Are you still using a punch clock, Excel, or timesheets to track how employee time is spent? In the digital age, employee time tracking software is the only way to go for businesses with teams out in the field completing work orders.
The role of employee time tracking software in your payroll process.
How time tracking software can make you more profitable.
So let’s get to it!
Why time tracking is important for small businesses
Tracking the amount of time and personnel it takes to finish tasks helps you plan, budget, and staff more efficiently on future jobs. It also helps you give more exact estimates in the future, something your customers will appreciate.
Keep reading to learn why tracking employee time is essential for your small business.
Eliminate payroll errors with accurate time entry
It’s important to get payroll right for your team and business. But, this doesn’t always happen as payroll mistakes have led to 33% of employers getting penalized by the IRS.
By keeping track of what your employees work on and their hours, you reduce your chance of making payroll mistakes. Which is a win for both employee satisfaction and your standing with the IRS.
As a business owner, having a record of what an employee does every month also confirms that you are paying employees for work done and not just for a certain number of hours.
Reduce your costs and inefficiencies
A precise breakdown of what tasks your staff spend time on helps you identify problem areas.
For example, this can highlight that a certain task is an issue for several employees, which means a system tweak is needed. And on the other hand, if a task is an issue for just one or two of your team members, you may realize extra coaching is needed.
Either way, if you’re not tracking time spent on tasks, these issues can be a lot harder to uncover.
Avoid mistakes and headaches with one source of truth
There’s a reason the whole world is going paperless.
For starters, having multiple documents that measure the same thing is a waste of time. Not to mention that you then have to check each document against the others.
And if they don’t match, how do you know which is the right one?
Thankfully, there’s a better way. Having one, central place for your time entries is a better approach because it:
Saves time for your team.
Reduces confusion and stress.
Cuts down on the risk of data entry errors.
Increase customer trust with precise and detailed invoices
If you bill your customers by the hour, you can win your customers’ loyalty by keeping accurate records of the time spent on their jobs.
For example, your customers may or may not be at home or keep notes on how much time your team spends on the job. So, how do they know they’re being billed fairly?
The answer is by you being transparent with time tracking on your invoices.
A best practice when it comes to customer service is to create invoices with a line-by-line description of items, so your customers know what you’re charging them for.
This way, you and your customers know that you’re only charging them for real, billable hours.
The benefit of this is that your reputation stays credible and more referrals and repeat business comes your way.
The difference between employee time tracking software and other methods
If you’re considering a time tracking tool, chances are that your current time tracking method isn’t working for you. Here’s a deep dive into the alternatives that push many to start looking at other solutions.
Swipe cards — Swipe cards are great for controlling who gets in and out of the office and recording the times people come and go. The problem is that they don’t track the time spent on actual work. This system also doesn’t track any jobs being done in the field or by your remote teams.
Employee timesheets — Even if your team fills these out diligently, they still need to be entered into a computer for analysis and payroll. If you have more than five employees, this becomes a time-consuming job in itself and is not an efficient use of your time.
Spreadsheets — While spreadsheets can be useful for lists, charts, tables, and calculations, they aren’t ideal for time tracking. In fact, they give you many of the same issues as timesheets. Also, spreadsheets don’t integrate with other software you use for project management, payroll, or invoicing. This means you’re stuck rekeying data into different tools when you could be doing more important work.
In a nutshell, these approaches hold your business back from reaching that next level of growth. If you can relate, it’s time to look into other time tracking options.
What is employee time tracking software?
First, let’s be clear on what employee time tracking software is.
As you can tell by the name, this software lets your staff record how much time they spend on tasks and projects. You may also hear this type of solution referred to as:
Time trackers.
Employee time tracking apps.
Employee time clock apps.
Project time tracking tools.
Now that you have an understanding of what time trackers are, let’s dig into how these solutions work!
How do you record hours in time tracking software?
While every time tracker has its subtle differences, most have similar workflows. Since we know our own solution best, we’ll use that to explain how you’ll use this type of software.
With Method’s Time Tracking app, you would complete the following steps when you arrive on-site or start working on a project:
Open the app and go to the Time Entry screen.
Enter your name.
Enter the name of the customer you’re doing the work for.
Choose the billable hours status (if applicable).
Select the task or job you’re working on.
Press the Start the Timer button.
When you are done working on a job or taking a break, you simply stop the timer.
That’s it!
If any issues arise during the job, you can add notes to the time entry. This is great because it gives your office team a line of sight into job progress and keeps them in the know about any challenges you face.
It seems so simple, and it is. But taking the less-than-30-seconds to start a time entry can make a huge impact on your:
Efficiency.
Customer retention.
Bottom line.
How does employee time tracking software support payroll?
So far, you’ve learned how important time tracking is for accurate and fair payroll but how do time tracking applications help you with your payroll?
Well, for one, your Office Manager doesn’t have to constantly chase after employees to get timesheets filled out and in on time. And that’s not even half the battle.
Without employee time tracking software, your Office Manager has to manually enter all those time entries — which can easily lead to mistakes (especially if you use paper timesheets).
So, the question becomes: Why spend so much time and effort on data entry when there’s a solution that does the work for you? The answer is simple, you don’t — you use a tool instead.
Better yet, you can connect your time tracking and payroll software with a software integration or via Zapier, to automatically update time entries across your tools. The benefit is that processing payroll becomes faster and more foolproof for your business.
Let’s take Method for example. Method integrates with QuickBooks so that when you use the Time Tracking app, that information gets synced over to QuickBooks.
In other words, you can process your payroll immediately with a few clicks. No more double data entry!
The top 4 benefits of employee time tracking for growing businesses
For businesses in growth mode, the name of the game is making sure that every dollar spent and every hour worked move the business forward.
Employee time tracking software helps you grow your business faster as it gives you the following advantages over traditional time tracking methods.
1. Higher productivity
You learned above about how employee time tracking software can save your Office Manager or HR team from hours of manual admin work. These are hours that can now be spent on training, hiring, and other tasks that improve your business.
2. More accurate time tracking
With an employee time tracking app, you get a precise total of the time spent working on each specific job that includes any breaks taken!
By contrast, having employees fill out timesheets at the end of the day or week leaves too much room for guesstimating and forgetting chunks of time.
Whether this results in too many or few hours being accounted for, this approach is bound to cause errors in your payroll and invoicing.
Not to mention that having an exact record of how long each task takes is a fundamental part of project management. You need this information to help you when planning employee schedules and to keep project costs down.
In other words, employee time tracking software lets you:
Maximize team productivity.
Pay your employees fairly.
Bill your customers correctly.
Reduce your operational costs.
3. Real-time reporting
How often have you wanted to know the exact status of a project at any given moment? To know right away about delays that were holding your team back? Or about a mistake or accident that needed an immediate solution?
If your time tracking app has real-time reporting, this is possible as you’re looped in to what’s going in the field as it happens.
This way you can proactively take steps to get ahead of any issues and keep customers happy if there are delays or issues reported on the app.
Take Method’s Time Tracking mobile app, for example.
It acts as a live feed from the job site to connect your in and out-of-office teams. This way you can support your field crews with a solution that stops hiccups from turning into disasters.
4. Simpler, faster, and more detailed billing
An integrated time tracking tool can instantly add employee hours to your invoices so that an itemized bill for services can be done in seconds. A bill, mind you, that doesn’t charge your customers for breaks or idle time.
Taking this approach:
Earns customer trust.
Makes you look more professional.
Builds brand credibility.
With Method, you can provide each customer with a precise, itemized, custom invoice in just a few clicks because our Time Tracker Tool integrates with QuickBooks.
Putting it all together: The importance of employee time tracking software for your business
To run a successful business you need to make sure that all your resources are spent wisely — including labor.
Keeping track of how your employees are spending their time:
Minimizes your payroll errors.
Gives you a better picture of where the sticking points are in your workflows.
Reduces your time entries to one source of truth.
Empowers you to give precise and detailed invoices to your customers.
There are many ways to track employee time, but none are as accurate and easy to use as employee time tracking software.
Maximize your productivity and reduce costs with a free trial of the Method:Field Services Time Tracking app.
If you find your sales team focusing more on administrative tasks than on actual revenue-generating activities, then sales automation may be the solution.
Sales reps have a huge amount of responsibility in today’s competitive market. Not only do they need to continuously bring in revenue, but they also need to keep track of data related to their sales at each step of the process, which involves a lot of manual work. In fact, Forbes determined that sales people only spend about 35% of their time selling. That doesn’t sound right, does it?
But imagine if your sales team no longer had to do that manual work. Their productivity and efficiency would improve, resulting in higher overall sales.
Sales automation can get you those improved results, and technology such as automation tools and software can help you get there.
Today you’ll learn how sales automation can benefit your sales team and lead to more revenue for your business.
Let’s dive in!
What is sales automation?
Sales automation is the process of streamlining manual tasks in the sales process. This helps you get tedious, time-consuming tasks done quicker and more efficiently.
Streamlining your sales process allows your sales team to focus less on admin and more on selling. Here’s a glimpse of how you can expect sales automation to positively impact your business:
Increase your sales team’s productivity.
Improve the accuracy and efficiency of your sales process.
Keep sales data consistent across your organization.
Reduce response time and increase customer satisfaction.
For maximum efficiency, you want to use sales automation software, such as a CRM, to simplify your sales process. The right software will help you keep track of your sales data and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.
Sales automation vs. marketing automation
If you’ve been researching different tools to help streamline your business processes, you may have also come across the term marketing automation.
Both marketing automation and sales automation are important to drive sales and bring in revenue, and in an ideal scenario, your business would use both. However, it is important to understand the difference between the two and determine where each fits into your organization.
As you can guess, the idea behind marketing automation is similar to sales automation. It involves using tools and software to automate marketing tasks and processes. These tasks include:
Marketing automation is mainly focused on the top of the sales funnel, meaning that it will help you get more leads. Marketing automation will help you build your email database and nurture your leads.
Sales automation, on the other hand, moves you towards closing the deal. Sales automation will also help you keep track of your leads as they move through the funnel.
Let’s take a closer look at how automating your sales processes can benefit your business.
The benefits of sales automation
Now that you’ve learned the basics of sales automation, you probably want to know how it can benefit your business. Well, we’ve got you covered! Let’s dive deeper into the top benefits of automating your sales process.
1. Gain insight on your customers
Your top priority is your customers, so you want to get to know them as much as possible. Sales automation allows you to gather helpful data and implement strategies on how to use it to better serve your customers.
The data you collect will help you figure out your customers’ pain points, learn their needs, and form sales strategies to deliver solutions to those needs.
2. Less time on admin, more time building relationships
Sales automation allows your sales team to accomplish more. When you take administrative tasks off their plates, your sales reps have more time to focus on their main job: building customer relationships and closing sales!
Sales automation allows your sales team to focus on high-value tasks, which will result in increased productivity and performance from your sales reps.
