Do you know what documents your staff are sharing on Google Apps?

October 31, 2011 by Leave a comment

Managing Google Apps for a large number of users can be something of a headache. How do you know if your users are inappropriately sharing out documents? How do you know if calendaring information has been made public when it shouldn’t? A lot of users don’t fully appreciate the different ways that Google Apps can be configured and it’s important to have a way to keep an eye on things.

We’re always on the lookout for innovative Google Apps tools and we think we’ve found the perfect solution to administering Google Apps users.  It’s called the ‘General Audit Tool for Google Apps’ and it’s an essential add on to your Google Apps tool box.

As you start to use your Google Apps for more than just email, you need some way to check what information you have shared out and to whom those items are shared. This useful tool audits all aspects of your Google Apps account and tells you who can see your files, your sites, you calendars and you email groups. For Admins it also a really useful ‘Whats’ Hot’ set of reports to show you what was shared in and out of your organisation in the last 15 days or what files most of your staff are collaborating on.

All reports can be saved in PDF or Spreadsheet format to your Google Account, ideal for printing or searching.
This tool is essential for your on-line security and powerful in multi-staff environments.

Examples of what some of the reports look like can be found here. The Free tool can be installed from here in the Google Apps Marketplace.

We hope you find this tool as useful as we did!

It’s also worth noting that Baker Security, who made this app are also Google Apps partners and it could be worth talking to them if you are trying to deploy Google Apps in a large or complex organization.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with ,

5 Ways To Get Paid Quicker

August 19, 2011 by Leave a comment

Getting paid quickly is critical for your business

Getting paid quickly is critical for your business

In service businesses where work is invoiced, rather than paid for up front, it can be hard to get paid. Too often you work very hard to meet a customer deadline only for the customer to then drag their heels on paying their bills.

Every day that a payment is delayed damages your cashflow and constricts your business. You need to take control of the process and be in charge of when you get paid.

1. Agree a Payment Plan Before you Start Work
Customers will use any ambiguity to invent a reason not to pay you. The objective here is to explicitly and clearly agree, before any work begins, when you will get paid. This needs to be done in writing and signed by the customer.

Typically this is done on an ‘Order Form’ or ‘Terms & Conditions’ sheet. In this document you can outline the work to be completed and the payment schedule. Get them to physically sign it, don’t just accept an email saying ‘yeah, that’s OK’, you need them to understand that they are entering into a formal agreement to pay.

If your customer operates a Purchase Order (PO) number system make sure you get a valid PO number from them before starting. In larger companies, this is essential for getting paid.

2. Get Paid in Stages
It’s also important to get paid in stages as the work is completed, don’t allow the whole amount to remain outstanding until the work is fully complete. You need to avoid giving the customer the ‘I’ll pay you as soon as you finish one last thing’ excuse. By the time your work reaches this finishing stage you should have been paid for at least 75% of it.

If you haven’t done business with them before get enough to cover your costs up front. This is a reasonably normal practice so don’t think your customer will get offended by being asked for cash up-front. If they do take offence then maybe it’s an early warning sign of trouble to come.

3. Send Invoices Immediately
Very often businesses process their invoices at the end of every month, which often becomes the start of the following month.

You should create and send your invoices as soon as you possibly can. If the work is completed early in the month then don’t wait, send it immediately. After it’s sent put in a call drawing their attention to it and get them to confirm that they have received it and that everything is in order. If there is a problem fix it immediately.

In larger companies supplier invoices will need to be signed-off by several layers of management before they can be paid. The quicker you get into this process then the quicker you will get into their list of payments to be made.

4. Send Statements/Reminders
Sometimes customers genuinely forget to pay. People are busy and often they only deal with the tasks that are causing them the most distraction. Make sure that your customer knows about your invoice. Call before it is due to check that it is scheduled to be paid, don’t wait until after the payment date has been missed to make the call.

Send a statement every week if payments are overdue. Don’t give them the excuse that they never got the invoice or that they lost it. Using Yendo Accounts you can easily generate and send customer statements by email.

You need to give your customer a little breathing space to make a payment but as payments become overdue by more than a week or two it’s time to start making a nuisance of yourself.

When payments are overdue, call every second day. This may seem like a lot but they will become tired of this and will pay just to get rid of you. If this isn’t getting a response, call to their office and ask for a cheque. It may seem a little bit rude but so is not paying you.

5. If Necessary, Agree a Payment Plan
If your customer cannot pay then be realistic and quickly agree a payment plan. Meet them face to face and have an open and honest discussion about the situation. If they are genuinely struggling to pay then there is no point threatening them with legal action or other escalation.

Try to split it up into monthly amounts they can afford. The key thing is to get something from them, however small,  never accept nothing. Once you have agreed a payment plan, keep in regular contact and regularly remind your customer about the schedule.

Filed under Cloud Computing, flexible workplaces, Running a Business, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , ,

Yendo Accounts now Available In Portuguese

August 11, 2011 by Leave a comment

Brazil

Our Brazilian customers now have the benefit of Yendo in Portuguese

We’ve been working on it for quite a while but we’re now happy to announce that Yendo Accounts is now available in Portuguese. All of our customers in Brazil & Portugal can now enjoy online accounting in their own language.

Also, keep an eye out for some new Brazil specific reports to help with tax and Nota Fiscal.

As always, to change the language that you see Yendo in, just change the settings in your web browser.

