Advanced Connect News

Real-Time Information (RTI) is a critical new HMRC change for all Payroll departments. 

This new briefing paper will guide you through the RTI impacts, expectations and concerns, so you can understand exactly what is involved and what your payroll department needs to do.   You will also find tips and hints on making it work for your organisation.

Download the full briefing paper - Real-Time Information: The good, the bad and the uncertainties

Watch listen and learn as your support team take you through how to stop all users logging into eBis. This article contains a large embedded windows media video file & may take a while to load depending on your connectivity to the internet.

For best results, please select 720p on video play back.

Quite a lot actually if the results of our recent research with over 100 mid-sized companies are anything to go by.

Many of us have a tired boiler hidden away in our home – sometimes the house isn’t quite warm enough and we are conscious that we really ought to get it serviced more regularly; we also have a niggling feeling that it’s not very efficient or cost-effective, but we know that little short of catastrophic failure will lead to us actually doing anything about it. In the same way, many mid-sized businesses have a niggling feeling that their finance processes and systems could be improved, but with other priorities vying for their attention they let the old systems wheeze on for the time being and never quite get round to exploring the alternatives.

According to our research, over 60% of people working in finance recognise that they need to improve their financial processes. At the same time, nearly 30% of end users believe that the data they receive is inaccurate, making it difficult to use data effectively in their roles. And these are just the problems that people are aware of.

It’s all too easy to take the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it ‘ approach to finance yet the cost and revenue implications of closing the gap between best practice and today’s creaky old system can be significant. Streamlined automated processes mean a lower headcount and the opportunity to grow revenue without growing the finance department, an opportunity to stem revenue leakage, and the chance to save the time and energy currently devoted to creating parallel records and analysis in other parts of the business. But perhaps most importantly, trusted data and analysis can be the catalyst to data-driven decisions, allowing your top managers to make the right calls so that the business can grow and survive in the future.

So perhaps it’s worth making that niggle a priority after all. Let’s put it this way: if you discovered that the boiler wouldn’t just heat the house, it could also make the kids’ dinner, read them a bed time story and pour you a glass of wine; just how much of the next five minutes would it take you to start exploring your options?

If you’d like to receive a copy of our full report, to be published at the beginning of May, please contact Liz Mcdonnell Liz.mcdonnell@advancedcomputersoftware.com.

By Ed Haigh, Sourceforconsulting, April 2012

Financial systems, according to a new report written by Source and sponsored by ABS, are a bit like household boilers. You may be aware that they’re not working very well but you’re unlikely to do anything about it until they actually blow up. I read the report last Tuesday. Last Wednesday my boiler blew up.*

What’s happened since hasn’t proved the point that we tend to wait for things to go badly wrong before fixing something that’s a bit wrong (though I do) but it has proved something I suspect is equally, if not even more, important: that we can get used to pretty much anything. As I write it has been nearly a week since we’ve had hot water or heating in our house but my biggest grumble hasn’t been about the situation itself, so much as the incompetence of the people charged with putting it right. In fact, we’ve got by very well. I start every day by making a fire and boiling a few pans of water for ‘showers’ and general washing. It was a bit of a hassle at first but I’ve got used to it and have quickly come to think of it as normal. What it is, of course, is massively inefficient. And there’s the rub.

Our report concludes that the lure of the familiar lays waste to a great many initiatives to make financial systems more effective. We prefer to stick with what we know, no matter how inefficient it is. But I suspect that part of the problem is that we only ever consider the downside – our attention is far more firmly gripped by the fear of catastrophe than it is excited by the possibility of things being better. Or to put it another way, when push comes to shove we’re pretty sure the grass is actually greener on our side of the fence.

That’s a shame because, at least where financial systems are concerned, the upside could be really significant. We’re talking about better, faster information. We’re talking about reducing cost. We could, according to Andrew Brayson at ABS, be talking about increasing turnover simply by accurately tracking the work that’s been done. That’s like me finding out that my boiler won’t just heat the house but could also make my breakfast, iron my shirt and complete my tax return. And believe me, the threat of saucepans in the shower would pale into insignificance against an opportunity like that.  

