Notes: Why a database?
When you look at business management packages featuring POS, Inventory Control, Customer Relations Management, Scheduling, Production Planning or Accounting you are looking at applications using something called a database.
Any but the smallest businesses should be using databases rather than spreadsheets to record and report data.
Here is the difference . . .
A spreadsheet is a paper or electronic worksheet. You can list information in tables, perform calculations, and format reports. It is easy to enter or change the data, and for that reason spreadsheets are unsafe for important business records. They are also inefficient, requiring lots of copy and paste. Spreadsheets are intended to be "static" and temporary.
A database is far more complex; it is a structured or disciplined way to store and retrieve data. The full name "relational database" means that information is stored in a variety of tables that can be linked or "related" to handle the data efficiently and safely. Users never interact with the data directly but only through multiple interactive forms and reports. Databases are designed to be "dynamic" and permanent.
Although Sumer uses spreadsheet formats to help visualize the application, Sumer is a database.
Most managers have never heard of a "relational database". Not a problem, because Sumer's database is invisible behind the scenes. We will never mention it again.
Large, medium, and small firms
Large firms have grown at the expense of medium and small firms according to this analysis from the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
| Firm size by employees | Number of Firms | Number of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 5 | 3,750,248 | 3,750,248 |
| 5 to 10 | 1,005,847 | 5,029,235 |
| 10 to 19 | 671,349 | 6,713,490 |
| 20 to 99 | 654,970 | 13,099,400 |
| 100 to 499 | 130,227 | 13,022,700 |
| 500 to 999 | 17,467 | 8,733,500 |
| Small and Medium Firms | 6,230,108 | 50,348,5730 |
| 1,000 to 2,499 | 13,003 | 13,003,000 |
| 2,500 to 4,999 | 5,371 | 13,427,500 |
| 5,000 to 9,999 | 3,796 | 18,980,000 |
| 10,000 or more | 6,394 | 63,940,000 |
| Large and Very Large Firms | 28,564 | 109,350,500 |
| All firms | 6,258,672 | 159,699,073 |
Those 28,564 large firms represent less than 0.4 % of all firms in America, but they employ over two-thirds of American workers. That leaves 6,230,000 small and mid-sized firms.
For generations, if you were a worker in the U.S., it was very likely that you were employed by a small business with fewer than 100 people. In the wake of the economic crisis of 2008, however, this is no longer the case, as large and very large companies now employ a larger percentage of the population than mid-sized or small businesses, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Using census data, the WSJ calculated that 36.2 percent of people worked at either a large (2,500 to 9,999 people) or very large (10,000 or more people) company, versus 38.9 percent who worked for small (100 or fewer people) companies and 24.9 percent who worked for mid-sized (100 to 2,499 people).
Since 2014, the latest year for which there is census data, this is no longer the case. At this point, 39.2 percent were employed at either a large or very large company, while 26.5 percent worked at mid-sized companies and 34.3 percent worked at small companies.
The effect has been sharper in some sectors than others. For instance, in 1980, small businesses employed 50.3 percent of all retail workers, while 34.8 percent were employed by large or very large companies. However, decades later it is these giants who now employ the biggest share of workers at 47.2, versus the 35.6 employed by small retailers today. And while finance had always had more people working in large or very large companies, employing 38.7 percent of the sector's workers versus 34.4 percent in small companies, the years have widened the gap. The 2014 numbers indicate that 45.4 percent of finance workers now work at large or very large companies, while 29.1 percent work at smaller firms.
While generally one would expect smaller, more nimble competitors to emerge to challenge established giants, the WSJ said this is not happening as much, which could explain why big companies are taking up a higher share of employment than before. In 1980, 12.5 percent of companies were less than a year old. In 2014, this number has shrunk down to 8 percent. The WSJ also pointed to a momentum effect: these big companies have also made large gains in market share in between 1980 and 2014, which means they grow even bigger, and can operate more easily by taking advantage of things like economy of scale.
So where are the nimble competitors?
It's not just economies of scale, corporations could always grow big. Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, and others in the late 1800's grew to so dominate their markets that the nation passed anti-monoply laws.
The About Databases page discusses how Metropolitan Life handled over 10 million customers in 1904.
The differences now are improvements in communications and more importantly in information technology that tie large corporations together.
Excel and the PC debuted in the mid-1980's and at the same time relational databases like RBase and dBase became available. The difference is that everyone can use spreadsheets, they are obvious and intuitive. Relational databases are difficult and require programming.
