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Discover More About ActiveCollab Project Management Software

Discover More About ActiveCollab Project Management Software

ActiveCollab, as the name suggests, is a tool that spotlights on active collaboration. Serving over 50,000 teams since its founding in 2007, ActiveCollab offers an easy-to-use and simple interface that facilitates team transparency and impressively, client collaboration.

Collaborate with clients

ActiveCollab has the ability to build on client involvement and visibility without sacrificing security or confidentiality. By simply setting up correct permissions and inviting a client into a project, the client will be able to view the project details and leave comments, create discussions and notes, and easily add files for team members to access. The Client+ add on, essentially an additional setting, further builds client collaboration by allowing the client to even create, assign and be assigned tasks within the project. This kind of interactive and transparent feature is uncommon amongst many of the project management tools in the market, and as such is a major selling point if this is something your business is striving for.

Basic CRM functionality

Whilst ActiveCollab promotes significant client interaction, its CRM capabilities lack depth and detail. The CRM is very limited as only basic information can be stored for each company. ActiveCollab highlights its ability to assign custom rates for each client, however this is a feature many other tools have on offer.

Similarly, estimating/quoting is easy and simple in ActiveCollab. The interface is logically laid out, and you can send out an estimate within a few clicks of your mouse. However, the absence of any significant flexibility or structure and formatting is a major shortfall. Templates with crucial information and aesthetics cannot be created and all line items are free form text – you are unable to choose from a consistent and specified list of products and services.

Streamlined workflow

Once an estimate has been accepted, it can be quickly converted into a project. Projects can only be assigned one category and a few labels, hence limiting project filtering and reporting. However, where ActiveCollab lacks in project categorization, it makes up for this with effective detailed task lists, tasks and subtasks. ActiveCollab excels in keeping everyone in the loop, hosting a dedicated Activity tab for each project where all members can see the happenings for the project – when tasks are created, completed and more. Comments and files can easily be added to provide feedback and ask questions.

Tasks can be assigned to people, and subscribers can even be added on to either supervise or be kept up to date with the task progress. The focus on collaboration is aided by task dependencies that help create a gant chart that illustrates the project schedule. Although providing a representation of upcoming tasks, ActiveCollab does not provide an avenue for project managers to use this information and easily and effectively resource plan.

For the end users, your team members, time sheeting is an easy task. Time can be logged via the user specific task page, the project or within the task itself. The process is easy to follow, with a simple click and select of the project, task, time and description. ActiveCollab offers a clean interface that is not confusing for your team members.

Basic invoicing & reporting

ActiveCollab’s invoicing module gets the job done, however if you are looking for well designed, formatted and customized templates, you should look somewhere else. The invoice functionality is limited with only basic grouping and detailing available within the invoice. Also, in-depth reporting and customizable dashboards are another aspect where ActiveCollab needs major improvement.

Overall, ActiveCollab is a great PM tool for businesses with non-complex projects that require little to no customisation in regards to estimating, invoicing and CRM. The interface is simple and intuitive and offers a great experience for the end users. Team members and clients are kept up to date with all the latest information reducing the number of ‘catch-up’ meetings required. Where customisation, increased functionality and powerful reporting is required, look to other tools to use for your business. At its very competitive price point of $8 a user per month, ActiveCollab maintains basic processes and functions, and this flows through to basic CRM capabilities, estimating and invoicing.

Have questions?

We’d be happy to answer them or take you through features of ActiveCollab in more detail. Or, if you’re wondering if another solution might be better for you, we’ve also done the hard yards for you and taken a look at other project management platforms, including: Xero Projects, Harvest & Forecast, Streamtime, Zoho Projects, WorkflowMax, Scoro and Accelo.

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Discover More About Streamtime Project Management Software

Discover More About Streamtime Project Management Software

Streamtime strives to embody project management software for creatives. This goal is reflected not only in its modern aesthetics, but in its functionality. Streamtime strays away from traditional PM software traits in favor of a process that reflects the working styles of its clientele.

If you are willing to adjust your practices, and let go of your traditional reporting techniques, then Streamtime can be a powerful tool that staff enjoy using.

Track to-dos, not timesheets

Streamtime’s most unique feature is its approach to timesheets; namely that there are none. Replacing timesheets is the intuitive ‘To Do’ board, the completion of which automatically logs time for you. Managers, or staff, can drag and drop tasks to organize their own daily lists of to-dos, yet get a visual representation of how long that expected work is going to take. To do’s can relate directly to project items (the source of invoices, quotes and WIP) or they can be created ad hoc. The time for one of these on the spot created to-do items is recognized within the project as ‘Extra Hours Tracked’ so you can easily gauge where your staff may have done some out of scope work.

