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Unlock the secrets to business success and gain valuable insights from local industry leaders. Join us as we delve into the strategies, triumphs, and lessons learned of thriving companies, empowering entrepreneurs to elevate their businesses to new heights.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:00:16] Hi everyone, and welcome back to It's Time for Success: The Business Insights Podcast. I'm your host, Sharon DeKoning, and today I'm going solo for this episode. I believe a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners will relate to our topic today, which is tools and platforms. Like I said in a past episode, fail, learn, build, running a business can feel like total chaos at times. Most of us don't start out with all the answers, we dive in head first and figure things out as we go. These are the tools and platforms we found after we took that leap. The ones that helped us get organized, somewhat sane, and actually grow our business. So if you're in the thick of it, this episode is for you. Some of these tools might be helpful. For today's episode, I started with a list of 12 powerful tools that we use daily, but after narrowing it down to the game changers, I've got seven top platforms to share with you. These aren't just random apps, we actually use them every day at It's Time Promotions and they make a huge impact on how we operate, grow and stay ahead of the game.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:01:18] The list we are going to be reviewing today are QuickBooks Online, which is a cloud-based accounting software. We're going to talk about Dext, which is an automated receipt and expense management app. ChatGPT, AI powered writing and idea assistant. Google Workspace, cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools. FileMaker, custom app builder for business workflows. VoIP, phones that run over the internet. Humi, all in one HR platform for businesses. We're going to talk first on QuickBooks Online, and I love QuickBooks Online. We call it QBO, I think everybody calls it QBO. It's a cloud-based accounting software. Cloud-based simply means you can access the software you have chosen, in our case which is QBO, from any device with internet. Nothing is no longer stored on just one computer. Huge win. Since QuickBooks Online is cloud-based, our whole team can log in from anywhere, any location and work at the same time. At It's Time Promotions, different staff can create invoices, take payments and manage customer info no matter which location we're at. We can control what each person sees or does. Team members only have access to what they need, so the admin will go in and delegate who sees what on QBO or what they're able to change. Our bookkeeper works from home, which helps her stay focused and not distracted by the hustle at the office or being pulled in different directions, so that's a win as well. She used to work in the office, which was great, loved having her around, but we often pulled her when we got busy, so it's nice to know that she's doing what she's supposed to be doing, and it's efficient.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:03:05] One of my favorite features about QBO is the year-end accounting process. With QuickBooks Online, or any of the online accounting software, we don't have to worry about downloading files or preparing manually for tax season. Those days are over. When it comes time for the accountant, they just log in with their special account access and handle everything seamlessly. We keep working like usual, we don't even notice they're doing year-end tasks. There's no delay, no disruptions, just smooth sailing. This saves us time, reduces stress, and keeps things moving. For any growing business, a cloud-based system like QBO offers the flexibility and efficiency needed to scale smoothly. There are other platforms out there, such as ZERO, which is popular for small to midsize businesses, especially for its user friendly interface and real time collaboration. Sage Business Cloud Accounting, great for scalability and strong reporting tools often used for growing businesses. And Wave, which is a free cloud-based option ideal for freelancers and very small businesses with basic accounting needs. My suggestion to you is talk to your accountant, see which one they feel you should be exploring and reviewing. Work with them on that. Second is Dext. So, this is a question I have for you. Do your gas receipts stay in your truck or your wallet? What about when you pick up parts? Do you ever get those month-end calls from your bookkeeper asking for receipts? If so, Dext is for you.