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Growing Internationally with the Cloud

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At rinehimerbaker we focus a considerable amount of time helping our customers grow within their currents markets and helping them achieve their growth goals. If their growth takes them into international markets we take steps to ensure they have the tools to succeed. Expanding into international markets brings communication and data sharing challenges if you don’t have the right technology in place.  Here are some of the ways cloud-based ERP’s can help alleviate the complexity of growing internationally.

Seamless Connection Around the Globe

The cloud is a set of servers that can be accessed over the internet. This eliminates on-premise hardware and allows a company or person to be anywhere with access to their data. There’s no need to set up your own internal networks or maintain security on your logins. Cloud systems protect your data and are constantly updated to ensure you can access it anywhere anytime. This is what has created the boom in remote employees and has given companies an easy way to expand their business. This includes going international because they can seamlessly add team members without missing a beat.

Real-Time Data to Monitor and Create Growth

With the anywhere anytime access companies also gain the ability to see real-time results for their business including net income, expenses, revenue, and more by total company or separate location. As companies add on new countries of business, they can easily create separate entities to track how the new area is performing. It also lets you easily see the difference in cost for vendors, profits, customer turnover, and more. A cloud-based solution also allows you to easily rollup that data for a total company performance. With the ease of insight into what is working and what is not working across all departments it allows a company to successful set up new branches no matter the location.

Multiple Currencies and Compliance

 

When growing internationally you may find your that your business has to conduct transactions in foreign currencies. Leading cloud ERP solutions can seamlessly handle transactions in multiple currencies which lessens the burden on your accounting staff. Compliance and tax laws can also become more complex for your business when you cross borders. Cloud ERP’s offer the ability to structure your company so that you capture all of your data and stay in compliance.

Expanding your company’s reach has never been easier, take full advantage of what the cloud has to offer by ensuring all the technology your company uses is cloud-based.


Create Growth for Your Hospitality Company in 2020

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Creating growth for any company is the number one goal. However, overall profit growth can be hard to create since total growth creates extra work and costs to your bottom line. We have put together our top three recommendations on how to downsize those costs.

Elimination of Your Automation Gap

Elevate Your Customer Experience

Streamline Your Team

Fill out the form below to gain access to our web series. We will be releasing one video each week for the next three weeks. Week one will focus on eliminating your automation gap.


Accounting Trends in 2020 Video

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Find out the top three accounting trends in 2020 to implement in your business to sail past your competition. Then fill out the form below to find out how our team can help you execute all three trends.

 


outsource accounting partner

Selecting the Right Outsourced Accounting Partner to Drive Your Business

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When evaluating how you can better manage your time often executives face a decision between adding internal staff or finding an external partner to manage tasks. Internal staff not only adds additional salaries but also benefits, workspace/essentials, training resources, and more. Not to mention, it takes many months before new employees are proficient in their new roles. Alternatively, an outsourced accounting partner can provide an entire team that has an expertise in a given field and allows you to have the time back in your calendar to focus on what is important- expanding your company’s mission.

 

  • Consider what you are looking to outsource

 

The first step in deciding on an outsourced accounting partner is making a list of tasks that you are looking for an expert to take and complete each week, month, or year. For an outsourced accounting partner, this can include closing your books, building dashboards for your owners or managers, building and running reports, taxes, accounts payable, accounts receivable and more. The amount you wish to outsource depends on if you have a finance team in place or if the owner/manager is still completing those tasks daily. At rinehimerbaker, we have experts in each field that can quickly and efficiently get all your tasks completed and to you in a timely manner.

 

  • Align with a Proven Partner

 

As you assess potential partners be sure to ask for references, take the time to talk to active clients, and ask for case studies that demonstrate their success. All three of these resources are readily available with a partner that has been in business for any length of time. You can use these to access how to outsource partner works, and what they have been able to accomplish for other companies. Such as if you are looking to outsource your month-end close- how quickly have they been able to close other companies? Was it the same time or did they deliver results ahead of time?

 

When speaking with their customers or reading through case studies make sure to notice the type of technology the partner uses to complete your tasks. Is the software cloud-based or on-premise? Being cloud-based offers many advantages and you’ll want to be aligned with a partner who can leverage new technologies. The technology they use also lets you know how innovative they are and where they see the future going. You want a company focused on being best-in-class as this demonstrates they’ll be able to take the burden off of you and you’ll no longer have to worry about how to stay ahead of your competition.