*I should point out that I hold the report entirely blameless where the malfunctioning of my boiler’s pressure relief valve is concerned.

Join the Advanced Consultants Network and receive FREE mid-market reports

Calling all consultants!  If you’re a consultant that advises on software solutions then we have a new facility for you.  With Advanced Connect, the new online portal for consultants, you can interact with like-minded consultants, engage with our customer base, market your business and share ideas and best practice.  In summary, it’s a support network for your business with the benefit of bringing you together with your target market.

Through Advanced Connect you will be the first to hear about our events, having the opportunity to attend as a delegate or even a guest speaker, but you can also read about tender opportunities and other relevant opportunities.   Plus see previews of our product roadmaps, white papers and other sales collateral.

Join now  

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a new issue. For many years organisations have balanced their need to be profitable with their obligation to the world around them and the greater community. In 2012, part of this responsibility includes the monitoring and reduction of CO2 emissions by businesses.

CSR has frequently conflicted with other business objectives such as cutting costs or improving profitability. Advanced believe that through reducing their carbon footprint organisations could not only live up to their sense of public duty but could support other business aims. The challenge for organisations is to assess how they impact the environment and use this to identify potential savings.

Once organisations have a greater handle on the main sources of their emissions and the associated opportunities for CO2 reduction and cost-cutting, they can begin to take action - by implementing more environmentally sustainable technologies, systems and processes, and by encouraging changes in employee behaviour.

This process is not black and white and will depend solely on the type of organisation and its commitment to the cause. This factsheet will explain where some of the biggest gains are typically found. This green best practice falls into 2 catergories, actions each individual can undertake to go green, and systems the organisation can implement to support the process.

1. Lighting - Compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) offer reduced energy usage and a longer rated life compared to traditional incandescent bulbs, while LED lamps consume between 1 and 3 watts, potentially yielding a 94.5% saving. An LED lamp should last around 12 years. For organisations with multiple sites or larger premises the payback on intial investment can be rapid.

2. Changing the culture - Careless or lazy staff are a company’s biggest enemy when it comes to trying to reduce carbon emissions. Leaving lights and monitors on or printing every document may seem inconsequential to the individual, but soon adds up to costly wastage if enough of the workforce is doing it. Initiatives should be led from the top, and best practices actively encouraged.

3. Open the blinds - Avoid artificial lighting as much as possible. It’s healthier, cleaner and cheaper to let natural light in. To avoid wasteful practice, use automatic sensors to turn lights off when no-one needs them.

4. Digitise - Avoid paper wherever possible by reducing printing and distribution costs, consuming less power and ensuring that content can be found easily because it’s all stored centrally and can be called up on any screen. Banking, invoicing, HR communications and newsletters, even payslips, can all be managed online now. It is good for the environment, costs a lot less than managing paper, and is much easier to administer, track and manage for all concerned (encouraging greater personal accountability and information self-service). Storing paper is fraught with risk: documents can be easily lost and are vulnerable to fires and flooding, etc. They also take up a lot of physical space which could be put to better use.

5. Heating/air-conditioning - Turn the heating down or, if it’s hot, open a window. Adjusting the thermostat by just one degree can cut a company’s heating bill by around 8% a year, according to The Carbon Trust. Ideally, the thermostat should be no higher than 19 degrees.

For organisation-wide carbon reductions, organisations should consider investing in technologies that replace high carbon emitting processes with more energy-efficient solutions. In addition to more efficient insulation, heating and lighting systems, the following solutions offer the double benefit of carbon and cost reduction:

6. Document management systems - Most organisations are trying to reduce their dependency on paper because it is inefficient in almost every conceivable way. The finance and HR departments are typically among the biggest generators and receivers of paper, between them handling contract, invoices, purchase orders, statements and CVs. By reducing the amount of paper that is produced and circulated, using document management and imaging systems, organisations can substantially reduce their carbon emissions. This is because cutting the printing, distribution and storage of paper reduces the use of power-consuming, heat-generating printers and photocopiers, not to mention the need for carbon-generating transport as documents are sent out by post or courier. Document management solutions tend to have a relatively swift and easily demonstrated Return on Investment.

