Back by popular demand are our Customer Update sessions - so mark this in your calendar now and organise your travel plans!

Date:           Friday 28th April 2017
Venue:       TBA, Christchurch
Time:          3pm followed by networking drinks.

Agenda so far.....

• Latest SAP Versions and Features - later in 2017 we have version 9.3 on its way with added functionality, but for those not yet on the latest 9.2 patches we will also go through some snippets of new features.
• Reporting & Business Intelligence - choosing the right tool for the job, see what you might have access to for free and understand what will work best for your working in SAP or on the go!
• Easy mobile access to SAP Business One.... for non-core SAP Users that is easily affordable. 
• The Future - Where is SAP headed with SAP Business One? Hear the latest from the SAP Business One Innovation Summit in Macau.

So let us know below if you are keen to attend and how many of your team you are keen to bring - this will help us decide on the venue.  Also, if there are some hot topics you're keen to hear about or see in action let us know.  We are looking to bring some of our integration partners along if we have space on the agenda too - so let us know what you're keen to see and hear about!
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Often we are asked to help our customers with fraud issues - sometimes in that proactive situation..... sometimes the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff hunting back through transactions for evidence for prosecution.

As a company grows, often your are required to introduce audit controls by your board or shareholders. This approach can be viewed as the "annual challenge" to see how quickly you can get the auditors out of your hair, or it can be looked upon proactively as and opportunity to demonstrate how well you have your house in order.

Having worked through many systems and procedure audits at central and local government plus in highly accountable private organisations we have seen a lot of different methods for review of how these organisations are keeping on top of potential employee fraud. Many do not have regular checks other than the annual audit and many do not have push/exception based notification of any breaches of policies.

Often what is audited (when you're forced to be audited) are the simple things, like password policies, large transactions getting appropriate evidenced approvals etc. What is often overlooked are things like.:
 - discounting
 - excessive supply ordering for kickbacks or pocketing excess stock
 - stock write offs / stock counting
 - new supplier agreements (suppliers are often keen to woo new customers with some freebies)
 - ANYTHING where cash is handled
 - changes in payment terms
 - updates to supplier bank accounts
 - who can issue credits?
 - access to prepaid postage or courier packs
 - who locks up the premises? 

In the D!gitalist Magazine, they suggest that one of the key risk areas is Supplier/Employee relationships. (Read it here).

With significant fraud it may be a lone employee or even an owner, however its also common to see groups of employees developing "its ok to take one...", or "they've got plenty.." attitudes. Each one of these transactions that is not disclosed is hurting your business.... and do you really know what the volume or value of these non-disclosed transactions is? The figures in the article suggest lone employees will do damage, but often collusion of multiple employees - maybe just skimming - is really hurting business.

There are a mountain of things you can track and attempt to monitor. Maybe you're ok because you'd know if you were loosing a lot? But what is the cost of the skimming that's being done? $10...$100's.... $1000's or more? over how many years..?  But how do you get your organisation in order..... (and actually keep running the business)?

There are some basic starting points...... 

Business Evolution Group has partnered with New Zealand Software Company – Ferret Software  to provide SAP Business One users with a variety of options to improve the Accounts Payable Invoice Process.

Many companies face a document management challenge when it comes to Accounts Payable Invoice Processing. This is due to the high volumes of paper and emailed invoices that need to be coded, approved and filed.

3 Options for Accounts Payable Automation with SAP Business One

1. Bulk Scanning Software – Bulk Scan you paper invoices using barcode technology
2. Data Entry Software – Automate the data entry of electronic PDF invoices
3. Electronic Accounts Payable Approvals – Approve invoices electronically and improve the speed and visibility of the AP process
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To read more about Ferret’s Accounts Payable Automation technologies – Click here

We are on the hunt to add to our talented team at Business Evolution Group. 

We are a small senior team who thrive on actively solving customer issues - helping them run their business better. Our client base is diverse in business type and in need for our services. Some require simple break/fix solutions, others require software development, analytics, business analysis and advice, process change management and project management.

Our team is expected to work hard and efficiently, call on others for advice early, know your limits, openly share what you are working on, document what you do to company standards and keep our billing and activity tracking systems up to date.

Our team is made up of a mix of full-time, part-time and contract staff. Developers, Business Analysts, Project Managers, Customer Support and mixes of those. We are keen to know what type of position you are after - something for the long term? or maybe just something to fill the gap for now? Let us know - we might have the right option available that could work for both parties.

If you think you may have what it takes, Email Me your CV and fill out this Screening Questionnaire. 
(no agencies please)

Off the back of using SAP Business One for New Zealand Cricket here in teeny tiny NZ, they chose to use SAP Business One and other SAP technologies to get the Cricket World Cup ticking along.

Read more here.

Is this favorable for your business?

Read more here.

Great article from Business.govt.nz

10 things you need to do before the Mondayised ANZAC Day. The Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill or, as it is more commonly known, the ‘Mondayisation Bill’, will have its first big impact on ANZAC Day.

