*** THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED mARCH 2021 TO REFLECT THE MOST UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ***
Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch? They must not have heard of Acumatica's Virtual Lunch & Learns!
Back in June (2020, that is) the Klear Systems team hosted our very first Acumatica Lunch & Learn! This online event allowed us the opportunity to share how the Cloud ERP solution can transform ANY business. Plus, all attendees received a free $35 GrubHub so they could enjoy lunch during the presentation.
Join us for another LIVE overview of Acumatica Cloud ERP, Wednesday, April 21st at 12 PM PST
In the live webcast our team demonstrated Acumatica, The Cloud ERP, and the top reasons more and more organizations are choosing to move to this leading business management solution, including:
- True Cloud - access your data from anywhere using any web browser vs Sage 100c which is only cloud connected
- True Mobility - All devices/no special apps
- Security and Workflows to protect your records
- Multi-Company Consolidation
- Customization using industry standard tools
- Upgrade on your schedule
- Flexible licensing options - subscription vs. perpetual
- Multiple deployment options - cloud, on premise, hybrid
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership
Interested in seeing what this cloud-based business management system is all about?
Check out the presentation below:
Agenda:
00:00 - Welcome
02:20 - Acumatica Overview
09:20 - Acumatica Desktop Demo
30:45 - Acumatica Mobile App Demo
37:23 - Q&A Session
Did we mention we're hosting another LIVE Lunch & Learn this April?
Click the button below to sign up:
We're excited to share that our first ever lunch & learn was a huge success! With several prospective Acumatica users in attendance we proudly demonstrated an overview of our company's history, as well as Acumatica's, followed by a live preview of Acumatica's desktop & mobile versions. Starting with dashboard customizations according to user roles, our Business Development Manager, Kayla showcased how this feature allows you to include modules specific to job responsibilities.
Questions Asked During the lunch & learn
Following the demonstration of both Acumatica's Desktop & Mobile interface, our team allowed for an open Q&A Session where guests were able to submit their questions via the chat. You can find a transcript, as well as the timestamp, of the questions below:
37:43 - "You mentioned Acumatica's robust capabilities and how it has a number of customizations available... but if there's a specific software our team is currently using, how easy is it to integrate with Acumatica?"
Frank: Kayla briefly talked about the API capability with Acumatica. Acumatica actually uses the latest technology called rest API, which is pretty much like Kayla mentioned, anything that has a pulse. So as long as the other system has that capability, whether you're using a 3rd party time-tracking, CRM, or whatever 3rd party solutions you have, Acumatica has the capability to integrate into that through the rest API.
38:40 - "Can you explain landed costs in more depth. Mentioned landed costs when we were speaking about purchase orders, can you tell us a little bit more about that?"
Frank: Another great question; landed cost is an area that I see with different ERP systems that companies struggle with. In a real-life scenario, landed costs, whether you're working with a freight forwarder, broker, or a vendor, a lot of times you might get your freight related costs, duty, custom brokerage fee, at a later time. And typically you receive your items into your inventory ahead of time but you might get your invoice for the freight related costs a couple of weeks later. So, how do you record that against your record as your inventory value later on as you want to record that as your inventory cost? Acumatica has a really great functionality where it allows you to record landed costs, even at a later time, against the receipt, it will create a separate AP bill. and it will update the item cost.
40:00 - "In the presentation you said, 'Acumatica is the best manufacturing ERP right now'. What makes it the best? Any specific capabilities?"
Frank: Manufacturing covers so many different areas. Obviously, we've seen companies that make very complex machineries that has a timeline of several months to years to certain companies that are simple type manufacturers. With that being said, the manufacturing in Acumatica, the best word I can use to describe it is it just makes sense. The flow of it, it's very easy to use, you're able to tie your inventory to the requirements to the MRP functionality to have it auto-generate your purchase order. You also have functionality like made-to-order versus made-to-stock and have it tied to your sales order to your manufacturing order to your purchase order to your projects and on and on. So, the integration and how it's connected, it's pretty robust functionality.
41:50 - How does it take into account international taxes and tariffs?
Kayla: Acumatica has different tax settings that you can set within the system based on your own tax rules, however, there are different 3rd party solutions that can do all of this automatically, as well. So, you have a few different options and a few different ways that you can go about this but that also kind of goes a little bit into landed cost as well, you know, with tariffs and everything. Frank do you have anything that you would like to add to that?
Frank: Sure! So, with the landed cost, obviously we can dive in further at a later time to show you that feature, but that's a question that's been brought up to us on numerous occasions, especially this past year. I know the 25% tariff that's been added, that's a common scenario. Or a specific duty/tariff rate that pertains to your item. All of that could be set up in Acumatica so that when you receive it in, it will automatically use that rate and apply that duty rate or that tariff to your receipt. You've got a lot of flexibility there.
43:53 - What about charge-backs? How does it charge them?
Frank: Charge-backs on credit cards, I'm assuming? With the integrated credit card system, obviously if there's a charge-back from the credit card, or if it's a return and there's a credit that needs to be issued, a charge-back to the credit card. With the integrated credit card solution it would be part of the whole AR/Sales Order process so when you issue a credit memo it will actually refund back to the customer's credit card through the integrated credit card solution. And by the way, the integrated credit card solution comes out-of-the-box. Same thing with the shipping integration, so that's out-of-the-box without 3rd party software.
