When QuickBooks just isn’t enough: ACCTivate! in Action with Teko® Socks
Founded in Boulder, CO in 2004, Teko LLC built their company around the idea of making premium performance outdoor socks with the least possible environmental impact. Today, Teko still “strives for balance between people and planet,” with sustainability driving every aspect of Teko, from product sourcing through production and packaging, to delivery. The natural materials [...]
Multi-currency software: The key to going global
According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), world merchandise exports increased by 22% in 2010. Per the UK’s Office for National Statistics, as of Oct 2011, exports were valued at £25.5bn, up 0.6% from July and the highest level since monthly records began in 1998 Every day US$1.4 billion of bilateral trade crosses the U.S.-Canada border, according to [...]
Landed Cost: Definition, calculation & benefits
The ability to source products from around the world offers businesses opportunities to reduce costs and increase product availability, potentially resulting in strategic and profitability gains. However, the opportunity also brings the challenge of accurately calculating true cost and profitability analysis. Landed cost is the process of capturing all costs associated with the acquisition of [...]
Managing inventory for increased profitability
Most people keep a pretty good eye on their cash. Generally, they don’t leave it laying around, gathering dust, not put to use, uncontrolled. In the business world, inventory and cash, from an accounting standpoint, are pretty similar, both being considered assets. Yet, many businesses think of inventory only in terms of the items bought [...]
The human factor
Recently one of my associates suggested that I take a look at Kiva Systems. I looked them up on the web and watched their demo video. Amazing! They have completely rethought the problem of inventory receiving, storage, picking and packing. With the Kiva system, all inventory is stored on special shelving and the shelves are [...]
Life is change
Forty years ago on September 2, 1969 an event took place that changed our lives forever … the network which would become the internet was born. Only a handful of people knew it at the time and I suspect none of them could have envisioned the impact on our society. Actually, this is a familiar [...]
Planning for a comeback
Most of our businesses have not escaped the impact of the recession. Some have had a severe downturn while others have had a more moderate negative effect. Regardless the current forecast of the economists that study these things is that we are coming to the end of the recession and, although recovery will be [...]
Déjà-Vu all over again
It’s déjà-vu all over again! Alterity, the company I founded 25 years ago, has just entered into an agreement with EasyBiz, the Johannesburg based distributor of QuickBooks® for Sub-Saharan Africa, to distribute our flagship wholesale distribution software offering, ACCTivate!. In the summer of 1975, I was asked to go to South Africa and introduce an earlier [...]
Buying “green” Selling “green” and Living “green”
In today’s economy it can pay to be “green.” As Earth Day approaches we’ve mined the ACCTivate! customer database and have noticed three trends: buying “green”, selling “green” and living “green.” For the most part, these are not companies staffed by people with activist approaches. They are companies that have recognized the commercial and competitive [...]
Stay on course in challenging times
“The worst economic times – the Great Depression – was actually a rich period of management reinvention…Enterprises outperformed competitors and actually grew by excelling in understanding and satisfying customers’ changing needs.” - Harvard Business Review: Editor’s Blog, June 2008 “Companies that delay investments [in current strategy] may forego significant growth opportunities when uncertainty subsides and [...]