Anyone who spends a significant part of their day with numbers in computers, even inefficiently in Excel, is often deemed a "manager," and this is certainly true in that they are not productive workers adding to product or services. Businesses with too many non-productive managers are not nimble.
Familiar to everyone is the spread of franchises that overwhelm smaller businesses when the independent owners have to sit up late hours trying to juggle information with register receipts, Excel, and QuickBooks.
The result is that would-be business founders who might aspire to their own unique visions end up joining franchises because it is the only way to survive. Many have given up trying—the above report points out that in 1980, 12.5 percent of companies were less than a year old. By 2014 this number had shrunk to 8 percent. We are all the poorer off for the narrowing of diversity.
Consider the many average business owners with no deep love of tech.
Following are some questions from the web.
Well, yes and no. Is it capable of doing the calculations and capturing the data? Yes, it is quite capable. BUT, using Excel there is really no safeguard against errors. It’s all open and freeform entry. So the things to think about before using Excel:
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As stated above, you can make errors and there are no processes to catch it. An accounting system will have checks in places to trap errors (most real accounting systems do have such checks).
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Excel reports are a bit difficult to produce and manage, even though you can produce them. Again, it’s easy to make errors in the report process. Accounting systems have built in reports for all sorts of things that a business needs to know.
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It’s all visible on the page. That may seem a positive, but it’s quite easy to get lost in it all. An accounting system will have windows and boxes that let you do only what you’re doing, and store the data in its database. Again, easier and less chance of error.
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No automatic backups. You have to create and manage backups yourself, where in a proper system the backups are produced automatically.
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Periodic processing is how accounting works, so years, months, etc are important for timing and reporting. That’s a bit harder to do in Excel, while a system will have annual reports, monthly, quarterly, etc. And a system can help with period end close where you roll over to the next year and zero out the prior year’s details, but keep some information available, like financial statements, from prior years.
Anyway, just a few thoughts after 30 years in business. Excel is BY FAR superior to trying to do it by hand (or not at all). And really, it’s the process, and remembering to do it, and doing it correctly, that’s more important than the tools anyway!
Steve Thomas, Small Business Consulant, Business OwnerAnswered Feb 10, 2021
It doesn’t matter how much experience you have as a spreadsheet developer, you’d be daft to consider building an accounting software solution for a small or medium business using Excel or Google Sheets. You should instead spend your time evaluating accounting packages—and QuickBooks is arguably the best choice.
Spreadsheet-based accounting systems are almost never used in the business world. In my opinion, the only organizations who should use a spreadsheet based accounting system are ones who think $12.50/month for the lowest cost version of QuickBooks Online is too expensive.
Potential customers will quickly realize the problems inherent with a bookkeeping service built on a spreadsheet. If you build such a system from scratch, the cost will be formidable, the delivery extended, and there will be bugs.
Even if you use a program like Excel or Google Sheets, there is no guarantee that your accounting system is 100% free from systematic errors. There is no audit trail, and any third-party looking at the books would need to spend a lot of time satisfying themselves that the financial records fairly present the state of your customer’s business. If your customer ever became dissatisfied with your work (or you go out of business), nobody else will support your spreadsheet accounting package. Your customer would need to begin from scratch with a new bookkeeper and recreate all the accounting records—and far better to do so at the outset.
To illustrate the issues, the HOA for my subdivision ($60,000 annual income) uses a spreadsheet-based accounting system. We do so because “free” is an important feature, and state law doesn’t require audits for an HOA with low annual income. We have a fixed income (residents must vote to increase it), so we cut corners wherever possible to keep pace with inflation. When I inherited that system as a new Treasurer, it was only used to compare actual expenses to the annual budget. There was no double-entry bookkeeping and no record of individual transactions. I added a textbox to record the 30 or so non-recurring transactions throughout the year. I also added macros to prepare a new worksheet and supporting file structure for each new fiscal year. There is still no double-entry bookkeeping, because doing that is entirely too fussy for volunteer Treasurers with zero experience in accounting. The Treasurer who succeeded me continues to use the same workbook, but handles the new fiscal year manually rather than using my macros (which he doesn’t understand). We have several people living in the subdivision with experience as CPA, CFO, or bank VP. Should one of them became Treasurer, I expect they would immediately replace the spreadsheet with something like QuickBooks or You Need A Budget.
