DMC Accounting + Technology

Not enough attention is given to those who remain married or committed to their life-long partner.  The street says: there must still be sexy stuff going on to keep all parties happy.  It’s not just familiarity and complacency.  And this not so small population of people committed to each other forever seems to possess a cool secret worth sharing.  Shared values likely, feisty arguments probably and stick-to-it spirit, definitely.

I have been married better or worse for 26 plus years and almost equally as long to the makers of AccountEdge.  Same husband O:! and the same group of people located in Rockaway NJ. I am certified consultant #34, honored as 2010 Acclivity Partner of the Year  and was recruited after Boston MacWorld in the early 90’s by the current Manager Tom Nash.  A jewelry client of mine fell in love with  MYOB, now AccountEdge in the 90’s and many other clients in the design field seeking MAC only solutions.  Short story I was hooked.

Acclivity Group LLC, the publishers of AccountEdge, and an small group of other certified consultants have been committed to Apple even longer, starting in the late 80’s.  Most, if not all, other Apple accounting solutions partners have gone away or only showed up when the pressure was on to develop for Apple (that’s my two cents).

Support  your partner: give a hug, see what’s new in AccountEdge.  Some of you have not upgraded in a dogs age and  there is much to love for you to get. 

Here’s why:

• Mobile Apps have been out for years! Upgrading gets you free access
• Retainers, Escrow and Trust accounts, handled…done that - they are in release number two
• Merchant credit cards, bank down loading…yikes that just gets better each year and less data entry as your processing inside the software
• Add On: Point of Sale product CheckOut…lord that honey’s been an option for retailers for years too and it syncs with AccountEdge
• Document Scanning and attachments
• Forms, forms and more forms
• Batch Delete Cards and Items (yipee)
• Payroll Returns can be run from prior year!
• Graphical improvements: software look and feel for weary bookkeeping eyes
• Mileage Logs

And the list goes on….check out www.AccountEdge.com, then email us at mail@dmcsystems.com with questions.

To our Acclivity AccountEdge Colleagues and Friends:

 

All of us at DMC hope that you have had a successful 2012 and are well positioned for a prosperous 2013.  We look forward to continuing to assist you with accounting support and with financial systems consulting.

 

As year-end approaches, it is a good time to review the status of your system and ensure that it is current with the latest publisher updates.  We would be pleased to perform any update work for you and ensure that your system is functioning properly.

 

Acclivity has added many new features to AccountEdge, which you may find very useful.  These include document management technology which enables you to attach documents, images and scans to AE records; improvements in its bank statement import feature which will enable a greater degree of automation; ability to set up retainer, escrow and trust accounts and write checks directly from them.  Go to http://accountedge.com/windows/features/new/ to read more about these and other new features.

 

Coming soon is a mobile app in the Version 1.2 upgrade that will enable you to accept credit cards and perform other work from an iOS device.

 

Please contact Chip Herzog, at 617-383-6090 x109, or chip@dmcsystems.com to request our assistance with upgrading your AccountEdge system.

 

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

To our Deltek Vision and Axium Ajera Clients, Colleagues and Friends:

All of us at DMC hope that you have had a successful 2012 and are well positioned for a prosperous 2013.  We look forward to continuing to assist you with accounting support and with financial systems consulting.

As year-end approaches, it is a good time to review the status of your system and ensure that it is current with the latest publisher updates.  We would be pleased to perform any update work for you and ensure that your system is functioning properly.

Deltek

For Vision users on Version 6.2, Deltek has released Hotfix #10, with more to come in January.  There is also the upgrade to Version 7, which offers several new features.  If you’re already on Version 7, Deltek has released Hotfix #7. 

You are probably aware that Deltek now offers mobile timesheets for Vision 6 and 7, which works with both iOS and Android systems. 

These are relatively quick updates and we would be happy to perform the work for you, at off hours so that your business is not interrupted. 

If you use Advantage and are contemplating upgrading to Vision, we suggest moving directly to Version 7.  This is a comprehensive project which we have performed for many clients.  If you are not yet ready to replace Advantage, please note that we continue to support it and can help solve many of the problems that you encounter. 

Axium

For Ajera users, Axium has released an upgrade, Version 7.50.07, which we could install for you during non-business hours.  Both Ajera Core and Ajera Complete now have mobile timesheet technology which we can get running for you.  In addition to remote timesheet entry, this feature enables your team to enter notes and make corrections while in the field.

Please contact Chip Herzog, at 617-383-6090 x109, or mail@dmcsystems.com to discuss any of this work.

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

We all do it, that is, Google your name, at least once in a while.  See what pops up? :-)  That’s what I did yesterday.  I typed Doris Cahill CPA, hit enter and oh my, up came this: a 1999 article about QuickBooks, published by Accounting Technology:  

“QuickBooks is so off-the-shelf and so many people have it, the client mindset doesn’t value it as it deserves,” says Doris Cahill of DMC Systems Group in Waltham, an authorized QuickBooks Professional Advisor.  As a result, consultants find they have to justify their fees when fixing a client’s chart of accounts by pointing out, “It seems simple, but if you don’t know your accounting, you’ll get into a mess.”

http://business.highbeam.com/392996/article-1G1-54470717/quickbooks-consulting-gets-smarter

Wow, could have written that baby today - or I am channeling Thomas Jefferson?   Has the value of consulting services caught up to QuickBooks’ online offerings today?

