The Return of Layaway

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Angie

Layaway sales are making a comeback after years where widespread credit card and gift card use caused many retailers to discontinue the practice. With the recession retailers are looking for ways to increase sales to customers who do not have credit, do not want to max out their credit, or just do not want to pay interest on credit card purchases. Layaway plans have benefits for both the retailer and the consumer.

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Disposing of Multiple Assets in CMI

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Angie

Have you come across the situation where you sold a company; or a branch of the company; or otherwise needed to dispose of several assets at one time?

Did you know that there is a Multiple Asset Disposition feature with CMI Fixed Assets? Well, there is! For this week’s Tip Tuesday, we’re going to discuss how to use that feature.
Click here to read “Disposing of Multiple Assets in CMI” on the CMI Fixed Assets Blog.

 

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Keys to Winning the Fight for Inventory Control

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Ty

Keys to Winning the Fight for Inventory Control

In today’s belt-cinching economy, tightening your inventory control methods are crucial. With a world that is shrinking, and competitors at every turn, now is not the time to turn would-be customers away because you ran out of product, or lose time and money as non-moving stock items pile up in the warehouse. The key to increasing efficiency and gaining an edge on your competitors is having a solid, well-designed inventory tracking system that integrates with all aspects of your business.

A solid inventory system should be able to do a lot of things, but what follows is a must have list of features that will help lower your costs, increase your productivity, and make your business more competitive:

Multi-Location Inventory

If your items are stored and/or sold in different locations, the ability to track these items separately is paramount. The speed at which you can transfer, and track, product location can mean the difference between you selling a hot item in the right location or your competitor beating you to the punch and winning the ever increasing speed battle.

Automated Purchase Order Creation

By setting reorder points on items and having the system create purchase orders automatically, you’ll save time, and now, more than ever, time is money. Combine this with multi-location inventory and you can easily track seasonal items and make timely, informed decisions.

Bar code Scanning

Gone are the days of the error prone, giant spreadsheets used to maintain and track inventory. Bar code scanning reduces errors and is far more accurate; saving time and money for both you and your employees. By combining a bar code system with real-time inventory tracking software you can keep your inventory lean and focus more on selling your products and less on organizing them.

Dashboard Capabilities

Tired of flipping through page after page of inventory reports to figure out what is selling and what is not? An inventory dashboard might be your answer. There’s no reason to have to open the hood to see how the engines doing. A dashboard can give you the information you need (top selling, worst selling items, best/worst vendor pricing etc.) allowing for quicker and more informed decision making.

 

Cougar Mountain Software’s DENALI Inventory module was designed with these key features in mind. DENALI has multi-location inventory tracking capabilities, allowing you to track, transfer and monitor your inventory levels quickly. You can easily integrate barcode scanning hardware with DENALI to streamline you processes and eliminate costly errors. You can also set reorder points (maximum/minimum) for each product in each location to automate the purchase order process and run the understock report to quickly control on-hand product quantities. Finally, DENALI comes with an inventory dashboard feature that allows you to view key metrics at a glance for more informed inventory decision making.

Products are the lifeblood of your business and inventory control is crucial in today’s hyper-competitive world. Choosing an inventory system that addresses these key features is a critical decision in a climate where good decision making is vital.

 

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Budget Management for Nonprofits

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Lori

It is the start of your organization’s fourth quarter and the dreaded budget question arises – What are we going to do next year? Sound familiar. With many organizations, budget time can be a daunting task that involves multiple individuals and days, maybe weeks, of compiling and crunching numbers just to get the base set. Then comes the approval process and the back and forth of numbers – you can have the indicated amount for office supplies, but not the one for travel and meals, and your administrative expenses can’t be nearly this high. Of course, we cannot forget the biggest question for most nonprofits: From where is our funding going to come. The remainder of this article presents some ideas to help you answer these dreaded questions.

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Posted in Accounting, budget management, DENALI Accounting Software, NonProfit Accounting | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Accounting Software Can Grow, Too

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Lori

Have you thought about whether your business has outgrown your accounting solution?  If your accounting package isn’t meeting your needs, decreasing workloads, and providing beneficial tracking and monitoring options – it’s time to change.

One change to think about is shifting to an integrated modular system. A modular system provides a couple primary benefits. The first benefit is that you buy only what you need to start. For example, if you currently have one storefront with your entire inventory kept on site, then you might only need point of sale and inventory. Then, as your business grows and you add online ordering, increase to multiple locations of inventory (store, warehouse), and add an administration office you can add order entry, accounts payable, purchase order, multi-location inventory, general ledger, and payroll, as needed.

The second benefit of modularity is integration. When you can fully integrate your installed modules, you significantly decrease your workload. This functionality allows you to enter data in one place and have it automatically available in other modules. For example, you might add a transaction in Order Entry and after posting, the order shows in up general ledger and accounts receivable for the selected customer. Now, you can go directly to A/R when your customer pays the bill instead of having to re-enter the invoice ahead of time. This type of functionality allows you to monitor closely your customers’ account balances and more. An integrated system also enhances reporting options because you can run various reports that show what you need instead of compiling multiple reports from each module.

If you haven’t assessed your accounting solution recently, why wait any longer. Look at an integrated modular solution such as DENALI by Cougar Mountain Software. DENALI is a fully integrated modular system that grows to meet your needs as your business grows. You can buy one module in DENALI today and add other modules one at a time as you need them! The integration is seamless to decrease workload and increase accuracy. DENALI also has over 100 reports in its modules to help you stay on top of your financial health.