Brad Yundt, Mechanical Engineer and Excel aficionadoAnswered Oct 31, 2021
PROBLEMS WITH USING EXCEL FOR ACCOUNTING
Although Excel is the go-to-software for thousands of businesses around the world, its reliance on spreadsheets is quickly becoming outdated. A spreadsheet done badly can have flow-on effects that can be felt throughout the organization. Here are some of the issues that companies running Excel face.
Setting up spreadsheets in Excel often takes more time than anticipated and may require user training. A simple task like expense reporting or invoice tracking can be unnecessarily complicated.
There is no audit trail, making Excel spreadsheets highly susceptible to fraud. Manual errors, such as mistakenly inputting $10,000 for $1,000, can lead to unexpected problems down the road.
Excel doesn’t integrate with other business applications, which means you can have a lot of data that needs to somehow be passed into an inventory management system or a time sheeting system. This is not only unnecessarily difficult, but may lead to data errors. Plus reporting and visibility is a nightmare.
Excel is Costing You Time and Money—Why You Need to Replace Excel Now ,
If you are proficient with Excel start with it.
CRM (Customer Resource Management) is the way to go in the long run.If you haven’t used it before start with something you know. Using CRM effectively it has a learning curve. While utilizing new tools is great, your main focus is still running a business - finding clients, providing service, etc. As a new business founder, I would suggest you use tools you already know at the beginning to start work right away.
Excel is great for its flexibility Use it at first to outline how you want to record your customer interactions in the future, what data is important to your operation, what do you want to track. Think of it as a demo version of your CRM.
When you figure out, how you want to manage your clients, you are ready to search for the CRM solution that will suit your needs the best.
Sljussarev, Online Marketing Professional (2014-present)
Simple math.
Beginning Inventory+Purchases-Sales=Ending Inventory
It is my strong recommendation NOT to use Excel to manage your perpetual inventory.
It is far too error prone to consistently provide you with accurate results.
Fair warning.
Garrick Saito, fairly experienced (10+ years) in ExcelAnswered Dec 4, 2021
Despite these points you can find hundreds of recommendations of how to use Excel to manage your business, as for instance by The Excel Experts
Finding business apps
Websites like SoftwareAdvice.com, BusinessSoftware.com, TrustRadius.com, or StartupStash.com offer reviews of thousands of specialized business software packages.
SoftwareAdvice claims to have helped over 882,466 firms. BusinessSoftware claims over 1,000,000 downloads. TrustRadius claims research backed by over 388,000 reviews.
But even with advice and reviews it can be confusing.
For example, the BusinessSoftware website offers a blog about accounting software—quoted above— Excel is Costing You Time and Money—Why You Need to Replace Excel Now , but it is followed immediately by their next blog How to Run Your Database Accounting on Excel. So, yeah, maybe everyone is a bit confused.
Moving on from Excel
Finding a specialty software purveyor for a business's niche market can present an overwhelming number of choices.
For instance grabbing at random the field of dry-cleaning and laundry because—why not?—Capterra lists CleanCloud, Geelus, Cents, SMRT Systems, CSI Platform, Enlite POS, Comca Systems Cleaner POS, IDryclean, Fabklean, StarchUp, Quick Dry Cleaning Software, Tailwind Systems, Sudzy POS, Lavanda Software, Turns, SmartManager System, TurboClean, Cleanwash, Compassmax, Liberty Touch Control, DryFi, Bundle Connect, WinCleaners, and AlmDesk.
Twenty-five systems to research. Different strengths and weaknesses, costs, add-on modules, customer support, recommendations.
Selecting one at random, PressedPOS offers a 'netdrive' add-on so the "PressedPOS routing system will email your drivers optimized routes for pickup and delivery, plus track sales & commissions." Sumer does not have that—yet—but it can be built from existing forms, and once built it can be made available in the Library for anyone in any niche market. (But actually as pointed out earlier in Peripherals, it is unlikely that PressedPOS actually developed their own routing system, they repackaged one from a service like MapQuest route planner.)
PressedPOS does not offer employee timecard or bookkeeping, so whatever client chooses PressedPOS will also need to purchase and coordinate other apps.
Many niche purveyors charge per user, per location, and per add-in module. Basic economics => they actively discourage use of their product.
Niche purveyors also have an interest in tying clients into their system by isolating them, preventing communication with other clients, and keeping the software opaque.
Sumer has a different interest. The actual Sumer program is of course proprietary, but the business management solutions and library templates are open to all.
So is there a good reason to choose Sumer over a specialized niche app?
It depends on your situation.
For an established business with satisfactory management procedures including employee scheduling and timecards, bookkeeping, cash flow, and so on, software like PressedPOS can really upgrade the game.