7. Electronic procurement - Procuring goods and services can prove an especially paper-intensive activity, which is driving organisations to manage the process electronically. A number of technologies can be used to automate the different stages of the procurement cycle, from electronic purchase requisition solutions to invoice authorisation and electronic payment technologies. As well as reducing the paper usage levels these systems also free up time by automating time consuming manual processes.

8. Electronic payslips - Organisations also need to consider how they communicate with their people. Payslips, for example, are often printed out and posted to staff on a monthly, even weekly basis. This is both costly and energy consuming, sometimes occupying office printers for days on end. According to independent research, the production of a single paper payslip emits 2.8 grams of CO2. E-payslip technology enables payslips to be produced electronically and emailed out to all staff automatically, removing the need for the production and postage of paper payslips.

9. Self-service solutions - Online information portals and e-forms provide a further means of interacting with staff more efficiently and eco-consciously. Here, authorised managers and employees are able to serve themselves more readily, by checking their records, applying for holidays, tracking the process of applications, or updating their own details – such as bank account information or a change of address. Again, this is a powerful example of paper-based procedures being replaced with less carbon emitting automated processes, and delivering cost reduction and enhanced efficiency in a number of other areas.

10. Expenses Management - Of the £2.2 billion a year spent by UK Commerce and industry on employee expenses (source: http://www.expenses-software.com/uploads/files/expenses%20Brochure.pdf), almost a quarter is accounted for by processing costs – a breath-taking £500 million. Indeed, companies using a paper-based system could be paying up to £40 to process each claim, even if the claim itself is only for a few pounds. Streamlining and automating inefficient manual processes including enabling staff to enter their travel and subsistence claims online, can result in considerable cost savings. Obvious benefits are the savings around paper usage but it is the improvement in efficiency that provides the best gain.

An online ROI Calculator, providing an instant snapshot of the potential savings for individual organisations through automating expenses management, can be found at www.advancedexpenses.com

Look for advice about being a better personal trainer, investment advisor or IT consultant and, without doubt, you’ll be reminded about the importance of understanding your client’s goals. The theory makes perfect sense – we need to know what our client is shooting for if we’re to help them get there.

However, a recent introductory session with a personal trainer got me thinking that, in reality, many of us aren’t that great at understanding our client’s goals. For a start the personal trainer seemed slightly embarrassed as he asked me about my goals; perhaps the question felt like just too much of a cliché. Before I’d even had chance to answer, he followed up with a range of generic answers – making it much easier for me to pick one of these responses rather than spend time explaining what it was I really wanted to achieve. And after I’d selected option two – increased fitness – we failed to explore what that meant in practice: did I want to run a marathon in under 3 hours or simply be able to walk to the bus stop without being out of breath?

Reflecting on this experience I realised how easily this can happen with business clients – knowing that one ought to ask about goals but at the same time feeling that it’s somewhat cheesy. To ease our discomfort, it’s easy to offer stock solutions – increasing profits or revenue or selling the company – and fail to really explore what it is that excites the individual in front of us about their goals for their department or organisation.

And often it’s something quite personal that is really important – whether that’s about being asked to join the senior management team or being seen externally as an expert on a particular topic. Only by getting beneath the superficial can we link what it is we’re delivering, and how we talk about it, to something that is meaningful for our client.

Here are some suggestions for questions to help you get beneath the superficial:

• Why is that goal (e.g. increasing revenue) meaningful to you?
• What metrics and timeframes are associated with your goals (e.g. £100m sales by 2013)?
• What’s the purpose behind the goal? Why this goal?
• What are the benefits to you of achieving this goal?
• How would your job be different if this goal was achieved? How would it affect your department?

