‘An accounting nightmare’ probably describes the Dick Smith situation well from our point of view, a huge retailer, in fact, an Australian icon has fallen. The company is in receivership but still trading, its stock is being transported but not being paid for it’s definitely a difficult situation. Unfortunately, Dick Smith is not the first…

‘An accounting nightmare’ probably describes the Dick Smith situation well from our point of view, a huge retailer, in fact, an Australian icon has fallen. The company is in receivership but still trading, its stock is being transported but not being paid for it’s definitely a difficult situation. Unfortunately, Dick Smith is not the first and if history has anything to say about it, it won’t be the last.

A sad ending but hope for the Dick Smith brand has come in the form of Kogan, Ruslan Kogan. Kogan this week purchased the rights to the brand, database & DickSmith.com.au hoping to make Dick Smith into a popular online-only brand, just like his Kogan Empire.

Dick Smith is slashing its prices by up to 70%, unfortunately, all it does it match the current prices at other retailers, meaning the sale isn’t so much of a sale rather what they should have priced their items ‘at’ first.

ASX shares have opened 31 points higher after an abysmal week of trading, but how long that will last is unknown, though Wall Street closed at 2016 high, including some strong job gains in the USA. Back at home Woolworth’s has stretched out its payment terms to 60 days, a sign of the times.

And that’s what this post is about the ‘sign of the times’ companies are either going bust or changing their business model, In fact, Australia post is trying to diversify into a new technology. When WA fell of the resource bandwagon a lot of companies whose only bread givers were mining companies were cut off and needed to find business elsewhere.

Unfortunately, companies who have supplied the other sectors felt the pain as multiple companies took started lowering their prices just for the business. So it’s the sign of the times, many companies are at that tipping point, not quite sure where to go from here. Sometimes they have zero information about their own business, first of all, they haven’t been capturing the data and second, they have no system to present the data back to them in an understandable simple format.

The fact of the matter is when a company is doing a major restructure, like so many others things don’t always go the right way, some decisions are made without any consultation to the books. Imagine for a moment you had a perfect bird’s eye view of your entire business with each branch accounted for and every dollar figure correct, how much easier would it be for you the business owner to move the puzzle around to fit the ‘new times’?

An ERP system is a centralized accounting system that stems out of every single part of your business, giving you ultimate control and clarity. When you are buying a TV or Laptop the decision-making is always easier when you have all the facts, and when you do your research, you ask your retailer and you google online. Once you have the facts it’s easier to make not only the right decision but the one that will benefit you the most, as always there can be multiple paths to take but you need to be on the ideal one to really go beyond great.

In this economic period, it’s time to stop working in your business and work on your business, when things are quiet it’s the best time to train your staff, put new systems and procedures in the business. Make your systems efficient and lean, upgrade them or cut out what you don’t need. Give us a call today to discuss how we can help you and your company today on 08 9277 2226.