As the sovereign ruler, Leia managed her accounts and sales administration with an iron fist. Nevertheless, she knows better than anyone that she cannot achieve her goals without help, no matter how many training courses she attends, how many battles she wins, or how many negotiations she leads.
To make all her missions easier to accomplish, she would have benefited from the support of an ERP system ERP system. Unfortunately, on Tatooine, they are hardly easy to find. To help princesses (and princes) of the accounting and sales administration galaxies, Princess Leia has agreed to share the benefits of a management application with us.
Sales admin and accounting using ERP
All ERP systems feature sales administration and accounts modules. Nevertheless, these are often underused in an SME context. Why would you run your sales administration and accounts through an ERP system, you may well ask? First and foremost, to obtain traceable, consistent data that is regularly updated by every department within the business. Then, to improve productivity by automating the various flows of products and data. Finally, to help your finance director make strategic decisions.
Your ERP software will make it easier for you to manage quotes, orders, and customer payments. Payment reminders will be sent automatically, and billing will also be automated. As such, your accountant will be freed from these time-consuming tasks and your business's IT system will be more standardised and more reliable.
Benefits that go beyond sales administration and accounting
Installing the sales admin and accounting module will benefit your finance team. It will also make it easier to manage sales using customer data such as billing and payment details, which will be updated in real time. Your sales director will appreciate it, and your customer relationships will improve. This is also a boon for your logistics department. The ERP can approve or block the shipment of an order based on the customer’s latest payment information. This means your logistics team will no longer need to seek approval from finance before shipping parcels; the necessary data will be available directly in the application.
But that’s not all: this module will also benefit your marketing, communications and procurement teams through better management of supplier information, such as print shops and manufacturers of giveaway items. They will be able to see which suppliers are already in use, what they charge, and what their terms are. This will reduce the amount of back-and-forth with the finance team before a decision can be made.
Finally, installing the sales admin and accounting module will make it easier to manage payroll thanks to the integration with the HR module, for example for time attendance and leave management. All information provided will automatically be updated in the ERP system and will be accessible to the payroll manager, who will then have a clearer overview of the situation.
How should you choose an ERP solution?
While we are completely confident that ERP software will help you, not all ERP applications are suitable for SMEs. It is important to identify your criteria before making a decision.
If you are a high-growth SME, we recommend that you select an ERP solution that can adapt to your changing needs. Software like Odoo will allow you to manage multiple currencies, export your accounts, reconcile your account records and link to different bank accounts. As such, you will be able to adapt more quickly to changes in trends and accounting rules with a solution that follows the market.
Take the time to compare ERP systems, to carry out benchmarking and, if necessary, to obtain the support of an expert integrator. And, as Princess Leia would say, "May the Force be with you."
"At the end of this deployment, this module you shall integrate."
We recommend that you integrate this module at the very end of your deployment process. In fact, only once the other operational modules have been configured correctly will you be in a position to obtain reliable data for your Sales Admin and accounts. - Master Yoda's advice
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