Imagine not having to do manual data entry every time you need to update a customer’s contact information. Or imagine having your leads organized by where they’re at in the sales pipeline so you can focus on the most promising sales opportunities.
By automating your sales tasks instead of worrying about updating your customer’s data, you can spend more time building relationships and ensuring customer satisfaction.
3. Enhance data accuracy
Have you ever had a lack of communication between two of your team members lead to a missed sales opportunity? This is an unfortunate occurrence that many small businesses go through.
The lack of a clear, automated sales process may lead to more human error. If you rely on manual data entry from more than one member of your sales team, you may end up with redundancy or inaccurate information. You also run the risk of multiple people having bits of information on your customers, but no one having the full picture.
Automation can not only ensure that information is updated on time, but also that it is updated accurately. In particular, a CRM can help make sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to your customers.
Sales CRM automation means there will be fewer data entry mistakes because the information is located in one database and updated in real-time. If there is an error, any employee who accesses the file can correct it so the same error won’t pop up to other team members.
4. Automate lead scoring
No one likes manually sorting through prospects to score each sales lead manually. This task is not only time-consuming and tedious, but it is also prone to error. This is risky since lead scoring is important to make sure your sales team spends their time with the most qualified leads.
Lead scoring involves scoring every interaction a lead has with your company, and weighing those points against expected values. The result is turning that lead into a sales-qualified lead (SQL).
Automated lead scoring can make this process easier and more accurate. With the help of a good sales automation platform, you can identify your SQLs more quickly and immediately start giving them the attention they need.
As you can see, sales automation can benefit your business in multiple ways. Let’s get more specific and look at some sales automation workflows that will help your sales team be more efficient.
4 sales automation workflows that simplify your sales process
Automating your workflows will have a positive impact on your sales reps, your customers, and your overall business. Let’s look at some key workflows that sales automation can simplify.
1. Lead collection
Lead collection is often a messy process. Sales prospects often come in from multiple channels, such as:
Social platforms.
Sales website.
Ads.
In-Store.
Email.
Chatbots.
With so many different channels, it’s hard to keep track of your leads. Centralizing this information is a time-consuming process that’s prone to human error. The result? Sales opportunities get left on the table and hot leads get ignored.
You want to automate this process because it will ensure every lead is accounted for and that you don’t lose out on potential revenue.
2. Lead assignment
When a new lead comes in, it needs to be assigned to a sales rep so that not everyone on the team jumps on it at the same time.
Unfortunately, this process is usually manual and takes a significant part of a sales manager’s time, making it a great process to automate.
By automating assigning leads, you know that there’s no processing delay before leads are followed up with and that your sales team isn’t bottlenecked.
3. Prospect follow-ups
Once your lead collection process is automated, the next step is to ensure every lead is followed up with in a timely manner.
According to IRC Sales Solution, only 2% of sales are made during the first point of contact. That means you stand to lose 98% of potential sales if you don’t follow up.
With your sales reps having so much on the go, a follow-up to each of your leads isn’t a sure thing. Unless, of course, you leverage sales workflow automation.
By instantly scheduling follow-up activities for your sales reps, you can rest assured that each lead will be followed up with and brought down the sales funnel by your team.
4. Sales pipeline management
Keeping up with data is important to manage your sales pipeline, from knowing which deals are closing to tracking how much revenue has come in.
However, manually tracking data points is a slow process that’s worth automating. Instead of spending hours in Excel figuring this information out, look for sales automation software that automates this process for quick insights on the numbers you need.
These tools allow you to view data using different filters, such as:
Closed/won deals.
Sales rep.
Total revenue.
Account.
Filtering allows you to dig deeper into the data and closely analyze what’s working and what isn’t. As a result, you can flag and address problems in a quicker and more effective way.
Now that you understand how sales automation can simplify your workflows, let’s check out some tools that will help you automate your sales process.
Tools that make sales automation easy
Sales automation tools can help make automating your sales process that much quicker. There are several different types of tools available for you to choose from. Let’s take a closer look at a few of them.
Schedulers
When it comes to keeping track of sales leads, staying organized is crucial. Many potential sales could be lost because of unorganized processes. There’s nothing worse than struggling to coordinate a meeting with a sales prospect and failing to find the right time.
Schedulers, such as Calendly, are a great tool for any business to have. Schedulers eliminate the tedious back and forth of choosing a time that works for your customers. Plus, schedulers often offer calendar integrations so invites are automatically sent out to sales reps and customers.
CRM
A CRM (customer relationship management) tool is one of the most important types of sales automation software because it helps you automate so many of your sales tasks.
Some of the tasks that CRM sales automation can help you accomplish include:
Create lead gen forms to make it easy to turn website visitors into qualified leads.
Enable email integrations to make it possible to seamlessly track activities while communicating with leads and customers.
Automate your payment process so your sales team doesn’t spend time on payment collection.
Track every step of the sales pipeline and quickly create reports.
And so much more!
As you can see, a CRM may be the only sales automation tool you need, but it can also feed data into other sales automation tools that your sales team uses.
For QuickBooks users, Method CRM can help keep your data organized and automate every step of the sales pipeline.
Method is the #1 CRM for QuickBooks and Xero users. The following video shows how Method helped a shipping container company double its revenue in just three years.
Chatbots
In an ideal world, you want to engage with your customers 24/7. However, your sales reps are only human, and are unable to be available for your customers at all times. Luckily, there’s a solution: Chatbots.
Chatbots are a form of automated communication for prospects and customers. Gone are the days of chatbots being solely a customer service tool. When used right, they can indicate to prospective customers that you want to communicate with them and care about their experience.
Chatbots help capture and qualify leads by asking automated questions. As responses, they serve up existing web content like help articles and FAQs, as well as deliver simple information, such as store hours.
Chatbots help your customers move through the sales funnel. Instead of having everything sent to your sales team, chatbots will triage requests to qualify leads more quickly.
If you’re ready to look into integrating chatbots into your sales automation plan, check out Intercom and Drift to bridge the communication gap when your sales reps aren’t available.
Zapier
Although a CRM may provide you with all of the sales automation tools you need, you may come across other tools that you want to integrate into your processes.
Don’t worry if your current CRM can’t integrate directly with a tool you want to use. There is a solution to that.
A connector can easily integrate your CRM with different apps. One of the most popular connectors is Zapier.
Zapier allows you to instantly connect a CRM to over 3000 apps to help you automate your work. Some of those apps include:
Trello.
Slack.
Mailchimp.
Gmail.
Outlook calendar.
Zapier pushes information from your favorite apps directly into your CRM. That way, you can get up-to-date information on your leads, customers, sales, and more, all from one place.
Zapier also eliminates double-data entry, empowering your team with accurate data and ensuring that everyone is always on the same page.
QuickBooks users can experience the magic of Zapier, as it allows you to integrate Method CRM with over 3000 apps to automate your work.
No-code tools
Programmers are no longer the only ones with the power to create apps. Thanks to no-code tools, anyone can create interactive apps without knowing how to code.
No-code is the act of building software apps without coding, eliminating the need to hire a software developer for application development. You don’t need to know a programming language to use it. All no-code really requires of you is to scroll, click, drag, and drop.
No-code solutions empower small businesses of every size to build automated workflows that mirror their exact business processes. The beauty of creating a custom solution like this is that you can add in personalized fields and meet your unique business needs.
For example, instead of relying on error-prone Excel for data entry, you can develop a cloud-based app for your entire team to store and update your data. No-code gives everyone the power to automate workflows, improving the productivity and efficiency of your team.
Wrap up: Sales automation brings your business forward
To recap, sales automation can:
Improve your sales team’s productivity.
Reduce human error.
Keep your team organized.
Enhance your customer’s experience.
Track data efficiently.
Easily generate sales reports.
Sales automation has become a necessity in today’s sales world to keep up with ongoing demands. The right automation software gives your sales team the freedom to focus less on admin work and more on selling.
The best thing you can do for your business is set yourself up on a sales automation platform to streamline your workflows and increase your revenue.
To learn more about how sales automation can streamline your sales process, download our free sales ebook.
Data analytics is no longer just a tool for large corporations. Today, small and medium businesses can now use their data to:
Reach new audiences.
Improve operations.
Fuel business growth.
This is thanks to new small business technology trends that have made large swaths of data available to everyone — from single-location boutiques to multi-location, growing franchises.
For a deeper understanding of small business data analytics, keep reading to learn:
What data analytics is.
The current state of small business data analytics.
How data analytics can impact your small business.
How to get started with small business data analytics.
The role of data analytics in marketing.
Now, let’s jump in!
What is data analytics?
Data analytics generally describes the process of using information to discover new ways to improve your small business.
For small businesses, the process is fairly straightforward and can be broken up into four parts:
Collect data about your business activities.
Clean this data.
Organize your data points to ensure they can be examined easily.
Evaluate information to discover new ways to improve your operations.
Essentially, the goal of small business data analytics is to take your raw data and turn it into actionable insights that can be used for impactful change.
The current state of small business data analytics
Now that we’ve covered the foundation of what data analytics is, let’s look at how small businesses leverage data today.
According to Score, 51% of small business owners believe that big data is a must.
“51% of small business owners believe that big data is a must.”
— Score, 2019.
Digging deeper, this research found that companies that leverage data analytics tools enjoy 15% more in sales than companies that don’t.
All in all, it’s clear that in 2021 and beyond small business data analytics are a key part of growing your business. Next, let’s look at why they’re so crucial for scaling businesses.
What types of data analysis techniques should small businesses look into?
Data analytics are essential to growing one’s business in this day and age. But data must be analyzed wisely, or else you risk it going to waste.
Here are some essential data analysis methods that businesses can use to scale up:
Text analytics: Also called data mining, text analytics involve extracting patterns from large data sets to help businesses predict customer behavior, identify potential relationships, and ultimately make better business decisions.
Diagnostic analytics: This involves examining data to find the causes of certain trends and the correlation between variables. With this, small businesses can gain a better understanding of insights like market demand and consumer behavior by simply asking, “Why did X happen?”
Predictive analytics: This involves looking at historical data and data gained from machine learning to predict future outcomes. Small businesses can use this method to pinpoint potential risks, threats, and opportunities.
How can data analytics impact your small business?
One of the most common ways to use small business data analytics is to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales process.
By evaluating data from each step of your process, you can:
Increase the efficiency of how you deliver services or create your product.
Reduce shopping cart abandonment to maximize revenue.
These benefits, however, are only possible if you ask the right questions about your data set.
Questions such as, “Which acquisition channels have the highest ROI?”, “How can we adjust our outreach to more effectively target audiences?”, and “Why are prospects abandoning us at that step in the sales process?” are just a few examples of questions that will provide you with valuable insights.
When it comes to small business data analytics, it’s important to understand not just what the data says but also the why and how behind it.