Clear on capacity

Filling out a timesheet is as simple as dragging an item from ‘To-Do’ to ‘Done’. If the time taken isn’t the time planned, you can stretch the item in your chart as needed. The To-Do board is Streamtime’s selling point and you can see why. It clearly visualizes capacity of staff, makes time sheeting easy, and has the flexibility to work off quoted time or track all the small tasks needed to be done on a day to day basis. It could use a more complex integration with the jobs (the creation of sub items from the to-do list would be welcome), and it could cause a culture shock for a team used to traditional timesheets, but it is unique and useable.

For managers, Streamtime has a schedule feature, in which you can review to-do items across all staff or jobs. Flexibility in the drag and drop functionality and accessibility to create to-do’s on the spot with instructions that feed into a staff members individual to-do list, make this module a powerful tool for a manager that is conscious of how much work their staff have at any given time.

Quoting and invoicing

Quoting and Invoicing through Streamtime is job focused and based around Items. Items can be free typed, and you have the flexibility to choose whether an item is budgeted in total, or from the sum of the rates and hours of staff assigned to it. You can duplicate a quote, and its line items but due to the free-form nature of the system a lack of quote, job or invoice templates could become frustrating for businesses that operate with set pricing structures that vary little between projects.

Preparing quote, invoice and purchase order documents can be a mixed bag depending on your preferences. Everything in these documents can be freely edited, added to or re-ordered. This flexibility can be refreshing compared to traditional project management solutions, requires caution as it is all too easy to mistakenly change a price or remove a line item. Visually, the documents have templates that are only semi-customizable. Their presentation is worthy of any creative agency, but should you currently have highly customized documents, you won’t be able to re-create them fully in Streamtime.

Reporting options

Reporting is another example where Streamtime strays from the norm. Reporting comes in 3 main forms; inside the project, the dashboard & customizable list views.

From within the project you are given a graph of a projects process based on the actual vs allocated time. Paired with the graph is key metrics around budgets, invoiced and quote totals.

There are four dashboard options, likened to personality traits that filter that organize key information for that day. The information shown here is limited, and there is no customisation outside the 4 choices. The 4 choices are based on: in-depth analysis, top level information, staff capacity and budget vs actual. Unless one of the options is perfect for you, you won’t find much value in the dashboards.

Customisable lists

The real value is in the customisable lists. You can make lists of jobs, time, expenses, quotes & invoices. For each list, you can add in filters, and customize columns based on a generous range of data. Lists can then be saved as a favorite and exported to CSV. If time and care is taken to build an arsenal of favourite lists, Streamtime will provide the visibility you need to run your business.

Streamtime is a powerful project management software that bases its uniqueness on visualization and flexibility. Highly structured businesses with set project structures and processes will likely find there is too much freedom, and therefore room for error, with Streamtime’s approach. However, for smaller creative agencies where flexibility is essential, Streamtime would be a welcome solution.

Have questions?

We’d be happy to answer them or take you through features of Streamtime in more detail. Or, if you’re wondering if another solution might be better for you, we’ve also done the hard yards for you and taken a look at other project management platforms, including: Xero Projects, Harvest & Forecast, ActiveCollab, Zoho Projects, WorkflowMax, Scoro and Accelo.

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Discover More About Harvest & Forecast Project Management Software

Discover More About Harvest & Forecast Project Management Software

Harvest is a project management tool whose foundations lie in time capture. Today, I am covering Harvest & Forecast, its scheduling add on, together. Harvest’s biggest strength is its flexibility of time capture. After all, the application started as an exclusively time capture tool in 2006. Since then, they have expanded their horizons to cover most aspects of project management and, to a lesser extent, CRM.

Not our first choice for pipeline management

The most notable limitation of harvest is its business development functionality. In Harvest you build Estimates, which once accepted, can be turned into an invoice. What the Estimate module doesn’t provide however, is any form of lead pipeline visualization to provide you key information about incoming work. You can see the full list of leads and filter by client, but if pipeline management is important to you, Harvest will underwhelm.

Additionally, there is a disconnect between an estimate, and the project. You can’t turn an estimate into a project, only directly into an invoice. If you put the effort into building an estimate to list out service line items for time to be tracked, you will need to duplicate that effort to create the project if the estimate is accepted. If your quoting process is simple and the client only cares about the total value of services, you should be safe, but this disconnect between estimates and projects is something to consider.

Straightforward progress tracking

However, once you have built your projects, Harvest lets you maintain their progress against budgets with ease. The projects view lets you see at a glance how your work is tracking against budget with a colored project bar that stands out in the interface.

