ERP and CRM

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning and it is the smart solution to all your business management needs. ERP applications typically consist of modules such as Marketing and Sales, Field Service, Production, Inventory Control, Procurement, Distribution, Human Resources, Finance and Accounting.

ERP software solutions can revolutionize the way your company runs by streamlining all aspects of company operation. ERP stands for "enterprise resource planning." Programs designed for the purposes of resource management help you evaluate the operation of your company as well as decrease the time it takes to track company information.

ERP software solutions are particularly useful for companies in the manufacturing field. The manufacturing process can be incredibly complex, and getting all of the different parts of your supply and manufacturing chains working in unison can be difficult. Productivity often suffers when different parts of your company proceed in an unsynchronized fashion, a situation that costs you time and money.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. CRM software supports your business process to find, get, and retain customers. CRM applications typically consist of modules such as Sales Force Automation, Call Management, and Self Service.

As an open source ERP, Compiere code is available for you to customize as your business grows and changes. Other proprietary ERP solutions may leave you locked into the same business processes and software long after your company has outgrown them, but Compiere ERP software was made to adapt along with you. It’s not only flexible, but easy to upgrade, so that your business always has the most up-to-date ERP software features. You also have access to an active open source community and over 100 certified partners world-wide, so you know you are never alone

Integrated ERP & CRM Solution for small to medium enterprises worldwide

Go Beyond Best Practices. Compiere's adaptable architecture offers fast implementation, easy adaptation, and full scalability. Best of all, since Compiere is an open source ERP application you can test drive it for free!

Effectively Manage Information. With a seamless 360-degree view of your company, customers, and vendors, Compiere ERP provides a reliable foundation that helps you make the right decisions for your company.

Ensure Customer Satisfaction. Your customers crave prompt, reliable service. Compiere ERP software can help you provide it with our rule-based, safe-fail architecture that increases reliability and insures availability.

Compiere is open source ERP and CRM software that provides a seamless 360-degree view of your company, its customers and vendors. For years only large corporations have been able to enjoy the benefits of ERP systems. Now, Compiere ERP and CRM puts the power of timely and consistent communications within reach of small to medium-sized businesses by offering a superior ERP system that is affordable, adaptable, and scalable…ensuring you always have exactly the ERP solution your company needs. For more details www.compiere.org

Other ERP's

www.oracle.com

Cost Accounting Software

Cost accounting software can help those in the manufacturing industry to easily calculate the "true" costs of the projects/jobs and orders undertaken by their companies. Figuring the actual cost of a project or job as it relates to both material and human resources can be a tricky task. Estimates as to the profitability of any given job can be thrown far off course by inaccurate or incomplete cost accounting.

Cost accounting software evaluates the ways in which a given job will affect all aspects of your business. When using a comprehensive ERP system, cost accounting becomes a simple task. As the ERP system can track all of the different parts of your company, the software will be able to estimate the total resources used from all company departments.

The overarching view afforded by ERP software allows these programs to provide accurate cost accounting estimates. These estimates can be crucial when it comes to determining the fair market value for the services provided by your company. Cost accounting ensures that you will be able to fairly assess the viability of any given project and to determine whether job overhead is feasible when compared to revenue.

Activity-based costing (ABC)

ABC can be defined by the following equation:

C/A = HD + M + E + S

where C/A = Estimated cost per activity

H = Number of labor hours required to perform the activity one time

D = Wages per labor hour

M = Material costs required to perform the activity one time

E = Equipment costs to perform the activity one time

S = Subcontracting costs to perform the activity one time

Activity-based costing (ABC) information is only as good as the non-finance/non-accounting crowd's ability to use it. That's why, when shopping for ABC software, savvy practitioners keep these internal customers' needs in mind.

No matter what their particular approach, companies begin activity-based costing with a primary goal in mind - to provide better and more relevant information to aid decision-making. The primary role of ABC software, therefore, is to help companies process and present activity-based costing data so that it is relevant, compelling, understandable and actionable to those who will be using it. Tall order? Maybe, but according to many financial managers and other ABC practitioners, a good activity-based costing software solution can not only help a company achieve its ABC goals, it can also help increase buy-in and enthusiasm among the users of any resulting ABC information.

An ABC Initiative is only as effective as the software that supports it. Controllers must not only understand what data and information operations needs, but also find a package that can provide the data in ways everyone can understand

Some accounting software products such as SAP, Syspro IMPACT Encore, and Deltek offer strong ABC accounting.

How Activity Based Costing is Applied

The results generated by Activity Based Costing methods are frequently used to produce reasonable standards on which future estimates can be calculated. For example, for years construction firms and industry trade groups have collected cost data on a wide array of construction projects. The amount of hours associated with those costs were also collected. As an example, this data included the cost of the paint, labor, equipment, and overhead to paint a room, the amount of surface area painted, and the manpower required to paint the room. This practice has allowed contractors to calculate a cost per area and manpower per area. These costs are based on an activity, such as painting, and are known as ABC.

Activity Based Costing methods are also used to evaluate specific activities within an organization to determine whether those activities are being conducted efficiently, whether those activities are necessary, whether other groups within your organization are performing those activities better than others, whether certain materials or tools help your organization complete those activities more efficiently, etc.

	Web www.bizbeginners.biz