Top Accounting Software For Small Businesses

There are numerous free and low-cost accounting software programs for small- or medium-sized enterprises and solopreneurs that simplify accounting tasks, generate reports and provide tools that help you use your financial data.

Intuit QuickBooks is a popular accounting, bookkeeping and payroll program designed for small businesses. QuickBooks is available in Basic, Online, Pro and Premier editions. The Pro edition includes management tools such as a Vehicle Mileage Tracker and a Cash Flow Projector.

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The free Simple Start version keeps data organized, tracks sales and expenses for up to 20 customers, creates invoices, pays bills and prints checks. Simple Start tracks tax-related income and expenses, and generates essential reports on sales, expenses, profits and losses. It comes with step-by-step tutorials and 30 days of free email support, and it interfaces easily with Excel. Your data transfers easily to other versions when you are ready to upgrade.

Simply Accounting by Sage offers First Step, Pro, Premium, Enterprise and Accountants editions. Professional versions can track customers and suppliers, manage inventory, prepare invoices and process payroll. The First Step version is designed for start-up, small and home-based businesses and can perform simple entry-level accounting tasks such as preparing invoices, paying bills, and tracking revenue and expenses. The Simply Accounting First Step free trial version is available to download and use for 60 days. Simply Accounting First Step Express is another downloadable version available free to Canadian users.

A key feature of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting is its tight integration with MSOffice applications such as Excel, MSMoney and Outlook's Business Contact Manager.

Office Accounting Professional has a slate of add-on features that can create purchase orders, track inventory, assess finance charges, support foreign currencies, do payroll and manage fixed assets.

The basic version called Office Accounting Express is free. It has the look and feel of familiar Microsoft Office products and can create quotes and invoices, write checks, track expenses and reconcile online bank accounts. A start-up wizard and step-by-step instructions get you up and running quickly. Office Accounting Express 2009 is designed for U.S.- and U.K.-based small businesses and does not support local requirements beyond these two countries. Both the free version and the Pro version offer bilingual English and Spanish interfaces.

NolaPro v4.0 is a free web-based business management and accounting suite. It includes all standard accounting modules as well as order entry, inventory tracking, payroll services, and plug-ins such as point-of-sale, a business-to-business web portal and an e-commerce shopping cart. It has a flexible interface with customizable options for colors, icon sets, and menu displays. NolaPro allows multiple sets of books and unlimited simultaneous users, and it has no data restrictions and no license expiration. It features a high level of security for regulating user permissions by module area.

Top Accounting Software For Small Businesses

Sandra J. Klocinski has 25 years of practical experience dealing with small businesses: this is the foundation of her exceptional bookkeeping and administrative expertise. Sandra provides professional service while offering competitive rates and personal attention. To learn about the advantages of outsourced bookkeeping for your business visit http://www.bookkeepers-and-more.com.

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An Employee Handbook Template For Smaller Businesses

Why do you need such a template?

In 2008, there were 151,000 claims by employees against their employers that were submitted to Employment Tribunals and UK employers paid in excess of £26.4 million in compensation to employees through Employment Tribunals. Many of the claims submitted related to discrimination based upon race, sex, disability, religion, sexual orientation and age in addition to claims from unfair dismissals. By far the most claims related to Unfair Dismissal

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Why does this happen?

Too often, employers do not have appropriate working practices and processes that have been carefully prepared and presented to their employees. Such a situation leads to inevitable problems. So if it all seems so obvious, why don't smaller businesses adopt an appropriate employee handbook template covering all the necessary areas? There are many reasons, specifically:

The employer doesn't know the law The employer hasn't got time to prepare such a template and, as importantly, keep it up to date with changes to legislation and regulation If the employer had time to prepare an employee handbook, how would the employer ensure that it addressed all the relevant areas including:
- Employee induction
- Probationary periods
- Employee training
- Lateness
- Holidays
- Compassionate leave
- Appearance and Dress code
- Personal hygiene
- Expenses
- Right to search
- Grievance Procedures
- Disciplinary matters
- Dismissal
- Paternity leave
- Maternity leave
- Parental leave
- Equal opportunities
- Avoid of harassment and bullying
- Acceptable computer use

What a daunting list; and that is only a sample of the areas to be covered. Clearly, dependent upon the nature of the business of the employer, a different version of the handbook is required. So it appears that the only sensible solution is to have an employee handbook template that can be customised to meet the specific needs of the employer.