 

 

  • Check for Culture Compatibility

 

The final step and probably the most important is checking company culture compatibility. Working with a company that is aligned with your core beliefs will ultimately make it easier to trust someone else to make decisions on your behalf. You also want a partner that works similar hours with the same expectations for deadlines. This doesn’t mean that you have to be in the same time zone but it does mean you have to look at a workday the same. That could be having expectations that deadlines are a hard cut off with no wiggle room or you are focused on a work-life balance where the cut off is 5 pm every day despite deadlines. This will help eliminate any potential disagreements or frustrations after the partnership has started.

 

Find out how rinehimerbaker can help your company get results through the cloud by reaching out to accounting@rinehimerbaker.com.

 


family offices

When Family Offices Should Move to the Cloud

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Family Offices are key to managing wealth and asset growth for current and future generations of a family. As they grow, the ownership structures become more complex and sophisticated, the diversification of assets widens, and their need for real-time information becomes imminent. With that type of responsibility on a company’s shoulders, the last thing they need is additional stress that comes with being behind in technology advancements including their accounting solution. If a family office is still using an on-premise solution for their accounting department, they are missing out on the elimination of manual work, real-time data, continuous consolidation, and easy access from anywhere. A cloud ERP solution provides all of that and more. Below are the top benefits we have seen family offices gain from switching to the cloud.

Cloud-Based

Being cloud-based is the number one asset we can provide for family offices. This gives the office and family members access anywhere, anytime. The office managers can travel with the family and, with internet access,still have access to all their data. This also means that family members can access their information at home, or on the go. Lastly, the office can be located wherever the best talent is, leaving the family with the flexibility to be where they are happiest.

Multi-Entity

Another top benefit of a cloud-based solution is a multi-entity platform with continuous consolidation. This allows offices to manage each family member individually with the option for a quick total family roll-up. Our recommended cloud-based solution allows users to manage separate entities (aka different family members or businesses) under a single log-in. This provides the capability to produce individual reports at the entity level or consolidate at the family level. The reports require a quick few clicks and are instantly completed. Report templates can be saved which allows users to swiftly access them again. With reports being easy to create and run users can quickly see their consolidation which eliminates the need to combine reports manually.

Dashboards

Custom Investor dashboards are a great asset as they can be the login screen for each user and can be customized to their daily needs. Since family offices typically deal with a large portfolio of investments, having the real-time data displayed immediately upon log-in gives the user an overall view of the financial information that’s important to them. The dashboards can be customized to each user based on their position or to a certain family member that only wants to see their personal information. The dashboards also give the user a quick way to drill down into the details of data if they want to know more about it.

Eliminating Manual Work

Eliminating manual work can save family offices multiple hours of staff work as well as help keep their team lean. An example of this is when a family office has to process dozens of checks each week. When they move to the cloud, they eliminate all of the manual work which can include the opening of the mail/ printing emails, scanning the bills, routing them via email for approval and coding along with tracking where are in the approval process, entering into QuickBooks, printing checks, signing checks, stuffing envelopes, trips to the post office, and filing. On top of eliminating all of these steps, you also get rid of the constant paper waste. This can all be automated using bill.com where the bills get emailed directly to the inbox, coded, routed for approval and paid either electronically or with a check generated by bill.com. The details are then automatically synced with your cloud solution.

 

Overall, the benefits a family office can gain from moving their accounting ERP to the cloud will transform how they operate. The elimination of manual efforts allows for a better run business, quicker decisions, and growth.

 

Find out how rinehimerbaker can help your company get results through the cloud by reaching out to accounting@rinehimerbaker.com.


dashboards

Transform Your Business Through Sage Intacct Dashboard Feature

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For business leaders a clear, concise dashboard that showcases real-time information allows them to easily see a digestible snapshot of their company’s status. Without a dashboard providing performance cards, reports, and graphs an executive or financial leader could be left in the dark on what is occurring in their business. Companies without dashboards often waste time on pulling, sorting, and formatting data rather than focusing on understanding their finances and strategizing on steps for improvement.

What does a customized dashboard look like?

8-10 key performance metrics, covering both financial and non-financial data, that are important to you and your company. You can even harness the power of Sage Intacct’s open API to integrate other software programs, allowing your dashboard to incorporate key data from other company systems, like volume, pricing, shipments, market share, and more.
Dashboards are modern and interactive, allowing you to quickly drill down with the click of a button to find out what is driving the results you are seeing. You can sort, filter, or slice and dice the data any way you want to dive deeper and truly understand your financials, ultimately giving you total power over your financial well-being.

