In the year 2000, it was recorded by Nua Ltd that roughly 304 million people were using the internet equating to about 5% of the world population. In March of 2021, according to Internet World Stats, it was recorded that 5.1 billion people were using the internet reaching 65% of the world’s population. Amazing development has taken place and over 21 years, the internet has been a starting point for innovation around the world. Communication compared to 25 years ago has been brought to new heights and is a driving factor of success for importers and exporters around the world. We are able to connect with people and other businesses in other countries in a heartbeat and while globalization plays a large role in the supply chain of getting our everyday products, the use of the internet also reigns the threat of cyber security. These are two accounting challenges faced by most growing SMB’s (small-to-medium businesses), and we’re going to look at how an ERP system like Blue Link can help you overcome these challenges.
Globalization
Globalization is when a business or organization starts to operate on an international scale. Many wholesale distributors will buy and sell their products overseas which presents numerous issues if your company is not set-up to handle foreign languages, multiple currencies or differing sales tax.
Foreign Languages
It’s not uncommon in North America for your neighbor to speak another language. It’s also not uncommon that a business partner or customer does business in a different language. In Canada, it might be French or in the United States, it might be Spanish. Wherever you’re selling, in today’s modern western world, you don’t want language to be a barrier when making a sale. With Blue Link’s ERP software, you can store an inventory item description and detailed description in a second language as seen in the screenshot below. When in the customer maintenance window, you can identify which customers you want to send a second language invoice or pack slip to. When invoicing the customer identified with a second language, Blue Link will automatically pull the inventory description and detailed description from the second language and populate the invoice. The invoice itself (headers included) can also be displayed in the second language.
*Click to enlarge
Multi-Currency
Accounting is complex and even more so when buying and selling across borders. In order to seamlessly run your business internationally, check that your ERP software is fully multi-currency from the base app. Blue Link’s software converts any sales or purchase orders to your home currency while the customer or vendor is buying/selling in their currency. This is all done automatically without the need for your employees to enter manual calculations.
Sales Tax
When selling country to country, take the time to understand differing sales tax. Even when selling online or attending tradeshows, some states in the USA require you to register and file returns no matter your physical presence. While you may think your in-house accountant can manage your taxes, it may be too much for one person to do and it’s worth looking into automating your tax process. Blue Link directly integrates with Avalara, a provider of a tax compliance automation solution. With the integration, you can rest assured that you are charging the correct sales and use tax on your products automatically.
Cyber Security
If you’re storing your customers’ credit card information you must comply with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the first step of which is implementing software that securely stores credit card information. One secure way to store credit cards is by using Blue Link’s card storage vault that helps businesses meet some of the technical requirements associated with the correct storage of credit card data.
Protecting your data from a ransomware attack is a real and serious threat. Your accounting information is sought after and moving your data to the cloud is the safest space for your sensitive information. Cloud-based software is hosted on your vendor’s servers which will be placed in always-updated, backed-up, highly secure data centers. Blue Link’s data centers for example are placed in multiple cities for added security.
Read Now: Cloud vs On-Premises ERP
