Growing your Business in 2013 - whatever the weather!

2013 has started out as a challenging year - with an uncertain economy and uncertain weather, we need to be innovative if we are to grow our businesses this year.  At Online50 we continue to look for ways to empower small businesses to gain a competitive advantage by working smarter.  In this issue we provide information about how we can help you to:

• Access to all of your company data, applications and telephone system from anywhere.
• Enable remote workers to access source documents directly from the accounting system
• Access your business data and applications from your iPad

Please accept our best wishes for a prosperous New Year.

In This Issue:

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Reason 8 to choose Online50

At Online50 we can enable our users to work anywhere providing they have access to the Internet.

 Keep Operating Even If It Snows

For example in the recent snow we saw disruption to travel and people were encouraged to work from home.  Online50 enables users to have access to their data, applications, and now telephony, for the only true full work from home experience.

At Online50 we had briefed our staff to work from home if they were unable to make it into the office.  For many service delivery companies this is impossible, but using our new VoIP service staff have full access to our company telephone systems from home.  They can make and receive calls as normal, including hunt group calls and they can ring internal extension numbers with excellent call quality.  (Watch out for more details of the new VoIP service)

Minor inconveniences are no longer a barrier to getting work done.

Business Continuity After a Disaster

Recently someone considering our service had a fire in their office which caused significant disruption.  While nobody hopes to experience a disaster, they do happen.  Fire, theft or even flood damage could cause your business to lose data and prevent people from working.  Industry figures suggest that businesses that experience a major disaster often go out of business within 12 months.

Business Continues As Normal

If the worst were to happen for your business, you would at least still be able to send out invoices, chase debts and pay suppliers - even if that was done from a staff member's home or a hastily rented serviced office.  For a services business at the very least, they would be able to carry on exactly as usual, albeit from an alternative geographic location.

Call us today to find out more about how Online50 should be a part of your Business Continuity Plan.

DocLink50 - Documents Available Anywhere

For any business or accounting services bureau the accounting records reference source documents.  These days some of those documents are electronic but most are still paper based.  DocLink is an innovative solution for attaching these documents (both electronic and scanned paper records) to the accounting transactions.  This makes information more easily available and can boost productivity when users are remote from the source documents.

DocLink allows a users to hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and click on anywhere a transaction is referenced to load the copy of the source diocument if one exists.  So for example a purchase invoice document can be accessed from the supplier activity screen, the nominal activity screen, or anywhere else that the transaction is listed.

DocLink Links Documents to Sage Records

DocLink for Sage 50 enables you to digitise and attach all types of documents to records in Sage 50, such as:

• Purchase Invoices
• Sales Invoices
• Purchase Payments
• Sales Receipts
• Journal Entries (debits and credits)
• Bank Transactions (receipts and payments)

DocLink provides very tight integration with Sage 50 so that Sage users can easily reference source documents from the Sage 50 records withiout having to leave the Sage 50 program.

Document Information Available Anywhere

With documents digitised and attached to Sage records, additional information is available wherever it is needed.  For example: Purchase Invoice 9001 is stored against the specific transaction on the purchase ledger.  That means: anywhere this transaction is referenced (for example in the supplier activity screen, the nominal activity screen and so on) the user can hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and click on the listing of the transaction to view the original source document.

Document Annotation

Each document stored in DocLink can be annotated with text.

Notes about individual documents can be stored and shared by users within the software, so there is no need to store notes elsewhere. Annotation actions are stored in the DocLink audit log. Changes can be made and all previous versions are retained.

Workflow / Document statuses

DocLink Administrators can define a list of possible document statuses (such as ‘draft’, ‘approved’, etc). Documents can be assigned any of these statuses, facilitating rudimentary workflow support.

A simple workflow system can be implemented without any additional software.

DocLink is available as a an add on to Sage online from Online50. 

Sage Mobile vs Sage for iPad

With Online50 users can run full versions of desktop software directly from their iPad.  We have received feedback from accountants that the capabilities of the Sage Mobile solution are limiting for them.  We recently had an Online50 partner accountant take his iPad to the US with him and not only could he access Sage 50 he was also able to run Excel to prepare information for his clients.  Online50 on his iPad gave him a completely integrated solution.

Sage Mobile is Limited

The trick with Sage Mobile is wanting to know the information Sage have decided you can access on your mobile.  For anything else, you have to open Sage 50 Accounts which will take time, especially if you are in a meeting and just need standard information.

Sage for iPad is Fully Featured

Online50 makes it possible to access the full version of all the software we provide, including all versions of Sage 50 (back to 8.1) and Microsoft Office, on an iPad.

We understand the attraction of using the iPad - they are lighter, faster to boot up and way cooler than laptops.  So we have made it possible to access all of your business software on your iPad.

Any Windows Software On An iPad

The Online50 service provides a range of popular software, including Sage 50 Accounts, Microsoft Office (including Excel), CRM and even Sage Payroll.  If you need to access other software we can provide that too using our verstile ECP (Elastic Computing Platform) service.  And you can access ALL of your software using an iPad.

For Information On The Move

While we can't imagine anyone getting rid of their normal work machine completely any time soon in favour of an iPad, they are very convenient for meetings or busy travel schedules.  Users will frequently leave their laptops at home and used their iPads for all their mobile work.

If you use an iPad and need more than simple apps, give Online50 a call today.