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:04:40] It's a digital tool that makes bookkeeping easy by automatically capturing, categorizing, and syncing receipts. It talks to QBO, or your online accounting software, and it just goes over there. It's amazing. So write it down, Dext. No more lost paperwork, no more manual data entry, and best of all, no more filing. All your bills get uploaded straight into QBO or whichever platform you prefer, it's stored and saved there. In fact, Dext integrates with over 30 accounting software platforms. It's definitely worth checking if it connects with yours. What does Dext give to you? This is often what I think about and it's huge. There's less room for error, it's got faster bookkeeping, there's no lost receipts and it saves time because I'm not getting those phone calls at the end of the month. Easier CRA audit readiness. Like I say, if you haven't had it done, you will have it done, so it's just nice. You don't have to go look for those receipts in your filing cabinet. And of course it reduces admin workload. Those are five of the ones that really jump out at me of how Dext has saved us here at It's Time Promotions. Some other platforms you may want to research besides Dext are Expensify and Zoho Expense. Those two I have heard about and may work for your company as well.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:06:01] Next one we're going to talk about is ChatGPT. AI has made our list. AI is a tool we use here at It's Time Promotions every day. We use ChatGPT for all kinds of things. From writing job ads, we have two job ads out right now, it helps us research stats, it helps me come up with podcast topics. In fact, this is one of them. I asked it for some cool topics and it came up with this particular topic, which I can relate to and really dig into, so thank you ChatGPT for that. If you haven't heard the podcast that I did with Matt Peck, I suggest going back. It's called 'Exploring AI for Small Businesses'. Matt talks about ChatGPT and the AI platforms and how you can use them in your business. Matt shares some amazing insights on how you can use ChatGPT to create everything from marketing plans to a business plan to even a budget. So I would strongly suggest going back and listening to his podcast, he's very clever. Here are some key ways business owners are using ChatGPT. They're using it to write marketing content, it's quick and efficient. They use it to brainstorm ideas and strategies, draft social media posts, and improve email communication. Nothing's worse than getting an email and you have lower caps and it's not typed correctly. So if you have an employee that does that, make them use ChatGPT.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:07:25] Create job descriptions which I talked about, generate blog posts outlines, brilliant if you're doing blogs on your website, it'll help you come up with ideas and some pinpoints much like this podcast. Summarize meeting notes so you can record your meeting and ChatGPT will summarize your notes for you. Whoever's taking notes at your meeting, they can actually concentrate on your meeting. That's a huge win. It'll also edit and proofread writing. We have used this. For example, we did an employee handbook and it was quite complex and it was my first employee handbook I've ever created. I used it and I asked it questions like, what should be an employee handbook? So that's how it all started, we went from there and it created the whole 16 page employee handbook. It's brilliant, and it was all thanks to ChatGPT. It's worded properly, it's laid out properly, and easy to tweak because it's in our Google Drive so it's live for everybody to see. You can see how all this relates together. Also, some people use it for product descriptions. If you're creating products, you can use it to create the description of that product, which is very helpful. You can put it for marketing or on your website. If used wisely, ChatGPT is huge for a business. Again, please refer back to Matt's episode about ChatGPT.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:08:42] Next we're going to talk about Google Workspace. We use Google Workspace here at It's Time Promotions. Of course we use Gmail, which is our email platform, but the real powerhouse is Google Workspace, which ties everything together and connects our team across all locations. It's more than just email, it's a complete system for productivity and collaboration. You've got Google Documents, Google Sheets, Google Forms, Google Slides. We create systems, training materials, internal workflows and templates all within our Google Workspace. Everything is organized, it's documented and easily accessible to our entire team, no matter where they are working from. For example, we have Google Forms integrated with our career page on our It's Time Promotions website. When someone clicks on the 'Apply Now' on our website, they're directed to a form that asks a few key questions. All responses are automatically stored and recorded in our Google Forms, so we can access and review every applicant we've ever had. It keeps them and stores them all in one spot. This is a simple yet highly efficient way to track applicants. This Google Form is just step one of our hiring process, but it's an essential part of streamlining the workflow and keeping things organized. Another great use that we use for Google Sheets here at It's Time is we rely on it for our financial dashboard.