Happenings April 5, 2024

    In this issue:

• National Day Spotlight
• ISV Spotlight
• eFiling Price Changes
• Leadership 101
• Events, Blogs, Movies
• Webinars, Community
• Point to Ponder

The purpose of a newsletter is an opportunity for the ASWi team to provide you and the rest of our clients with information on all the new ASWi and Acumatica related things (or “happenings”) that you may not otherwise be aware of.

Please feel free to share this newsletter with any/all of your team. Pease let me know if anyone on your team who would like to be added to the mailing list for the next issue and removed.

“Housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance?” Phyllis Diller

Leave your vacuum in the closet and your laundry in the hamper. Today, the housework can wait!

Take a break from the sweeping, dusting, and dishes and spend the day with your loved ones, hanging out with friends, trying something new or just having some “me time”. About the picture: Tessa trying surfing for the first time in Puerto Rico a couple of months ago.

Salesman: This vacuum cleaner is so great, it will cut you work by half.
Customer: Great, I’ll take two!

Q: Why was the broom late?
A: It over-swept.

Dad: What type of job are you looking for?
Son: I think I could really see myself cleaning mirrors.

Whenever I feel like I should clean the house during National No Housework Day, I just lay down until the feeling passes.

Q: Who cleans the oceans?
A: Mermaids

Laundry puns aren’t as bad as everyone thinks they are, they have just been getting bad press.

My house isn’t messy, I’m just setting up obstacles for potential burglars.

Q: What do you call someone who cleans up messes they didn’t make?
A: A mom.

Mom: I thought you cleaned your room?
Daughter: I did. See, there’s now a cleared path from my door to my bed.

Please note that a price increase for e-filing using Aatrix State and Federal Payroll Reports for Acumatica Cloud ERP Payroll subscribers will go into effect on July 1, 2024.

W-2 eFile Pricing
A $24.95 minimum charge applies to all W-2 filings.

ACA eFile Pricing
$ 24.95 minimum applies to all ACA Filings.
$14.95 minimum applies to all correction filings submitted after the Federal 1095s have been processed.

Learn How ASWi Can Help You Safeguard Your Digital Word
Feel free to reach out to our Customer Success Manager Keith Wood at keithw@aswius.com or (717) 581-1226 if you have any questions on these price increases and/or if you would like to learn more about Aatrix State and Federal Payroll Reports for Acumatica Cloud ERP Payroll subscribers.

Here’s a list of “Reporting Villains” and the “Data Hero” tools that you can pull out of your superhero utility belt to overcome them:

Villain #1 – the Data Monster
Transactional data is a friend to applications like ERP & CRM, but it can become a monster when it comes to reporting. With its unwieldy nature, it can defeat even the most strenuous efforts to get strategic and predictive insight.

Tool to Use from Your Utility Belt – The Data Warehouse
This tool optimizes ERP and other data sources for reporting & analytics, cleansing and streamlining info while creating smart metrics and KPIs that point towards the ‘best’ decision for every business challenge.

Villain #2 – The Programming Purgatory
This villain is relentless; no matter whether you’re creating a simple report or customizing a sophisticated one, you’re forced into a programming purgatory where any – and every – reporting request requires advanced technical expertise.

Tool to Use from Your Utility Belt – No-Code/Low Code Platform
Using Tableau, Power BI, and/or Excel with SQL and a data warehouse, 80% of all reporting needs (and 100% of all standard reporting needs) require no coding, while advanced customization is available for the most sophisticated requests.

Villain #3 – The Time Eater
This villain appears most often, showing up twice in every reporting request. First – the days, weeks, or months it takes for an analyst to create, test, and deliver the requested report. Second – the hours or days it takes for reports to be run and distributed.

Tool to Use from Your Utility Belt – Self Service Report Library
With over 8,000 pre-configured reports, the library cuts development time by over 90% and the analytics engine runs the reports in under 10 seconds and optionally distributes them via email.

Villain #4 – The Truth Hider
The worst villain of all – this devil muddies the results of analytics by allowing multiple reports (& spreadsheets) to each use its own formulas – e.g., ‘gross profit’ – defined differently in multiple reports – effectively hides the true performance of your business.

Tool to Use from Your Utility Belt – Centralized Analytics
By storing formulas on a centralized server, critical calculations are standardized across all reports, are maintained in just one place, and ensure that your analytics are in sync – giving you a single version of the truth.

Learn How DataSelf’s BI-based Reporting Can Help You
Feel free to reach out to our Customer Success Manager Keith Wood at keithw@aswius.com or (717) 581-1226 if you would like to learn more.

By Aleta Norris

Welcome Your New Employees Intentionally

Very often, employees will have a different experience on their first day on the job than they had during their interviewing and onboarding process. HR represents the company in a positive light during the interview process. At times, the reporting supervisor or manager of the individual is not included in this process.

Things aren’t always impressive for employees when they report to their work area. Under-developed leaders do not necessarily know to do things intentionally. Some supervisors are grumpy; some are shy; some are busy working through their own to-do lists. Very few supervisors, when left to their own intuition, will say to a new employee:

Welcome to my team. I am so glad to have you join us; I’ve heard good things
about you from the HR Team, and I look forward to working with you.

I am so glad to have you join us; I’ve heard good things about you from the HR
Team, and I look forward to working with you.

If they do, retention of this employee will increase. The employee will likely feel good about his or her decision. Too many employees go home at the end of their first day with the thought… “I wonder if I made the right decision.” It’s simple, it’s effective and it’s free.

Define Success
Employees are looking for strong leaders. They want a leader who is paying attention to them, one who is leading them intentionally. Many employees go home at the end of the day, and they wonder how they’re doing. They’re not really sure, because it’s not clear to them what their leader is watching for.

To exist in a place of uncertainty robs people of the confidence and pride of knowing they are doing a good job, their leader is happy with them, and they are contributing to the company in a positive way. If these feelings are absent, these employees will feel less of a connection to the company. Clear expectations are the definition of success. For a leader to stand up in front of his or her employees and say, “I want you all to know clearly what I am looking for from you each day” is a good thing.

Success needs to be defined in three areas: performance, conduct and attendance. It may sound something like:

Relative to performance, I expect your work to be completed on time and error free. If you’re unable to meet a deadline, I’d like to hear from you before the
deadline.

Relative to your behavior and conduct, it is important to me that you do not use profanity or raise your voice. Also, on this team, I expect that you will not talk negatively about each other behind your backs.

Employees want to know what their leader is looking for. Without that, they are not able to go home at the end of a day with feelings of work well done.

Nearly every weekday, a motivational quote is posted on X/Twitter by @ASWiDelivered and on LinkedIn by @ASWi.

• “Water drops erode mountains not because of their size, but their persistence.” Matshona Dhliwayo

• “Attention to detail is not about perfection. It’s about excellence, about constant improvement.” Chris Denny

• “Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” Kim Collins

• “Real heroes are all around us and many of them participated at the Able Games.”