Within the project’s main view, you get a unique bar chart tracking the progression of the budget month by month, and another tracking your teams logged time week by week. You also get the key metrics tracked by Harvest (time, remaining budget, internal project cost and amounts to invoice).

As Harvest is built on the foundation of tracking time and expenses, you won’t find much additional project management functionality such as milestone tracking or to-do management. You can build tasks, but these are where time gets logged, so think twice before creating a task for every to-do item within a project.

Flexibility with invoicing and rates

Harvest does give you some invoicing flexibility, which can be determined at a project’s creation. You can opt for a time and materials project, with or without a set budget. A useful feature is the flexibility around rates.  You have the option to work off your staff charge out rates, a custom rate for the project, or even a specific rate for each task within that project. This allows for a flexibility of WIP management that caters to the requirements of a variety of clients.

The core strength of Harvest is undoubtedly in its time capture functionality. Time is tracked against tasks, billable or non-billable, that are created within a project. When using Harvest, you are given multiple avenues to add time. You can start a timer, add time to tasks within the project, or compile time against a daily or weekly graph. You can opt to have time approved, send reminders for approval, and as a manager you can easily visualize the time entered by your team.

Digestible reporting

The reporting module provides further flexibility around time and associated Work In Progress, and can be viewed by client, project, task or staff. Like projects, key metrics are displayed in an easily digestible format to not only view time entries but see the impact of your staff’s time on your business.

Where does Forecast fit into Harvest? Forecast is an additional application that directly integrates with your Harvest projects and tasks. Essentially an integrated gant chant for your projects, Forecast lets you create project milestones (critically missing from the Harvest project module) and assign project tasks with a drag and drop interface.

You can view the gant chart from either a project or team perspective, and usefully both options can be exported to csv. The team view gives you some additional flexibility around capacity, viewing staff availability and designations for either a day or a week. Forecast lets you visualize capacity for the future and recognize tight deadlines across your full project list.

With the integration of Forecast, Harvest upgrades from a time tracking tool to a more flexible project management tool where you can schedule capacity and track project milestones. The disconnect between estimates & projects, and the lack of to-do list management does, however, keep it from succeeding as an all in one project management solution.

Have questions?

We’d be happy to answer them or take you through features of Harvest & Forecast in more detail. Or, if you’re wondering if another solution might be better for you, we’ve also done the hard yards for you and taken a look at other project management platforms, including: Xero Projects, Streamtime, ActiveCollab, Zoho Projects, WorkflowMax, Scoro and Accelo.

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Discover More About Xero Projects

Discover More About Xero Projects

Xero Projects is a relatively new competitor in the project management software market, that has been created with one thing in mind: Simplicity. It is an extension of the existing Xero accounting and payroll solution made for small teams.

Ideal for businesses of less than five people, Xero Projects is designed to facilitate project management with little complexity. Xero Projects lets you create a project, adding budgets, timesheets and invoices and view profitability within minutes.

As the name suggests, Xero Projects is a Xero Product, and is available with any Xero subscription for an additional $10 per user per month. A Xero subscription is essential for anyone looking to get started on Xero Projects. While restricting your options of accounting software, the Xero connection has efficiency gains regarding invoicing and expense management that is lacking in other solutions.

Simple & easy to get started

The simplicity of Xero Projects is most prevalent in its set up. In under thirty minutes, you will have explored all avenues of custom configuration, as the software limits you to working within its confines.  

A project takes only four fields to set up, and its integration with Xero means you already have your Xero client database to draw from. Once the Project is set up, you can add tasks with predetermined time budgets, log expenses or go straight into building a deposit invoice.

Once you have created a project, all that is left to do is add time & expenses. Adding time is simple. You can use the start/stop timer feature in the mobile app or add timesheet entries retrospectively from several screens within the app site.

Track expenses with ease

Tracking expenses is similarly straightforward. Xero Projects only tracks essential expense information. Therefore, expenses can be quickly added from within the project.  The Xero integration is again useful here, in that a Xero bill can be directly related to a project, preventing double handling of these expenses, ensuring timely data.

The invoicing module from Xero Projects is almost identical to Xero, except that it gives you 3 project billing methods that relate directly to the project; Deposit, Project Amount or Tasks and Expenses invoicing.

Flexible invoicing

This invoicing flexibility is one of the system’s biggest strengths, as it enforces the mantra of simplicity (just select an option and the invoice practically creates itself) while still letting you bill in the way that bests suits you. Again, the Xero integration ensures efficiency when invoicing, as the invoice created against a project is reflected in Xero in its entirety.