The answer is yes and this is why: The QuickBooks Online offering has removed the overhead cost of having accountants manage data-sets and software version madness.  Clients have never really valued the upgrade aspect of Quickbooks or the complexity of moving data-sets, plus the accountants review product worked poorly (explaining it is exhausting).  So the Online versions allow the consultant to monitor what matters to the client (the accounting of money and profit), not the technology. Also, mid-range software pricing and license policies of industry specific software   has suffocated the small business and start up.  And the online offerings of legacy products dragged behind in getting to market or convincing clients to upgrade.

We see increasingly complex businesses squeeze their needs to the QuickBooks Online version allowing for more consulting.  Additionally all the online add-ons (if you want to call them that) allow for easy download of the day-to-day data entry.  These include bank transactions, credit card statements, PayPal merchant accounts and streamlined automated  invoicing that push data into financial statements.

The good stuff is left for good accountants and consultants: cleanning up messes and mis-postings, configuring use of the software and producing/formatting financial statements.  These tasks help the client make money. 

Its not raining QuickBooks clients, and I had a good creepy giggle locating my old quote from 1999.  We did render three new great online clients this fall, thus it’s been a turn for the better.   Please visit us at www.dmcsystems.com, call us at 617-383-6090 or email us at mail@dmcsystems.com. 

Alone the traveler gets to observe and feel unencumbered by others.  It’s neat to meet colleagues born elsewhere without influence.  Those encounters bring new ideas to the table and that connection hones my thought processes. 

If you follow my writings or even know me a little, you’d know or at least have an inkling that I hit the road a lot and it’s very okay to be alone.  And that’s what I did just last week in NYC (i.e. pre-Sandy :-() - I attended a futuristic meeting on Deltek in the cloud and the future of product licensing.  The meeting was sponsored by Deltek and CCG Group, good food. 

As luck would have it, the meeting focus was a topic of interest for me.  From the tech and licensing side, What is going to happen next to Deltek Vision?  Having just come off Deltek Insight 2012 and my recent opinion blog on Version 7.0 (http://dmcacctech.tumblr.com/), it was good to find that this complementary session had some new stuff to tell me.  Deltek has honed its cloud offering for Vision so it’s pretty much Vision and traditional Vision or the cloud version on a subscription only basis.  

That’s a mouth full, Vision in the cloud and subscription only basis.  Hmmmm, not for nothing but one thinks must I go to the cloud?  Apparently no, not yet, it’s not appropriate for everyone.  For instance if you have customs and maybe lots of ODBC calls.  Does a subscription mean I do not own the licensing?  Apparently so, one renews on term.  Those on old licensing can switch I think to subscription, but for now will not be asked to switch, that’s a bit unsettling.  Your data is always yours - nice.  Owning one’s data makes sense, however rather useless without software.  So one is managing licenses ever few years on a subscription basis, like an insurance policy, adding and removing pieces/parts to meet current needs 

Ok, one could see this change coming if you follow licensing in the software industry. My two cents: not outright ownership of software could stabilize revenues. Meaning when you lapse you do not own any licenses outright and thus you have no right to use the software without paying in perpetually. 

Hey, do not shoot the messenger, free markets tend to adjust themselves and my guess is that some firms will say “who cares, Deltek’s solution is at a fair price,” while others will walk away.  For those of you still on Deltek Advantage, you should anticipate this trend, meaning the field has narrowed for project-based accounting solutions, not widened, and it’s a lot for a software company to remain in business for a buyer that swings by every 20 years to spend a few grand.  Vision and other solutions like Axium Ajera take continued R&D to develop, they just do. If the price is wrong relative to the value it provides the market flushes it out. 

This blog is just a consulting opinion and once in a while deliberately ruffles Deltek and client feathers. 

Hats off Deltek, you sure made me a happy client with this upgrade and that’s a high bar.  As a user for 25+ years, lately I have wondered why it took so long to dig in and make what are the coolest operational changes in a long time.  Last time I checked the Vision transaction screens I found the all-time bummer of the repeat button having been removed :-)!  And, in interactive billing, one could delete an issued invoice!

There is good stuff in 7.0. including a few show stoppers that caught my eye quickly.

All transaction entry screens got a face-lift.  I never liked the standard order of the columns.  For instance, the cash receipt screen just seemed illogical to me and obviously others felt the same.  Deltek has re-engineered the screens in transaction entry to shuffle the order of columns and pin them in place as you scroll.  If your cup of tea is to enter the amount of a cash receipt first, then select the project, then the invoice, you shuffle and pin and your columns in that screen so it meets your liking.  This small change will allow for more effective and faster entry, thank you, thank you. 

PIN the Grid View is now available on some other grid views so you do not scroll away a critical column(s) that need to remain in view.  This makes most sense when you apply it!  Excel users will love it. 

Billing Credit Memos are here, welcome to the new millennium and another essential operational change in 7.0.  The credit memo feature can initiate and create full or partial credit memos from interactive billing for posted invoices.  No more rigging units or add-ons or creating negative invoices - nice! 

Email EFT and direct deposit remittances.  Yes, that’s correct: email employee expense, vendors and payroll, finally.  This should help communicate to employees when their payments have been processed, alleviating their need to ask or even look it up (although not real hard) and vendor calls should be fewer, yes!

New Contract management Tab.  Under Project Info Center, it will remain to be seen if clients use this, but good effort at organizing contract and change order management and sales reporting. 

