Risks to Avoid and Best Practices to Follow for an Audit
If your company takes credit cards, the Payment Card Industry data security standard applies to you. There is a common misconception that PCI Standards are only for large organizations; however this is not the case. In fact, Verizon’s recent Payment Card Industry Compliance Report showed that companies with between 1 and 100 employees were at the highest risk for a data breach.
A real-world example of a data breach
Cisero’s Ristorante and Nightclub in Park City, Utah was recently discovered to be non-compliant after an alleged data breach of $14,000. Though the breach was not proven, they are nonetheless suffering consequences for their lack of compliance. The restaurant’s credit card processor was fined by VISA and MasterCard for $90,000, and they in turn withdrew $10,000 from Cicero’s Ristorante’s account to put towards these fines. While the situation is currently in litigation with the restaurant arguing that no breach was proven, and that they didn’t know that the PCI Compliance rules even applied to them – they are suffering the consequences of non-compliance anyway.
Potential consequences incurred as a result of not being PCI Compliant
- Currently even suspected data breaches can result in fines
- You may not have the opportunity to dispute fees before they are taken
- Should a breach occur Merchants can be responsible for up to $500,000 in fines
- You may lose the ability to accept credit cards altogether, which can in turn force you out of business
Best Practices when Preparing for a PCI-Related Audit
1. PCI Compliance is Pass or Fail
In order to ensure consumer protection, companies that achieve 80% compliance (which is very common), will still receive a ‘fail’ from an auditor. You must strive to maintain 100% compliance at all times in order to protect your customers and your company. In a 2010 study by Ponemon, it was found that companies that maintained compliance were nearly twice as likely to thwart an attempted breach.
2. PCI Compliance is Ongoing
Even if you have passed a PCI Compliance audit, that doesn’t mean that you will remain compliant. You must stay vigilant throughout the year to ensure you maintain conformity. Be sure to always consider compliance when making changes to your systems. You don’t want to wait until the auditor comes to try to make sure everything is up to date.
3. Know Your Data and Where it Lives
Knowing who has access to your data and where it is located in your system will streamline the auditing process, and increase the likelihood for you to notice and fix potential data-threats before you come face to face with the auditor.
4. Simplify Multiple Regulations
If your company is required to meet other requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, or state mandates in addition to PCI Compliance – you can overlap them in order to simplify your process. For example if one requires a 5 digit password, and another a 7 digit password – use one with 8 digits to meet compliance for both at the same time.
If you’d like to know more about PCI Compliance, register for our upcoming webinar on May 30th: PCI Compliance – What You Need to Know.
You just need direction on where to find it.
Join us for a FREE Webinar Series and learn how to address business process issues by fully utilizing your existing business software system.
You want accurate financial statements, but you also need help organizing and preparing your business processes to work within your accounting system. You want to be fully automated instead of spending time sorting through paperwork and piecing together reports.
MAS Software Solutions recognizes the ever changing demands on businesses today. Join us for our FREE webinar series, “Your System Has Potential!"
These webinars are complimentary however registration is required. Click on the name of the webinar(s) above to reserve your virtual seat.
In 2012 the names of many of Sage’s core accounting and ERP lines will be changing. These products will be identified with a numbering approach where higher numbers denote increasing levels of product capability or sophistication. The new product numbering sets will include Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300, and Sage 500. This will also bring the Sage naming system in North America in line with the Sage naming structure worldwide.
For our clients, the changes are as follows:
|
Former Name
|
New Name
|
|
Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200
(mentioned together)
|
Sage 100 ERP
|
|
Sage ERP MAS 90
|
Sage 100 Standard ERP
|
|
Sage ERP MAS 90 Online
|
Sage 100 Standard ERP Online
|
|
Sage ERP MAS 200
|
Sage 100 Advanced ERP
|
|
Sage ERP MAS 200 Online
|
Sage 100 Advanced ERP Online
|
|
SageCRM
|
Sage CRM
|
|
SageCRM Online
|
Sage CRM Online
|
|
Sage Payment Solutions
|
Stays the Same
|
|
Sage Active Planner
|
Stays the Same
|
If you have any questions regarding these name changes, please feel free to contact our office at 913-312-8999.
Due to the recession, most companies have put the idea of improving business efficiency on the back burner over the last several years. Now, these businesses are operating on out-dated systems and processes are falling behind – in a time when they need business performance to be at its highest.
Mid-sized companies have been especially impacted by the lack of current technology, and many have been holding on by a thread trying to keep their businesses alive. However, if you are like us, you are starting to see positive trends that are real indicators of better times ahead – which makes 2012 the best time to focus on how you can improve your business performance in order to operate better, faster and smarter in order to thrive in tomorrow’s economy.
