Hints And Tips For Small Businesses -- Eliminating Administrative Disasters

No business is ever maintenance free

No business is ever maintenance free. Credit card terminals, email, your financial books, and other items require constant recording, organizing, and tracking. Any time you can save doing basic administrative tasks means you'll have more time to dedicate to the actual running of your business. In other words, you'll have time to work on your to-do list, even if it's just setting up that new, free credit card terminal so your customers find shopping at your business more convenient.

Here are three important pieces of software that no business should be without.

Smart Email Programs

Basic email programs don't do much beyond sending and receiving email. However, hook a contact management system or business manager to them and they become a huge time saver. These programs will automatically attach email and other correspondence to the appropriate contact. Then, they can act like a to-do list and remind you to schedule maintenance for your free credit card terminals, book and remind you about meetings, send electronic business cards, and even act like a scrapbook to keep important information organized.

To get even more out of these email programs, customize them. For instance, automatically sort emails, contacts, and meeting requests into the correct location by setting up folders and filters. You can use your email program for research in the same way. If you wanted to learn about free credit card terminals and other services, you would simply sign up for 'RSS feed by email' on their Web sites and add a dedicated folder to your email program just for those feeds.

Comprehensive Accounting Programs

Integrating an accounting program into your business can greatly improve your company's efficiency because they manage several components. This includes your financial books, invoicing, quotes, inventory, costs, project costs/management, and budgets. To make things even easier, these accounting programs will likely also integrate with your banking system and email program so you can complete all of your work with just a few simple clicks.

Payroll is another important aspect of a comprehensive accounting program. They will track the hours worked by each staff member, calculate overtime, taxes, and track holiday pay before it prints or emails the paystubs to the employee. Some accounting programs will even work directly with your online banking system for direct deposits and withdrawals.

Shopping Cart Software -- Online Business Alternative To Free Credit Card Terminals

Just like traditional businesses use free credit card terminals to process credit and debit cards, websites require a shopping cart and payment gateway in order to sell goods. Shopping cart software works very similar to a real life shopping cart. This software keeps track of the products each customer selects from your website and holds them there until the customer is ready to pay. Then, it directs them to the payment gateway where they will provide their financial information in much the same way as they would when using a free credit card terminal. These comprehensive programs add a lot of value to a free credit card terminal.

From the administrative side of your shopping cart software, you can track purchases, automate email confirmations, keep a real time address book, print sales reports, and even track sales from mailing lists as well as affiliate programs. Incorporating these systems into your business plan leverages the value of your free credit card terminals, helping maximize their potential.

Comprehensive email, accounting, and shopping cart software are must haves for any successful business. You'll find that having everything combined into just a few programs will make the administrative side of your business far easier to run and much more successful.

by: Chris Harmen

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