You may regularly use accounting software to keep track of simple debits and credits in your business. But creators of a new e-tool claim theirs will let you do even more.
Small Business Payment Company, a U.S. subsidiary of Canadian-based Acxsys Corporation, has created the Small Business Workbench to allow small businesses to do long-range projections just like large corporations do.
Dave Kurrasch, Vice President and General Manager of the company, explains:
“We started with the idea that small businesses are very good at manufacturing widgets but they may not be MBAs.”
To start, business owners can simply enter the type of business they operate, frequency of income and a few other details. The more details you can enter about your business, the better the Small Business Workbench’s projections will be.
For example, Kurrasch explains, in the case of a law firm, you might have no inventory but plenty of receivables. On the other hand, if you ran a convenience store, inventory would be a major consideration. Two very different kinds of businesses would need very different kinds of data to create adequate projections.
Here’s a video overview of how Small Business Workbench could assist yet a third, very different, kind of business.
The workbench is designed to integrate a growing number of apps, some supplied by Small Business Payment Company and others by app makers, with whom the company says it is forging partnerships.
So far, the company’s app center includes a few of these, including the eForecast app, allowing the workbench to do its projections. Other available options include an eInvoicing app and an Inventory app.
The company hopes to add others soon for payroll, receivables, payables and more. With each new app, new data from the business can be integrated into projections. For example, adding the eInvoicing app would allow you to easily add this data into projections simply by updating as invoices went out and payments came in.
Kurrasch adds:
“If you’re doing all your billing through the app, it all becomes part of the forecast. We designed it to be simple to use and intuitive.”
The Small Business Workbench will be marketed directly through the company’s website and through “big box” chains. But the company is also distributing it through banks and other small business lenders that can white label the product and sell it as their own. So don’t look now. But if you’re using a cash projection tool like this from a lender, you might be using Small Business Workbench and not even know it.
The company is currently selling subscriptions to the tool for $6 per month with added price breaks for every additional app you add on.
