Cost Accounting Software

Posts Tagged ‘Costs’

www.maxwellsystems.com Construction software for job cost accounting, estimating, and project management that brings it all together in one solution is an invaluable resource for Mid-State Paving & Excavation, explains owner Steve Wagner. This sitework contractor utilizes Maxwell Systems ProContractorMX as a single solution for end-to-end control of critical business operations. Levering this complete construction software solution, Mid-State can be a better company with the ability to analyze costs and be more competitive.

Make Biodiesel at home! Save petrol & diesel costs for trucks & automobiles! High Conversion rates! Earn a Fat 70% commission! All affiliate marketing tools provided! Check out: http://www.biodieselathome.biz/affiliate.html
Biodiesel for your Car! Save Gas Costs with this alternative fuel!

An e-book explaining how to set up a print-on-demand T-shirt shop on the web for minimal cost. It includes how to find keywords, how to use a free image editor (gimp), how to set up shop, and how to promote your products.
All Income, No Costs: Sell Your T-shirts On The Web

Illustrates the recording of labor costs incurred in a job cost accounting system.

In this segment, I make the distinction between accounting costs/profits and economic costs/profits.

Councillors question rising costs
Some city councillors are voicing their concerns over how the upgrades to the Holmedale water treatment plant continue to go over budget, and the project is headed toward a new total of $54.5 million.[...]

Read more on The Brantford Expositor

Textbook rentals no cure for rising college costs
Textbook rental programs at many of the nation’s colleges – touted as money-savers for students – are limited by the number of available titles, publishers who release frequent new editions and professors who believe…

Read more on WDAM-TV Hattiesburg

Software is the product of innovation, which requires substantial time and resources to create. The practical applications of software are nearly unlimited. Software powers our transportation systems, our business productivity tools, our homes and our communication. And most software products are ever-evolving. If a company intends to derive future revenue from a software product, most often that company also has a plan for the continued development of that product.

Choosing that development path means setting priorities, and that job typically falls to software project managers. In an accounting sense, it’s fair to say that the work of software product managers is largely an exercise in managing opportunity costs. Dedicating limited resources to a nearly unlimited list of potential development priorities means choosing options at the expense of others. Product managers must confidently proceed in executing upon their priorities with the knowledge that they’ve put their teams work to best use.

The opportunity costs of software development are primarily informed by market research. Determining a product development path requires insight into market needs and demands, and market research helps identify customer needs and market requirements. As development needs are identified, other questions must be answered. They include:

Is the solution technically tenable? Can the solution be created internally? Is it already available in the market? Will the solution help sell product? Is it necessary to ensure continued sales? Can a profit be derived by implementing a solution? Will other development efforts and more pressing market needs be delayed or ignored as a result?

 

Many opportunities compete for valuable resources in software development, they include:

Untapped business opportunity Matching or improving upon competitive offerings Tailoring software for industry-specific applications Language and localization issues User interface improvements Bug fixes

Any effort undertaken by the development team receives resources in lieu of sourcing other potentially worthy development efforts. In weighing the opportunity costs of software development, it is important to understand the potential tradeoffs and consequences that come with any decision.

Untapped Business Opportunity: Untapped revenue opportunities often represent the most valuable investment path of development resources. Product managers cannot blindly chase untapped opportunities without ample consultation with marketing and sales. Specifically, it is important to determine that the company will have the sales, marketing and domain expertise to sell to new opportunity after development. A company must have technical, sales and marketing resources to sustain development into a profitable gain before software development invests resources into developing new features for an untapped market.

Chasing the Competition: Many software development efforts are undertaken in response to competitive pressures and a fear of lagging on innovation. Chasing competitive threats without weighing consequences can cause a company to quickly burn through an R&D budget with little return. It’s important to understand whether a competitive threat is worth chasing, or would the development time be better spent improving upon other, perhaps more core strengths.

Often there are many ways that companies may respond to competitive threats without investing heavily in software development. Some software companies will partner with other technology providers who offer needed solutions. Ensuring interoperability with complementary technologies can resolve competitive threats. Other times, the technology may be acquired from other technology companies. Sometimes competitive threats may be best answered by improving user access to the features already inherent within a product, and by offering the right training and support to make users successful.

Addressing Vertical Requirements: Software products often find strong reception in specific vertical markets, and these markets can become preferred targets for future development. Addressing vertical requirements further establishes innovation and leadership in that space. However, it’s important for companies to not lose sight of their potentially more profitable cross-market – or horizontal – opportunities and development needs at the expense of serving a niche market.

Language and Localization: A software product’s market is limited by its support for local language and currency. Software companies require global market expertise and awareness to effectively localize and sell software worldwide. Localization can be expensive to initiate and maintain, and some international markets may not present the long-term revenue that’s would make the initial investment worth the effort. Companies must be selective about localization opportunities, or risk spreading resources too thin.

Usability and Interface Issues: Software users continually grow in their ability to put powerful software to work, and they grow ever more demanding in their expectations of usability. Usability issues are constantly evolving, and software companies must work to keep their products easy to use and well designed. It’s a delicate balancing act, however, as companies cannot afford to make jarring changes to the user interface and risk losing loyal, existing users. Changes to the user interface of a software product must be gradual and intuitive.

Fixing Bugs, the Work Never Ends: Bugs and glitches make their way into software code constantly. Sometimes new code causes existing code to not act as it should. Bug fixes are scaled according to severity and impact on users, and product managers ensure they are fixed in line with other priorities. Failure to fix bugs quickly could leave negative residual impression on users, even if its interference with productivity is minimal.

While software development resources are limited, demands for those resources are virtually unlimited. Market research, along with strong insight of sales’ reach and domain expertise, all must be considered when assessing a development path. Customers have many opinions and can be very vocal about their demands on software makers. In this case, the customers are not always right. While loyal users can have great insight, they do not represent the whole set of opportunity costs that a software company must consider. Only a project manager can assess both new and existing opportunities for development and set about the right course of action.

Ken Boyd, owner of St. Louis Test Preparation (www.stltest.net) presents part four of his course on Understanding Management Accounting. Boyd points out that students can have success with Management Accounting concepts by making connections to actual examples from business. As a former CPA, College Accounting professor and Auditor, Ken has a wealth of experience to bring to the subject.

Attention Nonprofits! The cost of fundraising is becoming even more of a critical issue as donors increasingly factor it in their giving decisions. Here are 32 ways for your nonprofit to lower fundraising costs and conduct a high-impact campaign.
How to Lower Fundraising Costs