How to get started
First thing first: you need data to analyze. And while you may think you don’t have information worth analyzing, that likely isn’t the case.
Here’s an overview of tools you probably use that hold information you can include in your analysis:
Customer relationship management (CRM) solution. This gives you a 360-degree view of every customer from their demographic details to order history. This is all information you can include in your analysis.
Email marketing platform. This tool holds data such as customer communication habits and campaign performance. This is information you can use to examine your email communication tactics at scale and look at how they perform with different audiences.
eCommerce tool. You can look here for data about your online buyers and the steps that lead them to make purchases with you. These are data points you can then use to refine your buyer personas and customer journey.
As you begin your data analysis, you’ll want to ask questions like:
What patterns do you see in this data?
What is causing these patterns?
How can you use this information to improve your business?
Now that you have the right information, you’ll want to make sure your analysis uses data hygiene best practices. For those of you new to small business data analytics, data hygiene is “the ongoing processes involved in guaranteeing data is clean” or error-free.
Data science and small business analytics
While the two terms seem similar, there are key distinctions between the two. Business analysts pore over large datasets to find trends, patterns, and important insights that can help decision-makers bring positive changes to a business.
Data scientists, on the other hand, build the algorithms and structures that can help analysts do their job of collecting data. Essentially, data scientists create the tools analysts use to gather, study, and keep information.
The role of small business data analytics in your marketing efforts
Next, let’s look at how small business data analytics can impact your marketing performance.
#1: Maximize your customer retention rate
The benefits of strong customer retention are almost endless. From higher sales to a better bottom line, it makes financial sense to invest in the relationships you have with your existing customer base.
Discover which communication efforts are the most engaging for your customers. Then, replicate that style of messaging going forward.
Segment your contact database to create personalized offers for different segments of your audiences.
And with 80% of buyers only shopping at businesses that provide them with personalized experiences, the above tactics are sure-fire ways to turn your customers into life-long, repeat purchasers.
#2: Expand into new markets
Next, let’s walk through the scenario of using small business data analytics to successfully expand into new markets. To start, here’s an example.
Imagine that you’re a small business that sells stationery.
In the past, you sold stationery to businesses in your surrounding zip codes but now, you’re looking to sell your product to businesses in other geographic areas.
In this example, the data-driven path forward is to analyze your customer data to determine who your ideal customer is and then build a strategy that targets this profile in other regions.
To do this, you need to examine your current customer base and look for the common characteristics your best customers share. Once you understand this, you can then determine who your ideal customer is and target audiences that match this persona.
Whether that’s through look-a-like ad campaigns or extremely targeted sales outreach, leveraging data analytics here helps you successfully break into new markets and grow your business faster.
What to consider before hiring a data analytics consultant
Before you start searching for a data analytics consultant, consider the following factors first:
1. Have a clear objective
What are you looking to get out of data analytics? What is your endgame? Which goals do you wish to achieve with the help of data? Once you can answer all these questions, you become better equipped to find the right tools and people to get the job done. While many tools out there boast a myriad of functionalities, each service will have its own strengths, weaknesses, and advantages over the competition.
2. Identify your limitations
What needs can your own team fulfill? In what areas are they lacking? What are their expertise and weak points? Sometimes, your team may be equipped to handle the first steps of small business data analytics but may not have the knowledge or resources to see it through. This is where a consultant comes in.
3. Determine which traits you value the most
Do you need a team or consultant that can work fast or someone who is more methodical? Are you looking for someone with good leadership skills to mold your in-house team or a team player who will simply provide assistance to your short-staffed team? Do you need someone who is flexible or will be a fixture in the long run?
What sorts of tools can small businesses use for data analytics?
There are so many tools out there that small business owners can use to harness the power of data and take their business to the next level. Here are some of the top-rated analytic services for small businesses:
SAS: One of the most popular data analytics tools on the market, SAS services a variety of industries, from agriculture to small and medium-sized enterprises. SAS equips small business owners with machine learning and forecasting capabilities, among many others.
SAP Business Intelligence: SAP offers a wide range of data solutions ranging from supply chain planning to CRM and customer experience. SAP users can utilize dozens of functionalities in a single, intuitive platform.
Sisense: This user-friendly solution accesses data from key tools like AdWords, Salesforce, and Google Analytics to give your business a competitive advantage in the market. Unlike most data analytics tools, using Sisense requires no prior knowledge of coding or IT – perfect for small businesses just starting out with small teams.
Tableau: Tableau’s mission is to make it easier for people to see, understand, and manage their data. Like Sisense, Tableau is relatively easy to understand, allowing users without an extensive background in programming and IT to give it a shot. Tableau is also free for personal use.
Google Analytics: This underrated tool by Google allows businesses to better understand their current and potential customers based on their online journey. From site visiting behavior to social media traffic, there are plenty of insights you can collect by using Google Analytics.
Closing notes on small business data analytics
There’s no doubt that in 2021 small business data analytics are center stage and here to stay! No longer a tool that’s reserved for large corporations, it’s time for small businesses to shine as data-driven companies. Whether for marketing, product development, or internal optimization, analyzing your data is a great way to yield powerful insights and improve your operations.
And if you feel overwhelmed at the idea of incorporating data analytics into your strategy, fear not as there are partners that specialize in helping you do exactly that.
Whatever approach you take, we wish you the best of luck!
Looking to dive deeper into small business data analytics? Learn about the power of big data in business here.
Today, you’ll get some clarity on a common question — should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?
In the next few paragraphs, you’ll get guidance on how to make this decision. That said, it’s important to preface things by saying that the answer really depends on how your business is set up and operates.
Keep reading to learn the:
Scenarios where you should stay on QuickBooks Desktop.
Top reasons businesses make the switch to QuickBooks Online.
New subscription option for QuickBooks Desktop.
Let’s get started!
Need an easier way to keep your QuickBooks data up-to-date?
Before answering the question, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?” let’s get to know QuickBooks Desktop a bit better.
QuickBooks Desktop is a popular accounting software that helps businesses manage their finances and perform tasks like:
Report generation.
Payroll handling.
Inventory tracking.
Tax management.
QuickBooks Desktop offers different versions to meet specific needs:
QuickBooks Desktop Pro: perfect for small businesses.
QuickBooks Enterprise: suited for larger enterprises with complex accounting demands.
QuickBooks Desktop stores all your data on your computer for a traditional, hands-on approach to financial management. Whether you use Mac or Windows, it offers a full suite of tools to handle your accounting processes and the needs of your customers.
Benefits of using QuickBooks Desktop
Using QuickBooks Desktop comes with many benefits:
All-in-one tool: From basic accounting workflows to managing your entire company file, QuickBooks Desktop makes sure you keep everything on track from a centralized space.
Feature-packed: QuickBooks Desktop is loaded with a range of features to address diverse business needs.
Easy reporting: The software gives you a clear snapshot of your business with customizable reports and crucial data like your profit and loss statements.
Safe and efficient: QuickBooks Desktop boosts productivity and keeps your data secure — all while letting you keep an eye on your products and services.
Let’s take a closer look at QuickBooks Online before answering, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?”
QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based accounting software that improves your business’ financial management. It’s designed to cut down the time you and your employees spend on tasks like:
Bookkeeping and invoice creation.
Customer and supplier management.
Expenses and budget handling.
Sales and cash flow tracking.
Best of all, QuickBooks Online is easy to access from anywhere, any time. However, keep in mind that it requires an internet connection unlike QuickBooks Desktop.
Benefits of using QuickBooks Online
As with QuickBooks Desktop, using QuickBooks Online comes with unique benefits:
Accessibility: Manage your finances from any corner of the world. This lets you keep your budget and supply chain on track — whether you’re in the office or on the go.
Automatic updates: No need for tricky installations or updates. Using QuickBooks Online means more time to focus on profit generation and less on tech issues.
Multi-user access: Collaborate in real time with your team, which makes it simpler to monitor cash flow and share important insights.
Automatic backups and security: Your financial data backs up automatically and securely to QuickBooks Online, so you don’t have to worry about losing crucial information.
Simplified invoicing: Online’s automated invoices make managing your finances easier and more accurate.
Get started with your free trial of QuickBooks Online here.
Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?
Now that we’ve explored both options, let’s tackle the big question: “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?”
Before making the decision on moving from QuickBooks Desktop to Online, it’s essential to weigh the pros and cons of each option and conduct a comparison of features and functionality. Plus, you need to consider the time and money it costs to make the switch.
While QuickBooks Desktop has robust capabilities, QuickBooks Online offers the advantage of accessibility. To determine the best fit for your business, analyze your specific needs and goals.
Let’s look even closer at the differences between these options so you make the most informed decision for your unique workflows.
QuickBooks Desktop vs. QuickBooks Online: What is the difference?
To answer the question, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?” let’s take a look at what sets them apart.
The main differences between QuickBooks Desktop and Online are:
Technical and operational aspects.
Growth and adaptability.
Financial factors.
Accessibility.
Let’s look into these areas closer.
Technical and operational aspects
To start, let’s explore the technical and operational differences between QuickBooks Desktop and Online:
Version updates: QuickBooks Online automatically updates more frequently than Desktop. In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop requires manual updates, and upgrades come out few and far between.
Data storage: QuickBooks Online stores your data in the cloud for online access, while Desktop stores it locally. Consider your preference between these two different approaches in terms of data security and privacy.
Automatic backups: QuickBooks Online provides automatic backups, unlike Desktop, where you’ll need to perform backups manually.
Remote access: QuickBooks Online allows for remote access, unlike Desktop, which requires additional remote software for on-the-go functionality.
Integration: While both software versions have designated app marketplaces, QuickBooks Online provides better integration options than Desktop. It offers broader compatibility with third-party apps and easier implementation.
Growth and adaptability
Next, let’s dive into the growth and adaptability differences between QuickBooks Desktop vs. Online:
Scalability: QuickBooks Desktop is more scalable than Online, especially for large-sized businesses. QuickBooks Enterprise in particular handles complex operations and seamlessly aligns with long-term business plans and scalability.
Industry-specific tools: When it comes to specific industry needs, both QuickBooks versions offer tools to meet the accounting method and requirements of multiple industries. These include tools for sectors that range from manufacturing to non-profit organizations.
Customization: When it comes to reporting and customization options, Desktop has more features than Online. These features are advanced and let you personalize the solution for better alignment with your operations.
Financial factors
Now, let’s explore how QuickBooks Desktop and Online vary when it comes to financial aspects.
In terms of subscription pricing vs. one-time purchase, they follow different approaches. For most, QuickBooks Online’s monthly subscription model is more cost-effective than Desktop’s one-time purchase approach, which also includes optional yearly upgrades.
Accessibility
Lastly, let’s discuss how QuickBooks Desktop and Online differ in terms of accessibility:
Remote access: QuickBooks Online offers better accessibility than Desktop, as you can use it on any device, provided there’s adequate internet reliability and speed. Online is also easier to use than Desktop due to its user-friendly interface and simplified screen navigation.