45:05 - And it has real-time inventory tracking? Real-time location status updates? All of that is included?
Frank: Absolutely. That's one area that we didn't get to show in depth but any time you enter any inventory related transaction you're gonna see that update instantaneously. I know Kayla talked about the replenishment, you're gonna see very detailed, real-time information on your inventory throughout Acumatica.
Kayla: That ties back, even to the Sales Order, where there was that live inventory count at the bottom of the screen; and that is live. That's exactly how it happens. It also shifts depending on which warehouse you create the sales order in, so it's pulling specifically from the warehouse that that sales order is attached to. And on that, we didn't have enough time to go in-depth with a lot of things during this demo, but one thing that I did mention while we were kind of scanning through the app was warehouse management abilities. Out of the box, Acumatica has bar-coding abilities. So, if you're going to have robust or complex warehouse management processes like wave picking or things like that, it's not there yet. With wave picking they have been eluding to that that's coming in the second version this year, however, if you're just doing multi-bin or lot tracking or serial tracking within your warehouse you can actually use your phone, an employees phone, even a tablet, anything like that, to scan bar-coding specifically within the app. You can also do the same with QR codes. And so, you're not having to add another piece of warehouse management software onto your ERP system.
Frank: Yeah, so, out of the box, the pick, pack, ship, receiving process, inventory move in, physical count, all of that is part of the Acumatica system, to get the barcode. So, as far as the devices, that's up to you. You can use your phone, you can use a mobile Android or iOS device. Some customers just put a casing on it and without paying for expensive 3rd party bar-coding solution you get that as part of the Acumatica system.
48:00 - Any chance it can provide insights on how to maximize supply chain efficiency?
Kayla: Yeah, so, part of what Acumatica comes with, standard, out-of-the-box, is going to be BI reporting tools and BI analytics. You can leverage those to see where there might be some breakdowns. If you're talking about supply chain in terms of which one of your vendors may have a cheaper rate for a specific item inventory you could potentially do import scenarios to get inventory sheets from your vendors to kind of look at that within the system. I'm unsure if there's some automated way to do that. Frank, do you know?
Frank: Yeah, to make that efficiently track the supply chain obviously that's a kind of general question so obviously we want to know what are some of the pain points? What are some of the bottlenecks in your supply chain or the challenges that you're having today and understand that. And show you how Acumatica could resolve some of those areas. So, we would take a consultants approach, understand your requirements, as well as your bottlenecks, and go from there.
Want to skip ahead to just the Q&A Session? We've got you covered here:
Ready to see what Acumatica Cloud ERP can do for you?
Why it's time to evaluate a new ERP system
You might be thinking, 'I already have a business management system that already works well enough. Why would I want to consider a new one?'
We're glad you asked!
Outgrowing your current solution is a good thing! As a small company, a basic accounting system met your needs but if you start thinking about managing and tracking inventory from multiple locations, integrating financials with an eCommerce site, or even consolidating multiple business entities in your financial reporting, it's possible that your current solution is no longer enough. That's when most companies decide to move to a full ERP system.
Your current system may be past its expiration date if:
- It does not support the needs of the business (lack functionality, is hard to use, response time is too slow)
- It inhibits your efforts to adapt to changing customer requirements or market demands
- Operating costs are too high
- There's no path to where you want to take your business - collaboration, new technologies (Internet of Things), analytics, etc.
ERP system replacement is a major business decision, and a major commitment of time and resources, so there has to be good reason to even consider it.
You should consider changing to a new ERP system if any of the following is true:
- You rely on spreadsheets to get things done
- You are unable to meet or exceed competitors' customer service benchmarks because of system limitations or inflexibility
- Competitors routinely outperform on cost/price, quality, lead time, and/or service - they simply manage their business better
- Your system is unable to support the growth and change required by your business - you need better flexibility and control
- Executives get little useful insight from the system (lack of dashboards, self-service BI - or they are difficult to use)
- You have difficulty complying with requirements from regulators, creditors, or board members
Additionally, if you already have an accounting or ERP system installed, your company may not wish to invest in a new one due to having already paid for the software license as well as the cost of implementing it.
However, this can be a costly error. In addition to not getting the benefits afforded by the new technology in a modern ERP, there can also be a substantial "Cost of Doing Nothing", including:
- Annual maintenance fees increase as much as 20% of the list price per year. This results in repurchasing the license for the outdated software every 5-6 years
- Ongoing operating expenses to maintain, upgrade, or replace system software, networking equipment, and user devices
- As your system ages, the software many no longer be supported by the manufacturer. You many even discover that the software no longer runs on the latest hardware and operating systems
- Development resources familiar with your software version become harder to find
- You find yourself trying to implement a custom solution at significant expense when the new version of the software has that feature built-in
- More data and network security features are often included in new releases of software, leaving your company vulnerable if you choose not to upgrade.
Agility, responsiveness, and frugality are three key attributes that allow companies to keep pace with rapid change. Is your ERP system allowing your business to do that?
Now's the time to explore the benefits of a true cloud ERP System that will allow you to keep your business running, from accounting, inventory, order management, and so much more!
Join us for a LIVE overview of Acumatica Cloud ERP, Wednesday, April 21st at 12 PM PST
If you're ready to see how Acumatica Cloud ERP
can transform your business, contact us today!