Technology Upgrades
Many software applications routinely release upgrades that contain bug fixes as well as improved functionality. If you are operating on a system that is more than 2 versions out of date, you may want to consider performing an upgrade. Chances are the time it will save will be well worth the investment.
View enhancements in the latest version of Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200.
Business Process Improvements
It is important to regularly reevaluate and improve your business process. In addition to technology, MAS Software Solutions also offers business process improvement services to help you ensure that you are getting the highest level of efficiency out of your organization. While it can be comfortable to stick to what you’re used to, operating on old procedures may be slowing you down. If any of the following sound familiar, you may want to consider updating your process:
- A complicated and lengthy month-end closing process.
- Duplicate data entry of the same numbers into different areas of your system.
- Systems that have not been integrated. This includes billing, inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable, CRM and others.
- A reporting process that requires your staff to take data from multiple sources and combine it in an Excel spreadsheet.
If you think you could be getting more from your current technology or business process, or would like to find out how you can enhance your business performance, please contact Kim at MAS Software Solutions today.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can automate your business process, download our guide: Business Process Management and the Benefits of Automation.
In our first article in this series, we discussed some of the ways you can better organize and maintain your warehouse in order to improve overall efficiency. In that article we introduced the idea of Cycle Counting, which is a great alternative to a yearly physical count. If you missed it, click here to read it now.
Rather than going through the painful process of an annual count, you can elect to track inventory at regular intervals throughout the year. The benefit of this is that you are able to maintain more accurate data all year long.
In this blog we will be taking a closer look at a couple of different cycle counting options, in hopes that one of them will help you with improving warehouse efficiency.
Geographic based cycle counting involves starting at one side of your warehouse and systematically working your way to the other end. Doing this several times throughout the year will not only enable you to keep inventory numbers accurate throughout the year, but also discover misplaced or ‘lost’ items as well. If you struggle with large amounts of displaced material this method may be your best bet. The great thing about the Geographic Method is that it allows you to set daily or weekly goals of a much smaller number of products that need to be counted, rather than being overwhelmed by having to count everything in your warehouse all at once.
The ABC Method refers to counting by the categorization of inventory. This method is based on Pareto’s Law which states that 80% of the results of any process is produced by 20% of the contributing factors. If we convert that statement to better reflect the warehousing and distribution industry we could say that ‘20% of your inventory is responsible for 80% of your sales’. If this sounds like it is accurate for your company this method is likely the best one for your organization. Alternatively, if your company sells a small amount of a large number of products – the Geographic method may be better suited for you.
To implement the ABC Method you will first want to take a look at all the items in your warehouse. Divide them into three categories: the high-volume or level ‘A’ items, the mid-volume or level ‘B’ items, and low-volume or level ‘C’ items. Since level ‘A’ items are handled more frequently by your shipping and picking staff, there is a higher likelihood that they will be out of balance, while level C items are handled less often are more likely to maintain closer levels of accuracy in your system. Based on this assessment, you will want to schedule your cycle counting to count level A items more often, and level C items less. You may choose something similar to the following:
- Level A – Count every item in this category once per month –or- quarter depending on the size of the inventory
- Level B – Count these items every quarter.
- Level C – Count these items every 6 months.
- In each instance you’ll want to divide the stock up so that your staff can complete a portion of counting every day or week to keep it manageable.
When deciding who to assign the task of counting, it may be tempting to choose anyone available; however you are more likely to get accurate counts if you assign the task to someone with more longevity and a strong detail-oriented work ethic. Additionally, it may be a good idea to schedule adjust them so that they come in an hour earlier than everyone else, or stay an hour later to do the counting before or after their regular shift when inventory is less likely to be on the move.
If you are interested in learning how an Inventory Control system can help you improve your warehouse, download our guide: Investing in an Inventory Control System.
We hope you have enjoyed our Business Process Improvement Challenge so far. By making one small change at a time, we hope that you’ll find your business is tip-top shape come the end of the year! This month we will be focusing on sales tax liability and how you can make sure that it isn’t costing you more than it should.
If you missed either of the first two parts in our series, you can read them now by clicking the links below.
Step #1: Make Sure You Are PCI Compliant
Step #2: Reduce Hidden Costs – Automate Your Business Processes
Step #3 - Better Manage Sales Tax Liability
This time of year many people have one thing on their minds... taxes! Small and mid-sized businesses need to be especially mindful where, how and why their money is spent. One area that may be costing more than it should is within sales tax liability management.
Do you pay too much to manage sales tax liability?
