For Business Administrator to be successful in supporting your business, you must ensure that all available business information is entered on Business Administrator where possible - even if it is intended for use elsewhere. Failure to do so would mean that Business Administrator's intelligence systems would be undermined, that it will report and account incorrectly, that statistics and advice could be far from true, and that reporting will not be as broad as it could be. Your version of Business Administrator could, as could you, lose credibility within your business communities if the information is incomplete or is inaccurate, and the decisions you make using Business Administrator will not be as good as they could have been.
Failed information
However, if the failure to enter information completely does occur, then the situation is recoverable in time - such as when that information moves so far into history that it doesn't matter any more (typically five years).
Things to beware ofBusiness Administrator will become the central nervous system of your business. Whilst the benefits of this are magnificent, it does present the user with some potential situations to consider.
As with any software, it does not know the environment you are working in – legal, accounting, tax, human issues. Particularly it does not know when these change, so it is critical that you tell it. It is also critical that you enter all the data it requires – not just some of it. By entering just some of it, the advice and reports it offers will be incorrect.
With Business Administrator it is critical that you make it your company’s policy that full use of the system be made. Failure to do this is likely to undermine the product, and, worse, the successful development of your business in using it.
When you first use Business Administrator, be sure to use it, and your existing systems, in parallel to ensure that it fits your business needs. We have performed a lot research and put a lot of effort into ensuring that Business Administrator will deliver for most businesses, in the same way that it delivers for ours. However, there are as many business models as there are businesses, and it is difficult to cover every angle.
Examples
Business Administrator often gets involved with legal issues, particularly with credit control, or potential fraud, for example. In seeing things from its own environment, Business Administrator will recommend, even try to pursue, a set of objectives. Yet, when perceived from the global environment the initiatives and advice may be quite wrong.
Business Administrator has no understanding of the economical environment you are working in – neither nationally nor internationally. Thus it cannot judge local issues (your business issues) with respect to these economic situations. So it may suggest an initiative that might be entirely inappropriate, or it may suggest you are wrong to perform an initiative, when in fact you've got more information than it has.
Business Administrator’s advice is generally sound if the business environment is similar to the one it knows about, and if it is respectfully complemented with information.
There are, however, three benefits to the conflicts of information: if there is no conflict, and the environment has been adequately considered, then the advice is likely to be as sound as it gets. In times of conflicting decision, the moment to tread carefully has arrived and a re-appraisal of the situation might be wise. Thirdly, Business Administrator may have found an important issue that you hadn't seen – it's covering your back. So there are still benefits to be had in the disparity.
When viewing reported figures, view them in relation to how complete they are, how accurately they have been accounted for, and bear in mind the difference between your environment and that of Business Administrator.
The Golden Rule to taking advice from Business Administrator is to take everything in context.
It is also important to understand that, whilst much of it is blatantly obvious, much of the information and advice comes by implication – you need to think about the reports and their underlying meaning.
You are not likely to find help from the outside world because no-one knows your business like you do, which, in itself, suggests that Business Administrator will be your best friend.