Happenings August 19, 2023

    In this issue:

• Day Spotlight
• Dad Jokes
• ISV Addon Spotlight
• Acumatica User Tip
• Leadership 101
• Events, Blogs, Movies
• Webinars, Community

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.

“Perfect companions never have fewer than 4 feet.” Collette Happy International Homeless Animals Day!

Every day, animals like ASWi’s Marketing Intern Gibbs (pictured here in his dog cave planning our next marketing campaign) are lost, abandoned or placed into kennels that are completely dependent on charities and good will.

These organizations are strained beyond their ability to cope and are desperate to raise awareness of the plight of homeless and abandoned animals. You can celebrate International Homeless Animals Day by learning more about homeless animals, making a financial donation to your local animal shelter, or adopting a pet like Gibbs from a shelter.

Note: the amount of actual marketing output produced by your newly adopted intern may vary.

Q: How do hire a dog like Gibbs?
A: Put him on stilts

Q: What is smarter than a talking bird?
A: A spelling bee.

Son: Dad, why is a swordfish’ nose 11 inches long?
Dad: Because if it was 12 inches long, it would be a foot.

Is it just a coincidence that man’s best friend cannot talk?

Q: Why do you call a zebra that can play chess?
A: A-frican genius

Daughter: Dad, can we go on a picnic when we go to Peru?
Dad: Sure, alpaca lunch for it.

SourceDay has a certified Acumatica Marketplace supplier collaboration solution which extends Acumatica’s purchasing capabilities by allowing buyers and suppliers to collaborate real-time on price, quantity, and delivery date changes.

With SourceDay, PO changes are automatically updated in Acumatica, eliminating manual and disparate communication methods for your buyers, and tedious manual updates in Acumatica.

Source Day are currently offering a free supplier network assessment. Over the last 8 years, SourceDay has captured a tremendous amount of data across their supplier database. This provides valuable information about a company’s direct spend suppliers. Every supplier is different, supplier networks are complex, and a supplier’s direct material and PO data is SO critical to running a successful supply chain.

The free supplier network assessment can shed some light on:
– Supplier network averages for your specific industry
– Supplier engagement models and what their data shows is the best way to engage with your suppliers
– How to most efficiently change your engagement with suppliers to optimize performance
– If desired, SourceDay can do an even deeper dive into the analysis of your anonymized supplier data

Please let Keith Wood, our Customer Success Manager know at keithw@aswius.com or (717) 581-1226 if you are interested in scheduling your free SourceDay Supplier NetWork Assessment.

Machines
You can create Machines to maintain and manage cost, times and define default General Ledger accounts to use in production.

You can define an Asset ID in order to track in inventory.

Standard Cost is the hourly rate a production order is charged. Define the calendar of the shop floor that the machine is associated with.

Efficiency field is the parameter that represents the amount of production time. You can define a GL account and subaccount for posting machine cost to a production order.

By Cotter Cunningham, RetailMeNot founder & startup investor

Q: We have reached the size where we are thinking we need to do annual reviews. How do we start? What are the best practices?

Cotter:
HA! I am not sure I am the best person to answer this, as annual reviews haven’t always been my strong suit. But you asked, so…

I think in general, if you have passed the stage where it’s just a handful of people doing just whatever it takes, then it is time for reviews. Here are a few thoughts as you move forward:

Have a schedule.
Many companies do reviews two times per year, with the midyear review covering the first half of the year and the second review covering the whole year, as well as driving the promotion/raise cycle. In my experience, this works well, because if you have a problem, this gives the employee time to course-correct and/or it starts the paper trail in case that’s needed later.

Be direct.
People crave feedback. Give it to them. The biggest sin in reviews is holding back. “I don’t want to hurt their feelings” is the common refrain. If someone is doing a meh job, tell them. Otherwise, how can they know what to improve on? I believe we are not all born with this skill, but you can learn it. Definitely something to work on. No one is perfect.

In every review, you should be able to give the person a few things to work on. And it shouldn’t be “Sally just works too hard!” Don’t have anything? Then honestly, you are a bad manager. Pick up your own game!

Ask for feedback about you (beforehand). Reviews should go both ways. Let your reviewee do a review on you. It can be tricky, but it is usually things you need to hear.

Use a tool.
We just adopted Lattice, a SaaS product that allows you to easily share reviews. I really like it. So much better than pen and paper (or Google docs). This isn’t an ad, though. There are many review tools out there.