Filed under Uncategorized

Revolutionize your Business with Customer Support in the Cloud

August 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

www.assistly.com

Yendo isn’t the only cloud based application that can dramatically improve your business. From our own experience and the feedback we get from our customers it’s clear that there are several other areas of your business that could benefit from moving to the cloud.

Much has been written about moving CRM to the cloud so instead we want to focus on what we think is the next big area to go online; customer support. While this may seem mundane at first it is in fact the core of any business – keeping your existing customers happy.

So what are the options? Well we have looked at a few in Yendo and there seem to be three serious options; ZenDesk, GetSatisfaction and Assistly.

Assistly is probably the most comprehensive customer support solution of all the options and we thought it would be good to look a little bit closer at how to set it up and use it. It’s also worth noting that the first user in Assistly is completely FREE, which is a real bonus for small businesses.

Just like Yendo, you can start setting up Assistly directly from within Google Apps (or signup directly).  There’s a three step wizard to get going which overall is very easy. The most important part is the third step which links Assistly with your Facebook and Twitter accounts:

Assistly Setup

Linking to email, Twitter and Facebook is probably the biggest advantage of using a system like this over Excel or older software. It lets you respond to your customers however thay choose to contact you. No more logging into Facebook and Twitter separately to check for comments, all of this is now available within Assistly. We quickly found that we stopped using TweetDeck in favour of Assistly, it’s so much easier to have it all in one place.

In a discussion with Matt Trifiro, Senior VP of Marketing for Assistly, he explained that;

“The world is ever more social, and customers are reaching out to companies in lots of new ways. Gone are the days of just email and phone. Now customers are talking to companies (and each other) on lots of channels—Twitter, Facebook, live chat, forums, through community Q&A—and more every day. How can businesses keep up with this massive demand, and still deliver the customer support that becomes a differentiating business strategy? That’s where we see Assistly playing a critical role—coping with the extraordinary demands of customer support in a shrinking and highly competitive world.”

Another, perhaps unique, feature of Assistly is that it allows you to create logins for temporary or part-time staff. As your business grows (or occassionally shrinks) you can change the number of users you have on the Assistly system and pay by the hour, not by the month.

In our discussion with Matt, he went on to add;

“One of the most exciting innovations in the customer support market is the evolution of simpler business models that make it easier for businesses of all sizes to get access to great tools. In July, Assistly moved from a tiered pricing program to a simple  method that expands or contracts seamlessly based entirely on business demand and provides a free Full-Time Agent seat to every account. Seasonal uptick? Add a few Flex Agents for $1 per hour—just for the busy season. We came to believe that a streamlined system of “use what you need; pay as you go” is the ideal solution for progressive businesses.”

Within the system itself everything is driven by a fairly easy to understand dashboard screen. It lists each open ‘case’ for your organisation and lets you make updates as needed. It blends together all activity from emails, Facebook and Twitter into one ‘stream’. Each can be responded to directly within the dashboard.

Assistly Dashboard

This dashboard hides a lot of very intelligent functionality underneath. Behind the scenes in Assistly it applies rules that you can pre-configure to each customer comment/enquiry. It takes a little time to fully configure but once it’s up and running it’s amazing how much time this will save you. These ‘macros’ let you do things like send a preset reply, update the case status and categorise the case, all in one button press.

Assistly Macros

We have certainly found that ‘modern’ helpdesk software has become an essential tool for doing business. Here in Yendo we use it and we would advise all of our customers to at least try it out. It will save you both time and money.

In closing here is one last quote from Matt who echoes something we have been saying here in Yendo for a while:

“Small businesses now live in an environment where a couple of college kids in their mom’s basement can be serious competitors to larger, established businesses. We see a major restructuring of the competitive landscape as progressive companies vie to service the new global, social, mobile customers of today.”

Filed under Uncategorized, Cloud Computing, Running a Business Tagged with , , , , ,

Yendo Accounts Receives TRUSTed Apps Data Privacy Certification

June 3, 2011 by Leave a comment

TRUSTe

TRUSTe

Yendo Accounts has received TRUSTed Apps Data Privacy Certification.

TRUSTe certification demonstrates that Yendo Accounts follows TRUSTe’s privacy standards in regards to the collection, storing, use and sharing of its users’ data and adheres to standardized best practices.

The TRUSTe certification makes it easy for businesses to quickly assess an applications data collection practices, improving and simplifying the evaluation and purchase process. With TRUSTed Apps certification, organizations can be confident that Yendo Accounts meets TRUSTe’s privacy program standards – an important consideration when purchasing an app.

Yendo Accounts has achieved certification for its website systems together with its application integration with Google Apps.

“Having Yendo Accounts TRUSTed Apps certified gives buyers more confidence to download our app, resulting in a higher number of installations,” said Morgan Lynch, Yendo. “The TRUSTe seal enhances our credibility by immediately showing that we clearly communicate our data handling and privacy practices that are in alignment with recognized national and international privacy policy standards and frameworks.”

“TRUSTe’s customized certification program for Google Apps Marketplace makes privacy policies for web-based apps more transparent so that organizations can better determine whether an app is appropriate for their particular usage or not,” said Chris Babel, CEO, TRUSTe. “Becoming certified allows Yendo to differentiate its apps from others increasing the number of downloads from the Google Apps Marketplace.”

Filed under Cloud Computing, Partners, Uncategorized