Display Settings in User Options.  Again, I’m not sure users will jump on this one, but now in Vision forms, menus, grids, and navigation can be set up to match your personal requirements.  So each user can have their screens look unique in regards to color, font, text, etc. from the default.  I think this could be a challenge for support staff!

Checkout Deltek Defect Fix list and Database changes.  Loads of defects have been corrected since 6.2 sp4 and prior, yours may have been addressed.  And of course new known issues exist such as Mobile Time OS compatibility. 

Login and Checkout your customer care account url https://deltek.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/821174/1348072285/redirect/1/filename/DeltekVision70ReleaseNotes.pdf

We at DMC upgrade our Deltek Vision as soon as we can from a new release.  Not only do we use it to operate our business, but more importantly we want to be among the first to brave the “new” and “fixed”.  Clients ask us about it and we need to know!  This upgrade went smoothly for us thanks to our hard working staff. http://www.dmcsystems.com/

My poor car, it may be fancy, a Jaguar, but  it’s seen better days and lots of miles.  With those miles, oh the stories.  If 179Q could only talk.  Laugh is more like it, from the minute I got bought her, right up to today. 

Things just happen to me, really they do :-).  And if you’ve driven with me at least once, (it’s a well known office giggle), you’d best be prepared to hang on!  From 13 flat tires (don’t ask) to driving with my trunk open on Route 128, to U-Turns in Harvard Square the wrong way on a one-way street next to our city’s finest…you just take things in stride.  I’m gonna miss her, from the quirky electrical problems to “not my fault’ fender benders, to contending with all them feisty Bostonians.  It’s time - sadly she has yielded and must go. 

Even with being meticulously clean, I won’t get much for her, as she does have that bad car fax :-).  So, two choices: list her on Craig’s list or donate her to charity. Currently trying option one: Craig’s List.

Well, I learned something!  Theft comes in a wide variety of E-cocktails.  Upon listing the car I quickly got an email, almost too good to be true.  Strange, a UK “eager” emailer wants to Fedex me a ‘cashiers check’ written to me for more money than I am asking, $6,000!  And, if I would be so kind as to write a check back to the transfer agent for $2,500 when they pick up the car, site unseen.  Simply wait for my check to come!  Very skeptically, I said ok.  Maybe a good blog story in this. 

So arriving via Fedex this week came a check written to me.  It definitely was a check, with proper watermarks, written on a reputable drawing bank, Wells Fargo, with California router number and San Francisco addressee.  On the memo line it says approved.  Nothing else in the Fedex package, just a  phone number and return address to California on the Fedex package.  

Ok, so who writes a $6,000 check to a stranger cross country, but emails from the UK?  Without getting the car?  Answer: crooks. 

Checked it out with my bank, its a scam.  The check is not good.  In fact, had I cashed it would have bounced.  And since it is fraudulent it would make me liable almost indefinitely to return the $6,000 to my bank.  Had the check been cashed and then I wrote a check from my personal checkbook to the transfer agent who was supposed to pick up the car, well, let’s add it up: one, I am out $2,500 transfer fee, plus the car as I would have handed them title (hey, there is some value to her)!  Plus, the embarrassment with my bank.

By the way when you call the phone number on the Fedex package it rings and rings.  Oh, and the crooks could have had  my name and router number, yikes!

A+ accounting, D in driving.  If you’re in the car with me buckle up!  However, if it is accounting, pass me the ray-gun.  

Craig’s List does have a buyer beware of cashier check scam notice on their web site.  Big deal, I think people could easily get ripped off on this. 

DMC Accounting + Technology digs in on operational details, theft can be twisted and we have seen a lot of it.  Foiled Batman!

Why always focus on costs - yes while important, certainly no one should be a spendthrift - but constant cost cutting is depressing and often a warning sign of the obvious problem: not enough revenue. Spending more time growing the top line, just seems to make more sense to me. Cost needs to fit based on how much the top line brings in. The number crunchers out there will cringe at the thought of that, since they’re always analyzing why health insurance and IT costs are rising, rrrr…

Whether selling services or products, one can easily feel comfortable when a sale is final. On that day or month, the sale is complete when its delivered. Don’t we wish all revenue was that simple. Timing and complexity comes into play, some of it   good some not so good. Returns, write downs or write offs exist in most businesses. Again a fairly simple concept, you’re typically going to know in the short run, after that you must accept returned goods or not collect money due to servicing issues.

Complexity builds when  a sale spans time, involves change orders/additions or  ordering of goods with future delivery dates.  You have to measure or estimate and reasonably guess the value of the sale and that it is revenue.

Complexity lends itself to mistakes.  Mistakes in estimating revenue are the most costly business mistakes. In a theoretical math sense it is only high risk that drives above average return. Cost management does not drive money to increase profit, revenue risk does. Last thought, with too much risk, like monopoly, one goes broke, just had to fit that thought in.

DMC Accounting + Technology understands and consults on how numbers work to drive results to profit.  Profit is not bad, it fuels growth, livelihood of owners and employees. 

This blog is for my dad: those fond days at the liquor store thinking how we could sell more and advertise :-). 

Traditional  and Cloud IT departments assure accountants and their departments they are taking backups every night or constantly infact. And with the newest technology restore you back to where you were. Allow me to argue and disagree about this. 

What you may not  know about backing up. And the real problems we see that no backup can protect you from.