After you have billed your project, it is time to report – an area where Xero Projects relishes simplicity. Reporting in the software is restricted to key project profitability information, and a time overview. The former compares budget vs actual using key metrics, while the latter allows you to review each staff members logged time, to identify where projects or tasks are going over the estimated time.

There is minimal customisation of reports, but all the key information to identify a projects financial projects is readily available.

The downfall…

Where Xero Projects is most lacking, considering its intention as a financial tracking tool, is its inability to link to any quotes. While quote functionality exists in Xero, there is currently no integration with Xero Projects. This has been identified by the team at Xero Projects as an item on its roadmap for future development and would be a welcome addition to the construction of more accurate budgeting.

If you are only concerned with tracking the financial progress of a project through time and expenses and want a familiar invoicing process with a complete integration to Xero, then Xero Projects could be the software for you. While its limitations in quoting, customisation & reporting are prevalent, it has the essential functionality to ensure small business can in control of their projects.

Have questions?

We’d be happy to answer them or take you through features of Xero Projects in more detail. Or, if you’re wondering if another solution might be better for you, we’ve also done the hard yards for you and taken a look at other project management platforms, including: Harvest & Forecast, Streamtime, ActiveCollab, Zoho Projects, WorkflowMax, Scoro and Accelo.

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2018: A Year of Growth, Transformation & New Challenges

2018: A Year of Growth, Transformation & New Challenges

With 2018 quickly drawing to a close, we thought we’d take the time to reflect on the Business Continuum journey this year. We’ve forged new partnerships, seen a major business transformation and grown our client base – and that’s just scratching the surface.

Tackling new challenges and developing partnerships

Since our humble beginnings as a one-man operation back in 2014, we’ve always loved a challenge. That’s why solving real-world problems for businesses is our bread and butter. This year, we’ve been fortunate enough to work with a more diverse range of businesses than ever before – from SMEs right through to ASX-listed companies.

As always, our ethos has been to provide end-to-end business transformation support. There’s no shortage of cloud integrators on the market, but our aim is to be an ongoing partner to our clients before, during, and after service – something that’s often overlooked. We like to think that it’s this dedication – along with our diverse range of industry experience – that has seen us entrusted with designing solutions for a growing number of businesses all over Australia.

Being able to solve bigger, harder and riskier problems is a huge motivator for the whole team here at Business Continuum. Strengthening our partnerships with software solutions like Concur and Scoro has enabled us to provide even more sophisticated solutions to drive operational excellence for businesses in a wider range of industries.

A month of milestones and transformations

October was a big month for us in more ways than one. Firstly, we reached a milestone of working with 500 businesses as of our 4th birthday early in the month – an amazing achievement that we’re incredibly proud of.

Late October also saw departures from Directors Greg Harrison and Chung Hui as they moved on to new business opportunities. We’re immensely thankful to Greg and Chung for their invaluable contributions to the business. Business Continuum wouldn’t be where it is today without their client-first approach and decades of expertise.

2019: New hires and continued growth

Looking forward to next year, we’ll be expanding our team of seven to around a dozen in line with our plan for continued growth. We’ll also be moving to WeWork offices in Melbourne and Sydney so we can be even more accessible to our clients and leverage the great community of talent in the co-working space.

As far as tech is concerned, we’ll be growing our existing partnerships with leading software providers, and we also have some customised app development in the works. Stay tuned for more info on that in the new year.

As a final note, we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone we’ve worked with this year – and here’s to a prosperous 2019. We look forward to seeing you next year!

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2017 In Review: Helping Our Clients Achieve More in the Cloud

2017 In Review: Helping Our Clients Achieve More in the Cloud

We’re celebrating a year of growth: offering clients more solutions, more capability and more expertise.

It’s been a fulfilling year for the Business Continuum team. We’ve broadened our service offering and attracted many new clients, whilst continuing to deepen numerous loyal and longstanding existing relationships. We’ve also diversified our offerings by adding several talented experts to our team. It’s important to take time to reflect and celebrate, so here’s a few highlights from 2017.

Merger with Realtime Business, appointment of Greg Harrison

In April, we merged with Realtime Business, and founder Greg Harrison became a Director of Business Continuum, alongside Matthew Peng and Chung Hui. Greg’s arrival signified a combining of forces between our two teams, giving our clients access to his many decades of experience in the IT, business management and project management industries. Greg’s approach is pragmatic, process driven and client focussed, making him a perfect fit for the growing Business Continuum team. The merge empowers us to more efficiently service more clients, and increase the breadth of the services we provide.