User access: QuickBooks Online supports more users simultaneously than QuickBooks Desktop. This means multiple users can access data without the need for additional licenses.
Support options: Support options vary between QuickBooks Online and Desktop. For example, Online users may depend on web tools for technical support and assistance, whereas Desktop users may rely more on phone and email support.
Product and security updates
QuickBooks Desktop usually rolls out updates once a year. These updates require manual installation and sometimes come with additional costs if you’re upgrading features.
Intuit also releases security patches periodically to ensure your system remains up to standards. Although existing QuickBooks Desktop users still receive continued support for products, it’s important to note that as of September 30th, 2024, certain versions are being discontinued from support and security updates.
In contrast, QuickBooks operates on a cloud-based model, which means you do not need manual updates for your software. Intuit automatically applies:
Product enhancements.
New features.
Security updates.
Cloud-based products like QuickBooks Online also include advanced encryption and continuous security monitoring to safeguard your data against threats.
These differences are what make tackling the question, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?” tough.
QuickBooks Desktop to Online: When it doesn’t make sense to switch
To help you answer the question, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?” let’s explore situations where a switch is not the best fit.
The first major checkpoint in this decision is to evaluate the current features you use against what’s available in the QuickBooks Online platform and app ecosystem.
While QuickBooks Desktop and Online share some features and functionality, they are not a like-for-like replacement.
Here are the features native to QuickBooks Desktop that are not available “out of the box” in the Online versions:
Inventory tracking and automated reordering points.
IIF import files.
Custom fields on invoices and bills.
Job progress invoicing.
Job costing.
Sales orders.
If any of these features are part of your workflow today, you may need to get creative and dig deeper into the nitty-gritty of the QuickBooks Online offering.
For example, let’s look at custom invoice fields in QuickBooks Online. While the capability exists, it does so in a more limited capacity than in QuickBooks Desktop.
As a result, you need to think about the level of customization your QuickBooks invoices need and include this in your decision to move from QuickBooks Desktop to Online.
In other cases, such as inventory tracking, you will need to invest in a third-party application from the QuickBooks Online app store to unlock the functionality.
Now, it’s important to note that installing third-party applications is not necessarily a bad thing. You should instead view this as an opportunity to extend the power of QuickBooks Online and get the exact functionality you need.
In some cases, the combination of QuickBooks Online and third-party applications results in a solution that goes well beyond the functionality of QuickBooks Desktop and provides you with a more powerful tool.
When looking at apps as part of your decision to move from QuickBooks Desktop to Online, you should consider the following questions:
Does the app meet (or exceed) the QuickBooks Desktop features you use today?
Does the incremental cost of the app justify the impact it will have on your business?
Can you import your historical data from QuickBooks Desktop into this new app?
If you answered, “Yes” to these questions, switching to QuickBooks Online might meet your specific needs around:
Legal compliance.
Payroll.
Time tracking.
Get everything you need to run your business in one place.
Answering the question, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?” becomes easier when you understand the limits of QuickBooks Desktop.
Mobility
When it comes to mobility, QuickBooks Desktop restricts you a bit. For vendors and products on the move, the ability to migrate or convert data is essential.
That’s where Desktop falls short compared to Online, which enhances accessibility and mobility. Online is more mobile-friendly than Desktop in almost every way.
Multiple-user access
QuickBooks Desktop is limited in collaboration and multi-user access. It doesn’t easily allow for remote access. Plus, assessing finances as a team may require additional licenses.
Automatic updates
QuickBooks Desktop users may find themselves missing out on the latest features.
Unlike QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop lacks automatic updates and backup functionality. This means you’ll need to manually install updates to stay current.
Integration with online apps
QuickBooks Desktop is limited in its integration with third-party apps.
This can slow down your workflow and result in missed opportunities for productivity-enhancing features.
Backup
QuickBooks Desktop lacks automatic data backups, which makes data security and privacy a concern.
In contrast, QuickBooks Online provides automatic backup and recovery options to minimize risk.
User interface
QuickBooks Desktop has a different user interface than the more modern QuickBooks Online. This impacts the learning curve and training needed for users to adapt.
That’s why getting to know the transition and onboarding process is key when starting with QuickBooks Desktop.
Diving into feedback from current QuickBooks Desktop users, as well as user reviews and testimonials will guide your decision if you’re leaning towards Desktop.
Subscription model
Lastly, QuickBooks Desktop has a different pricing model than QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online requires a subscription, while QuickBooks Desktop requires a one-time purchase.
Although a one-time purchase avoids recurring payments, it also involves a higher initial investment. This can be a strain for small businesses just starting out.
On a related note, it’s also wise to understand QuickBooks Desktop’s cancellation and refund policies, as they affect your software’s overall cost and flexibility.
When you might choose QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop
Now that we’ve covered the key factors when asking, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?” let’s review why businesses are making the switch.
1. Improved workflow and automation
Switching to QuickBooks Online enhances back office accounting with automation that is more efficient than Desktop.
The real game-changer here is that QuickBooks Online offers better accessibility than its desktop counterpart. This means you can tap into a range of automation opportunities more easily.
Right from the get-go, you’ll enjoy support for two common recurring workflows — invoicing and bank statement imports.
2. The robust app ecosystem
The beauty of QuickBooks Online’s cloud-based architecture lies in how it integrates better with third-party apps than QuickBooks Desktop. This means you can easily connect with a range of other solutions to enhance your business operations.
Plus, QuickBooks Online has more features than QuickBooks Desktop through its more extensive app store. Whether you need specific point solutions or full-fledged QuickBooks CRM integrations, these tools free up time by reducing manual, repetitive work.
3. Access from any location, on any device
As is the case with any cloud product, you no longer need to worry about hardware compatibility or having the latest and greatest technology to run your business applications with QuickBooks Online.
It’s cloud-based, unlike QuickBooks Desktop. So, all you need is a device with a browser, and you have access to your data!
This also means you do not need to manage any local installations or “helper” applications for third-party tools — which are often a point of friction for businesses getting set up or migrating to new hardware.
Because QuickBooks Online runs on Intuit’s servers and databases, Intuit also manages the hardware and its redundancy. This saves you from the worry of managing a local QuickBooks Desktop file. Not to mention, it’s more cost-effective than maintaining your own hardware.
Subscriptions for QuickBooks Desktop
QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier
As of the September 30 stop-sell, QuickBooks Desktop Pro and QuickBooks Premier versions are no longer available to purchase in the United States. This decision marks a significant change in Intuit’s strategy as they focus more on cloud-based solutions and subscription models.
This does not affect existing Desktop customers, who can continue to use their software and renew it after September 30th. It’s also important to note that Intuit is continuing support for these versions for current subscribers. This includes providing:
Security updates.
Product updates.
Technical support.
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise continues to be available and supported to all users. It isn’t impacted by the QuickBooks Desktop stop-sell decision. If you have a larger business with more complex needs like deeper inventory management and advanced functionality, upgrading to a QuickBooks Enterprise subscription may be worth considering.
Can you transfer data from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?
If you’re considering a switch to QuickBooks Online, the good news is that transferring data from QuickBooks Desktop to Online is possible. With specific tools and guidance, it’s a straightforward process.
Is migration right for you?
For existing QuickBooks Desktop users, the decision to migrate to Online is a tough one. It’s important to remember that the stop-sell affects only new sales of specific QuickBooks Desktop products in the U.S., including:
Pro Plus.
Premier Plus.
Mac Plus.
Enhanced Payroll.
If you’re an existing customer, you can continue to use it and renew it — and you’ll still receive updates and support from Intuit.
But consider your business’ specific needs. For example, if you require advanced inventory management, QuickBooks Enterprise might be a better option.
In the same way, the comprehensive features and cloud accessibility convenience of QuickBooks Online could offer a more useful accounting solution.
What converts and doesn’t from QuickBooks Desktop to Online
You can convert most of your essential financial data to QuickBooks Online, including your:
Company information.
Chart of accounts.
Customer and vendor details.
Transactions.
This ensures smoother operations and minimal disruption to your accounting processes.
Unfortunately, some data and features may not transfer directly due to differences between the platforms. This includes:
Certain custom financial reports.
Any transaction types.
Advanced inventory details.
How Method helps with your transition
If you have a Method account connected to your QuickBooks, Method is proactively offering guidance and support to ensure a seamless shift. This includes:
Personalized support: Method’s team is ready to assist with accounts remapping to retain functionality and data integrity.
Transition tools: Using migration tools and Method’s expertise, rest assured that your data transfer is complete and accurate.
Educational resources: Method provides additional resources, including webinars and help center articles, so you have all the information you need on migration process and best practices.
You can transfer your data from QuickBooks Desktop to Online. To do this:
Start by logging in as an admin to the company file you want to import.
Navigate to the Company menu and select “Export Company File to QuickBooks Online.” This jumpstarts the data conversion process.
Click on “Get started.”
Select the destination by clicking “Select destination.”
Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account, and you’re on your way to seamless data transfer.
So, there’s no need to worry about your desktop data when considering, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?”
Is it hard to switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?
You may wonder whether switching is a challenging task when asking, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?”
The answer is no. It’s not hard to switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. Intuit has simplified the process to make it as easy as possible. You can find detailed steps on the QuickBooks website for importing your information into QuickBooks Online.
Migration tools and support to get started
Intuit provides a QuickBooks Migration Tool that transfers data from Desktop to Online. This tool guides you through the process and automatically moves data like your:
Company file.
Accounts.
Transactions.
Customer and vendor details.
The tool simplifies the process to make it accessible even if you have limited technical expertise.
If you’re integrated with Method CRM, transitioning to QuickBooks Online requires a couple of additional steps to ensure that all linked data and custom workflows continue to operate smoothly. You’ll have access to personalized support and solutions to remap your account and ensure a smooth transition.
QuickBooks Desktop vs. Online: Key takeaways + some bonus reading
Deciding to switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online is not as straightforward of a choice as you may have thought.
The beauty of this decision, though, is that both platforms are very similar in terms of core functionality. This means that the factors you need to consider are more around the nuances of how you ultimately use QuickBooks on a day-to-day basis.
Start your free 30-day QuickBooks Online trial and get 30% off your subscription during your first year.
For some further reading, check out how Method:Partner Victoria Cameron evaluated the switch, as well as her top tips for making the transition!
Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online FAQs
Why are companies switching from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?
More and more companies are making the switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, and here’s why:
Accessibility: QuickBooks Online offers the flexibility to access financial data from anywhere, any time. Also, it is more accessible on mobile devices than Desktop.
Automatic updates: QuickBooks Online is continuously updated, unlike Desktop. It automatically implements the latest features and security patches, sparing you the hassle of manual backups and updates.
Scalability: As businesses grow, their needs change. QuickBooks Online makes it easier to scale up, as it offers a number of plans that grow with your business.
