According to the study conducted by JCS Computer Resource, Inc., less than 25% of small businesses use computers to help them run their business efficiently. Most small businesses can utilize some form of accounting software such as Peachtree, MAS 90 or MAS 200. These systems have the ability to be customized to meet most small business? accounting needs.

Regardless of the size of the company, industry or type of business, business owners are bound to face critical business challenges. For example, Debbie Allen of H&M Demolition Companies had difficulty tracking expenses including payroll hours by projects for cost accumulations. Her process involved duplicate data-entry which resulted in incorrect or missing information. She was further bogged down by manually processing, reporting and paying Federal and State payroll taxes for the company.

These problems were solved by installing and customizing Peachtree Software in the following fashion. First, in order to eliminate the duplicated data-entry, the time ticket entry and expense ticket feature were activated. Second, using Select for Payroll Entry?Hours feature of the system automatically accumulates the hours on the project eliminating manual process.

As a result, H&M Demolition was able to save 5+ man hours per week, drastically decrease the amount of paperwork, minimize human mistakes and increase control. In addition, correct Federal and State payroll taxes for the company were automatically calculated and scheduled for payment leaving Ms. Allen time to work on different projects.

When using an accounting system such as Peachtree, make sure to utilize its features to the fullest to gain these benefits:

* Never forget to bill time and expenses;

* Optionally mark up time and expenses during invoicing;

* Process and print payroll checks in just minutes in the office;

* Eliminate duplicate data-entry for invoicing and payroll;

* Easily report profitability by job, consultant, department and company;

* Automatically calculate payroll taxes for Federal and State government.