Appointment of Tim Dowling

In July, we further strengthened our team with the appointment of Tim Dowling as Client Director. Tim’s focus on understanding the client’s overall business objectives and his extensive, in-house knowledge of Xero Practice Manager and WorkflowMax make him a valuable asset to our team. Since his arrival, he’s delivered many successful projects, particularly those that require expert configuration of Xero Practice Manager to help modernise workflow processes for accounting firms.

A bigger team means more expertise for clients

In 2017 we welcomed several new staff to the Business Continuum team. This has allowed us to offer more services and increased capability to more clients. Our new team includes:

  • Sianne Hussey, Client Manager, bringing inventory management expertise with products such as Unleashed, Cin7 and DEAR
  • Ben Harrison, Client Manager and our resident Scoro guru (more on that below)
  • Connor Reich, Graduate Analyst and our data configuration go-to guy
  • Tejas Chandra, Client Manager and specialist in Scoro and Xero SMB sales expert
  • Shelley Foster, Client Manager, with expertise in Concur and business system implementations

We’re also thrilled to announce that we’ve hired our first Sydney-based team member. Rikki Phillips joins us in January with a strong background in XPM and other cloud-based applications.

Partnerships with leading software providers

During 2017 we continued to build partnerships with leading global providers of cloud-based software platforms Concur, Scoro and Unleashed.

Our Client Manager Ben Harrison recently spent time in Estonia, taking a deep dive into Scoro’s capabilities, and he came back impressed with the team and the technology.

We’ve also been delighted to announce our official partnership with Concur. The commitment Concur is delivering to the Australian market, with significant investments in local servers, events and tech development ensures its offering is competitive, diverse and reliable.

We’re also excited to be working with Unleashed. Expanding our suite of services to focus on inventory management is a logical step for us, and a move that has been welcomed by clients looking to get their cloud-based operational systems working as effectively as possible.

Working closely with these new providers as well as others enables us to develop a deep and intricate understanding of their software and capabilities, and which clients may benefit from it the most. As a cloud integrator, working alongside a variety of different software providers empowers us to be channel agnostic: we prescribe the right solution for our clients, not just the only solution we know.

We’ve also cemented our position with SuiteFiles—the content management solution for XPM environments—having been awarded “Partner of the Year” for the second successive year. We’re delighted to extend our relationship with the team at SuiteFiles and we’ve been impressed with the product enhancements they’ve released in 2017.

Events: APIntel, Xerocon and Xerocon Roadshow

Alongside industry peers, we hosted a pre-Xerocon event that offered insights on how to achieve growth, efficiency and productivity using Xero Practice Manager. Our Client Director Tim Dowling spoke alongside AccountKit’s Paul Murray and SuiteFiles’ Andrew Sims at Accounting Practice Intelligence (APIntel). His presentation encouraged firm Principals to focus on profitability by driving more engagement with current and new clients.

And of course, who can forget Xerocon, the granddaddy of industry events for cloud-based integrators like us. Our Director Matthew Peng presented at Uni Day, a range of in-depth sessions designed for accountants and bookkeepers, showing them how to upskill their Xero knowledge to improve profitability and efficiency.

At Xerocon itself we learned of many new announcements, including the relaunch of expenses, the lifelong learning platform, and Xero Projects. (By the way, if you’re weighing up Xero Projects or WorkflowMax for your business, here’s our take on both.)

Business Growth

Our team has more than doubled in size to a total of 11 staff this year. What all of this growth means is more scale in the business to remove bottlenecks of access to people, more specialisation, and more options we can bring to the table for clients. We’re in a far better position than we have ever been to help clients scope out and execute change at a business process level. Our goal is to be a more capable and comprehensive business partner every year, so there’ll be no slowing down in terms of growth.

We’re also pleased to report that we’ve diversified the size and types of our client base. While continuing to work with smaller businesses, our increasing expertise has attracted larger clients as well.

No matter what part you may have played in our achievements this year, we thank you, and look forward to seeing you in 2018.

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5 Ways to Improve Your Concur Experience for Better Expense Management

5 Ways to Improve Your Concur Experience for Better Expense Management

Concur is a terrific cloud-based spend management software platform comprising three core elements: expenses, invoices and business travel. It’s the global leader in streamlining spend management processes and can be linked to almost any back-end finance system, including Xero.

However, with Concur, some users may find themselves not getting exactly what they expected. Concur can be configured for any size of business, from large multinationals to SMEs. If an implementation is rushed, it can be difficult to align it with your specific business processes and mistakes at that initial stage can hinder your long-term results and devalue your investment. Furthermore, if key internal staff have moved on, there can be a skills gap that hinders a firm’s ability to extract maximum value from the solution.