Clients can operate for weeks or even months not knowing a software patch has disabled other functionality in the software. A good example are clients on payroll, tables need updates, the software company really is not sure how you, the client have specifically configured THEIR software. End result, payroll liabilities and tax deposits can be reported in correctly. Penalties plus from the IRS for under paying payroll taxes. First client knew of it, IRS notice. Last nights backup is not going to fix this one, the patch was 3 months ago.

A another example, databases can half post entries (ie an unbalanced entry). Accountants are busy, often they ignore software warnings routinely. In my experience, go months without if ever addressing fixing these errors. Now they can not upgrade a year later without custom repair work. Backup, useless too much time has lapsed.

Last example, Hardware breaks, specifically hard drives (average about 5-7 years old). All the backups are on the same hard drive. Yes, this really happens.  Or better, the tape unit died months ago, but the client failed to check it was even working, only just swapping tapes. Backup useless. 

Having run a Company for many years, I get the why this happens and how apologetic/embarrassing the client plight is . Firms are swamped with technology upgrades, alerts, security warnings and the never-ending tight budget. Just know your backups may be useless. 

We offer a pretty inexpensive routine, additional backup once a month service for for Deltek, Ajera and Account Edge clients. This may be or often is the only good data. To boot, we know accounting technology not just IT. 

My backyard is a busy place.  Over many seasons I have sampled various bird boxes to attract song birds to my garden.  To get it right took time and practice.  All the details were important, even the time of year the box was set outdoors.

My box, by the way, is super cheap :-); constructed of pine, about 5” wide, 7” tall and 7” deep.  It has a slightly slanted roof (15 degrees) and a door flap that can be easily opened for cleaning.  I stained it mahogany, with the exception of the doorway, which is an acrylic primary blue with a primary yellow crescent moon accent.  The hole is 1.5”  round.

The bird box is hung on a 4 X 4 pole that is six feet from the ground  at the edge of a hill, next to running water, yellow pontentilla, and veggie garden.  It has access to the woods as there is a clearing 50 feet or so away.  It’s hung by a thin but heavy gauge rod that extends out two feet from the pole.  I clean it out in the winter and place it outside late February/early March.

You’d think this box was the Ritz Carlton.  It attracts up to three broods of differing birds species each season.  And the new tenants take the time to toss out the others’ nests :-), tenant #1: soft grasses/duff/fur vs tenant #2: tiny pine twigs/grass.  So far this spring a brood of  seven little chickadees has nested.  And now, a repeat species (I’m not sure if it is a thrush or wren) has moved in, singing prettily.  If the second brood is set by July’s end, the box should attract the third.

In my opinion small businesses need to be niche, like a bird box.  You hang your special box out to deliver a need.  Money into the box does not really matter.  Your visitors make their home for a short time, then fly off, sometimes returning.  Their offspring spread the word for others to come.  Good boxes are never empty.

DMC offers accounting consulting solutions for Deltek, Ajera, AccountEdge and Quickbooks software. We provide accounting and implementation/training, custom reporting and database solutions for a focused set of industries.  It took many years to hang our box out just right.

My hands are shaking drafting this note.*   While consulting yesterday on Deltek Vision I felt it was time for me to own up.  Certain features in Vision just drive you blubbering nuts to get working.  

Check this one out:

It’s fair to say that 20% (tops 30%) of Deltek Vision clients use the Revenue Recognition feature for measuring project effort and percent complete.  Of those, 2% are using the project info center compensation field fee to synchronize with the Profit Plan module compensation field (FYI the old budget worksheet just did this).  

Vision has an option to enhance/ease revenue recognition: the user synchronizes profit plan fees with project info center fees to avoid double input and reduce errors.  The idea is that as a firm’s project manager  updates his/her plans and at the same time accounting gets updated.  Revenue recognition on fee compensation jobs as a percent complete is more accurate.  Great.
There are three key tick boxes spread across several info center tabs, help info and configuration screens that need addressing to get it working.  Herein lies the challenge.  I am shaking again…get me some chamomile tea…!

One needs to tick one of two boxes in the profit planning configuration screen.  Of those two boxes one is pretty clear how it works, sort of.  ”Synchronize fees from plan to project”, tick that box and the fees from the plan will sync with the fees/compensation field in the project info center when the plan is saved.  The second tick box is scarily labeled “compensation values by row by period,” where if you dig into the help screen deeply you find that you must enter the phase/task fees on the labor tab of the project plan.

Should you tick this box, a new action toggle shows up on the project plan that must be pressed to manually refresh the plan fee to project fee/compensation field.  Sometimes the fields are labeled fee and sometimes they are labeled compensation – depending on where you are in the software.  I can visualize project managers pressing an accounting action button! :-[)

Oh, one more thing is you have to make sure “not” to tick a box in the accounting configuration screen that contradicts your choice or drive the sync in the other direction.  I never found the box that you are not supposed to tick.  I did find help instructions in 6.2 sp1 that explained about tabs that don’t exist in the project info center.  Not sure what do about that.  Whew!   Almost there…no laughing, more tea!
Thought I was set, but not yet.  I needed to locate on the profit planning labor tab the phase/task fee field to fill out phase fee.  Grrr… more digging.   So I found the missing boxes, which reside under configuration\planning\planning grids, and you can again tick the compensation fields for the labor tabs to show.   At the same time I clicked all the summary tick boxes too, couldn’t hurt.  There is a feature to accordion the planning view, I totally understand why that it there.

