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true cloud based

What Does True Cloud-Based Mean?

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At this point everything is considered “cloud-based” but what does it mean to be a true cloud-based solution?

A true cloud-based solution or software is designed from the start for optimal performance in the cloud. The creator or owner of the solution manages every aspect within the cloud. There is absolutely nothing on-premise about the solution. This is why a true cloud-based software gives companies the ability to access their data anywhere at anytime.

Why would a company want to work with a strictly cloud product?

Working with a true cloud product eliminates the restraints that come with on-premise or partially on-premise solutions. The products are managed from the cloud which means that you can be anywhere updating, making changes, and handling any hiccups vs. having to go to a place where your servers are located.

At rinehimerbaker we choose to work exclusively with true cloud-based products with our recommended ERP solution being Sage Intacct. Join Sage Intacct on July 9th at 2:30 pm eastern to explore why they are the best cloud-based ERP.

“Sage Intacct has freed me up to look holistically at the business rather than just focusing on getting accounting tasks done.” – Kim Wegener, Director of Finance, Powell’s Books

See why Sage Intacct is the number one choice for fast-growing companies like yours. During this Product Demo, you’ll see how you can:

  • Automate processes and close the books up to 79% faster
  • Consolidate hundreds of entities in minutes not days
  • Reduce AP costs by 60%

Register here to reserve your spot today. If you can’t attend, go ahead and register to ensure you get your copy of the recording.

The Cost of Not Taking Action

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What does it ultimately cost a company that decides to push off modernizing their finance solution? Does it actually cost a company anything? It turns out it does.

Overtime on manual processes

Old school on-premise software solutions can lead to long extended manual processes filled with human error for reports that need to be produced monthly. This ultimately leads to hours upon hours of overtime for the finance team which is a heavy expense for smaller to medium-sized businesses.

Lack of timely, accurate reports

Many companies that still use outdated technology have month-end processes that can take 15+ days. That’s 3 out of 4 weeks every month. By the time the data is pulled together its irrelevant for executives, lenders, and bankers. When a company chooses to stay with these processes they are choosing to prevent themselves from being relevant and staying ahead of the competition.

Derail Potential Investments and Purchases

Companies that don’t have real-time accurate reports that they can produce quickly can hinder a potential investment or purchase. Many investments will ultimately walk away during due diligence if they lose faith in your ability to drive your company based on data.

Ultimately companies can lose the growth the strive to create by deciding to not choose to update.


How to Become a Successful Company: 3 Tips for Managing the Startup Phase

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For any new business getting through the startup phase can be intimidating. It’s estimated that almost 90% of new companies fail with most companies making similar mistakes and lacking the information and team they need to sail past the startup phase and enter into the growth stage. The faster a new company makes it to the growth stage the better their odds of survival become.  How does a company make it through the startup phase successfully? Through partnering with people/companies that have expertise in helping companies get off the ground, investing in long term goals not just short-term solutions, and evolving as the company develops.

Partnering with the right mentors:

One of the biggest mistakes a new startup makes is not looking externally for partners that can guide them through the startup process. Partnering with a strategic business partner can give you inside knowledge into what has been successful for other companies in your industry, how to take a deep look at your finances as you begin to make money, where to invest in the future, and how to build your brand. Many companies that don’t reach out for advisement often react to late or completely miss what is happening in their business ultimately leading to their demise.

Look for a partner that has helped similar companies or companies within the same industry. This way they will completely understand the challenges you face, and how to make your company competitive.

Investing in the long-term:

Being short-sighted is something startup companies face without evening knowing they are up against it. Owners, startup executive boards are often focused on reacting to day-to-day challenges and crisis therefore they are only spending money on what they have to get by. However, those companies that have a partner by their side to help pull their eyes up to what’s happening one year, five years down the road. How are you investing in technology, sales, marketing to ensure you make it not only to the growth stage but past it?

Evolution of your company:

Many startups make the mistake of trying to make their idea or product work for their customers they don’t allow for the business to evolve. Evolution is key to not going out of business. Consumers and markets are constantly changing therefore companies should always be looking at how they can react to changes and improve their business practices.

Find out how rinehimerbaker can be the right partner to help create strategic growth for your company.


manage your remote team

Best Practices for Managing Your Finance Team Remotely

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In 2020 more and more companies are offering remote work options for their employees especially under changing circumstances. However, if you haven’t managed a remote team before it can be a daunting task. Below are our top four tips to help you regroup and get your team on track.

