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March 13, 2009 ( PowerHomeBiz ) -
Canada - Usually,
everyone who starts running his own small business comes across a lot of
difficulties in managing the information, such as, database of prospects,
different contact data, mailing lists, bookkeeping records, etc.
(news continued below)
Managing data can be done manually for a small volume of transactions but
it can be a disaster in case of increasing business activities. At first
glance, it looks simple to buy some software tools for contacts' management,
bookkeeping/accounting and use them. Most of the business software tools are
very good and comprehensive. However, most of them are complicated (even it
is necessary for users to take some courses), also they can be expensive.
Another point is that, as a rule, their capabilities are used only
partially.
One of the solutions is to use MS Excel (or its equivalent) spreadsheets
for prospects' data, financial records and reports, and other data. The
electronic tables make it easy to customize a simple informational system to
your particular type of business and style. Also if your needs change - it
is flexible - you can easily change any data table structure or output
document format. MS Outlook can be used for managing emails addresses and
also contact information. One of the disadvantages is a lack of data
integration.
In case of growing business, the next logical step would be to use a more
efficient and automatic system. A good solution is to find a tool with a
certain degree of integration. One of such simple software tools is BST-1 by
Addaptron http://bst.addaptron.com
. It consists of three modules that can be used together or independently -
Contacts' Manager, Email Distributor, and Accounting. Contacts' Manager
allows interacting with Email Distributor. The email system maintains the
lists of different groups of contacts (address books). It can be used to
send personalized email messages automatically to many recipients, as well
as, to a single one. It allows using different templates for different
purposes, including newsletters. Users can prepare and send a message in a
plain TXT-format or in HTML-format.
Accounting tool helps with basic accounting and reporting. Output reports
are open-closing balance sheets, income and cashflow statements for selected
by user period and with monthly comparative analysis. Since it interoperates
with MS Excel, a user can build charts and make any additional pre- and
post- calculations. It is simple, and it is easy to use. It protects
transactions from errors and ensures the reconciliation of all reports.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alex Shmatov, president and founder of Addaptron Software, has MBA in
Finance and Ph.D. in Mathematics, working on developing decision support
software systems for investors.
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Alex Shmatov
Addaptron Software
PO Box 30016 Vancouver, BC V6P 6S3, Canada
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