Not ticking the appropriate boxes is pretty ugly.  Correctly I suppose, Vision zeros out the fees at the task level or project level if you miss any of these steps, thus revenue is wrong.  My job is often to redo all the missing or mis-ticked boxes.  

A “tick,” excuse the pun, is more like the “shakes”.

*Author note:  To remove the fur from animal pelts the earliest manufacturers of hats, as the tale goes, found that the mercury concentrate in a worker’s urine made the process more efficient. Poor ventilation, thus inhalation and general exposure to the mercury based solution resulted in poisoning.  The medical symptom became commonly known as the hatter shakes and produced delirious rants by its victims (think Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland).

Raising the Bar:   Deltek Vision Multi-Company

Life is good for DMC.  Our team is increasingly sought after for both the accounting + technology solutions that we provide.  When founding DMC over 15 years ago, it took a significant amount of time and collaboration to develop our imprint on the professional services community.  Now, in 2012, our current and prospective clients understand what we offer and the value that we bring.  The result has been growth and our future looks bright.

As a service based firm DMC thinks a lot about why clients return to us and refer us. Despite the gloom and doom of economics we continue to survive, frankly pretty darn well, even in the midst of naysayers.  Why?   I’m not super sure, except I know that we are willing to push the knowledge we have and expand in areas others avoid. Case in point, this spring, in the midst of the newest solar flare scare/ world-is-coming-to-an-end reports and continued terrorism, DMC was busy working on two consecutive Multi-company upgrades from Deltek Advantage to Vision plus Vision to Multi-company for a 5.2 to 6.2 Vision user. 

We are operational accountants…we know general ledger and billing, are fearless on job cost work break down execution and are not afraid of the technical side.  We do not shy away from pushing the configuration of standard Vision reports and are willing to develop custom reports and workflows to make the Deltek investment pay off for long time users.

Multi-Company came naturally to us; our clients firms are growing and have new needs; we know general ledger and projects, all of which equals a perfect DMC fit. Configuring the multi-company needs, mapping and/or consolidating growing client databases fit naturally within in our skill set.

For any service firm, here’s some advice: just push your skill set to meet the client need. Continue to change and evolve.  No solar flare will disrupt you.

By Chip Herzog, DMC Owner and President

This past month, DMC was fortunate to have a client engagement focused on the Planning module within Deltek Vision.  We have discovered that while many of our Vision clients profess the desire to use Planning, most don’t, as they don’t have the time or resources needed to invest in becoming proficient with it, or they have struggled with it in the past and eventually gave up.  Yet, anecdotally, what we’ve heard is that many clients wish they were using it, as they see the benefit of having plans for their projects.  Some can envision creating project plans which will drive a complete financial plan, and which can be updated as conditions change.  Unfortunately firms that are utilizing this tool to the fullest are few and far between.

There’s no question that no matter what size a business is, it is extremely helpful to look forward and plan what the upcoming year (or half year, month, week – whatever’s appropriate) is going to look like.  With a plan, it is easier to manage resource requirements (labor, cash, equipment, facilities) and to make tough decisions that can significantly impact the operation.  But, it’s not easy to do a plan, as one can get bogged down in so much detail that the task seems overwhelming.

One way to get to the ideal is to start with one aspect of Planning, and then move forward one step at a time.  In the case of our project in March, the client had been using a very large Excel spreadsheet to plan weekly labor.  On a  two dimensional worksheet, the client was updating up to 12 weeks of labor, by individual, by project, by project manager.  Each product manager would go into this huge shared spreadsheet and update his/her section.  At the bottom, it would total requirements by individual, and give a picture of utilization.  In practice, as the firm grew, so did the spreadsheet and it had become unwieldy and difficult to utilize.  So this firm’s first step was to convert it into Vision.

That’s where DMC came in – creating each of their projects in Planning (in the low hundreds) and setting up the labor resources (mostly actual, but sometimes generic) so that they could do their labor forecasting in each project plan.  Vision has reporting and labor utilization tools that enable users to quickly see whether there’s forecasted under-or over utilization, as well as summaries.  For this client, no more enormous spreadsheet, far less potential for errors, a more streamlined process and the ability (down the road) to do full project plans that include expenses, consulting, phasing, tasks, etc.

So, the first step completed, and one that is not beyond the reach of most firms using the software.  Yes, an investment of time and money, although not major, but well worth it in terms of the clarity and assistance it provides project managers as they plan out their projects.  It was obvious to us that this firm would eventually take advantage of the other components within Planning, creating an integrated system by which they will be able to manage all their projects and resources.

One step at a time, that’s the way to think about Planning for those not currently using it, but seeing the benefits.  Sometimes the hardest step is that first one, but taking this one will result in significant operational improvement.

By Doris Cahill, CPA, DMC Founder and Managing Director
 
Most customers want product manufacturers or service providers to provide high value goods and services, meaning not simply high price, but that at the price they’re willing to pay, a corresponding level of value.  In other words, if you’re buying a $20,000 car, you want the best $20,000 car you can find.  Likewise, if you’re buying a $70,000 car, you want the most for your $70,000.

On the flip side, a common goal for most businesses is to obtain customers that are high value.  In this case, high value means that the customer’s need is clear and immediate, that the good or service provided by the business is exactly what the customer wants, the customer knows what the business offers is unique and will not need to shop around and the price is fair to both.

