Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/160971
BUSINESS IN PRACTICE By René Lacerte Ti-i-i-ime is on My Side T i-i-i-ime is on my side. Yes it is! Or is it? While new technologies make us more productive giving us back time, the failure to adopt them can lead to missed opportunities. So, when I started thinking about this column and learned that the September issue was about the cloud and what's next for small businesses in the cloud, this song popped into my head and seemed like a great way to make that point. I am a big believer in efciency. It is why I do what I do for a living. Creating solutions that make people more productive is the only way to give someone the precious gift of time. Giving it to businesses has been the focus of my career. I am not sure when I realized that the adage "Time is Money" is the backbone of all small business productivity tools but it is. And it is especially apropos in the age of the cloud. Here's why. Centralizing data is Mr. Lacerte is CEO and founder of Bill.com and the former CEO and co-founder of PayCycle. As a third-generation entrepreneur building solutions for accountants, he is uniquely qualifed to bring insights fom an entrepreneur's and accountant's perspective. He can be contacted at rene.lacerte@ CPAPracticeAdvisor.com. 14 at the core of the cloud. With the data centralized, multiple applications can leverage the same data at the same time. Tis enables collaboration at the right level across people, systems and documents. Tat means mundane tasks can be eliminated, thereby creating efficiency. Tat results in less labor and less time and more money. That efciency gives people time to think more strategically about their business. When that happens, you get even bigger returns on the time saved. I believe that we are in the middle of a revolution of sorts when it comes to small business tools. It is hard to predict all the things that w ill happen but given the other topic in this issue, POS, let's look at one that is geting lots of atention: Credit Card Acceptance. Since credit cards were invented businesses have had to go thru complex applications, buy expensive equipment and spend lots of dollars on integrating their systems. Tat is all changing. Tanks to companies like Square, Shopkeep and Revel systems, it is geting much easier and cheaper to accept credit cards. Square started the revolution by eliminating the need for expensive mercha nt equ ipment . A l l you needed was a dongle and a smart phone. Ten they used the centralized data capabilities to approve applications in real-time. Now they September 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com have millions of merchants that have never ever experienced the hassle of seting up a merchant account. Imagine all the time saved and the creative think ing that their small businesses were able to pursue. Prety cool! While Square has focused on the sole proprietor, ShopKeep and Revel have focused more on the retail establishments using iPads as terminals. Te graphical interface means no one has to learn to use the terminal, which saves time. Te centralized data in the cloud though is more important in the long term. It allows businesses to seamlessly integrate their POS system with their accounting system. Tis is only possible because the accounting systems such as Intuit's QuickBooks, Netsuite, Intacct and Xero, all have an open API architecture for sharing data to and fro. Again, the cloud is saving time allowing businesses to make more money. Now here is the bad news. The cloud is new to all of us. Tat means changing a process and that means investing time to get started. Tis is the same challenge with anything new but can be especially chal lenging with cloud technology given the pace of change. Unfortunately, we all know that learning new things gets harder if you are entrenched in IN THE CLOUD your old way of doing things. It helps to keep an open mind. So, oddly enough time work will work against you if you don't adapt to new technology. If you wait to adopt the technology while some of your competitors jump right into it, they will continue to learn and try new things distancing themselves from you. We have lots of customers and the example that comes to mind is the owner of 35 fast food restaurants. When he started with us he only had 12 and his growth was stalled. He didn't have the capital nor did he want to expand his team to make growth happen. After he started using cloud solutions like Bill.com, he was able to grow and now has 35 restaurants. So the little bit of investment of his time has paid of handsomely. Now that you have taken the time to read this article, I hope it got you thinking about how time can be on your side. Oh, and for those regular readers, this isn't the frst column that I have writen using the Stones as inspiration and I doubt it will be the last!