But that is only the beginning, once the employee handbook has been prepared, it is essential to establish that all employees have read it, understood it and registered their acceptance. Clearly, if the employer seeks to undertake these tasks manually, it could represent a major distraction from the main priority of running the business; which, after all was the main reason for starting up in the first place.

What are the solutions?

To determine appropriate solutions, it is necessary to summarise the situation and the potential problems arising. So what are the problems?:

I don't know the law affecting all of my employees and every part of my business Even if I knew the law, how would I find time to create the employee handbook and keep it up to date? How do I ensure that all my employees have read the handbook, understood it and registered their acceptance? How do I ensure that I refresh the memories of my employees at an appropriate frequency? How do I ensure that an employee is referring to the latest version of a specific policy or process?

These are the main issues and the option of using a Law Firm to draft a handbook specifically for your business can be costly. Additionally, it doesn't address the issue of how you confirm receipt, understanding and acceptance by your employees of the handbook.

From the above it is relatively easy to arrive at the only truly cost effective and efficient solution; adopt appropriate technology to customise a generic employee handbook template and then ensure that it is deployed to all your employees and that they register their acceptance without you having to create a 'paper chase'.

Just one last word of warning; don't fall into the trap of just publishing your policies and processes through putting your employee handbook on an internal website (an Intranet) as if you do, you can't tell who has read them and whether or not they have understood them.

An Employee Handbook Template For Smaller Businesses

Adrian Woodcock
Director - RSM Tenon Business Solutions

RSM Tenon Business Solutions have developed staff handbook software called 4staffhandbooks which ensures that company policies, procedures and statutory regulation are understood and accepted by your employees.

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Why Very Small Businesses Benefit from Microsoft Project Training Seminars

There are many people in the UK who are leaving behind the daily grind of corporate life and striking out on their own. Some of these businesses might be as small as one person working from his kitchen table in a bathrobe. These micro-business owners might think that project management software is unnecessary, but a Microsoft Project training seminar can help their business run more profitably.

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Run a tight ship

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One of the primary reasons small businesses fail is a lack of discipline and direction. Business owners have vague ideas of goals, but goals are useless without concrete plans on how to reach them.

For example, a business owner wants to make enough money to be self sufficient. A training seminar teaches the owner to turn that fuzzy idea into something more substantial. How much money is needed to be considered self sufficient? When should that goal be reached? How will the business grow to meet that goal?

This quantification of time and money is a critical tool for the private consultant. New clients want cost and time estimates, and an inaccurate estimate can be costly. Estimate too low and you get an angry customer when the bill comes much higher than the estimate. Estimate too high and you might find yourself turning away work thinking you don't have enough time for it. Project estimation is much easier with the skills learned in a MS training seminar.

Work expands to fill the time

Many small business owners allow the work to dictate the schedule, which is the wrong way around. For example, let's say a person is given a task with a three-day deadline and completes it. If the same person is given the same task but a four-day deadline, often the task will take four days. We naturally adjust our speed to meet the deadline which is an inefficient use of the time.

Using the techniques learned in a Microsoft Project training seminar, small business owners learn to let schedule dictate the work. By assigning tasks to the schedule and rigidly observing self-imposed project deadlines, many owners find that they suddenly have more time than they thought.

Using the example above, a business owner using the skills from MS training would schedule the four-day task. It would be clear that only three days of work would be needed. By scheduling additional projects into the excess hours, the owner can now complete the task at full speed without wasted time.

A Project training seminar might lead to a new career

Project management skills are in great demand in the UK. Many businesses are struggling and need an outside consultant to help them get organized. A Microsoft training seminar might not only save your own business but could open up a new opportunity for a career. Start your own project management consultancy and let your new knowledge get others back on the right track.

Why Very Small Businesses Benefit from Microsoft Project Training Seminars

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on Microsoft Project 2003 training, visit http://www.MicrosoftTraining.net/.

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