It is important to take the time to regularly evaluate your sales tax management solution. Many accept this function as necessary overhead but do you know what you're actually paying? As you plan your 2012 budget, take time to evaluate your current sales tax management solution. Many accept this function as necessary overhead but do you know what you're actually paying? Have you considered compliance risks you may face? Whether you manually calculate sales tax or use some level of automation, you may be paying too much. Here are some questions to ask yourself; do you:
1. Use manual methods, which increase the risk of incorrect calculations?
2. Spend days or weeks preparing returns for filing?
3. Struggle keeping up with tax jurisdiction changes, which can reach nearly 100 per week?
4. Want to simplify exemption certificate management?
5. Dread the 1099 filing process?
6. Need to cut costs in your budget?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, we encourage you to contact us today at 913-312-8999 today to learn how you can take the next step in better managing your sales tax liability.
In a recent article Nucleus Research finds that the investement in Customer Relationship Management is worth it...even on second-, third-, and fourth-generation CRM investments. Their research found that Customer Relationship Management software delivers a high return on investment (ROI), averaging $5.60 for every dollar invested. It also found that further investment throughout its life-cycle and deploying secondary applications greatly increases the ROI. With employee productivity increased, improved business forecasting and an increase in sales, investing in CRM is a smart business strategy.
If you’d like to read the article, click here.
To learn more about the benefits of CRM, download our whitepaper 17 Rules of the Road for CRM.
Step #2: Reduce hidden costs – automate your business processes
In our January newsletter we introduced you to our 2012 Business Process Improvement Challenge, our commitment to helping you improve your business one step at a time. If you missed our first step on PCI Compliance, click here to read it now.
In Step 2 we will be focusing on how business process automation can help you reduce redundant tasks, overhead and headaches while streamlining and improving the consistency of your processes.
What is Business Process Automation and How does Benefit your Bottom-line?
All companies rely on Business Process Management (BPM) in order to run their operation effectively. These business processes are generally made up of a series of repetitive tasks performed by employees. This includes anything from ongoing reporting, authorizations and approvals, to manually tracking stock levels, contract renewals and key performance indicators.
Automating these repetitive tasks will not only save significant amounts of time and reduce overhead costs; but will also provide for more efficient and reliable information organization-wide. Business Process Automation (BPA) is achieved through the implementation of the appropriate business process management software. This technology provides the capabilities necessary to have the computer system handle tasks that were traditionally performed by employees. Automating certain processes gives an organization the ability to streamline operations and reporting, not to mention frees-up staff members to focus on more important tasks. Business process management software is capable of much more than organizing simple static flows, such as task options with multiple choices and contingencies. Rather, it can define, execute, manage and refine processes that involve human interaction; work with multiple applications; and handle dynamic process rules and changes.
Business Process Management software is the IT industry’s response to problems created by employee-dependent applications. The resulting Business Process Automation allows directors, managers, suppliers and customers to receive instant responses to commercial interactions by leveraging all IT systems across an organization through a real-time, responsive infrastructure.
Which business processes should be automated?
By this point, it is likely that you are considering your bottom line. Will the automation of your business processes really save your organization time and money? The answer is: absolutely. The types listed below are most likely to yield a high ROI once automated.
These are processes that change frequently such as those that must be regularly adapted in order to abide by regulatory compliance changes.
This category covers any processes that involve people and/or typically cross multiple business units, divisions, or departments.
Complex processes are those that require the collaboration of a variety of people from different departments, who may be using different software applications.
- Measurable & Mission Critical
This covers those processes which are vital to the business, and that directly impact performance metrics.
This category includes any processes that rely on one or more legacy applications or require additional capabilities to be completed.
Manual research processes are those that are currently handled by a staff-member.
These are any processes with exceptions that require quick turnarounds.
MAS Software Solutions can help identify and automate your business process management. To learn more, download our free whitepaper: Business Process Management and the Benefits of Automation.
Technology and Social Media seem to be advancing faster than ever making it hard to keep up, especially for those of you who may have been avoiding getting up to speed in the first place. We know that this new constantly growing and changing medium can be overwhelming – especially for those of us who would like to just keep doing things the way we’ve always done them! But the unfortunate truth is if you aren’t actively learning social media as a marketing strategy you are likely to get left behind. Social media is here to stay, and if you have been avoiding using it to promote your small business, it’s time to start. If you don’t know where to begin, what to do, or which applications to use – we can help! This blog will give you 7 easy steps to creating a social media strategic plan!
1. Do a little brainstorming
The first step to promoting your small business in social media is to identify what you are trying to promote and to whom? If possible, try to think outside the box. While you may have one specific target customer group in mind, there may be others you haven’t considered.