Integration with other apps: QuickBooks Online integrates with a wide range of business applications to centralize your operations.
Improved collaboration: Cloud-based accessibility makes it simpler for teams to work together efficiently, regardless of their location.
In a nutshell, companies are switching to QuickBooks Online for its convenience, accessibility, and ability to adapt to growing business needs. That’s why more business owners are asking the question, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?”
Do accountants prefer QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online?
Accountants’ preferences vary, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Some prefer QuickBooks Desktop, while others prefer QuickBooks Online:
QuickBooks Desktop: Accountants who prefer QuickBooks Desktop appreciate its robust features, customizability, and ability to work offline. With more features than QuickBooks Online out of the box, it’s ideal for those who have complex accounting needs.
QuickBooksOnline: Accountants like QuickBooks Online as it offers real-time collaboration, internet accessibility, and automatic updates. It’s ideal for users who value mobility and teamwork.
The choice really depends on your unique needs!
Can users still use QuickBooks credit card processing features with QuickBooks Online?
Yes, QuickBooks Online supports credit card processing directly within the platform. It’s easier to use than other systems, as it offers a simplified way to manage credit card payments for your business.
Should I move clients from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?
Moving clients from QuickBooks Desktop to Online depends on their specific needs. QuickBooks Online offers cloud-based software access and automatic updates, which makes it suitable for clients requiring flexibility and real-time collaboration. Consider your clients’ business size, industry needs, and the features they rely on before making a decision.
Does QuickBooks Online sync with QuickBooks Desktop?
QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are separate products and do not sync directly with each other. Data migration tools are available to transfer information from Desktop to Online, but continuous, real-time syncing between the two platforms is not supported.
Strengthen your QuickBooks workflows today with a free trial of Method.
This blog is a guest contribution by Rebecca DiCioccio — the Marketing Manager at Paperform.
In the world of small business tech, things change fast and CRM solutions are no exception.
With new CRM providers popping up almost every week, this can be a tricky space for your small business to navigate.
To make this process easier, here are the top 3 future CRM trends you need to have on your radar.
But first, let’s start with some CRM 101 to get us all on the same page.
What is a CRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to help you manage interactions and relationships with customers.
So, in other words, it’s a goldmine of customer and lead details that includes everything from one’s purchase history to demographic data.
A CRM is useful across the board, as it lets teams from sales to customer service easily find the customer data they need to get the job done efficiently.
All in all, a CRM is a powerful solution that lets you do everything from storing customer contact interactions to managing your email campaigns.
Future CRM trends to have on your radar
AI
The first future CRM trend to watch out for is Artificial intelligence (AI).
AI is growing at a fast rate across all industries and CRM isn’t going to miss the boat.
CRM solutions are enhanced by the use of AI in multiple ways, with opportunities to save time and money, as well as gain incredible insights and data.
In fact, by the end of 2021, AI associated with CRM activities will give a $1.1 trillion boost to global business revenue.
So, everyone working in sales should pay attention to artificial intelligence and how it can be used together with human intelligence.
Workflow automation is one of the biggest and most important uses for AI in CRM. For example, using automation for your sales workflow can put hours back into your day each week as you don’t have to worry about manually entering lead data or following up with prospects.
Workflow automation is a must-have future CRM trend as it:
Saves you time
Increases your productivity
Reduces your workload
Lets smaller teams accomplish more
Conversational tools such as chatbots are another excellent way to make the most of AI for CRM.
Rather than completely take over from human customer service teams and salespeople, this CRM trend automates some of the most simple and common queries.
As AI gets more advanced, it will be able to handle more complex queries too — making this an important future CRM trend.
Social CRM
Getting the deepest view of your potential customer is a powerful and effective way to close more sales. And social media channels are no exception to the 360-degree customer view we’re all after.
That’s why social media channel software integrations are one of the top future CRM trends on this list.
This is particularly true when looking at the impact of COVID-19 on digital prospecting and online sales.
With everyone stuck at home, social media provided everything from friends to window shopping.
In fact, 60% of customer interactions with companies are projected to be online in 2021 and the rest in-person. In comparison, 2018 was practically the opposite with 42% of interactions were online and 58% in-person.
Online customer interactions are set to increase 43% post-pandemic.
– ROI Revolution, 2021.
Combining social media and CRM gets businesses closer to their customers online. It offers you a chance to get deeper insights into what your customers think and what they say about your brand online.
When you keep an eye on what’s happening on social media, you can collect customer feedback and use it to improve the customer experience as a whole.
A single line of customer communication
Taking an omnichannel approach to business has become popular over recent years, but it could soon be a thing of the past.
While the behaviour of leads and customers reaching out to you via multiple channels like phone, email, and social media is unlikely to change, how you manage these interactions should.
Especially when you consider that the current best practice results in full-time service reps switching screens up to 1,100 times a day on average.
A full-time customer service rep switches screens 1,100 times a day on average.
– American Telephone, 2020.
The alternative is to take a channel-less approach to communication requests and instead filter everything to your CRM.
This way your customer interaction can take place on any channel and one application will handle all incoming queries. This means your team members don’t have to continually check each platform and can stop jumping between over 1,000 screens daily.
With this CRM trend, communication is centralized so that customers can still choose their preferred method of communication but customer support teams have a much easier time trying to stay on top of everything. A true win-win scenario.
The final word: Future CRM trends to watch out for
The world of CRM is changing. New technologies and tools are making things easier, saving time and money for small businesses everywhere. Here’s a recap of the future CRM trends you need to be ready for:
Artificial intelligence is bringing automation and chatbots to the table
Social media is becoming more important to your sales process than ever before
It’s time to unify the line of communication you have with your potential and existing customers with a CRM
CRM trends, like just about everything in business, are always advancing. If you don’t keep an eye on these latest trends, you could get left behind. So, what better time than now for your small business to get on board with the way technology is heading.
Want a CRM that evolves with your business? Start your free trial of Method CRM today!
From a process perspective, work orders are the foundational element that keeps the field service industry running efficiently. They are the key to managing expectations and avoiding difficult conversations after a field assignment has been completed.
So, in other words, they’re important to get right.
Keep reading for four sure-fire ways to streamline your work order tracking process and deliver great experiences for both your customers and field teams.
Work order 101
Before we get into work order tracking best practices, let’s first align on the baseline elements of a work order.
If you boil the quote-to-cash process down to the essentials there are three stages — which conveniently map to three key documents:
Estimates — Outline proposed services and cost, for review by the customer
Work orders — Are generated from approved estimates and represent the work that is to be done, along with the aforementioned details about the job assignment
Invoices — Are the final step, outlining the actual work completed and final costs, to be paid for by the customer
Work orders aren’t complicated documents by nature as they include:
An outline of the work to be done
Pricing for the work or maintenance
The date, time, and location that the work assignment is to be performed
The name of the field service technician who will be performing the work or maintenance
With that baseline set, let’s dive deeper into the state of work order tracking today and review some opportunities to streamline your process.
The current state of work order tracking
Typically, field services businesses manage their work order process in one of three ways:
Through a combination of document/spreadsheet templates, paper forms, handwritten lists, and whiteboards.
Using workarounds via Delayed Charges or Sales Orders in QuickBooks.
Through 3rd-party field service management software that may (or may not) integrate with QuickBooks to provide specific functionality.
While #1 and #2 may sound appealing at surface value, they leave businesses exposed to the trap of saving hard costs. Hard costs that often pale in comparison to the opportunity cost of not investing in technology that provides users with processes and solutions that scale long-term.
The reality is that a well-designed work order tracking system is a good investment because:
The time spent creating, managing, and locating paperwork is not billable, nor is it perceived as “valuable” to your clients.
The efficiency of your work order tracking directly impacts your bottom line. A great process will maximize cash flow, which means you can invest more in people, tools, and technology to support your growth.
As a field service business, most of your processes touch your customer – and today, great customer experiences are one of the biggest influences on your customer retention rate. In a competitive space where the services offered and pricing are comparable, this is your best chance to secure and retain your customers!
With that last point in mind let’s look at the fundamentals of a great work order tracking process, with a special focus on customer touchpoints.
Step #1 – Create estimates on the go
While there are scenarios where estimates can be created over the phone, ideally they should be created on-site, in-person with the customer.
Not only is this a great chance to make a human connection but it’s also a key opportunity to ensure there’s clarity on the job(s) to be done (for both your customer and your field team).
Equipping your team with a mobile app that allows them to do this on the fly from a phone or tablet is the key to making this a reality.
A second benefit to moving this process from the office into the field is that you can ask for the business as soon as the estimate is complete.
Better yet, you can offer your customer the ability to sign off electronically on the spot to increase your odds of getting the business.
Not to mention that getting signatures quickly from your customers eliminates the need for your team to spend hours on the phone and sending emails to follow-up on unsigned estimates.
More signed estimates and fewer follow-up calls are both great boosts to your profitability!
Step #2 – Take the “work” out of work order tracking
Creating work orders once involved copying and pasting information from your estimates but this is no longer the case. Today, the ideal work order process uses the information in your estimate to automatically create the majority of your work order.
A centralized system for this process, such as a field service solution, makes this possible as it automatically inputs this data for you so that all that’s left is for your Dispatcher to finalize the scheduling and assignment of the work before dispatching.
When it comes to scheduling and dispatching, coordinating resources, managing your trucks, tools, and assets will always take an element of manual work; but your job routing is best left to software solutions.
By leveraging field service management software that’s designed to automatically optimize the route your field teams take, you:
Reduce the chance of human error when it comes to route mapping
Minimize the amount of time your team spends driving
Maximize the number of work orders your crew can complete
Moving your work order assignment and scheduling process to a cloud-based platform also brings the benefit of working with real-time updates.
In the field service industry, you know last-minute changes are bound to happen and throw a wrench into the best-laid assignment plans and routes.
Where this historically would result in scribbles across your job assignment board and a flurry of phone calls, working in a centralized software solution allows your team to have visibility into these changes and the resulting updates to the scheduling.
So, what was once a headache for the field service industry is now just a minor course correction with the proper cloud solution.
Step #3 – Online invoices and payments
Sometimes the end of your work order tracking process marks the start of the hardest part of the process – getting paid!
To stick with the theme of streamlining processes and delivering great experiences, this is a good opportunity to move to a digital invoicing process.
The benefits of online invoices and payments
Since the ideal work order process moves job information into a centralized location, the creation of an invoice becomes really simple when moved online.
In fact, it only involves inputting existing estimate and work order details into an invoice template that’s plug and play. Ideally, this invoice also contains a link to an online portal where your customer can pay digitally.
By fuelling your invoicing process with the right tech, you:
Get paid faster
Improve your work order tracking process
Reduce manual, repetitive tasks
So, in other words, this is another win-win for your business!
Step #4 – Keep your systems in sync
At this point, it’s safe to say that QuickBooks, spreadsheets, forms, lists, and whiteboards are not the ideal drivers of great work order tracking.
