s and print them.

Additional features can provide even more efficiency
Outside of the minimum requirements listed above, there are several other features that provide benefits and efficiencies:

1. Your new e-filing solution should provide the ability to schedule when your employee copies are mailed, when your federal filings are made, and when your state copies are filed. It should also provide the ability to make corrections at no charge up until the filings are made. Oftentimes, when employees receive their W-2s, they recognize changes that need to be made. The ability to file a corrected federal and state filing prior to their submission date will prevent employees from needing W-2 Cs or other additional forms.
2. It should allow you to review all employee data in a spreadsheet format, which allows for easy editing and the simple entry of additional information required, such as third-party healthcare.
3. It should include forms for all states that require W-2s and all U.S. territories.
4. You should be able to find testimonial evidence from customers who have used the solution with your native payroll solution.
5. The solution should have at least three years of service history to ensure that the solution is mature and well-tested.

Make sure the cost of the service is a good return on your investment
Finally, the e-filing solution must be affordable. Typically, the cost of processing W-2s in-house is between $3.85 and $4.35 per employee. This cost includes processing time, forms, envelopes, and postage. A fair price for a complete service solution should be below than the lower limit of in-house costs.

Webinar: Cut Your Shipping Costs with Sage Shipping Software by Smartlinc
Date: Thursday, May 17th
Time: 9 – 10 AM CDT

Through this webinar, you will learn how Sage Shipping software can help you:

• Automatically Rate shop for the lowest cost carrier
• Eliminate bad address charges
• Eliminate data entry errors in shipping
• Send automatic email notifications to customers for every shipment
• International shipping and export documentation

Click here to register for this FREE webinar now!

Mid-sized companies have been especially impacted by the lack of current technology, and many have been holding on by a thread trying to keep their businesses alive. However, if you are like us, you are starting to see positive trends that are real indicators of better times ahead – which makes today the time to focus on how to run your business better, faster and smarter to thrive in tomorrow’s economy.

If it’s time for a technology checkup, contact Cherry at Emerald TC today.

Sage Shipping by SmartLinc key features include:

• Accessible: The Process Shipper server is installed at one location behind the customer’s firewall or at a data center, making the application accessible by anyone with privileges and a web browser.
• Cost savings: A web based solution, with real-time carrier rate updates through a web service connection, allowing you to rate shop for all parcel and LTL shipments.
• Improved workflow: Automatic email notification to customers for all shipments, real time address correction and address updates, international shipment document production, including Performa invoice, certificate of origin, packing list, and carrier labels, and automatically creates BOL for LTL shipments.
• Flexible: Includes an easy to use custom shipping reporting module, U.S. and Canadian shipping modules, and a full feature pack module with line-item detail with packing list.

Contact us today to learn more about Sage Shipping by SmartLinc.

For our clients, Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 are becoming Sage 100 Standard ERP, Sage 100 Advanced ERP and Sage 100 Premium ERP. Sage MAS 500 ERP is becoming Sage 500 ERP, and Sage FAS Fixed Assets is becoming Sage Fixed Assets. Sage Abra HRMS is now Sage HRMS.

Sage PFW and Sage SalesLogix are remaining the same. Contact us if you have any questions concerning these name changes.

Sage ERP X3 is designed for mid-sized and larger companies in the mid-market, and is the smart choice for wholesale distributors, hard goods manufacturers & process manufacturers with 50 to 2,500 employees or 20 to more than 1,500 users.

Sage ERP X3 offers a broad and deep functionality, covering standard industry requirements as well as being easily adaptable to each organization and its specific business processes. It combines all the advantages of large-scale ERP tools while maintaining simplicity, flexibility and scalability.

With Sage ERP X3 you can:

• Streamline operations and increase productivity.
• Enhance collaboration, with a web-native management system.
• Grow your business, with a flexible and scalable solution.
• Gain insight into your business, across multiple locations or countries, in real time.
• Reduce cost, with an ERP system that is simple to configure and to manage.

Interested in learning more about the version 6.4 of Sage ERP X3? Download this informative whitepaper to access all of the product information.

As the economy recovers, you don’t want to lose focus on the spending austerity that helped your company succeed during tough times. You want to continue to control costs and improve purchasing power. If you can purchase more goods and services than your competitors do for the same money, your company will gain an advantage that directly impacts the bottom-line.

At the same time, you don’t want purchasing to become painful or error-prone. Piles of paperwork, irritated employees, and a bogged down system of approvals for every little purchase can eat away at profits through lost productivity.

Before your company starts to purchase additional inventory, supplies, or equipment, you should first consider evaluating your ERP solution. Automating your purchasing procedures with ERP software can help your company:

• Simplify purchasing procedures and reduce cycle time so employees comply with your process and don’t become exasperated by paperwork.
• Gain purchasing power so you can negotiate better pricing for commonly-used Maintenance, Repair and Operating (MRO) goods, as well as inventory items.
• Optimize your supplier base and identify preferred vendors for hard dollar cost reductions.
• Gain control over costs by centralizing all purchasing data and producing accurate, up-to-date spend data analysis.
• Balance supply vs. demand while maintaining optimal inventory levels through close integration between your purchasing, Accounts Payable, and inventory systems.
• Navigate the global economy with multi-currency purchasing and reporting that helps you compare spending across currencies.

In today’s competitive environment, purchasing is a critical corporate function. Its ability to hold down costs and contribute to the bottom-line cannot be overstated. Yet this vital function is often overlooked for automation, in spite of its proven cost reductions.

ERP software can make a positive impact on corporate purchasing power, cycle time, administrative costs, inventory management, customer satisfaction, and strategic planning and analysis. When viewed in the total context of the 21st century organization, an automated and integrated purchasing system might be just as important to your company’s success as Inventory Control, Accounting, or Human Resources applications.