Our Concur Health Check service helps you get a better return on your Concur investment. We identify opportunities for more accurate and efficient processing, lower processing costs and faster turnaround times. We fine-tune the system, the data, the business processes and deliver additional training—all in order to achieve better outcomes for your business.

Implementing software can be challenging

The common hurdles that users can experience include:

  • lack of efficiency with the process—it’s still slower and less accurate than desired
  • variance in user adoption across the business—staff using it in different ways and in different levels of engagement
  • low quality of data within the system, such as account codes or project codes, leading to inaccuracy of output
  • lack of tailoring the expense management process to company policy in areas like submission and approvals
  • inability to effectively manage the solution on an ongoing basis due to staff turnover

Encountering these kind of problems may tempt you to rely less on Concur than you should and supplement it with manual processes. But we’re here to encourage you to seek expert help as the tuning required is often straightforward and can yield excellent results.

As a certified Concur Solution Provider, we’re continuing to invest significantly in our skill and the Concur relationship. It is an outstanding platform and we know how committed Concur is to ensuring their customers have a great user experience.

Our five step Concur Health Check process

Concur Health Check step one: broader business objectives

Businesses that get the best from Concur align it with their cold-hard business objectives. There’s no point in executing change to a system that doesn’t support your goals. During our Concur Health Check process, we will ask questions such as:

  • what does success look like?
  • how do you know you’re not successful with Concur at present?
  • what’s the adoption level of Concur at the moment?
  • what would it take to achieve better outcomes from your Concur investment?

Concur Health Check step two: application administration

If your expense management process and policy are not as structured as they could be, then your results from Concur will reflect that. It’s important to consider the policies and procedures that will align with your use of Concur. Roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined, and communicated appropriately to staff. The administrator should be able to resolve most issues internally, and be aware of how to escalate issues externally. All change management processes should be documented and followed according to policy.

We also find that when a Concur administrator leaves a company, there’s a significant knowledge loss. Good documentation will help mitigate this risk, but sometimes additional on-site administrator training will be required—especially if new staff are involved.

Concur Health Check step three: training and support

Like any software solution, Concur is only as effective as business processes and staff behaviours allow it to be. Like any change in procedure, it’s important to get staff buy-in. If they haven’t learned how to use the features properly, they’re more likely to make mistakes or avoid using them altogether. New staff need a solid induction process, and everyone needs periodic refresher courses. Manuals and tutorials should be widely available to empower staff to be able to resolve their own minor issues. If issues can’t be resolved, it’s essential to give staff access to internal support and online help.

If one staff member is struggling with the application or process and shares their opinion with others, a negative sentiment can spread throughout the business. When working with organisations that strive to get the best out of Concur, a key element of our Health Check process is to increase user satisfaction and adoption.

Concur Health Check step four: input, processing and output

Data capture must be accurate. If you haven’t already, creating a policy document for staff around data capture and their responsibilities is a good first step. Establishing positive habits such as submitting expenses on time and communicating deadlines will ensure that expenses are accurately allocated within a reasonable time-frame. Costs can blow out if expenses are reviewed months after a project’s conclusion. Taking the time to make the expense process as easy and user friendly as possible can deliver big rewards.

Concur Health Check step five: integration

You may experience hurdles with Concur if its expense function isn’t adequately integrated with other relevant systems. The import/export process should be seamless, easy, cost-effective and accurate. If your integration isn’t correct, any time-saving benefits are negated with cumbersome exporting or importing processes. It’s important to regularly reconcile between Concur’s expense function and external applications to ensure they’re aligned.

Need help with Concur?

If you’re considering Concur, or you’re less than thrilled with the results you’ve had so far, then consider our Concur Health Check service. The investment made in improving your Concur processes will certainly bring returns in efficiency, time saving and better processes. Contact us to find out more about our Concur Health Check service today.

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Canopy Fitouts Case Study

As Canopy Fitouts grew rapidly, they found it difficult to stay on top of projects and job profitability. Realising spreadsheets were no longer viable, they sought help from Business Continuum to migrate their business to WorkflowMax, and they attribute a 400% increase in growth in part to the support and expertise that Business Continuum was able to provide during the migration process. Read the full case study here.

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Software Spotlight Series: SuiteFiles

Software Spotlight Series: SuiteFiles

Here’s the second blog post in our ongoing series, where we take a deep dive into the latest cloud-based software solutions for your business. We’ll be exploring the big players, the up-and-comers and the niche products to help you decide which option is right for your business.

Today, it’s SuiteFiles.

What is it?