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:10:05] We track key metrics monthly in this document, and we refer to it as our dashboard. In Google Sheets I update our financial dashboard monthly as soon as the account is reconciled. Here we monitor things like net profit, gross profit, payroll as a percentage of sales, average dollar sales, amongst many other things. I believe that tracking these numbers is vital for a business, and you can simply use Google Sheets to do this. I honestly wish I had it years and years ago because I didn't understand the numbers. I didn't understand those, I just looked at the bottom number. I have Jarrod Stanton of Action Edge Business Coaching for helping us with this form. We've been using it for years, and we update it yearly and create a new one and tweak it and improve it. Anyways, it's helped us tremendously. Google Sheets. I have a pro tip for you on this, because I was saying we're improving it and altering it. If you are unsure how to create a calculation in Google Sheets, because there's lots of formulas, simply ask ChatGPT what you're needing. It'll tell you the formula, it's brilliant. Another option similar to Google Workspace for business is Microsoft 365. It's a suite of productivity tools including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and OneDrive. Much similar to Google. To sum up the difference between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, without going into too much detail, is that Google Workspace is cloud-based with real time collaboration.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:11:33] We like that here at It's Time Promotions because we have multiple locations. Microsoft 365 combines the cloud and desktop apps with more offline options and enterprise focused features. You can see how they are very similar, but one might work better for your company than the other one so do your research on that. The next topic we're going to talk about is FileMaker. We have built our own software here at It's Time Promotions, which we're super proud of, fondly call it ITP. Back in 2015, we decided to take control of our process. We used to do it on paper, which was filed in a filing cabinet. You know how this all goes on, somebody comes in with a repeat order, you had to go dig that out and meantime, all that kind of stuff. This streamlines everything possible. It's all on the computer, we no longer file anything, repeat orders are at our fingertips, it's brilliant. Anyways, that's how we decided to take control of the process. Especially with different locations, it was imperative that we designed something different. So we started using FileMaker, that's the platform we use. Since then we've been refining our software to where it is today, and we still have projects on the go for it.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:12:40] We want it to be the best that it can be. And then hopefully someday it's going to hit the market. We're really stoked about it, it's brilliant. Even our suppliers comment back to us that they like how we order our customers' products because of our system that we had developed on our own. We call it ITP and it's the backbone, literally, of our operations. From quotes and proofs to production calendars and every step in between. ITP handles it all, everything. No more bottlenecks, no more filing, everything from sales to design is digital and seamless, and it's all because of the FileMaker platform. As I mentioned, it's live across all of our locations. So no matter where you are or where we are, we've got access to real time data and progress updates. Meaning a customer can call in, I can answer the phone, I can simply open up their work order, get all the information, or give the details as to the changes that they require, done. That's how fast it is. Then it goes right back to that sales rep. I just put it into their dashboard, so to speak, and then they look after it. It's brilliant, it's the kind of platform that keeps us moving fast without losing a beat. Now here's a thought. If you're struggling with a software solution for your business, why not create your own? We did.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:13:53] The platform we built, as I mentioned, is FileMaker and we've seen the benefits firsthand. And so have our customers seen the benefits and our suppliers. If you're curious or want to chat about it, how we did it, feel free to reach out. I'm always happy to share our journey and help others along the way, so just reach out to me if that's something that you're thinking about doing. Sometimes there is software out there where it might not work for your company, which is exactly what was happening to us, so we created our own. Next up, I have a love-hate relationship with it, and it's VoIP phones which means 'voice over internet protocol'. These phones are huge at It's Time Promotions. Whether our team is at the office, working from home, or at any of our locations, calls can be answered and transferred seamlessly. No more, "I'll take a message and I'll have them call you back." That doesn't need to happen anymore. You can tell that our customers appreciate that. It's instant and it's smooth. I could answer the phone in Lloydminster, transfer it over to one of the girls over in Provost, and the customer doesn't even know they're jumping locations. That's how seamless it is. If one location is really busy at the front desk and nobody can get to the phone, the other office just simply picks it up and takes the call.