Here are 10 simple things you can to do to make sure your business stays compliant:

1. Know what’s new. The ‘Mondayisation Bill’ states that from now on, when Waitangi Day (6 February) or ANZAC Day (25 April) fall on a weekend, the public holiday must be treated as falling on the following Monday for employees who would not otherwise work on that Saturday or Sunday.
2. Know what stays the same. For employees who would normally otherwise work on that Saturday or Sunday, the public holiday must still be treated as falling on that day. If you close for the holiday, you must pay these weekend workers their regular holiday pay. If your business remains open for the holiday, employees are entitled to at least time and a half pay and a whole day’s alternative holiday (day in lieu) at a later date.
3. Get your ducks in a row. There isn’t much time to get ready. The Monday holiday will first be effective on ANZAC Day 2015 and Waitangi Day in 2016.
4. Meet your holiday-entitlement obligations. If your employee works on a day that is designated as a public holiday for them (either the weekend day or the Monday, depending on their normal working days), they’ll receive time and a half for the hours worked and become entitled to an alternative holiday.
5. Mind your roster. If your employee normally works on the day the holiday falls on (for example, he or she is normally rostered to work every Saturday), you can’t take them off the roster for the holiday weekend in an attempt to get out of paying them holiday wages.
6. Don’t get caught out. Failure to recognise your employees' holiday entitlements, or taking employees off of the roster to avoid paying holiday pay, is a breach of the law. It may lead to enforcement action.
7. Update your files. After each public holiday you must update the leave records in your employees’ personnel files. Be sure to record when the holiday was taken, if and when a day in lieu (‘alternative holiday’) was taken, if any holiday pay was paid, and when this amount was paid to the employee. ** and if you are STILL keeping leave records on paper give Brodie a call to find out how to make your life, managers and employee's lives easier when it comes to leave tracking!!
8. Be mindful of commemorative celebrations. The celebration of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day (i.e., parades and other commemorative activities) will still occur on the actual holiday date. Keep in mind that it could be important to some of your employees to be able to attend these events.
9. Remember that you’ve already done this. Certain public holidays were already "Mondayised" under the Act. If Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day or 2 January fall on either a Saturday or Sunday (and that day would not otherwise be a working day), then those public holidays have always been treated as falling on the following Monday or Tuesday.
10. Don’t panic. This isn’t going to happen often. Waitangi and ANZAC days only fall on a weekend about twice every seven years.

In 2015 arch enemies and great neighbors played off against each other at the Cricket World Cup 2015. What a nail biter!! One moment we thought we had it in the bag.... then a very stressful wait till we just got the win in time!

Aside from the last few hours, I didnt have time to sit in front of the television to see the action live. We were out with our daughters (and ponies) competing in the country, keeping them hydrated, travelling, then more child wrangling after a very long hot Canterbury day.  However we did have our mobile's with the ICC #CEC2015 app installed - bringing us the latest stats and heart pounding updates.

With the CWC 2015 team running SAP Business One, SAP a Analytics and Cloud sponsor of the #CWC2015 and our local customers New Zealand Cricket, Canterbury Cricket, Otago Cricket, Northern Districts, Central Districts and Wellington Cricket also running SAP Business One we have a keen interest in how SAP technology is being used on the world stage to keep fans informed and up-to-date using Mobile Apps, Analytics and Cloud technologies during the Cricket World Cup.

Keeping and eye on the Cricket World Cup and FIFA World Cup (again powered by SAP) you might be thinking.... "it's logical for sporting organisations to use mobile apps and analytics... how is it relevant for my business?" Ask yourself these questions:

• Do we have an ongoing relationship with our customers we need to keep them informed of?
• Do we need to alert our customers? (eg. job starts Monday, delivery completed, invoices overdue, pending price changes...)
• Are our customers interested in analyzing their business with us? (eg. how much credit do i have left? what did I buy in the last x months?)
• Do we need to keep employees up to date? (eg. jobs allocated, time-sheets, annual leave balances....)
• Do our sales reps have enough information? (eg. last time they visited the customer, what the customer has been buying.... what they should be buying?...)

Where do our people need this information? Is and email with yesterday's figures okay or should they be seeing it live on their smart phone? Today there are so many choices on how information, that you have traditionally kept in your ERP system, can be shared to audiences that need to know what is happening. This is speeding up decision making and business can happen on the go!

How are you sharing your data to people that matter?

Whether you are counting down the days till you go on leave or enjoying the merriment of the Christmas period there are a few things that need to be done to ensure you and your team have a low stress time when key people are away over the holidays.

Back in 2008 we put together our Top Tips - Holiday Checklist - I look at this each year to see whether we need to change what is in there, but it always holds true. Read it, download it and email/share it if you need to with your team and contact us if you are not sure how to check any of these items for your site. Read it now.

The only thing I would add, is that no matter how organised you are - your downstream or upstream co-workers/suppliers/customers may not be. So it's a great time to remind them of your availability over the Christmas break, when your last day will be and when you will be back..... and whether you are contactable or not! Please add us to this list and zap us a quick email here mailto:Support@BusinessEvolution.co.nz