Recently, we had the good fortune to find and work with a high value customer, and I’d like to share the experience and some observations.  The client is a Minnesota-based company which manufactures specialty recreational products.  They found DMC via our web-based branding efforts with our terrific partner Acclivity, the maker of the AccountEdge  accounting software package.  Our web team works hard so that firms who do not know us can understand what we offer via our web advertising which communicates both competency to solve problems and client trust.

About two months ago, a contact from the client company called DMC and explained that they had what seemed to be a small problem.  They were not able to log into their accounting system due to a blocking error code.  I listened to their symptom and explained a few choices, knowing we could probably solve this issue quickly, without running up much of a charge for the client.  During that small discussion mention was made of switching to a CRM system.  I said “we migrate data” and “know AccountEdge.”
Well, we lost the work they initially called in about.  But, in the back of my mind I had the feeling that I’d hear back from them.  Also, they were very friendly, which is important, and high value to us.  We like to get along with new clients.

Two weeks had passed by and then we got the call from them.  They needed a data migrator to extract hundreds of thousands of notes and records out of their existing database, to establish a new CRM system, and were not familiar with the AccountEdge tables or ODBC driver.  ”That’s us!” I exclaimed.  Not a small or quick task by any means, as it included upgrading their database to the latest version of the software, installing and testing the ODBC connection, migrating the data, creating and delivering new tables with custom headers and lastly follow-ups and confirmation that all was working properly.  We performed the work to spec and just last week delivered 36,000 contact records and 1/2 million contact log notes to the client.

This company proved to be a high value client.  They had a clear and immediate problem, which we were uniquely capable of solving in a timely and cost effective manner, they placed their trust in us and they were very pleasant to work with.  Some additional takeaways:  Work with people that make you smile.  Listen to what the client is saying in those first few contact calls.  We have found that national phone calls mean that potential work is high value or they would get it next door.  It’s a great leap of faith to engage a consulting firm at long distance.  We thank Acclivity for communicating and branding our value.  We thank our web team to help those prospects locate us!

By Ruth Tulysse

Making the transition from student to professional is both exciting and daunting.The journey marks a path of development that offers me the chance to explore my choice industry, accounting.  My internship opportunity at DMC Accounting + Technology is incredible because it provides me with an inspiring work environment while I receive the proactive experience I need to build a strong foundation for my career.

Before I began my internship, I was slaving away for four and a half years in various retail locations, the most recent at two popular Boston tourist venues.  I was a full-time accounting student at the University of Massachusetts Boston, working two part-time jobs that had little to do with my career objectives.  I’ve always been a good student, and poised to graduate next June, but I recognized this was not enough.  I want to work in accounting, but I had no industry experience, so I was determined to find an exceptional accounting internship.

I never imagined to find such a commendable internship on Craigslist, after all I was using all my proper networking channels, other job search engines, and had a few interviews, but I still came up short.  The one place I failed to look was Craigslist, after all I’ve found great deals on textbooks here in the past.  I found DMC’s job post in need of an accounting intern and I replied immediately, and within a week I was contacted for an interview.  I never understood the importance of an internship until landing my internship at DMC.

It’s now been three months and I really can’t think of anywhere more perfect for a well-rounded Accounting internship.  I enjoy working at DMC; we have a very supportive and talented staff in an effectively intimate environment.  My internship helps me realize that I was missing a significant college-age experience which academia could not offer.  The job is not as easy as I presumed; the main challenge is that there is no one to push me like a parent or professor in class. 

A typical day for me varies; I manage daily accounts payables, receivables, and cash disbursements, work directly with the staff on tax projects, and perform administrative tasks.  What surprised me the most is DMC’s expertise on accounting software, and I soon learned the advantage of having this unique skillset.  Using our Deltek Vision and MYOB Advantedge software opened up a whole new world to me.  I not only appreciate the use of data organization, but how DMC’s knowledge of the software demonstrates the company’s innovative approach.  Tasks that seemed uninteresting and redundant in class are now work I look forward to.  My appreciation of the balance sheet and income statement has heightened, because the two work to maintain significant data throughout the year or period that solidify DMC’s trustworthy consulting services.

At first being trusted with so much work was scary and I do make mistakes every so often.  My first encounter with a corporate tax return took me five full work days to complete, including a day of research, and also included a great deal of guidance from my boss who did a lot of the prep work.  Earlier in the week I reviewed the previous year’s tax return, researched the various forms included in the corporate tax return, form 8879-C, and even prepared a draft return using the income statement and balance sheet as my guide.  When I determined myself ready to prepare the actual return I was confident that I would complete it without a problem.

I was wrong!  So far, it was my most challenging experience at DMC.  The expense calculations did not match my earlier draft and did not balance.  It took me hours to discover my mistake: I forgot to research the nature of the business.  The tax return was for a biotechnology company, and not being familiar with the operations of this type of business, I failed to consider many important expenses.  In addition I did not fully understand the significance of the calculations.  It took a lot more than just matching data to the previous year’s return, entering it and allowing the software to do the math - I needed to research and trace the flow of the calculations through the forms.  Having such a difficult time with this return showed me the greatest benefit of being an intern: the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them, in a real life situation. 