Our recent research with clients of consulting firms confirmed that it’s not just the personal trainers who sometimes get it badly wrong. Many of the people we spoke too (and these are senior people in companies spending large amounts of money on consulting) complained about not being listened to; in the words of a strategy director in a UK financial services firm, “Some consultants are arrogant and don’t listen. What I want to do is to build on existing work, not have our ideas revisited by a firm that has its own agenda.”

Rachel Ainsworth is Senior Research Manager at Source. She works with individual consulting firms to develop bespoke thought leadership and offers insight on thought leadership across the industry. She is particularly interested in consulting firms’ use of social and digital media.

Prior to joining Source, Rachel has had over 10 years’ experience as a management consultant, managing both strategic and operational projects across a variety of sectors. She holds an engineering degree from Oxford University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

If you would like to contribute an article to the next issue, sharing your expertise simply send your article to us and, if it’s relevant, we’ll publish it on the Connect customer site as well in our newsletters.  It can be written to address the issues of clients or consultants.

You must be a member to contribute.  Join today.

“Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results.” Scott Adams

It’s perhaps not surprising that the creator of the Dilbert comic strip has a rather cynical view on decision-making. However all of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, are regularly party to decisions made using poor data, unclear criteria and a shaky process – gut feel and the power of personality often rules the day.

So what stops us from making better decisions? Here are the top factors we’ve identified in our work with clients in a variety of industries:

• Little or no attention paid to the process of making a decision. When no one takes ownership of and structures the decision-making process, the discussion is likely to be chaotic and key factors may be ignored.
• A culturally-embedded notion that ‘real business people’ make decisions quickly and decisively – data and discussion is for wimps.
• It takes too long or it’s too difficult to get the data or reports needed. When people aren’t able to get what they need easily, they’ll often choose to go without.
• The data isn’t trusted. Sometimes we find, hidden behind a reluctance to use data, an unspoken understanding that the data isn’t up-to-date or accurate.
• A lack of skills. Aside from business school graduates, when was the last time you heard of someone taking ‘data and decisions’ training? The assumption is that managers know this stuff – yet most managers would benefit from training in understanding, analysing and acting on data.
• A dominant personality over-riding all over concerns. Fixing all of the above will have no impact if there’s a power-wielding personality in the room determined to have their way no matter what the data says.

Of course, sometimes good decisions lead to bad outcomes and bad decisions lead to good outcomes. But a good decision is more likely to lead to a good outcome than a bad decision. And if I was investing my own money I’d be looking, every time, for the company that paid attention to the decision-making process.

If you want to read more about this topic, I recommend:

How organisations make great decisions (Bain & Company) – actionable insights about improving decision-making across the organisation.

The decision-making flaw in powerful people (Booz & Company) – evidence to back up what many of us had always suspected – as well as suggestions on how to manage this phenomenon.

Rachel Ainsworth is Senior Research Manager at Source. She works with individual consulting firms to develop bespoke thought leadership and offers insight on thought leadership across the industry. She is particularly interested in consulting firms’ use of social and digital media.

Prior to joining Source, Rachel has had over 10 years’ experience as a management consultant, managing both strategic and operational projects across a variety of sectors. She holds an engineering degree from Oxford University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

In our winter of economic discontent, it is far too easy for the green agenda to fall to the bottom of the organisational priority list. It might seem frivolous to concentrate on sustainability projects when basic survival is on the minds of many senior executives. But a failure to recognise the strategic importance of green initiatives is shortsighted.

There are a number of reasons why sustainability matters. First, the obvious demand for corporate social responsibility – continuing concerns over power use and global warming mean firms cannot afford to put profits before principles, especially if they want to create a positive perception of their brand.

Secondly, choosing to ignore sustainability concerns does not mean they will slip silently away. The UK government is increasingly keen to place green at the top of the legislative agenda for businesses, and organisations will soon find that they need to report carbon emissions in the same way as they file financial figures at year-end.

However, many firms are badly prepared for such inevitability. The Carbon Trust reports that just 59% of blue-chip companies have robust carbon aims, despite the British government’s decision to set a legally binding target on greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020.