Technology

Before you can offer your team the ability to work remotely or from home on a part-time basis you have to have the right technology in place. Cloud-based solutions give your employees the ability to access all of the information they need to get their job done as well as keep the rest of the company up-to-date. Cloud-based solutions are more flexible and easier to administer compared to VPNs and access to on-premise solutions.

Clear Direction and Expectations

When you aren’t in the same place as your employees it can be challenging to ensure you’re all communicating exactly what needs to be completed. How can you keep the lines of communication open?

First outline exactly what you want to be completed and think about what questions you would have if you were given the same assignment or project. Ensure you make time to go through the goals and objectives and let your team ask questions prior to starting their tasks. Give reasonable timelines for projects and offer touchpoints throughout to ensure everyone remains on the same page.

At the end of a project or task have a check-in to see what worked, what was helpful, and what could have been better. Clear communication is key.

Schedule Pulse Checks

Since your employees are working from home or an outside office they are often left to their own devices to ensure they are completing their job. Scheduling regular check-ins to discuss everything going on with their projects, daily tasks, challenges, and take note of what’s going on in their personal life. The more you communicate with each remote team member the better you will understand their workload, where they excel, and what they need from you.

Offer Flexibility

Part of working remotely is having the ability to work at a pace that is best for you. From a manager’s perspective focusing on accomplished tasks vs. hours is key to being a success in these new roles. It also gives your team the ability to take care of their personal life the way they need to which in turns means when they work they will be 100% focused on the tasks your company needs to be completed.

While managing a remote team may be a new concept for some companies, it can be one that is extremely productive with the right steps taken.

 


time poor

Managing Your Business When You are Time Poor

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One of the main constraints owners face is the fact that there is only 24 hours in a day. The needs of a successful business can take up more than 24 hours in any given day rendering them time poor. Below are top tips for managing your business when you are running out of steam daily to help reorganize your company’s structure.  

 

Expand Your Team- 

 Having the right internal and external team can help balance the hours in a day. While your company is in the growth stage the balance between hiring your own key staff members and using outsourced companies is important to redistributing the work load. Startup and growing companies alike should focus their hiring efforts on employees who are involved with the product or service creation and delivery. This will allow the business to stay focused on what they do best and not get weighed down by day to day support tasks. Owners should look to outsource support services such as social media management and accounting.  Creating a balance between internal/external teams helps you redistribute tasks, maintain efficiency,  while minimizing your total costs.  

 

Have a Clear Vision for Each Day: 

 Before beginning each workday take the time to have clear priorities on what needs to be accomplished. Your business priorities should not only be set for you but for your internal team and external partners. The next step is to recognize any distractions that need to be handled before starting your daily tasks. This can include any fires that need to be put out or personal items that need completion so they don’t distract you the rest of the day.  Create weekly check-ins with all of your internal team members and bi-weekly check-ins with your external teams. This will help you stay on top of what is happening and able to change focuses as your business changes.  

 Another way to manage your day to day work is to set up calendar blocking allowing you to focus on each aspect of your business uninterrupted. This is the practice is separating out chunks of time each week to focus on specific tasks or portions of your business. You can set aside Monday mornings for marketing, Friday afternoon for employee checks, etc. This practice helps you focus on and complete tasks in a more efficient way.  

Redefining how you manage your 24 hours a day through internal and external resources can be the difference in creating dynamic growth.

 


How Hospitality Survives in 2020

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These are completely unprecedented times and with stay-at-home orders across the nation, hospitality companies are facing new challenges to stay relevant. The overall hospitality industry has taken a huge hit in business and is facing sales that aren’t enough to cover their fixed costs. With that in mind, hospitality companies’ goals for the next six months focus on maximizing profit margins for delivery, take out, new programs that can be mailed out, and virtual programs. Many of these offerings can be completely new to the business making it a significant challenge. Given this, what are a few ways to meet this challenge and bring customers back to your business?

Offering Discounts:

Many of your customers are stuck at home therefore you aren’t losing them to a competitor but rather to no decision or rather lack of opportunity. With that in mind, offering a discount will encourage your customers to call in order even if they aren’t able to eat at your restaurant. With many people out of jobs, or on limited hours a discount could also put your business back into their budget.

