As your business scales, the complexity of your systems, data and management information will grow at a similar pace.

And if you’re using software, apps and systems that are aimed squarely at the small business market, these platforms may begin to creak at the seams a little.

This is when moving to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution makes a lot of sense.

But what is an ERP solution? And how does upgrading to one of the current breed of ERP software help you get back in control of your expanding business?

What exactly is an ERP solution?

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution is a comprehensive software system that integrates and manages various core business processes across your organisation.

If you want to stay in control of all areas of your business, ERP software puts you back in the driving seat. Your ERP solution will streamline and automate functions such as finance, human resources, inventory management, procurement, sales and customer relationship management.

5 key benefits of using an ERP solution

In today’s digital world, having the right data and management information at your fingertips is a must. And with an ERP system in place, you can plan, manage and control every area of the business, while also having access to all the important data you need as a business owner.

Let’s take at look at five of the valuable benefits of using an ERP solution:

• • Deeper control over your financial management – an ERP solution gives you a broader overview of your finances, enabling in-depth insights into financial data and better control over budgets, expenses and the company’s revenue streams.
  • Integrations with other core systems – many ERP platforms will offer seamless integrations with other areas of the business. This allows you to integrate with your sales, manufacturing, inventory and logistics operations, cutting the need for manual data-entry, reducing manual errors and making the business more efficient.
  • Detailed data from across the business – ERP software brings you access to real-time data for all the vital functions in the business. With up-to-date, high-quality data to hand, you have a wider overview of all your key business operations. This helps you make data-driven decisions and react quickly to market changes and opportunities.
  • Get in control of your budgets and spending – it’s far easier to manage your spending with the enhanced planning and budgeting capabilities of today’s ERP platforms. You can optimise your processes, reduce waste and manage your resources more effectively, all of which gives a boost to your overall financial performance.
  • Made informed, data-driven decisions – the analytics, reporting and forecasting offered by an ERP solution help you make informed decisions, based on solid, evidence-based data. This helps you play to the company’s strengths, leverage your competitive advantages and support the sustainable growth of your enterprise.

Talk to us about which ERP platform is best for your business

Choosing the right ERP software for your business comes down to finding the solution that’s best suited to your industry, business processes and underlying way of working.

We’ll help you decide which solution is the best fit, and can help you set up the software, integrations and reporting that will make your ERP solution really deliver.

Get in touch to talk about moving to an ERP platform.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

If you’ve just started your trade business, you’ll know pricing is a key element of your business plan.

Experienced tradespeople know that if you quote too much, you might miss out on future work. If you charge too little, you’ll lose profit. The rate dilemma can also make sales forecasting or a break-even analysis slightly problematic.

It’s a fine line and there’s certainly no one-size-fits-all for every tradesperson. Regardless, we’ve weighed up the pros and cons of each option, so you can be sure you’re charging sensibly for your services.

1.     What is an hourly rate?

This is probably the most favoured option for tradespeople – you quote a price by the hour, and the final invoice is calculated when the job is complete. Tradify’s charge-out rate calculator can help you make sure you’re charging the right hourly rate.

2.     Benefits of charging an hourly rate

Every minute counts  

Trade jobs are often unpredictable – what you thought was going to be a simple one-hour job could easily turn into ten when you get started and realise there are further problems. But if you’ve quoted an hourly rate – no problem, you’ll be paid for all your time spent on the job.

More room for change 

There’s a lot more flexibility or scope of work when you’re being paid by the hour – not having to knuckle down on set costs. Plus, if you get halfway through a job and realise it needs to change direction – your pocket won’t suffer because of it.

Freedom to take on more jobs 

With an hourly rate, depending on how you organise your day, you might have time to fit in multiple small jobs. More jobs can mean a boost in income.

Keep your freedom 

With an hourly rate, you can come and go more easily – freeing up time to take a call about a quote or visit another job site.

3.     Downsides of charging an hourly rate

Less appeal to clients 

Inconclusive prices could very well lead to less interest from customers, which could mean you struggle to secure work. It’s reassuring for a client to know exactly how much something is going to cost – down to the final cent.

4.     What is a flat rate?

This is a clean and easy way of quoting for your services – a single fee that covers a particular job — regardless of the time it takes to complete. 

5.     Benefits of charging a flat rate

Predictability 

When you charge a flat rate, you know exactly how much income to expect when the job’s done. If you quote every job at a flat rate, you can accurately estimate your profit. 

Secure more work 

This option is appealing to customers, with no surprises for them in the final invoice. For this reason, you might secure more work if you offer a flat rate.

Larger profit

If you’re charging a set $100 fee for a job, it could take you 30 minutes or four hours. Knowing you won’t be paid extra for any overtime, you or your staff might be more motivated to get the job done faster – meaning a larger profit and free time to take on more work.

Upfront payments

If customers know how much the job is going to cost, they may choose to pre-pay for your services. This will save you a huge amount of time and stress chasing wayward payments.

This is a clean and easy way of quoting for your services – a single fee that covers a particular job — regardless of the time it takes to complete. 

6.     Downsides of charging a flat rate

Losing profit 

If you accidentally undercharge, there’s no going back once the quote has been sent. And if a job takes you much longer than you anticipated, you could lose a tonne of potential earnings. 

No wriggle room 

Just as a job could take you longer than you estimated, it could also end up being much more complicated than you expected. If problems arise after clients have accepted a quote, they’re unlikely to agree to change it – meaning you’ll be faced with hours of extra work and no pay.