With that in mind, it’s important to make sure that any new technologies you invest in, integrate well with your core software solutions — like QuickBooks for example.
In doing so, you’ll:
Keep your QuickBooks data clean by ending the need to house non-posting transactions there
Keep your field team efficient by eliminating the need for workarounds, hacked-together solutions, or reams of paper forms to sort through
Keep your data in perfect sync as the right tool makes sure that data moves between QuickBooks and other platforms, in real-time
Done correctly, your team will never need to rekey information into QuickBooks again!
Pro-tip — Perfect your work order tracking with Method:Field Services
As a software company dedicated to empowering those in the field service industry to succeed, the above work order tracking process is ingrained in the Method:Field Services solution.
The goal for this field service management tool is to equip you and your field teams with technology that:
Maximizes your productivity and work order completion
Is easy for users to navigate
Simplifies your job assignment, dispatching, and routing process
Supply chain management has been a hot topic over the past year, so I wanted to share the highlights from our webinar with our friends at SOS Inventory. Our panelists had a great discussion on what a modern supply chain looks like in 2021. Here are the takeaways!
We’re not in Kansas anymore
Excuse my Wizard of Oz reference — but COVID-19 has reshaped the world of supply chains. Today, businesses need to employ a “back to basics” approach, which means:
Minimizing the number of intermediaries involved in your sourcing process
“Counting the cost” needs to consider both dollars and intangibles
The time between order and receipt needs to be managed closely
The struggles many countries faced while sourcing PPE over the past year highlighted the importance of these variables in a very relatable way. Where offshoring was a historical path of choice for the production of these types of goods, we’ve seen the concept of reshoring burst onto the scene in a very profound way as companies look to bring more predictability into their sourcing, despite the increased costs typically associated with domestic manufacturing.
The “human” factor is back, in a big way
There’s also been a major shift in how buyer-supplier relationships are perceived. Where these relationships were often very transactional, the importance of human connection has reemerged and buyers are realizing the importance of having partnerships at each step. Shortages have been harsh reminders that suppliers are an extension of your business — and when strong relationships are in place, resolutions come faster, confidence is higher, and problems have a way of getting sorted out in a much shorter period of time.
Going “digital” is a top priority
The pace of technology adoption in the transportation and supply chain industries has been slower than other industries, driven by the scope and scale of the industries themselves; however, the time for change has arrived. Forward-thinking leaders need to consider how technology can enable:
Greater visibility into their supply chain, through inventory management solutions
Streamlined order processing for their clients, through e-commerce
Enablement of distributed teams, through collaborative tools
Competitive pressures and tight margins often cause leaders to look more towards cost control versus investment — but the time has come to invest and lay strong foundations for future growth. Your end customer experience is becoming a core business differentiator, so it’s increasingly important to decrease friction at each step of their journey. It’s never been more important to make sure that you have complete visibility into your business so you can provide real-time insights to your stakeholders and keep your supply chain running efficiently.
The best plans account for the worst-case scenarios
The biggest lesson emerging from the pandemic is that the businesses that were agile are emerging stronger than they have ever been. Short supply chains and local sourcing were some of the keys — but there have been great success stories of companies that pivoted, retooled, and capitalized on new market needs and buying behaviors.
The takeaway here is that contingency planning is not an optional activity. If you haven’t done so already, your business would be well-served to identify:
Remote work contingencies for your team
Diversified options for raw material sourcing
Opportunities to pivot capacity and capabilities in the event of material shortages or new market demands
Wrapping up
In hindsight, 2020 shone a light on many areas of our day-to-day activities that were vulnerable to disruption. As the economic recovery continues, it’s time to focus on what was learned through this season and applying those learnings to ensure that your business is stronger as you prepare for the rest of 2021. Here at Method CRM and SOS Inventory, we’re big fans of small business — so we’re cheering you on!
Looking for more tips on managing an efficient supply chain? Check out the full recording from our webinar with SOS Inventory!
As a small business owner in a unique or highly specialized industry, you know the difficulties of learning how to grow a small business and increase your customer base.
Whether you offer doggy cleaning services, sell products specifically for left-handed folks, or create sword and fencing classes for kids, you know you’ve got a great product or service that improves people’s lives.
The challenging part for small business owners is facing a disconnect when it comes to marketing their products and services to new customers.
So, let’s take a look at ten ways outlining how to grow a small business and improve your bottom line.
How to grow a small business in a niche industry
To grow a small business in a niche industry, you must:
Understand your target market.
Figure out how to communicate with them better.
Go above and beyond to engage your business in the local community.
Increase customer retention.
Practice corporate social responsibility.
Form strategic partnerships.
But the question remains — how? So, here are ten strategies to help you grow:
Get to know your target audience.
Create a product/service that is focused on customer needs.
Highlight the value of your offer.
Use technology to its full potential.
Take a multichannel marketing approach.
Get involved in community efforts.
Focus on scalability.
Always have a backup plan.
Stay focused on your core strengths.
Focus on your branding.
One example that highlights how to grow a small business in a niche industry is Revelation Pets. Using their experience in pet care, they created a high-end doggy spa and even helped start a specialty dog grooming business.
The good news is that any small business can use Revelation Pets’ growth strategy — not just those in the pet industry. The key to their successful marketing plan is to stay flexible and adapt each growth strategy tip to your specific situation.
Let’s get into the “how” of how to grow a small business!
1. Understand your target audience
The first step to growing your small business is to know who you’re selling to. From there, you can figure out how to gain and retain your audience’s interest and support.
Focus on getting long-term customers that will stick with your product or service year after year. Repeat customers spend 67% more than new ones and contribute the highest percentage of your revenue.
Sticking with our previous example, let’s say you own and operate a doggy resort and daycare business called the Pampered Pooch Emporium, and you have the only pet swimming pool in town.
You know your target market consists of dog owners, but plenty of people own dogs and have never used a doggy resort service — let alone one with a whole swimming pool.
You need to figure out which members of your overall target audience will be interested in your services and how you can help them understand the value of your small business. To start, you should create customer profiles to define your target audience.
By creating profiles based on your current customers and the leads you’re hoping to reach, you’ll develop a strategy that adapts to market changes and figure out what matters most to your target customer.
A successful business diversifies its product or service offerings when needed. For example, you might notice that your customers don’t have time to bathe their pets after picking them up from your resort. In this case, it might be worth it for you to diversify your services to also handle in-house grooming, as the service would be convenient for your customers and profitable for you.
Here are some customer profiles your doggy resort might have:
Brenda is a 50-year-old lawyer with a demanding career. She’s often away on business throughout the week and needs a place for her two dogs to spend the day when she’s gone. She values your doggy resort for its convenient location and flexible packages that let her dogs spend up to a week or more in your care if needed.
Tom is a 25-year-old first-time pet owner with a younger dog. He has little dog-training experience, so he values the extra obedience services offered by your resort that give his pup structure. He also appreciates that you provide an outlet for his dog’s energy during swim time in the pool.
Jessica is a 30-year-old teacher with two kids and an older dog. Her dog has shown a few health problems, such as chronic arthritis. She values your business for its therapeutic swimming services to her family’s beloved, aging pet.
You want to create profiles that apply to your own business and account for your available products and services. This exercise helps you understand how to grow a small business by pinpointing your target market.
2. Highlight the value of your offer
Next, you must effectively communicate what your business offers to your target audience.
For some companies, customers can quickly figure out what they’re selling. For instance, if you run a store that sells only left-hand-oriented products, it’s clear your customer base is left-handed people.
However, it may not be so obvious for other niche businesses. For instance, sticking with the doggy resort example, many dog owners who use the services of pet resorts are unfamiliar with the benefits of a doggy swimming pool.
Along with analyzing your customer profiles, you can reach out to your current customer base for assistance. This helps you adjust your pricing strategy and develop sustainable practices to stay competitive.
One way you can do this is by sending out a survey to current customers asking questions such as:
How did you find our business?
What influenced your decision to choose our company over competitors?
What aspects of our business do you value the most (convenience, affordability, the fact that we’re the only provider in town, etc.)?
What platforms do you prefer to use to get updates from our business?
These questions help you identify what your customers appreciate most about your business. You can then incorporate this data into your marketing strategy and learn how to grow a small business in your industry by understanding the unique value of your offerings. Make sure to establish a comprehensive quality assurance process to prevent bad reviews.
To better market your business and illustrate your value to potential customers, you should also request testimonials from your current customers. Ask customers who’ve had a great experience with your company to send you a brief review with a few photos showing your business’ impact.
You can then share these reviews on your website and social media pages to show your business’ success to new prospects. A company that leverages social media effectively drives far more engagement.
3. Utilize technology to its full potential
Nowadays, knowing how to grow a small business is almost impossible without the assistance of technology. Without a simplified process for managing your business’ finances and databases, it’s easy to lose track of important files or documents.
This is why a dedicated software system is beneficial. Otherwise, you’re left having to upload data manually and waste valuable time that is better spent on growing your small business.
Some features to look out for when choosing a software solution are:
Integrations to keep your job and customer data at your fingertips in one place.
Accounting tools like QuickBooks or Xero to improve financial management.
Digital communication platforms to stay in touch with your team and your customers.
Strong marketing functionality that utilizes data analytics for informed decisions and helps you convert leads into new clients.
A customer relationship management (CRM) system to help manage leads and increase your customer retention rate.
Technology saves you plenty of time and hassle as integrated solutions increase sales productivity. Your business software should also be able to integrate with existing tools you know and love for a seamless data ecosystem.
4. Take a multichannel marketing approach
Chances are, your customers are already familiar with what your business is generally about. However, they need more information on your unique offerings and the aspects of your niche industry.
Understanding how to grow a small business through a multichannel marketing approach expands your reach and turns more leads into paying customers.
For example, if your small business offers field service solutions such as lawn care and landscaping services, you have to consider how to position yourself in the lawn care market.
On the other hand, if your niche is designing and planting tropical landscaping elements, you need to make it clear to your customers why palm trees or bird-of-paradise plants are best for their yards.
This is where knowing how to grow a small business through multichannel marketing comes in. Our research indicates that a multichannel marketing approach is most effective because you can increase the number of touchpoints you have with your audience and build awareness of your unique offerings.
As a niche business, you may have a wider range of customer demographics, as addressed in the doggy resort example above.
A multichannel approach helps you reach audiences and tailor your messaging to different groups. For example, younger members of your audience may be drawn to flashy social media videos, while older demographics might prefer simpler email communications.
To account for these varying preferences, market your services across digital platforms such as:
Your social media pages. Share product information, customer testimonials, user-generated content, and any promotions you have going on.
Your email newsletter. Since customers may not be as familiar with your niche industry, share information directly with them via your email newsletter.