SuiteFiles is a comprehensive content management system built on Microsoft Office’s 365 platform. Fully integrating with Xero Practice Manager, it’s a central and secure depository for all client communications, documents and emails. Anyone working with a client can save that content into the relevant client folder for all other approved staff members to access.

Who uses it?

It’s fundamentally a product for accounting firms, but legal firms use it too. Essentially, any service-based business that deals with clients and needs solid record-keeping functionality will find SuiteFiles a powerful addition to their business.

Templates that do all the work for you

Because they interact with Xero Practice Manager client data, you can use a template to quickly build a document, populated with all the relevant fields. For example, you could be sending an email reminding a client that it’s time to prepare the annual tax return. With a few clicks, you can create a letter using client data from Xero Practice Manager and your Word template. It draws down relevant data using conditional formatting. So, for example, perhaps the client doesn’t have a rental property. Then, the paragraph relevant to rental properties isn’t included in the letter.

Using these templates, each client gets a customised letter, and there’s consistency across the business in your client communications. There’s no other tool on the market that can create templates like this at the speed of SuiteFiles. Decades ago, you would’ve had an assistant writing these letters from scratch. Now, you can have them prepared and distributed in a few minutes.

Security in case disaster strikes

It’s much safer to store your client documentation in the cloud than in a server at the back of your office building. If that server dies or is stolen, all your precious, confidential client information is lost and your practice is in a world of pain. SuiteFiles has greatly enhanced backup and recovery capabilities compared with those within Microsoft Office 365. The native backup Microsoft provides lacks the ability to access single files. If you’ve lost a file, you need to restore the entire database just to recover that single file. But with SuiteFiles, you can easily access and restore that single file if your data is lost. Also, the data is located in Australia, which is ideal for most accounting firms dealing with client data.

Why not use a storage system?

Of course, you can always use storage systems like Dropbox, Box or Google Drive. But those tools, while very useful, are fundamentally just document storage solutions. Whereas SuiteFiles is a much more advanced content management system. It empowers users to store information beyond files, in order to better manage client interaction and project work.

Comprehensive content management

These days, most accountants are used to recording every type of client interaction throughout their day. Because SuiteFiles is built on Office 365, it extends the value of that investment for firms. So when an email comes in, you can click and drag it to SuiteFiles and it is automatically added to that client folder. The easier it is for everyone to habitually record client discussions, especially advice and decisions, the better your firm will service clients.

What are the alternatives?

Unfortunately, other content management solutions don’t integrate with Xero Practice Manager, so they’re less efficient. As mentioned, there are always simple storage systems like Box, DropBox or Google Drive. We estimate that around 200 accounting firms around Australia use SuiteFiles and many more are in the process of migrating from legacy solutions such as MYOB, HandiSoft or APS. SuiteFiles is the only cloud solution to provide the functionality that accounting firms will be familiar with.

What should you be aware of?

It’s a great piece of software, but it can’t fix cultural or behavioural attitudes in your firm. If your employees aren’t in the habit of regularly recording time and client interactions, it may be difficult to introduce this new record-as-you-go-along approach. SuiteFiles works best if users make regular updates throughout the working day (no filing everything in a rush on Fridays at 5pm). You need to be confident that your staff will stay on top of internal processes to get the best out of SuiteFiles.

Although documents in SuiteFiles can be accessed directly through documents tabs in Xero Practice Manager, it isn’t the most functional of features. We recommend using SuiteFiles as a standalone application with the integration being XPM feeding client data through to SuiteFiles.

Be clear on your objectives

The most successful implementations of SuiteFiles are underpinned by the clarity of vision, and the problem that is being addressed. By clearly defining your objectives and your success criteria, you’ll be in a better position to make the most of SuiteFiles (or any cloud software solution for that matter). What is your clear business need? SuiteFiles can’t magic away process problems within your practice, so it’s worth getting clear on your expectations at the onset.

Is it expensive? Is it easy to migrate from a legacy system?

SuiteFiles costs A$18 per user per month, so it’s an easily budgeted-for expense that will adjust as the user population expands or contracts. Migrations costs vary according to the legacy system holding the data—but we’ve migrated accounting firms from Windows file systems, through to MYOB and APS SQL-based systems. Typically, firms migrate around 80GB of data, but we’ve undertaken migration ranging from less than 10GB to in excess of 300GB.

It’s important to have a free trial

We like our customers to have a free trial before implementing SuiteFiles across their business which we can arrange on their behalf. A trial ensures that you and your team are comfortable in the SuiteFiles environment and the way it works before making a permanent transition.

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Xero Projects vs. WorkflowMax: Which is Best for Your Business?

Xero Projects vs. WorkflowMax: Which is Best for Your Business?