2. Just sign up!
Many social sites are very easy to sign up for, so go do it! You should be engaging in Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook allows you to create a business page in addition to your personal page. Be sure to read the rules for businesses before you begin.
3. Use a Social Media Service Tool
A social media service tool will help you with managing social media updates in one central location. There are some fantastic free options such as ping.fm & HootSuite.com which allow you to post to all of your social sites simultaneously, as well as schedule future messages. Once you get familiar with that, you can upgrade to paid versions such as SproutSocial.com which provide more features such as pulling your messages from all sites into one mailbox, creating contacts out of followers and more.
4. Create your first 10-20 posts
It is important to have valuable content and information before you start adding friends and followers. From pictures, videos, blog links and more – you want to make your social sites attractive so that when you do begin to add friends and followers they want to engage with you. No one is going to follow a company with blank pages.
5. Find Friends and Followers
With Twitter and Google+ you can use search keywords to find followers. These keywords will have to do with your business, offerings and common interests of your customers. Should anyone begin following you be sure to comment on one of their posts right away, and if possible mention them in one of yours.
With Facebook, start with friending your colleagues friends and family, and on LinkedIn start with all business contacts and employees.
6. Start Slow, Engage, and Build Relationships
Keep in mind that you don’t have to add a thousand friends and followers at once! A few at a time is a great way to start slow, engage with people one on one and begin participating in conversations online. Don’t forget that you must build relationships with people before you mention your business or offerings. Being too self promotional right off the bat will do more harm than good.
7. Stay in touch
The most important thing is ongoing consistency. Don’t do all the leg work setting up your accounts and then neglect them. Be sure to continue communicating, posting and tweeting on a daily basis. This will ensure that you are putting forth the effort to build the relationships that will hopefully lead to increased awareness of your services and/or offerings.
Want to know more? Get started on your social media marketing now by reading our blog on how to easily use the top social networking tool for businesses, LinkedIn 101.
*Photo from drivingtraffic.com
Over the next several months we will be taking a look at some different ways you can achieve greater warehouse efficiency. This month, specifically we will target organization, picking methods and cycle counting.
More often than not, as your company lengthens the amount of time that you have been in business, your warehouse is likely to get out of hand. From bin locations that increase workload to picking methods that aren’t appropriate for the industry, there many ways in which your company’s efficiency may be decreased by your current processes. Therefore we wanted to provide a couple of ideas for better organization that you may wish to consider:
1. Revisit Bin Location Organization
You should consider reviewing the organization of your warehouse at least once a year in order to maintain maximum productivity. What may have been a good set up when you first started, might now be a stumbling block for your pickers. As you bring in new product lines and add inventory, it is likely that you have to ‘stash’ it wherever it will fit, leading to decreased efficiency and increased picking times. While it may seem like a hassle to re-organize everything, having a better set up can improve picking times by 30-50%!
A good rule of thumb when organizing your warehouse is to put higher volume items in the easier to reach areas as well as in a location closer to your shipping area (if it is appropriate to do so), and lower volume items in bin shelving further away.
2. Take a New Look at Picking Methods
Consider using your MAS software to sequence orders so that they are grouped by pick path or areas within your warehouse that will streamline the picking process for your staff. Additionally you may want to take a new look at your picking methods and examine whether they are still appropriate for you. There are many options to choose from including:
- Single order
- Multi-order
- Batch picking
- Zone picking
3. Consider Implementing Cycle Counts
We know how much you love and look forward to your annual physical inventory count...the long hours, the overtime, having to shut down operations, and the seemingly unending amount of counting...it’s such a fun time for everyone...(wink, wink). While we wouldn’t dream of asking you to give up your favorite yearly event, we wanted to make sure you were aware of another option just in case you might be willing to try something easier and more effective.
Cycle counting is a great alternative or addition to a yearly physical count. It is a process with which you count inventory in regular intervals throughout the year which keeps your back-office systems more accurate. Companies with well organized and smartly run warehouses often find that if they can succeed with the cycle count process they can do away with the annual count altogether.
Sage MAS ERP requires you to freeze your inventory during counting, so many mistakenly believe that they can only do their counting if they shut down operations. However what you may not know is that you also have the ability to freeze only certain product lines at a time while keeping others active which allows you to implement a cycle counting technique. Then you can count smaller portions during business hours (if you experience certain times of day when material isn’t moving – possibly before or after the busy part of the day.)
Subscribe to our blog to make sure you receive our next blog in this series, where we take a more in-depth look at some specific cycle inventory counting methods.
If you'd like to start improving warehouse efficiency, click here for more information on the specific features and benefits of Sage MAS ERP.