Much work needs to be done. Smart executives will turn to technology to help monitor carbon use, making the demands of compliance and reporting as painless as possible.

A good example of such technology is Advanced Business Solutions’ Carbon Accounting solution, a comprehensive and sophisticated tracking product. The product is integrated with Advanced’s OpenAccounts financial management system and enables businesses to quickly measure and then budget effectively for emissions.

High quality reporting tools capture carbon emissions data automatically and provide information on-demand to executives. The result is instant transparency, while simultaneously cutting the time-consuming processing associated with manual data entry and manipulation.

Which brings us nicely to the final reason why sustainability matters – going green does not have to be a costly activity. In fact, sustainable technology projects can also help increase business efficiency while slashing operational costs. Going green and operating more efficiently often go hand in hand.

In short, being green might have slipped down the corporate priority list during the downturn but pushing sustainability back to the top of the business agenda will mean your organisation is better prepared for a brighter, better future.

Watch listen and learn as your support team take you through how to setup and run a Global Update in HR Pro. This article contains a large embedded windows media video file & may take a while to load depending on your connectivity to the internet.

For best results, please select 720p on video play back.

Watch listen and learn as your support team take you through how to add a new payroll user or profile in OpenPeople. This article contains a large embedded windows media video file & may take a while to load depending on your connectivity to the internet.

For best results, please select 720p on video play back.

Watch listen and learn as your support team take you through how to purge spool files to free disk space. This article contains a large embedded windows media video file & may take a while to load depending on your connectivity to the internet.

For best results, please select 720p on video play back.

Fraud in the UK has increased seven-fold since 2003 and doubled last year, costing the country £2 billion (FraudTrack). Experts predict that it will get worse and that there will be a surge of fraudulent activity in 2012, with internal fraud and cybercrime tipped to be the fastest growing areas.

In spite of the rising statistics, many businesses, particularly in the private sector, are continuing to sweep the subject under the carpet. Leaders are reluctant to proactively talk about or tackle the ‘F’ word, choosing instead to react to fraud after the crisis has occurred and the losses have already been made.

Japanese camera and medical equipment firm, Olympus, is the latest victim of fraud. As a result of accounting fraud, the company has lost $1.7 billion and is currently under investigation with law enforcement agencies in the UK, USA and Japan. The scandal was not uncovered until the company’s former chief executive blew the whistle when he spotted Olympus paid an astronomical fee for advice about an acquisition.

Olympus may be an extreme example but businesses of all sizes often take the ostrich approach, burying their heads in the sand and taking the view ‘we will never be a victim’. The fact is that all businesses can be victims of fraud, including internal fraud, unless they proactively take measures to ensure it doesn’t happen.

If you want to start tackling the growing fraud epidemic, you could start by considering the following:

• When was the last time you checked who has access to payment systems within your organisation?
• How much control do individuals have over the procurement process?
• When did you last examine the audit logs within your finance and payroll systems to see what important data has been amended? (companies can struggle with an annual check let alone a daily or weekly check).
• How many credit notes (and for what values) have you issued recently?
• How many billing write-offs are made and by whom?

The answers to these questions may provide an alarming wake-up call!

So what can you do to help prevent internal fraud within your organisation? First and foremost, you need to have quality fraud detection and prevention technologies in place. There are various software solutions on the market to help businesses to identify and prevent fraudulent activity including Forensix, which Advanced Business Solutions launched last year. This software enables fraud detection and even helps to identify collaborative fraud. Automatic management alerts can be set-up to highlight any unusual or significant activities such as new supplier approvals and the raising of repeat credit notes.

With analysts predicting a ‘tidal suge’ of fraud this year, it’s vital that business leaders learn from examples like Olympus and implement fraud detection and prevention measures to ensure that they too, don’t become victims of the ‘F’ word.

