Business Software ... opening a shop

Deezil

Deezil

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Please help ... a friend who used to run his small business from home (via the usual spreadsheet method) asked me to assist him in setting up a shop (software wise). Why I don't know, I basically know Jack Schitt about these things ... The company I work for is quite heavily invested in Pastel (as are 1000's and 1000's of other companies) so they would probably be my first point of contact. I've also heard a lot about Palladium Software and what I see on their website makes a lot of sense. (This thread surely helped a bit)

I'm definitely not clued up on what exactly is needed for the daily running of his business but Invoicing & Stock Control would be the #1 priority. Handling of Accounts, Point of Sale and getting some sort of online presence going would also be rather high on the list of what's needed. (What else does he need?)

He is living a bit in the boonies so ADSL is unfortunately not available and he is mostly relying on a 3G connection. With the cost of data I'm not 100% sure if an online cloud solution would be his best option.

Obviously I will get in contact with the 2 companies mentioned to hear what they suggest but hopefully I can get some helpful suggestions from MyBB ...

Thanx a million for reading
 
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Deezil said:
Please help ... a friend who used to run his small business from home (via the usual spreadsheet method) asked me to assist him in setting up a shop (software wise). Why I don't know, I basically know Jack Schitt about these things ... The company I work for is quite heavily invested in Pastel (as are 1000's and 1000's of other companies) so they would probably be my first point of contact. I've also heard a lot about Palladium Software and what I see on their website makes a lot of sense. (This thread surely helped a bit)

I'm definitely not clued up on what exactly is needed for the daily running of his business but Invoicing & Stock Control would be the #1 priority. Handling of Accounts, Point of Sale and getting some sort of online presence going would also be rather high on the list of what's needed. (What else does he need?)

He is living a bit in the boonies so ADSL is unfortunately not available and he is mostly relying on a 3G connection. With the cost of data I'm not 100% sure if an online cloud solution would be his best option.

Obviously I will get in contact with the 2 companies mentioned to hear what they suggest but hopefully I can get some helpful suggestions from MyBB ...

Thanx a million for reading
Click to expand...

Pastel Partner or Express 14 with bank manager. He is looking at around +-R5000 once off for the pastel express, and then +- R2800 for the bank manager, if you use bank manager you are forced to take a pastel support annual fee as well of around R1850.

That shall include automatic bank imports, customers, invoicing, inventory etc. He will also save costs from the accountants. I don't think a lot thinks about this. Sure other software are cheaper but if your accountants internal structure are heavily reliant on pastel (which most would be) there is always extra fees involved for them to "adjust".
 
I'm a pastel reseller so a bit biased. Any accountant should however be able to import the data from any accounting package into their auditing software. I can give a discount of the RRP price of any of the pastel packages or add on modules if you interested. PM me.
 
Thank you very much for the information. I have to say the whole Sage One thing also looks really enticing but with an iffy internet connection at best Express Advantage (with Bank Manager and maybe the PoS add-on) does look like the way to go.

If you have 10+ suppliers, each with literally 1000's upon 1000's of items in their catalogues (think SKF bearings) how would you start getting all that product info into your stock control system? Obviously you will not keep every single damn bearing in stock but if a walk in customer does come in or someone orders something from the catalogue you obviously would want the item to be available on your system for either quoting or invoicing purposes. How would you even start this process? Maybe I'm just over-analyzing things and it's a simple import process (provided the catalogue is available electronically) ???
 
With pastel you can import your inventory items with customised prices. E.g. You could have a price for cash customers and a different price for account customers. It will allow you to quote items not in stock. If a customer orders something that is out of stock, pastel can generate a purchase order to your supplier to order new stock. It will also keep record of current cost price and average cost price and give a warning when selling below these.

I don't think Sage one would be ideal for you though.
 
Thanks signates ... Last question, I have a rough idea on pricing for single user Express Advantage but how much is an additional user (not much info on Sage website) ... is it full price license or just a percentage?

Speaking of 2 users, is data replicated on both PC's or is one PC communicating with another for data?
 
Additional user is a fixed fee. On mobile but can check on pricing.

The company data is stored in one place with both users accessing the data at the same time. Running on LAN is better than WiFi even on the same network.
 
Rather look at an online solution. www.sageone.co.za. Pastel's online accounting system, with a built in customer zone and easy to integrate into Pastel's E-Business to get an online store up and running. Also offers a free trail.
 
If it is a micro business then why bother as it is very simple.

SARS only asks for Cost of Sales and Sales on efiling.

Cost of Sales.
Open stock at 1st March at cost.
Plus purchases made during the year.
Less Closing stock at year end. At cost.
This gives you Cost of Sales.

Now you deduct this from your Sales.
You now have your profit and can deduct your Expenses such as wages and UIF and other.
Simple method for a micro business.

Your Closing Stock will be your Open Stock for the next year's tax. So this is for your balance Sheet.
 
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werfie said:
Rather look at an online solution. www.sageone.co.za. Pastel's online accounting system, with a built in customer zone and easy to integrate into Pastel's E-Business to get an online store up and running. Also offers a free trail.
Click to expand...

Hi, I also use Sage One for 3 companies, problem is the POS integration, and in OP's cases bad internet.
 
Thanx all, really appreciate the input ... We'll definitely look into the SageOne 30-day trial option. Not sure if bad internet can be solved by throwing money at the problem but we definitely need to look into better solutions.

Personally I haven't given this much thought but POS may not be the biggest priority. Printing an invoice could be all that is needed.

Unfortunately this isn't a micro business per definition
 
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