Enterprise Resource Planning (or ERP) like so many other things, can offer huge savings in back-office costs.
But what does that mean to me?
Let's take the case of someone who has just opened an online store to sell home made candles. How hard can it be? You signed up for Shopify and created your online presence. You listed eighteen different product variations, from scented candles to special occasion candles. You listed shipping prices and your efforts at search engine optimization are starting to bear fruit. The first few orders were easy. You were notified you'd made a sale. You packed the shipping carton with candles you'd made earlier, and posted your first order. Well done! You're on your way.
Now you're receiving orders at a great rate, except you've run out of paraffin wax. Or is it that very popular additive, which takes eight weeks to order? Maybe it's something as simple as the shipping cartons. You have credit terms with the company who provides the cartons, but they refuse to ship because they claim you didn't pay their last invoice. You have no record of an unpaid invoice. The bank statement doesn't help, because you can't figure out which bank statement item is which.
On top of this, you are due to submit a value-added tax (VAT) return in a few days, and you're not entirely sure how many candles you've shipped, much less what you have paid in VAT for services and supplies.
On top of that, the sale of candles to that boutique hotel has turned sour as it has been over two months since you sent them the candles and they haven't paid their bill.
Now you discover that the tax office wants to know exactly how much "candle revenue" you received from a list of countries, and how much VAT was deducted.
This is apart from the usual nightmare of trying to make candles and also send shipments. You could hire someone to fulfill the orders, but you are worried about the costs involved in taking on staff and also how you will relay the orders to them.
Even in this simple case, where we are shipping a product which doesn't require a lot of raw materials, doesn't require large lead-times or varied production processes, the business owner is overwhelmed.
This is where ERP comes in.
We take a holistic approach to helping you manage your business. We will help you manage your bank statements, reconciling each transaction against the appropriate journal entry. We will manage your sales invoices, automatically sending reminders to your late payers, and placing their accounts on credit-hold if they abuse their credit terms.
We will create delivery notes which have been designed to be printed on special paper with a removable address label. Your shipping staff can work through the backlog of delivery notes, packing and shipping each one. They can update the system to confirm the delivery and add delivery details. The sales invoice will be generated automatically and sent to the customer. In the case of dwindling stock, purchase requisitions will be created to replenish supplies. Once you approve the purchase order, you can see the demands on stock and adjust the minimum quantities accordingly. We maintain the lead time data so you don't have to. We know you need to order paraffin wax today if you want to make candles next month.
We can produce your VAT return, ready to be submitted electronically.
We will show you your balance sheet, profit and loss, aged debtors, trial balance, and other financial reports so you can see how you are doing.
The Kalopa Automated Concierge works tirelessly so you can sleep at night.