How are you transforming?

Since the data being displayed is real-time financial leaders can use these metrics to make business-changing decisions and drive their management team’s actions. What’s even better? Each user’s dashboard can be customized to the metrics that pertain to their job. With each executive and finance team member having their own dashboard they have anywhere, anytime access to the data they need to deliver at peak performance, without comprising data security.

Dashboards will become your “finger on the pulse” of your company, forever changing how you and your team react to changes. At the end of the day, your company will have an edge on the competition by shifting from spending time aggregating data to spending time analyzing and acting upon insights.

rinehimerbaker is an outsourced cloud accounting company that can do it all. We offer consultation and implementation of cloud-based ERP solutions, outsourced accounting, and more. Contact our team at accounting@rinehimerbaker.com to find out more about how we can help you keep up with 2020’s biggest accounting trends.

 


Take your Business to the Next Level in 2020

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With 2019 wrapping up, many executives are looking for ways to stay relevant and innovative and stand out against their competition in 2020. Many companies are pursuing goals of increasing revenue and profitability, reducing costs, and expanding their cause. How are they going to do this? After looking at trends for next year, below are our top suggestions on how to take your business to the next level.

 

  • Improve productivity by automating

Automating processes for a growing company is a great way to get the most out of each workday. If your team is spending time on manual data entry every month, they probably don’t enjoy their work, you likely are not getting accurate data and their direction is not as focused on the purpose of your business as it could be. You may also lose the ability to make strategic decisions quickly because the data is useless by the time it becomes available. Cutting out manual processes, integrating systems and relying more on the cloud can speed delivery, eliminate the lengthy month-end close cycle and provide accurate results quickly, while data is still relevant.

 

Take a look at every team members’ daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. How many of them can be automated by upgrading your technology? While not everything can be upgraded at once, you can pin-point which manual tasks are taking too much time and which ones are costing the business by not being completed faster. This can be true for customer experience practices, month-end accounting processes, and sales activities.

 

  • Expand Your Reach

In 2020, the cloud will be even more prominent for businesses than it already has in the past two decades. By leveraging the cloud, you can influence more existing and potential customers in different markets and reach top potential employees for open positions.  The cloud improves access and collaboration like never before.

 

If you aren’t already using the cloud to grow your customer base, expand into new markets and reach the right employees for your firm, analyze which systems you are currently using for these processes and find out if they can be converted to the cloud.  If you don’t have a Customer Relationship Management system, human resource management tools and effective accounting solutions in place already, now may be the time to consider implementing one or all of these.  Most applications now have cloud-based options with open APIs allowing for seamless connections between each other. Rely on a trusted advisor who can educate you on the leading systems and processes being utilized in your industry. Consider how upgrading, integrating or implementing a best-in-class solution can give your company an advantage over your competition.

 

  • Elevate Your Customer Experience

The customer experience is what makes top companies different from their competitors. Companies who offer similar products and services must differentiate themselves from competitors and create loyal customers. How do they do that? They go above and beyond to make the customer feel special, have a memorable experience and exceed their customer’s expectations. Why is that important? Because there is so much competition that if your company isn’t memorable and competent you won’t create a loyal customer, they may not purchase from your company a second time and they will likely share their negative experience online.

 

What can you do? Evaluate your ideal customer experience and focus your efforts on delivering just that. Where do you go beyond? Where do you fall short? Are there companies that you have had a positive experience with in the past? Can you use innovation in your approach to interacting with customers more effectively?  Use the power of customer experience analytics to measure behavior, demographic and other metrics in real-time.  Find ways to reward your engaging customers, engage with them on social media and strive to make customer experience advocates out of all your employees.  Taking these initiatives can improve your current customer experience and make it a competitive advantage.

 

 


2020 accounting trends

Top 3 Accountings Trends to Follow in 2020

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Three main 2020 accounting trends will change the landscape of finance departments in companies of all sizes: automation & artificial intelligence, cloud accounting solutions, and outsourced accounting functions. What do all of the trends have in common? They all focus around eliminate time spent on unnecessary manual work in order to spend more time growing your business.

 

  • Automation and Artificial Intelligence

 

According to Firm for the Future, 86% of current accounting tasks can be automated. With that in mind, finance executives are looking at how advanced artificial intelligence can automate their company’s current manual accounting processes. By removing hours of manual work team members can refocus energy on being strategic leaders and streamlining processes.