Pressure

With a set job rate, you might feel pressured to stay on site all day until the job’s completed.

7.     Hybrid rate

A hybrid rate is essentially a blend of hourly and fixed rates, adjusted to suit your business and circumstances. For example, you might charge a fixed rate for installing a new boiler – it’s a job you’ve done a hundred times before and you know how long it should take you. But if the same client also needs a leaky roof repaired, that could take hours or even days – so you may price it by the hour. 

Ample flexibility

A hybrid option offers ample flexibility and is a great solution to all the above issues. Having your entire business on the same pricing structure doesn’t make a lot of sense when the scope of your work can vary so much. A hybrid approach allows you to price jobs according to whether they’re more suited to fixed, hourly, or a mix of both rates. 

A flat rate to start

Some tradespeople also use the hybrid method to quote a flat rate for a certain amount of hours – and anything above that goes hourly. If a flat rate of $200 was quoted to install a new doorframe, the timeframe given might be two hours. If the client requests further work on the doorframe or for unforeseen reasons it ends up taking longer, the rate will go to hourly after the two hours is up.

8.     A note on charge-up rates

While it’s usually best to have a structured pricing system that you can quote to customers, sometimes its best to act fast in the interest of winning work. If you get an enquiry for some same-day service, then go ahead and take it for an agreed upon hourly rate — it’s more money in your pocket at the end of the day and you can even charge a little bit more than you usually would.

Just be sure not to make a habit of pricing this way, this can lead to inconsistent pricing, and a less structured system that can make the end of financial year tougher than it needs to be.

9.     So what should. you be paid for your trade?

If you can accurately estimate the hours needed for a job, then a fixed rate may work for you – you’ll keep your client happy, you won’t miss out on cash and you’ll probably secure more work thanks to your reputation. But for unpredictable, complex or more labour-intensive jobs, an hourly rate will have your back. You’ll be paid for all the time you work and you won’t risk one hour of paid work turning into ten unpaid.

Many tradespeople have adopted the hybrid approach and offer a mix of both fixed and hourly rates. That way, they quote a fixed rate when they can confidently predict the duration of simpler jobs, and an hourly rate is agreed upon for the more complex jobs. It’s the best of both worlds – and it keeps everyone happy.

Learn about the highest-paid trades.

The following content was originally published by Tradify. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Tired of paying rent for your commercial premises and considering buying a premises for your business?

Owning a building works best if your business is well-established, you have money to invest, and you’re taking a long-term approach – it can take many years for this decision to pay for itself.

The advantages of owning a commercial property

• • You no longer need to worry about dealing with a landlord. You’re the landlord now, so your lease won’t end and you get to make all the decisions about how the premises is used. If you want to make changes to the fitout, it’s up to you.
  • You don’t have to worry about rising rent. Eventually, owning a premises will be cheaper than leasing. When you continue leasing, you can expect the rent to keep going up – sometimes the jump may be substantial.
  • If your business moves or closes, you still own the building. This can be a highly valuable long-term asset, depending on the type of building and the potential tenants.

The advantages of leasing your business premises

• • Leasing gives you more flexibility. You can move if your business gets too big for the space, or downsize if more people are working from home.
  • You don’t have to worry about paying building expenses like rates, warrants of fitness, and insurance.
  • Your rent is likely to be lower than the servicing costs for a commercial property loan, boosting cashflow so you have more to invest in the growth of the business.
  • The landlord will take care of repairs and maintenance on your building – when there’s a leak, for example, it’s not your problem.
  • Commercial buildings are typically expensive and financing is costly, so you’ll need to do plenty of research before you decide to make a purchase.

We can run a cost-benefit analysis

Could buying a building be the right choice for your business? We can work with you to analyse the costs and benefits of each option, to help you make an informed decision about which one will put you on track to achieve your goals.

Get in touch today, we’d love to hear from you.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Being the boss means you get to make all the big decisions about your business – including how much to pay yourself in wages, salary or drawings.

As the owner, you might need to underpay yourself in the early stages of building your business, so you can reinvest the profits. But your time is valuable – and you need enough money to pay the bills. So how can you find the right level of pay? It has to be enough to keep the mortgage paid, while also building a thriving business.

If you’re trying to decide how much to pay yourself, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• • What can the business afford? – You need to leave enough cash in the business to keep it ticking along, pay your basic costs, and meet your tax obligations. Once you’ve considered all those outgoings, how much does that leave you as a potential salary? We can help you work out what that number is, so you can establish a sustainable rate of pay.
  • What’s the market rate for your role? – What would you have to pay someone to do the work you’re undertaking in this business? Maybe you wouldn’t actually be able to find anyone to work the same long hours, but if you were hiring someone with your experience, to do the same sort of work for 40 hours a week, what would they expect to be paid? That number is a good starting point for thinking about your own salary or drawings. If you’re being underpaid, it’s time to think about ways to grow your profits. If you’re being overpaid, congratulations on building a highly profitable business!
  • Could reinvesting profits grow your income faster? – You can take all the profits out of your business, which should give you a strong and sustainable income. Or, could you reinvest your profits and grow the business faster, leading to a higher income in the long-term? You might choose to spend some of your profits on advertising, a better website, or developing a new offering, for example. Or you could pay for assistance in some area of the business. If the investment leads to higher growth, it might be well worthwhile.

We’ll help you run the numbers

We can help you figure out how much your business can afford to pay you, analyse the potential gains of a business investment, or weigh up the pros and cons of hiring someone to help you.

Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.