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:15:09] They ring at both locations, so it's perfect. We hardly ever have any voicemails anymore, which is great because I think voicemails show inefficiency. No more of those. Well, very few of those, and we're able to help our customers instantly. There is a downside because as I mentioned, there's a love-hate. The hate part of it is if the internet goes down, your phones go down. Luckily, the internet does not go down very often. There is a backup through VoIP, which is clever, it rolls over to your cell phone. My cell phone is the one it rolls over to. Yes, it's a pain in my butt because often it just rings when it's not an appropriate time. I'm not at my desk, I'm not able to take those messages, it's not efficient. But I do get the calls. The customers do not have to leave a message, the customers are unaware that our phones are down. It does ring over to my cell phone. Good thing if the internet doesn't go down. It doesn't affect our customers, it just affects the efficiency of me answering the phone wherever I'm at. The best part of VoIP is it's more cost effective than traditional landlines, especially when you're managing multiple locations. Since it runs over the internet, there are no long distance charges between locations, so I can transfer accordingly.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:16:22] We don't get long distance calls between any of our locations. If you're expanding your business or just want to offer more flexible, efficient customer service, I highly recommend looking into VoIP phones. It is a total win. Reach out to me, I can hook you up with who connected our phones here at It's Time Promotions. The final platform I'm going to talk about, it's new to us, is Humi and it's our HR platform. We recently added it into It's Time Promotions, and while I'm still learning all of its features, it's already proving to help us with our HR process. Our General Manager has taken the lead on this, and from what I've seen, it's making a huge difference in efficiency for both leadership, bookkeeping and our team. Humi is an all-in-one HR platform that helps with everything from employee onboarding and time off tracking, to document storage, payroll, and performance management. No more paper files, no more filing cabinets, or scrambling to remember review dates. It's all programmed into Humi. Everything's securely stored and accessible to the right people, right when they need it. With Humi, team members can request time off, access pay info, update personal details and complete onboarding tasks online. Humi, for us, is when we have our team clock in and clock out. Humi actually tracks hours too.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:17:51] Our team clocks in when they get to work, they clock out when they leave work. It's sent over to the bookkeeper and that's what she does payroll based on. It brings a level of professionalism and organization to HR that's making a big difference as we grow. With the more team members we keep getting, it streamlines and it keeps it more efficient and takes a little bit of the load off our bookkeeper. Even though I'm not using it day to day, I love how Humi provides visibility and consistency. It helps keep things streamlined, clear, and documented. We know documents are our friends. If you have to write up a team member, it gets documented into this Humi app. And of course, we know that's really important when you go to lay somebody off. So just remember, paperwork is your friend and Humi keeps it easy for you. If managing your team is becoming as complex as managing your customers, a platform like Humi might be worth exploring. Some other software platforms that are similar to Humi are Payworks. Payworks is actually really popular in Canada, and that's because it's Canada based and CRA compliant. So that might be one you might want to look into. It focuses on payroll, HR, time management and recruiting. Another one is BambooHR. It's great for small to midsize businesses, it offers employee data, time off tracking, onboarding and performance tools as well.
Sharon DeKoning: [00:19:12] Whew, that was a lot. Hopefully you took some notes because all these platforms, like I mentioned, we use every day at It's Time Promotions and they're super imperative to the success of our company. My hope is that something in this episode gives you a spark. Whether it's a new tool to try, a financial number to start tracking, or simply the reassurance that you're not alone in figuring it all out. Remember, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to keep learning. Definitely don't have to do it all on your own. Please don't be afraid of technology, it is your friend. I would love to hear what platforms or tools you and your company utilize, and I'm sure the listeners would too. Please comment if you have one, I would love to explore or do some research on it. The only purpose of my podcast is to help others in their business journey, so please share what has helped you in your company and give back to our listeners. Please if you could, pay it forward to our listeners. Not every system I mentioned today will be the right fit for every business, but maybe 1 or 2 will help get your creative juices flowing. Until next time, work hard, stay kind, lead with integrity and keep making it happen with purpose and positivity. Bye for now.