Your website. Design your website with search engine optimization (SEO) tactics in mind to push your content to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Include keywords that align with your products or services in your web pages to boost your pages’ rankings in search results.
Take a balanced approach by coupling paid marketing efforts, such as paid social media ads and Google Ads, with free marketing avenues like organic social media posts and blog posts on your website.
This way, you combine your organic marketing efforts with more targeted paid advertisements for a well-rounded digital marketing approach.
5. Get involved in community efforts
Figuring out how to grow a small business in a specialized industry requires you to think outside of your business. An entrepreneur who stays updated with industry trends is one who:
Participates in trade shows and events.
Engages with the local community.
Collaborates with industry partners.
Hire a team that networks with other entrepreneurs and businesses well. Leadership that seeks mentorship and expert advice inspires their team and gathers more resources to scale their business. Some entrepreneurs offer business mentoring with valuable tips and insights.
Collaboration and partnerships get you involved in community events and programs that let you introduce your business to a wider audience and position yourself as a community supporter.
Two easy ways to get involved in your community are through annual events and corporate social responsibility programs. Promote your brand by sponsoring such events or partnering with the organizers to benefit a cause. You’ll be able to use that event’s attention to your advantage while painting a positive picture of your company that customers can relate to.
Annual events
By participating in annual community events such as holiday markets or regular events like Small Business Saturday, you can introduce your niche products and services to the community and get more people interested in what you offer. A business that explores new market segments and expands to new locations or markets generates more leads and opportunities.
Employ a business strategy that invests in marketing and promotion to drive profitability and stay top of mind. And a company that establishes a unique brand identity accomplishes this best. You want to make an impact on prospective customers and partners by having a brand that differentiates from competitors.
Corporate social responsibility
Additionally, learn how to grow a small business by creating or joining a corporate social responsibility program. This is a networking opportunity that helps you develop a stronger relationship with your community and marks your business as a community supporter.
Through these activities, you’ll do some good in the community while you gain access to new prospective customers.
Both of these ideas introduce a larger community to the specialized offerings of your niche business so you can foster stronger relationships and grow your customer base.
6. Focus on scalability
As you implement new expansion strategies and reach your goals on how to grow a small business, you want to continue to focus on scaling even when you think you’ve got enough customers to keep you busy. You should invest in:
Product/service diversification.
Employee training and development.
Innovation and adaptation.
Sustainable practices.
The best way to stay on track when it comes to scaling is to employ workflow automation, which streamlines operations for efficiency. Use a software solution to automate the majority of your manual admin tasks, including:
Scheduling and dispatching jobs.
Ordering materials, equipment, parts, etc.
Invoicing customers as well as invoice reminders.
Connecting your CRM to your accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero.
Having automated routes for onsite jobs to save gas, mileage, and time.
Manual tasks help you get by at the beginning of your journey. But once you start learning how to grow a small business and implementing effective strategies, ineffective processes become a roadblock very fast.
A company that optimizes its supply chain and automates its processes based on best industry practices develops a solid platform for growth.
Using business management software also gives you time back into your workweek to focus on things like:
Amping up your marketing and branding efforts.
Growing your digital presence.
Finding new ways to attract customers to your niche industry.
7. Always have a backup plan
When learning how to grow a small business, consider the risks. You want to avoid making mistakes at all costs, but they will unavoidably happen. This is especially true as your business sees rapid growth and becomes more complex.
That is why strategizing for emergencies, mistakes, and any other issues will help you avoid these unavoidable problems.
Some ways to prepare a backup plan include:
Having an emergency fund in case certain business decisions don’t go as planned.
Have email templates and social media post templates ready for any issues your business faces that your customers on your email list need to know.
If your business relies heavily on your employees, enact an onboarding plan that prioritizes employee training and development to invest in hiring the best talent. A happy and savvy team is a great safety net during uncertain times.
Don’t be afraid to evolve and innovate if your original plan is going differently than expected.
8. Stay focused on your core strengths
You’re attracting a very specific audience to your niche business. This means that it is crucial to stay focused on your core strengths and remember what will drive the majority of your profits.
It might be enticing to venture into new industries or launch new products or services quickly, but you need to make sure you have adequate funds for your core products and services to retain your customers long-term.
Once you’ve got a strong customer base and can give your customers the product or service they need reliably, you can begin to venture into how to grow a small business with additional funds.
9. Focus on your branding
While you may have a niche business, you might not be the only one with your business idea as times change. This is especially true when your business starts to scale quickly. That’s when others see your niche’s success and start their own business in those industries.
Learning how to grow a small business by focusing on your branding drives your success in gaining new customers and impressing your current ones.
This means that you want to become a memorable brand. When people think of your niche industry, you want them to think specifically of your brand.
Your customer experience is a great way for you to remind your customers why they should choose your business every time.
You can further push your brand out to your customers and potential clients by creating a customer loyalty program. This gives people a reason to come back to your business repeatedly.
For loyal customers, you should offer private discounts such as free delivery or exclusive products and services — maybe even the opportunity to win prizes.
Lastly, it’s always a great idea to remind your customers about your business expansion milestones. For example, you can post on social media about your business anniversaries and look back at how you’ve grown. This shows your evolution and gratitude for your customers.
10. Use the #1 lead-to-cash automation tool for QuickBooks and Xero users
With Method CRM, you can grow your small business by making the most of every opportunity. With its automation tools and seamless, two-way sync with your accounting software, you speed up your lead-to-cash process with Method. Try for free.
Bonus: Tips to keep in mind as you focus on business growth
Growth takes time, and while it won’t happen in a day, you can create a framework to learn how to grow a small business in your niche.
Some tips to keep in mind as you grow your idea into a profitable business are:
Focus on finding out what your audience is looking for. A successful business owner seeks feedback and continuously improves with customer interactions. Find out what your customers think of new products, changes in branding, and their overall customer experience.
Have a source of additional money to use in case of emergencies and when growth opportunities arise.
Consider working with other businesses and building partnerships. This might mean selling your products in other stores or working with another company to cross-sell your services or products.
Growth for small businesses vs. big businesses—What’s the difference?
The primary distinctions between the growth strategies of small businesses and big businesses lie in their:
Scale.
Resources.
Organizational structure.
Management structure and hierarchy
Small businesses
Flexible and agile: Small businesses often have a flat organizational structure, allowing for quick decision-making and adaptability to changes.
Direct communication: Communication lines are shorter, fostering direct interaction between team members and leadership.
Hands-on approach: Owners and managers are frequently involved in day-to-day operations, even if they outsource a service. They wear multiple hats to address various business needs.
Big businesses
Hierarchical structure: Large companies typically have a more complex organizational hierarchy with multiple layers of management.
Specialized roles: Roles are often highly specialized, and decision-making is generally a more extended process involving multiple departments.
Delegated responsibilities: Top-level executives focus on strategic planning and decision-making, while lower-level managers handle day-to-day operations.
Target audience
Small Businesses
Niche focus: Small businesses often serve a specific niche or local market, allowing for personalized services and strong community connections.
Customerrelationships: Building personal relationships with customers is a key strategy, as customer loyalty plays a significant role in growth.
Adaptability: Small businesses can quickly pivot their offerings based on the specific needs and preferences of their target audience.
Big businesses
Mass appeal: Large corporations often target broad markets, aiming for a wide customer base.
Brand recognition: Building a strong brand and maintaining a consistent image across diverse markets is crucial for large businesses.
Market research: Extensive market research guides strategies, and bigger businesses have the resources to focus on and analyze trends and preferences across different demographics.
Finance sources
Small businesses
Bootstrapping: Because of limited funds, bootstrapping is when a small business manages finances wisely and reinvests profits to fund initial operations and growth.
Local financing: Local banks, credit unions, and small business loans are common sources of capital.
Investment from owners: Owners often contribute their personal funds to support business expansion.
Big businesses
Public funding: Large companies may access public financial markets through initial public offerings (IPOs) to raise substantial capital.
Corporate bonds: Issuing corporate bonds is a common method for big businesses to secure long-term financing.
Bank loans: Established relationships with major banks let large corporations secure hefty loans for various purposes.
How to measure business growth
Key metrics to measure business growth are:
Revenuegrowth: Both small and big businesses track revenue growth as a fundamental indicator of success.
Profit margins and sales volume: Evaluating profit margins and sales volume helps assess financial health and tells you whether you should focus on creating more efficient operations.
Customer retention: Building and retaining a loyal customer base is a shared priority for businesses of all sizes.
Market share: Big businesses often focus on conducting a competitive analysis to determine their market share, while small businesses may target a larger share within their specific niche.
Recap: How to grow a small business in a niche industry
It takes time and elbow grease to effectively learn how to grow a small business in a niche industry. Whether you’re in wholesale and distribution, manufacturing, retail, or any other type of business, you should identify the challenges that are unique to your niche.
But to recap, here are some areas to focus on when growing your small business:
Get to know your target audience and engage them on a more personal level.
Empower your team and workflows with technology that works the way you do.
Employ multiple marketing touchpoints across channels to win more customers.
Engage with your niche audience at community events and through charitable work.
How to grow a small business: Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
How can I grow my business with a low budget?
Growing your business on a tight budget is totally feasible! Start by diving into cost-effective ways to create and distribute your products or services, such as establishing partnerships with other small businesses.
Take advantage of networking opportunities within your community and group of friends, collaborate with fellow entrepreneurs, and attend local events to expand your connections.
Word of mouth is a game-changer, so make sure your team offers exceptional customer service and encourages satisfied customers to spread the good word through:
Online and offline communities.
Social media engagement.
Customer feedback.
Thriving on a budget is all about smart strategies and making every dollar count.
Can your small business do well on Instagram?
Absolutely! Instagram can be a game-changer for your small business. One key is visual storytelling — show off your products or services in a way that captivates your audience. Whether it’s through vibrant images or creative videos, make it visually appealing to grab attention. There are loads of resources available online to learn about design and social media.
Don’t just post and run. Make sure you:
Engage with your community.
Respond to comments.
Participate in conversations.
Build a sense of community around your brand.
Use strategic hashtags to amplify your reach and connect with users interested in what you offer.
Also, consider collaborations with influencers or businesses that complement yours to broaden your audience and promote credibility. And don’t forget about Instagram ads — they let you target specific demographics and reach a wider audience effectively.
What makes a startup successful?
When it comes to startup success, it’s all about standing out: a successful startup fosters a culture of innovation.
Clearly define your unique value proposition (UVP) — what makes your startup unique? Dive deep into market research to understand your target audience’s:
Needs.
Preferences.
Pain points.
Stay agile and open to feedback, as the ability to adapt based on market responses and customer insights is crucial. A strong leader who inspires and navigates through challenges is a key ingredient.
And, of course, strategic planning is your backbone. Strategize a comprehensive business plan that sets clear and achievable goals, along with flexible tactics to reach them.
How do you increase sales?
Boosting sales involves a mix of strategies. Start by identifying specific customer segments and tailor your marketing messages and offerings to meet their needs.