The area of work that I find most valuable from my internship experience is communicating with our clients, whether through email or over the phone.  I have always been an introvert, and acknowledge that speaking with confidence is difficult for me.  I did not know that my previous retail customer service abilities would help me improve my client relations abilities at DMC.  At DMC I am granted a lot more independence than I anticipated, and as a result I often have to communicate with clients by phone or email.  I have experienced much improvement in my written and verbal communication, especially as far as vocabulary and word choice.  I have a ways to go before I am completely confident in my communication skills, but through my work at DMC I have welcomed a new sense of willingness to practice.   

The varied assignments I work on enable me to gain a diverse experience.  I did not know that I would be so appreciative so soon after beginning the job, but I can already recognize my development.  DMC is the correct internship for me because it builds my confidence and assures me that I am headed to work an exciting career.  I take pride in the assignments I do at my internship because I know in the future they are worthwhile and prove my capabilities as a future professional.  I still do feel nervous on occasion, but then I think about why my employers trust me to do the requested work, and I recognize that I am not just an intern but a part of the DMC team. 

I love glassware, probably because it derives from almost nothing. Glass is simply grains of sand at molten high temperature and that  forms a translucent container that becomes a vessel to drink from, a vase for flowers and endless forms to hold items.  My grandmother stored very large clear jars for pickling, the size  of an official basketball. 

We (i.e. me too),  overlook the availability of food, I have never really felt hunger. How different to suffer from real  hunger and understand how one could bear it. In skipping back  generation ago when I think of my grandmother’s jars most homes pickled foods. Why pickle food? So you had it in the winter where  most people  had home gardens no matter how poor. My grandmother, either liked to pickle or could not break the habit of storing food.  My nanny, who personified working class,  would have been 100 this year and pickled eggs was favorite of hers to make.  Trust me, one needs to acquire a taste for these babies or be really hungry with a  controlled gag reflex. 

A nosy child by nature, maybe 9. I got in hot water, real hot water with her once, twice is not something you were seeking. She kept her used jars.   In my child’s mind were treasure chests. She  would place quarters in them, lots of them.  Only quarters, she did not like dimes or nickles in her jars. My reasoning later in life was that quarters took the optimum amount of space in relation to money save. These large jars were a blast to empty out, then count and place them back. And that was how I got in trouble. She kept those jars in a special spot in her  turn of the century Victorian boarding house, which in itself was neat. For every nook in that house there was an cranny to which you could hide stuff.

After school,  I thought it a great idea to share my fun with a friend and show that young girlfriend where there jars were.  Back then you lived next door to your grandparents, or pretty darn close and school was Catholic. Regardless,  she caught us playing with the jar and quarters. My friend was asked to go home. Then a good scolding. A whipping would have been less painful than her words that day. 

I agree that was very bad idea and remembered that day. 

Moral, don’t show people where you store your pickled eggs. Its important to not go hungry and sometimes people steal your eggs when they are hungrier than you. 

Certainly,  give people an egg to eat if you have one to spare. If you can save enough eggs its simpler to be benevolent. 

Some things are better left hidden.  

by Chip Herzog

I understand small and mid-size business owners’ reluctance to not spend money on outside bookkeeping or accounting oversight.  The arguments can be compelling, whether right or wrong: we have no budget; things are simple here; we do it all ourselves; everything’s been just fine all these years.  I would argue back: “people make mistakes.”  Lots of them.  Or “no one is perfect and that equals errors.”   There is a chasm that is far too wide between small businesses that ‘hold back” on regular periodic oversight on the one side, compared to those that obtain the appropriate level of help with their accounting and bookkeeping on the other. Each year we write about the situations that really happen.  Real, sometimes wrenching mistakes in record keeping, occur, which I want to share and perhaps spur you to rethink how you review your own accounting.

• A client uses a payroll service, should be all set, right?  Wrong.  We perform general ledger to W-2 reconciliations and never a year goes by that a payroll make an error which results in a gross misreporting of wages.
• 401K withholding, taken out but not treated as tax free on federal and state returns.  So money is set aside that you are not able to take out until age 59 1/2 or hardship rules apply and you already paid the tax. 
• Box 1 on the W-2 is missing wages, the employee is now under-withheld on federal taxes to the tune of many thousands of dollars.

Government rules change a lot.  1099’s for instance: did you even know about the crunch to learn the new rules?  For example, if you’re doing business with NRA (non resident aliens), you need to hold back Federal taxes on royalty, dividend other payments.  It’s not like the government sent you a personal note on that one.  Even if it did, you would be bombarded by other governmental rules on security and labor law updates.  Businesses can get penalized for failure to keep up with the tsunami of ever changing rules.
Prepaid technology costs are getting beyond tough to manage, and there’s a real need for good bookkeeping to account for and control them!  Technology companies have beyond trended to never ending access to your credit cards for renewal of maintenance software contracts.  Much of this results in double paying, overpaying, paying too early and an inability to control costs.  Sometimes they just charge the client and don’t send an invoice!  Yikes. 
We  catch a lot of  mistakes and often enough to know we have quality staff finding them and asking the right questions.

by Doris Cahill, CPA

I understand small and mid-size business owners’ reluctance to not spend money on outside bookkeeping or accounting oversight.  The arguments can be compelling, whether right or wrong: we have no budget; things are simple here; we do it all ourselves; everything’s been just fine all these years.  I would argue back: “people make mistakes.”  Lots of them.  Or “no one is perfect and that equals errors.”   There is a chasm that is far too wide between small businesses that ‘hold back” on regular periodic oversight on the one side, compared to those that obtain the appropriate level of help with their accounting and bookkeeping on the other. Each year we write about the situations that really happen.  Real, sometimes wrenching mistakes in record keeping, occur, which I want to share and perhaps spur you to rethink how you review your own accounting.