• FraudTrack collates data from all reported fraud cases (tax fraud, supplier and consumer fraud, corruption, management fraud and employee fraud.
• After tax fraud, most fraud is committed by suppliers and customers with the average cost per supplier/customer at £7.7m  (FraudTrack)
• http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2136259/fraud-levels-doubled-2011
• http://www.thesme.co.uk/news/152/anti-fraud-organisations-predict-fraud-surge-in-2012/
• www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE80C2GH20120114

The success of your business is inextricably linked with its biggest asset – people.

One of the fastest ways to derail employee engagement and satisfaction is to make a mistake with payroll. Late salary payments, inaccurate holiday pay and miscalculated benefits can undermine morale and reduce productivity.

So why do so many business leaders still regard payroll as a routine administrative procedure that is a cost centre?

A typical company spends between 50 and 80 percent of its expenditure on payroll, and the costs of preparing and administering these payments are significant. Despite this, a recent survey found that less than half of businesses measure the efficiency of their payroll function, and three quarters said that they had no plans to investigate implementing a payroll strategy to reduce costs and add value to their business during the recession.

In the UK today, relatively few organisations see payroll as a strategic function, with half of companies handing over full responsibility for payroll to the finance function, with one in five opting to outsource the function completely.

It is about time that the payroll department is recognised as having a vital role to play in helping businesses to survive and thrive in a tough economic climate.

For more information and to find out how payroll can help drive value in your business download our whitepaper.

Advanced Business Solutions is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with Science Warehouse, a leading provider of on-demand e-procurement and catalogue solutions. Together Advanced and Science Warehouse can deliver major cash savings on your purchasing spend, fast.

Seamlessly integrated via a single interface, the Science Warehouse e-catalogue can host product and service information across all supplier types and spend categories. The solution is delivered as a managed service to actively support your supplier enablement programme, working closely with you and your suppliers to ensure your catalogue data is accurately mapped and kept up to date.

Some of the common suppliers we are currently supplying catalogues for include Office Depot, Lyreco, Dell Computers and RS Components. To illustrate the savings potential using on-demand e-procurement, one customer reported a saving of over 10% across their purchasing spend.

By combining OpenAccounts and the solutions from Science Warehouse, we can offer a fast way for you to bring spend under control, ensure contract compliance and improve supplier management.

For more information on the range of procurement solutions now available from Advanced please speak to your Account Manager or call us on 01582 714 810.

Rumour has it that Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) is in line for another green award.

That’s right, the team’s just learned that they’ve been shortlisted for the ‘Environmental Accounting & Management Software of the Year’ category in the 2012 Green IT Awards. Advanced was selected for its new, cutting-edge Carbon Accounting system.

The good news follows last year’s National Green Apple Environment Award win, which Advanced scooped in recognition of the environmental benefits of its Human Resource Self-Service solution.

The Green IT Awards recognise the outstanding environmental products, suppliers and projects of 2012 and highlight the companies and teams that have made significant contributions to improving the IT industry’s environmental performance.

Advanced is one of six finalists in the Environmental Accounting category and the team will find out their fate at the awards ceremony on 19 April at London Zoo.

Watch listen and learn as your support team take you through how to Setup the User Defined Audit Log. This article contains a large embedded windows media video file & may take a while to load depending on your connectivity to the internet.

For best results, please select 720p on video play back.

Watch listen and learn as your support team take you through how to reset a barcode label printer. This article contains a large embedded windows media video file & may take a while to load depending on your connectivity to the internet.

For best results, please select 720p on video play back.

Simon Fowler explains how integrated payroll, HR and finance systems can be of vital importance to medium and large-sized businesses which have complex needs.

Few payroll functions can operate without supportive software systems in place. Unsurprisingly, there is a vast array of solutions on the market which offer differing levels of payroll functionality. Some operate at a very basic level, providing specific, rigid and standalone functionality that may suit the needs of the small organisation. However, for medium and large-sized firms, the payroll software systems need to be able to support sometimes complex payroll requirements while delivering efficiencies and ensuring legislative compliance. A fully integrated payroll system is therefore key. In addition, for medium and large-sized organisations, it is important for the payroll system to integrate with other key business systems, especially HR and finance, so that a joined-up approach is achieved across the business.

Continue reading...