 

How can you take this trend to your company? Look at all of your current solutions, not only for finance, but HR, sales, and marketing. Do they work together? Does your team export report to manipulate data? Are they spending hours typing data into multiple systems? Do any of the solutions have an open API to connect them? Assess your answers to these questions and then evaluate which systems don’t have the capability to automate workflows.

 

  • Cloud Accounting Solutions

 

Accounting Today reports that cloud accounting solutions currently account for 45% of small businesses, 57% medium-sized businesses, and 58% of large-sized businesses’ accounting solutions. This number will continue to grow as companies become more fluid and dispersed across the country and internationally. Moreover, 67% of accountants think cloud-based solutions make their job easier.  Ease of access, connectivity with solutions from other departments to eliminate duplicate work, and less reliance on IT are pushing droves of accountants to evaluate cloud ERP solutions.

 

What can you do to adopt this trend? If you don’t already have a cloud-based ERP, make it a point to evaluate what your current on-premise solutions do well and where there are automation gaps. Then start to look at cloud solutions that fill the automation gap specific to your industry. Lastly, prepare your 2020 budget to accommodate for implementation of a new cloud solution.

 

  • Outsourcing Accounting Functions

 

For small to medium-sized businesses, outsourced accounting functions have become a popular option and will continue to gain popularity as companies want to remain streamlined.  Using an outsourced accounting partner gives companies top accountants to manage their finances while using their limited resources to focus on increasing profitability and grow their passion, which for most is not accounting.

 

How can you adopt this trend? Look at the time you and your employees are spending on accounting functions. Are you staying up late to make sure the accounting is being completed? Do you have limited insight into financial data? Is someone on your team taking away time from their actual job to make sure that invoices are being sent out and getting paid timely? If you don’t have a strategic finance team in place, we urge you to weigh the costs of adding an additional staff member vs. hiring a highly regarded outsourced accounting company vs. the cost of doing nothing about your financial pains.

 

rinehimerbaker is an outsourced cloud accounting company that can do it all. We offer consultation and implementation of cloud-based ERP solutions, outsourced accounting, and more.  Contact our team at accounting@rinehimerbaker.com to find out more about how we can help you keep up with 2020’s biggest accounting trends.


Sage Intacct reporting

Sage Intacct Reporting

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Check out November’s Sage Intacct Tips and Trick video produced by our internal team. This month we review Sage Intacct’s reporting capabilities and how they can give your company greater insight. The reporting capabilities allow you to slice and dice the data any way you want to really see into your data.

 

Find out more from our team by emailing accounting @rinehimerbaker.com


data driven

How Financial Leaders Can Become More Data Driven

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As we head into the next decade, financial leaders of fast-growing companies are focused on how they can better drive decisions based on real-time data. Having access to financial and operational metrics in real-time can influence strategic company decisions. Below are some ways the tech-savvy leader can continue to evolve.

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1)    Eliminating manual work through technology – The top way that financial leaders can become more data-driven is by eliminating manual work by modernizing technology. Companies that are taking advantage of integrated solutions and automation have shorter month-end close cycles, streamlined processes and reliable, real-time information.  By moving to the right cloud-based financial solution, finance departments gain the ability to use seamless API’s connecting multiple systems in one low maintenance ERP solution. Open API allows organizations to choose the systems that work best for them.  Having integrated systems eliminates duplicate entry, reduces the risk of human error and improves job satisfaction. Utilizing cloud technology allows leaders to have visibility to critical data and attain real-time insights.

2)    Shift the direction of the finance department to value-add analysis – Once manual work has been eliminated, your team can now focus on understanding the story the data is telling and predicting the future. By reducing the amount of time spent recording transactions, resources can be redirected to support organizational initiatives such as cost savings, growth, and pursuing your organization’s strategic mission.

3)    Use financial data to create strategic goals – Financial leaders are in a prime position to drive company goals, set KPI’s and achieve measurable results when they have accurate and timely data.  Key performance metrics may include those related to revenue, margins, sales cycle, or other operational measures of success.  A fully integrated, flexible, cloud-based ERP system allows Finance Leaders the ability to quickly model scenarios and analyze the impacts on revenue, profits and cash flow.

Make this decade one of distinguishing your organization’s strategic vision and differentiate yourself as a leader who adds value, drives growth and sets your CEO up for success.  How? Make technology a priority and move to the cloud. It is the first step in driving your company forward and becoming a data-driven financial leader.

 

Contact rinehimerbaker at accounting@rinehimerbaker.com  to find out how you can become more data-driven.