New Offering for Stay-at-Home Customers:

Hospitality companies that relied on their customers to be able to come into their place of business such as gyms, or breweries are looking for ways to still engage and be relevant. The big question here is what can you offer to customers virtually? For example, a Pure Barre studio could offer classes virtually- allowing them to still collect their monthly memberships and help customers remain connected. Breweries can offer a drive-through option where customers can still pick up their weekly drink of choice. Local boutiques can offer delivery within a certain radius of their store with virtual shopping appointments.

New Services at Lower Prices:

The economic landscape has drastically changed in the past month leaving many households with a more limited budget for fun or extras. Hospitality has always been in the extra category, therefore, taking a look at what your previous cost as per customer and where ideally you think your customer could afford to be is a huge factor in surviving. Restaurants alone can offer new to-go options that are more cost-effective on their end for ingredients, and eliminate actually cooking them by offering ready to cook options. These options could be family-style and slightly lower than their typical menu. For hotels offering a post-pandemic package that includes a resort credit or is a slashed room rate can entice customers to return later this year even if they won’t have the same travel budget.

The overall key for hospitality companies to survive and thrive is to look at ways they can reinvent themselves to match the new landscape.

At rinehimerbaker, we provide leading cloud-based technology packages as well as best-in-class outsourced accounting to hospitality companies. If you are struggling to keep up with your business from home reach out to our team to see how we can help you change the dynamic and put you back on top.

 


Help for All During a Challenging Time

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One thing that companies didn’t plan for six months ago was a pandemic that would swiftly restructure the entire world including how all businesses operate.  With changes in businesses that are allowed to operate, and some companies operating under completely different circumstances, many companies are experiencing a strong decline in revenue. Where do you reach out for help to keep your business operating?  How do you connect with other companies who are also facing the same disruption?

The best thing to come out of this pandemic is the desire for businesses to help one another through a challenging time.  Companies are being relieved of months of rent, customers are ensuring they promote their favorite businesses online, other companies are reworking their production line to produce items healthcare employees are in desperate need of, and B2B businesses are offering free or low-cost services to help one another. This is the time for all businesses to work together towards a common goal of overcoming the largest challenge of our generation and to help each other come out stronger.

How can you take advantage as a company needing help?

Companies such as rinehimerbaker are helping businesses apply for small business loans, disaster relief loans, and outsourcing any finance work that companies can’t handle currently. Cloud-based automation services are also offering multiple free months to help ensure you can still run payments and receivables remotely.

Bill.com is offering customers facing a significant decline in the revenue 3 free months to automate their AP remotely and help them get back on track. To find out if you are eligible please reach out to the rinehimerbaker team. We will help you with setting up a demo and getting onboarded quickly.

This deal ends 4/27/20

 

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


CFO

How Your CFO is Leading the Charge in Change

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As the digital age continues to shift how companies operate, the responsibilities of the CFO are extremely vital to the pulse of the company. The amount of data that the CFO is responsible for producing and interrupting in real-time is vast and makes the difference between growth and being stagnetic.

 

CFO’s are not only in charge of making sure that the books are correct for tax purposes but providing clear data on where the business current financials are in real-time. CFOs are able to provide better insight into inventory, location by location profit and loss statements, vendor costs, employee costs, and more because of the technology they are implementing not only in the finance department but across the company. CFO’s are making the room in the annual budget to upgrade every department from HR to sales to accounting to cloud-based solutions that offer open APIs. This allows for information to seamlessly travel between systems automatically. This is eliminating human error and giving CFOs better insight into exactly what is the cause of each result. This alone is saving companies up to 75% of the time it currently takes to check the accuracy of their reports. The upgraded technology also allows CFOs to have custom dashboards with instant real-time results such as totaled up expenses, revenue, net income, and more.

 

What does better insight lead to? Better performance. Better performance leads to growth.

 

What CFOs are creating through technology upgrades, and better insight into their business is moving them into a strategic role instead of just the “numbers position”. With all of the data that is being created at a much faster rate than before the CFO role is now including interrupting the data at a higher level. This includes a recommendation on vendors, quick reactions to locations or lines of business underperforming, and more. The CFO is now flexing different muscles because they are creating the recommendations and bring them to the executive team vs. just the reports. This also gives them immediate insight into where money should be spent for expansion.

 

The CFO role is ever-changing due to their ability to drill down into the business faster giving them the ultimate insight into what is working. This role is becoming as equally as important as the CEO in order for a business to be successful.

 

 

 

 

 



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.


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.