But if your business uses Excel or other ad hoc management solutions, and you have long term hopes for your business's survival and growth, and especially if you are building your business, Sumer might be a better choice.
There is no reason to expect Sumer to quickly sweep the market, but over time as reputation and the library grow—with the addition of dry-cleaner and laundry templates, of course—Sumer would be a good choice for a dry-cleaner who wants to know what they are getting into and that they will have room to expand.
But does Sumer really even compete with niche apps?
If a niche app like PressedPOS does not take care of business core functions like employee management (buy a separate app for that), accounting (buy a separate app), cash flow (buy a separate app), then PressedPOS is only providing peripherals—there is no reason to say it competes with Sumer at all.
But fact is—as we will see in the next section 'Why do businesses fail?'—cash flow problems are a major cause of business failures, most managers may not feel a need to buy a cash flow app, and by the time they recognize a cash flow crunch it may be too late.
That is why Sumer includes Cash Flow as a basic core function. Cash flow should be available low-cost to every business, whether the managers realize they need it or not.
Get the niche app, run the business core with Sumer, and gradually over time add Sumer versions of the peripherals as the business grows.
From an article Percentage of Businesses that Fail by LendingTree
Written by Katherine Gustafson, edited by Allison Williams
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of small U.S. businesses fail within the first year. By the end of their fifth year, roughly 50% have faltered. After 10 years, only around a third of businesses have survived.
Surprisingly, business failure rates are fairly consistent. Even during the economic downturn starting around 2008, failure rates stayed roughly the same with the exception of the smallest establishments. Notably, it was very small businesses —those with five or fewer employees—that exited at higher rates during the Great Recession.
Why do small businesses fail?
There are many reasons new businesses fail, from misreading the market to hiring the wrong people and facing legal challenges.
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Lack of demand for the product or service
Almost half - 42% - of startup businesses fail because people don’t actually need or want what they’re selling, according to research firm CB Insights. This means that assessing the potential market is essential to ensure success.
Figuring out if there’s a market for your product or service requires talking to potential customers to understand their problems and needs. It’s a mistake to assume you know what their pain points are or that your product will be attractive simply because it’s an advancement in your field.
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Cash flow problems
Managing money is a stumbling block for many new businesses - 29% of failed startups point to cash flow problems as a central issue. Insufficient cash flowing in and out of the business is a result of other problems, such as lack of product-market fit, failure to capitalize on opportunities or hesitation in seeking capital.
Many businesses operate on lean margins, which leaves little room for financial error. Success can depend on figuring out how to run efficiently in order to build up a cushion and acquire some security and flexibility.
“I put a tremendous emphasis on cash flow and having a solid financial platform,” said Tom Raymond, a SCORE mentor in Detroit. “Most startups don’t even know what an Excel spreadsheet is.”
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Problems attracting the right talent
Employees are a company’s most important resource, so hiring the wrong ones or creating the wrong positions just about guarantees major problems. Almost a quarter - 23% - of failed businesses cite having the wrong team as a main reason their business folded.
In some cases, founders have a desire to do everything themselves, despite lacking the capabilities or skills for certain tasks. In other cases, they want to hire their friends or relatives over more experienced or more suitable people . Some businesses fail because leadership positions are misaligned, the staff lacks diversity or the board is mismanaged.
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Not researching the competition
It’s essential to investigate who else is already trying to fill your target audience’s needs. Neglecting to look critically at the competition is cited as a reason for failure by 19% of startups that fold.
A sector with other entrants indicates that there’s a true market need that businesses are competing to meet. But a crowded field or a sector with extremely well-funded and experienced Competition will be more difficult to enter successfully than a more sparsely-populated one. Either way, businesses with a unique value proposition will be most successful in edging out others for customers’ attention.
#1 Lack of demand for product or service is pretty basic, not much anyone else can do about that. But the other three cited reasons are avoidable or even fixable. They are management issues, not product issues, and they respond to proper management tools.
Problems #2, #3, and #4 may be connected to poor choice of management systems:
- Does the owner have a reliable way to predict cash flow? Managing cash flow is always notoriously difficult and Excel is not good at it;
- Finding staff may be difficult because using Excel and QuickBooks to manage a business requires computer expertise beyond many users' abilities. It is not that Excel and QuickBooks are difficult in themselves—fact is they are easy. The problem is the endless juggling and adjusting needed to move and maintain data;
- Competing against other businesses—especially franchises—with more efficient systems cuts into margins probably better used for marketing and other essentials.