At Xerocon 2017, Xero introduced Xero Projects, a new platform that offers small business owners simple ways to track projects, timesheets, invoicing and other factors to ensure better profitability. Because Xero owns both Xero Projects and WorkflowMax, it can be confusing for small business owners: which solution is best for your business?

Here are the key factors to consider when deciding which of these impressive cloud-based software solutions is right for your business.

Xero Projects is very new

Yep, since the announcement of Xero Projects at Xerocon in mid-September 2017, AFL club Richmond has not lost a football game (we checked). Even though it’s new, it’s well thought out and is priced accordingly with a $7 per user introductory rate (that will increase to $10 per user in 2018). But bumps are to be expected, and Xero is yet to roll out the full suite of functionality for Xero Projects. Features like iOS and Android apps, and integration with Quotes and Expenses are not available yet. But, it’s only getting better from here.

What is Xero Projects good for?

The current incarnation is suitable for small businesses with simple costing needs, such as freelancers, sole traders and micro businesses with less than ten staff. If your small business is in the creative, IT, finance, design, consulting and digital marketing space, you’re the ideal customer.

For example, a freelance web developer can use it to record time, cost jobs, manage subcontractors and track the progress of projects. Importantly, it allows you to easily build reports to assess each project’s profitability and cost-effectiveness. This reporting allows you to quote more accurately and concentrate on the most profitable aspects of your business. It’s a great way to bring quality project management software to smaller businesses, potentially giving them a more level playing field with larger competitors.

What is WorkflowMax good for?

WorkflowMax is a sophisticated cloud-based project management tool, with much more complexity and functionality. Managing larger teams brings further complexity in scheduling, operating processes, task tracking requirements and job costing that WorkflowMax is capable of handling. Importantly, WorkflowMax can be configured to your business processes. For example, your business might follow a process of initial scoping, getting approval, integration and then final delivery. WorkflowMax can be configured to these stages in your project life cycle.

And with its lead management and CRM tools, you can track your leads pipeline from one place. Taking leads on a journey from initial interest through to a signed proposal can be streamlined and simplified with WorkflowMax. If you have sales staff, you can track how they are performing by assessing how many of their leads convert to customers and the value of the customers they are bringing in. WorkflowMax makes costing jobs easier as you can access data from similar jobs, meaning you’re less likely to underquote a job and be stuck delivering an unprofitable project. And with more than thirty add-ons, WorkflowMax can integrate with other cloud-based software tools that produce financial reports, track expenses, manage payroll, schedule staff shifts and much more.

Simple versus complex

As you can see, WorkflowMax offers a lot more features and functionality than Xero Projects. But with that complexity comes difficulty. It’s not a system you can set up easily yourself. In contrast, Xero Projects is quite easy to get started on your own, if you have basic cloud software experience (such as Xero). If you’ve no plans for extensive growth and can’t see yourself using many features of WorkflowMax, you may find yourself happily using Xero Projects for years without issue. However, as a growing business with the intention to increase sales, revenue and staff numbers, you may find yourself outgrowing Xero Projects in its current form within a few years.

Migration

If you’re small, you might be tempted to start with Xero Projects and move on to WorkflowMax later as your business grows. However, there is no path in place to enable simple migration from one to the other. (Or back again, if your business is scaling down in its twilight years.) So, it may be wiser to start with WorkflowMax while you’re still small, building in the functionality along the way, rather than going through the hassle of upgrading to WorkflowMax in the middle of a complex growth stage.

Pros and Cons

Benefits of Xero Projects:

  • simple, with a good user interface
  • less complexity makes it easier to use and navigate
  • easy to get started on your own
  • suitable for small businesses of less than ten staff

Cons of Xero Projects:

  • less functionality for complex reporting
  • less integration with other tools
  • no iOS or Android app (yet)
  • you (or your accountant) must be a Xero customer to access it

Benefits of WorkflowMax:

  • offers a number of sophisticated reporting tools
  • can be configured to your business processes
  • manage deadlines, invoicing, job allocation, profitability and efficiency
  • you can get WorkflowMax without having to purchase Xero
  • suitable for businesses with up to 100 staff

Cons of WorkflowMax:

  • Complex features may not be required for smaller business
  • Needs expert setup by cloud integration partner for maximum efficiency
  • Requires training for staff to learn how to use it

The upshot: our recommendation

If you’re small and have no growth plans, Xero Projects may be all you need. If you have more than five staff and growing, WorkflowMax is the better choice.

Also, if you’re small now but have ambitious plans for the coming years, start with WorkflowMax now. Choose a platform that will support your rapid growth down the track.

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