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Three Things That Will Keep Your Computer Running Well

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Angie

Working as an IT professional, I have found that the common lament of most PC users is trying to figure out why their computer is so slow. There are several possible reasons for this phenomenon, everything from your computer being out of date after five years to cool new websites sometimes require cool new hardware to run. That being said, there are three basic things every computer user can do to make sure their computer is running as well as it can. These include running an updated anti-virus program, maintaining regular back ups, and paying attention to computer messages.
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When You Lose the Vision

Posted on September 1, 2011 by BobH

“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves,
a call to become something more.”
- Rosabeth Moss Kanter -
(The former Editor of Harvard Business Review)

Napoleon Hill, the creator of the great book “Think and Grow Rich“, once told a story about a man who discovered a rich vein of gold and purchased all the equipment he needed to extract the gold. After a short while the vein of gold abruptly ended and in frustration the man sold the mine for pennies on the dollar. The new owner had the vision to bring in a geologist who found a fault in the earth that had shifted the vein of gold and after an adjustment in the digging, picked up the vein again which turned out to be one of the richest gold mines ever. The original owner could have been a very wealthy man if he had not lost faith in his vision.

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POS Requirements for Liquor and Tobacco Shops

Posted on August 30, 2011 by DaveH

Meeting Tobacco and Smoke Shops Unique POS Requirements

Tobacco Stores and Smoke Shops have their own unique set of requirements in a Point of Sale System and POS Software. Cougar Mountain Software has successfully implemented many Tobacco POS Systems and is familiar with the particular needs of the industry. Cougar Mountain Point of Sale with Back Office along with Specialty Shop offers Cigarette Store Software that successfully accommodates the requirements.

Features tailored for the tobacco and alcohol industries

Cougar Mountain Point of Sale with Back Office  includes the features your retail store needs. Ring up customers and monitor cash flow with Point of Sale, and track your stock levels, retails, costs and other stock information with Inventory. Cougar Mountain POS can even integrate your back office accounting. Add Specialty Shop and gain the following features:

  • Age Verification
    This feature allows you to flag items requiring age verification at the time of sale. Age verification can either prompt the user for the customer’s birth date, or display a “must be born on or before” date on the sales entry screen.
  • Buy down/Coupon Codes
    This feature allows you to attach a buy down/coupon code to specific items. The codes can also be set up with date ranges during which the buy down/coupon code will be in effect. After the sale, you can run a report listing discounted items, amounts of the discounts, and dates the discounts were taken.
  • Buy One, Get One Promotional Pricing
    Set up a promotion where the customer can buy a specified number of items and receive a number of either the same item or a different item at a discounted price. (Buy two/get one free)

Track your employees and your profits

One of the most common reasons for shrinking margins is employee theft. Stealing cash from the drawer, giving unauthorized discounts, and not paying for merchandise are all common problems. Cougar Mountain Point of Sale has the user security features you need to put an end to this kind of activity.

  • Assign user rights for sale amounts, returns, voids, discounts, refunds, and access to all parts of the software
  • Track unauthorized and suspect transactions
  • Advanced reports for monitoring employees, cash flow, and inventory
  • Shrinkage report helps you keep an eye on items that are “disappearing”

Experts in Retail store Technology

Cougar Mountain Point of Sale  was designed in conjunction with retail managers, but the real benefit comes from our employees who have a strong understanding of retail technology and support background. That means less time explaining problems and scenarios and more time developing solutions.

Cougar Mobile solutions

Get out from behind that computer terminal and out of the Officer with Cougar Mobile, customer account access, order-entry, order status, inventory changes, stock item lookup, and price changing are all at your fingertips. The best part is you can use Cougar Mobile from anywhere with Internet access. Imagine the next time you are at a trade show and some tobacco vendor is offering you an incredible deal; you have the ability to check your current stock levels and cost before making a decision.

Whether you sell tobacco products exclusively or you have a full sized convenience store with beer, wine, and liquor, Cougar Mountain Point of Sale with Back Office along with Specialty Shop can meet all of your technology needs.

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Microsoft Partner Benefits

Posted on August 24, 2011 by ReneeG

Worldwide, there are over 640,000 estimated Microsoft Partner program members. That’s a lot. Just what is it that attracts businesses of all sizes to become a part of the Microsoft Partner Program? As a member of Microsoft’s Partner Program there are many benefits for partners of all levels. Imagine being able to have all your Microsoft software licenses provided at no charge, as one benefit. For some organizations, the savings can be as much as $13,000.00, a significant amount. But, it’s not just the savings; there are other benefits to consider.

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Mobile Apps Impact your Bottom Line

Posted on August 5, 2011 by DaveH

Mobilizing Accounting Software Business Applications will Impact your Bottom Line.

Can new technologies such as mobile devices impact a company’s bottom line and ability to compete?

There is huge growth in mobile everywhere. Every day we see this by the proliferation of fancy mobile devices like iPhone, Android, and iPad, but what we might not consider as strongly is how we all shift more and more of our internet activities over to mobile devices.

Utilizing mobile devices, company’s can improve productivity and streamline communication across the business. This technology not only impacts productivity and profitability, but the ability to compete for new business.

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