So, how have you been doing these past few weeks?
Since we have been on lockdown, I have enjoyed and appreciated being able to spend more time with my wife and 9 ½ months old son. Travelling between Vancouver and Winnipeg over the past number of months was hectic, and having this time at home has made me realize the importance of finding the right work/life balance, which is something I am now determined to make a priority in my life.
My business has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as most companies have with project work slowing down. However, I have never been one to sit still and wait, so I decided that it is the perfect time to work “ON my business” vs “IN my business”.
As any new business owner knows, we rely on our network to help drive revenue, and I would like to say thank you to my fantastic network in Vancouver for your support over the years. The BHC team are committed to ensuring that your businesses continue to thrive for years to come. In 2020, we will be expanding our offering to the Winnipeg Market.
I look forward to connecting with new clients and new opportunities.
The BHC Group has just started our 5th year in operation.
Just as I am working “ON my business”; so, can you!
To ensure that we are well-positioned and ready for business when life returns to normal, we have begun an exciting initiative to refresh our brand and build a new, robust website with tools that will help support our current and future clients. I will be sharing sneak peeks as the brand and website project develops, so stay tuned!
I have no doubt that just like me, you have a list of “housekeeping” items that you never have the time to tackle. Well, NOW is the time to get to it. Let me share three examples of things you can do that will help to clean up your data and provide some efficiencies to your business.
Clean Up Your Master Records
By this, I mean cleaning up your Chart of Accounts, Vendor lists, Customer lists, amongst other things.
If you are using Dynamics GP, here is a hint:
Did you know there is a module called “Professional Services Tools
Library (PSTL)”? It has a functionality that allows you to change or combine your Master Record IDs. For example, you can combine multiple vendors into one.
I often see client data with a Vendor ID that looks like this:
BCHYDRO, BHYDRO, HYDRO (They have all been used before so you are not able to delete them).
In this case, you can decide what your naming convention should be, merge all three into one Vendor ID and then change the one Vendor ID into the new convention which will merge ALL the historical data together as if the original Vendor IDs never existed.
Don’t worry; there is an audit report that will document the change that should be printed to file and placed in the audit binder.
I highly recommend that you take a backup of your LIVE company database, restore it over your TEST company database and perform the change there first before attempting to do this with your live data.
IMPLEMENT EFT FOR PAYABLES MANAGEMENT
This function is beneficial in regular times and extremely helpful
given today’s’ remote working environment.
The EFT for PM function generates a payment file that gets uploaded to your bank, releasing the funds from there, and minimizing or potentially removing the necessity for printing checks and obtaining manual signatures.
Vendor Remittances can be emailed to your Vendors automatically which reduces the manual work of printing, stuffing and mailing remittance forms Plus, any Covid- 19 risks associated with paper handling by Canada Post and vendor staff are also eliminated.
After a 1-2-hour session with one of our team members, you’ll be able to set up and configure the EFT for PM module and have the training required to process payments.
Remember that you need to set this up with your bank, but we will cover the necessary components in GP.
IMPLEMENT WORKFLOW
Implementing a GP workflow can save time, increase efficiencies and add additional control to your processes.
You can you set up an approval stream that reaches all the appropriate approvers with workflow notifications for approval/rejection via email outside of GP and provide notification back to the person who submitted the workflow regarding the status.
There are multiple workflows available depending on your version of Dynamics GP, GL Account, Vendor Approval, Purchase Requisitions, Purchase Orders and even Security approvals for Roles, Tasks, and User Security.
Depending on the workflow you setup, you will have the ability to email the document out.
FOR EXAMPLE:
If you set up the PO workflow, once the PO is approved, you can automatically email the PO to your Vendor from GP without having to print the PO to PDF, open a new email, write the email and attach the PO before sending. The automation follows an email template you setup that will email directly to the email address that is saved on the specific Vendor Address ID Internet Information Card.
A great way to start the workflow process is to perform the setups in
Since giving up the Vancouver office in December 2018, the BHC team have all been working from our respective home office’s so working remotely is not new for us. We are here to help in any way we can and have checklists and documents, that can help you implement some of these and other housekeeping items.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks for more creative ways to stay busy during these chaotic times.
In the meantime, Stay Healthy and be Safe.
