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Praise for
Cloud Accounting
“In a world of fast moving technology, Cloud Accounting offers practical, straight forward guidance to businesses on how to harness this technology to move their businesses forward. A ‘must have’ for businesses in growth mode.”
Susan Thompson
Partner Marketing Manager-East Region-Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Corporation
“With close to 30 years of experience in the ERP Business, I’ve seen less than a handful of changes that have significantly impacted the customer. The cloud will be a game changer for both the customers who buy it and the vendors who sell it. And while no one knows with 100% accuracy exactly what the future entails, Cloud Accounting hits the nail square on the head with a logical, easy to follow methodology to help you figure out what it may or may not mean to your company. ANY executive thinking that there has to be a better answer to corporate business systems than spreadsheet hell and basic accounting will find that this book saves them countless hours, monumental distractions from their business and many sleepless nights. Well worth the time it takes to read.”
Bruce Ciarleglio, Consultant
Salesworks
“This is a highly helpful guide for any business who is weighing the many ERP deployment options available. Readers can easily connect with the real world personas and business situations provided within, making cloud computing easily digestible by business executives who are not technologists by trade. This is a must read for anyone about to participate or lead an ERP evaluation.”
Christine Zmuda
Director of ERP and Partner Strategy
Microsoft Corporation
“Bill and SSi Consulting have offered cloud solutions to their customers for years. In this book, he and David Russell lay out an engaging story of customers navigating their business systems to the cloud. This book will help anyone faced with the choice of keeping their business software on premise or in the cloud. As the ‘cloud’ has become a normal part of our everyday lives – this book will certainly come in handy for any firms looking at making a move to the ever expanding cloud.”
Sam Cool, Vice President
Planet Technologies
“This book makes it FUN to learn about cloud computing. The characters in the fable let you see things from all sides, and acknowledge both the logic and emotion that goes into making a change. The ending switches to a bullet point style if you prefer to learn what you need to know in a nutshell. If you are choosing what’s next for your accounting systems, read this book first.”
Diane Gasal
Professional Certified Coach
Cloud
Accounting
From Spreadsheet Misery to Affordable Cloud ERP
William Aiton and David Russell
Smyth Barnabas Publishing
© 2011 by Smyth Barnabas Publishing and Success With People, Inc. All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions.
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First Printing: November 2011.
Published in eBook format by Smyth Barnabas Publishing
Cover design by David Reyes.
Editing by Brandon Hoye
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13-digit ISBN: 978-0-9771659-6-4
10-digit ISBN: 0-9771659-6-5
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Chapter 1
Analysis Paralysis
“What the HELL is going on over there?!”
James tilted the phone away for the sake of his eardrums. He promised to resolve the problem first thing tomorrow and apologized for the error. After a few more choice words the irate contracting agent hung-up. This brought the number of emotionally upset clients to three for the month.
As CEO and founder of a consulting firm serving government agencies, James had been instrumental in helping the company achieve its recent unprecedented success. Even though the firm was growing steadily, James still preferred to give clients his direct number so he could learn about problems first-hand when they occurred.
The mounting number of angry calls signaled that James and his employees were starting to lose control of the business. Their small business accounting program and practice of using spreadsheets to manage projects and costs was buckling under the strain of an increased client load. If the problems continued, they could destroy the company:
•Projects were going over budget due to the company’s inability to track all of its expenditures.
•Unanticipated invoices were submitted to James from both VARs (Value Added Resellers) and sub-contractors.
•Expense