Invest in sales training to ensure your team effectively communicates the value of your products or services and addresses customer concerns. Explore upselling and cross-selling opportunities to encourage customers to upgrade or add complementary products to their purchases.
Implementing customer loyalty programs is a powerful way to retain customers: you can offer rewards and incentives to keep them coming back.
Finally, a business that builds a strong online presence with a user-friendly website and active social media profiles drives more sales. A strong online presence helps attract and convert potential customers to boost sales.
Looking for more info on how to grow a small business? Check out this ebook for additional strategies!
As the snow starts to melt and makes way for spring, you’ll be pleased to hear about the release of Method:Field Services – a robust field service solution for businesses that complete on-site tasks such as:
Maintenance and cleaning
Service requests
Repairs and installations
Growing businesses in this space often find themselves managing work in one of two ways:
Juggling whiteboards, spreadsheets, and print-outs
Working with field service management software that does not communicate effectively with QuickBooks — creating headaches like double-keyed orders and inaccurate data
During the creation of this new field service solution, we took both of these challenges head-on by creating a suite of tools for your office and field service teams. All of which are built on top of Method’s best-in-class QuickBooks sync engine.
The result: A streamlined process for managing estimates, work orders, scheduling, routing, and invoicing — all perfectly in sync with your QuickBooks data 24/7.
Now, here’s your rundown of the top 5 benefits you get with Method’s new field service solution!
Feature spotlight #1: Streamlined job creation, scheduling, and dispatching
An essential part of your field operations is maximizing the efficiency of your field service workers. As after all, the more work orders you complete — the better your bottom line gets.
Luckily, this is a challenge Method was built to solve. This field service solution has strong route optimization capabilities that ensure your field technicians don’t have to spend time driving from one end of town to the other and back again.
Method:Field Services lets you automatically plan the best route for your field employees to take and schedules your work orders in the most efficient way possible.
It’s smart to use this field service management software if you want to:
Easily assign and reassign work orders to your field technicians
Cut out the manual aspect of your field operations and logistics
Instantly create the best routes and schedules for your field employees
Feature spotlight #2: A cloud field service app for your mobile device
You know that the line between in-office and on-site work is becoming increasingly blurred. This is why Method:Field Services was designed to be accessed easily on both your desktop and mobile device via the cloud.
By moving your workflow out of QuickBooks and into the cloud, it becomes simpler to manage information and ensure that it’s up to date.
Plus, this approach lets you stay connected with your field team and keeps everybody in sync when it comes to schedule updates and changes.
With Method, your team hits the ground running from the start of the day until to the end.
Feature spotlight #3: Seamless estimate, work order, and invoice creation
Ever wonder the power a single click can have? With Method, it’s all that’s required to:
This means your invoices and estimates are ready to go out to your customer for e-signature quicker than ever before.
If you’re a Gmail or Outlook user, you can even create work orders directly from your inbox to save yourself more time! Once created, you can then use the powerful report engine to control the look and feel of any document you send to your customers.
With these workflows streamlined, you:
Achieve significant time savings for your team
Reduce the risk of human errors like paperwork going missing or typos in documents
Better yet, Method’s field service management solution puts an end to rekeying details into templates or QuickBooks as data automatically updates across your tech stack thanks to our powerful sync engine.
Where Method’s field service solution really shines is in the power of its two-way QuickBooks sync.
As mentioned earlier, the estimate-work order-invoice workflow generates a significant amount of friction for customers and internal teams. Thankfully, this doesn’t have to be your reality anymore as with Method:Field Services:
Data is entered once
Carried through the workflow
Synced appropriately to your QuickBooks account
All while you’re in control of the entire process from the backend.
Field service management software like this is how you can empower your team to focus on growing your business and delivering great experiences instead of managing paperwork and processes!
Feature spotlight #5: Customer service made simple
There’s no doubt that your customers are the lifeblood of your field service business. But the way you manage them may be hurting your business. After all, using printouts and whiteboards leave you prone to details slipping through the cracks.
Method tackles this problem head-on by centralizing all of your customer data in one system — making it simple to create estimates, work orders, and invoices in a single tool.
With this field service solution, you get a 360-degree view of every customer at your fingertips — giving you the context and history needed to provide excellent customer service at every job.
Equipped with this information, you can improve the accuracy of your estimating process on recurring jobs and stop undercharging for jobs you’re called back to.
This means the time you used to spend searching for customer information can now be used to improve your service delivery so that you obtain the highest level of customer satisfaction!
Wrap up
As you can probably tell, the team here at Method is really excited about our new field service solution! We know this offering has the power to fundamentally change how your business operates and makes it easier to always put your customers first.
But seeing is truly believing — start your free trial of Method:Field Services today!
Let’s face it… reporting is the lifeblood of every business. From routine financial reporting to satisfying compliance requests – you’re constantly faced with the need to extract and review your key accounting data. While necessary, this is a task that can take up vast amounts of your time.
Custom reports, on the other hand, are a way to make sure you get the data you need as quickly as possible. Plus, based on our firsthand experience, they’ll directly aid you in setting up a proper vendor workflow in QuickBooks Online for fast insights and analysis.
The QuickBooks knowledge base is filled with lots of questions about QuickBooks’ customized reports, so here’s an overview of what’s possible (and not possible) for custom reports in QuickBooks Online (referred to as QBO, moving forward, for the sake of brevity).
Grow your business without leaving QuickBooks Online.
The different “flavors” of custom reports in QuickBooks Online
In the Reports section of your QuickBooks Online Dashboard, you’ll see that reporting is divided into three general categories:
Standard: The library of default reports available in QuickBooks Online, which are pre-populated with your data and ready to go! This is where you’ll find the typical financial reports you’ll need to run.
Custom Reports: A list of reports that you (or your team) have customized and saved.
Management Reports: Groups of reports that have a cover page, table of contents, and space for opening commentary and endnotes. There are 3 predefined management report templates in QBO. These are useful for any time that you need to dress up your reports for a specific audience.
Overall, our findings show that there are four basic types of reports available:
Transaction reports, which group transactional information in a variety of ways. This is the home of bread-and-butter reports like your P&L and Balance Sheet.
List reports, where you’ll find information on your Chart of Accounts, Products/Services list, Customer and Supplier lists. These are perfect if, for example, you’re looking for how to get a list of checks written in QuickBooks.
Summary and Detail reports which, as their name implies, provide different rollups of the information contained within each report type.
It’s important to understand the basics of how reports are assembled in QBO, as they are the building blocks for any custom reporting you’d like to do.
What’s possible with custom reports in QuickBooks Online
Custom reports in QuickBooks Online do offer users a level of control, but based on our observations, these custom reports are essentially tweaks on the standard reports included out of the box.
But as per our expertise, they certainly have their pros.
Many people will ask something like, “Which feature in QuickBooks Online reports allows customization of section headings on the profit and loss and balance sheet reports?” These individuals have clearly never heard of custom reports, because that’s exactly where they shine.
In QuickBooks Online, a custom report allows you to:
Personalize the report title and header information
Set a reporting period, and formatting of numbers
Add, remove, and re-order the columns associated with that report
Apply report-level filters
The key piece to note here is that, in every case, you need to start with a standard report as the foundation of your custom report.
Questions are often posted to the help center around what’s possible with a custom report, and how to share custom reports in QuickBooks Online.
I’ve distilled their feedback down to the following – a custom report in QuickBooks Online:
Cannot combine data from different report types
Must use the same look and feel of the report it’s built off of
So, if you were wondering which form cannot be customized in QuickBooks, it’s any form that requires you to do any of the above.
Drawing from our experience, custom reports can also sometimes have mishaps, such as QuickBooks custom fields not showing in reports for some users.
Here’s another example of how custom reports can be tricky – let’s imagine you’re in this scenario: Your client wants a customized report to track delinquent customer accounts. After customizing a report, you should do which of the following to save the customized report?
Collapse
Memorize
Save Settings
Save Customizations
The correct answer is D, but all these options seem viable, right? Reasons like this are why learning to use custom reports can be a bit of a learning curve.
In sum, our investigation demonstrated that custom reports in Quickbooks Online are a great starting point, but you’ll inevitably find yourself in a scenario where you wish they could do a bit more. With that in mind, here are a few alternative approaches to consider.
Alternative #1: Spreadsheets
If you’ve found that you’ve hit a wall with the custom reports in QuickBooks Online, it may be time to consider extracting the data and manipulating it in Google Sheets or Excel.
Our research indicates that as long as your exports include a unique identifier like a reference number or client ID, you’ll be able to combine data from different reports using the vlookup() formula.
Here’s an overview of the steps involved:
Export the data you want to compile into a report (make sure you have a column you can match the data together with!)
Import each data set as a unique worksheet in your spreadsheet.
Decide on the final format. You’ll need to a) add columns to one of the reports to handle the matched data, or b) create a new spreadsheet with the relevant columns you’d like to combine.
Use the vlookup() formula to extract data from one sheet and populate it into the final destination. Don’t forget to double-check your formulas…this is one of those formulas that can be a bit finicky when pasted across cells incorrectly! Here are some great videos outlining how to use vlookup in Excel and Google Sheets!
After putting it to the test, the beauty of this approach is that you can combine data however you want. Better yet, it gives you the ability to bring in external data sets and match them against your QBO data.
The downside is that this is quite manual and prone to human error due to the setup of the worksheets and formulas.
Alternative #2: The Method way
You might be thinking, “I can’t figure out QuickBooks is there another option for me?”
If so, you’re not alone – Method doesn’t just expand your possibilities with QuickBooks. It also strives to make your QuickBooks experience as digestible as possible.
Reporting is a big deal to our customers here at Method, and I love the functionality our teams have built around the Report Editor.
One of our guiding principles here is to enable businesses to do more with QuickBooks, so we built our CRM reporting capabilities specifically to address the limitations of custom reports within QuickBooks Online.
Using Method’s reporting tools, you’ll be able to:
Merge and combine all types of data into single reports (including both transaction and non-transaction data)
Create beautiful reports using our drag-and-drop interface
Leverage this powerful customization engine to tailor any document you can imagine, including QuickBooks invoices and estimates!
Because Method syncs all your QuickBooks data in real-time, you get live reporting without the limitations discussed above!
Wrap up: Custom reporting in QuickBooks Online
The built-in reporting capabilities in QuickBooks get any business off to a great start and do an amazing job of handling the “bread and butter” reports you’ll need regularly like your:
Profit and loss statement
Balance sheet
As you find yourself needing a bit more than the standard “custom” reporting capabilities provide, take a quick minute to celebrate – it’s a sign that your business is growing!
As discussed today, there are both short-term “stop-gap” solutions that can help and a great long-term solution that will help you take your growth to the next level (in reporting and beyond!).
Learn how else you can extend the power of QuickBooks Online with Method in this free ebook.