A client uses a payroll service, should be all set, right?  Wrong.  We perform general ledger to W-2 reconciliations and never a year goes by that a payroll make an error which results in a gross misreporting of wages.

401K withholding, taken out but not treated as tax free on federal and state returns.  So money is set aside that you are not able to take out until age 59 1/2 or hardship rules apply and you already paid the tax. 

Box 1 on the W-2 is missing wages, the employee is now under-withheld on federal taxes to the tune of many thousands of dollars.

Government rules change a lot.  1099’s for instance: did you even know about the crunch to learn the new rules?  For example, if you’re doing business with NRA (non resident aliens), you need to hold back Federal taxes on royalty, dividend other payments.  It’s not like the government sent you a personal note on that one.  Even if it did, you would be bombarded by other governmental rules on security and labor law updates.  Businesses can get penalized for failure to keep up with the tsunami of ever changing rules.

Prepaid technology costs are getting beyond tough to manage, and there’s a real need for good bookkeeping to account for and control them!  Technology companies have beyond trended to never ending access to your credit cards for renewal of maintenance software contracts.  Much of this results in double paying, overpaying, paying too early and an inability to control costs.  Sometimes they just charge the client and don’t send an invoice!  Yikes. 

By Chip Herzog and Doris Cahill
We have had assisted 3 new clients on managing their Fixed Asset Accounting.

Client #1 was a long time user of massive Excel spreadsheets to handle its asset depreciation accounting.  BHE Consulting, a top notch Sage Reseller, partnered with DMC to Bridge our deep knowledge of book and tax depreciation methods and migration skills to help out.  The client was on deadline to take their four subsidiary companies, each with several thousand assets, and import/migrate them to FAS Accounting.  Utilizing DMC’s asset accounting skillset, we determined the correct asset values, In-service dates, accumulated depreciation for each subsidiary dataset, and then defined a method for importing the data from Excel into FAS.  We executed the project over a relatively short span, beginning this past September completing before year end.  We tied out the entire dataset to the penny and saved the client thousands of dollars in Big Four audit firm costs.

Client #2 is a long time FAS user with another very sizeable database of assets that needed much attendion due to staff turned over.  DMC provided field training that provided the new staff with the knowledge on how to maintain their asset database, utilize quick entry tools and templates and necessary tips to de-active, purge and manage obsolete/disposed assets.  Additionally we educated them on how to perform month end closings resulting in their auditors receiving well reconciled reports, which again saved audit cost.

Client #3 is also a long time FAS user with a large asset base totaling $70 million, and is managing 126 subsidiary companies, making for another complex situation.  They too had staff turnover and their auditors were in to reconcile.  Our job was two fold: first, to prove out changes provided in downloaded excel reports to core FAS reporting, and second, to troubleshoot and reconcile concerns in their tax depreciation FAS schedules.  We instructed their new staff in proper period close out methodology so that their numbers remained managed and controlled between month-end and year-end close. We enabled them to meet their audit requirements on time and continue to remain engaged, with further training.

FAS 100/500 has always been a preferred solution for clients wanting manage on wildly excel worksheets. Its forgiving to the user to allow change, tracks loads of stuff beyond Asset type, vendor, description and cost. FAS, can manage warranties, locations, serial numbers, images of purchase orders and has built in intergration to its sister products Sage 500/100

by Doris Cahill, CPA

I understand small and mid-size business owners’ reluctance to not spend money on outside bookkeeping or accounting oversight.  The arguments can be compelling, whether right or wrong: we have no budget; things are simple here; we do it all ourselves; everything’s been just fine all these years.  I would argue back: “people make mistakes.”  Lots of them.  Or “no one is perfect and that equals errors.”   There is a chasm that is far too wide between small businesses that ‘hold back” on regular periodic oversight on the one side, compared to those that obtain the appropriate level of help with their accounting and bookkeeping on the other. Each year we write about the situations that really happen.  Real, sometimes wrenching mistakes in record keeping, occur, which I want to share and perhaps spur you to rethink how you review your own accounting.

A client uses a payroll service, should be all set, right?  Wrong.  We perform general ledger to W-2 reconciliations and never a year goes by that a payroll make an error which results in a gross misreporting of wages.

401K withholding, taken out but not treated as tax free on federal and state returns.  So money is set aside that you are not able to take out until age 59 1/2 or hardship rules apply and you already paid the tax. 

Box 1 on the W-2 is missing wages, the employee is now under-withheld on federal taxes to the tune of many thousands of dollars.

Government rules change a lot.  1099’s for instance: did you even know about the crunch to learn the new rules?  For example, if you’re doing business with NRA (non resident aliens), you need to hold back Federal taxes on royalty, dividend other payments.  It’s not like the government sent you a personal note on that one.  Even if it did, you would be bombarded by other governmental rules on security and labor law updates.  Businesses can get penalized for failure to keep up with the tsunami of ever changing rules.

Prepaid technology costs are getting beyond tough to manage, and there’s a real need for good bookkeeping to account for and control them!  Technology companies have beyond trended to never ending access to your credit cards for renewal of maintenance software contracts.  Much of this results in double paying, overpaying, paying too early and an inability to control costs.  Sometimes they just charge the client and don’t send an invoice!  Yikes.