ERPAG Introduction

What is ERPAG? What is cloud computing and what is double accounting? What is ERP? What is scalability? What are the prerequisites for working in ERPAG?

Welcome to ERPAG!

In this Chapter we will introduce general concepts of ERPAG and explain its basic logic and background.

As you probably know, ERPAG is an ERP cloud service that covers all business processes for small or mid-sized companies. Oftentimes, when we tell our customers that ERPAG is an all-in-one ERP cloud solution, their usual answer sounds like this: All-in-one?! (eyes rolling back) ERP? Cloud? Yeah, right! Give me a break…

Joking apart, answers like these motivated us to write this book in the first place. When we started developing ERPAG our initial goal was to develop comprehensive software that would help small and mid- sized companies to automatize and improve their business. In September 2011, after many years of research and hard work of our programmers (many, many thanks to them), we succeeded in creating a cloud ERP solution that is now suitable for various hardware platforms and devices. Currently, ERPAG covers Sales and Customer Relationship Management, Purchasing and Supplier Management, Production, Warehouse and Inventory Control, Finance and Accounting, Point of Sale and Business Intelligence:

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a cross-functional enterprise system driven by an integrated suite of software modules that supports the basic internal business processes of a company. ERP gives a company an integrated real-time view of its core business processes such as production, order processing, and inventory management, tied together by ERP applications software and a common database maintained by a database management system. ERP systems track business resources (such as cash, raw materials, and production capacity) and the status of commitments made by the business (such as customer orders, purchase orders, and employee payroll), no matter which department (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, accounting, and so on) has entered the data into the system. ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions inside the organization, and manages connections to outside stakeholders.

1.1.1 ERPAG AS A CLOUD SERVICE

So, what is cloud computing? To put is simply, cloud computing means storing your data over the Internet instead of using your computer’s hard drive. i.e. local storage. Lately, the cloud computing technology has been developing rapidly, as different companies throughout the world are adapting to it. Assuming that you are already acquainted with the general concepts of a could platform, we will just say that ERPAG is hosted on one. However, if you are wondering why to use a cloud app instead of an offline app, ask yourself the following: am I tired of worrying about installing new updates and doing daily backups? Am I tired of thinking about hardware maintenance? Am I tired of paying extra money for multiple users and other IT expenses? Am I tired of worrying about limited computer storage? If you answered YES to at least one of these questions, then a cloud platform is exactly what you need.

One important benefit of ERPAG (a cloud platform) is its integration with services like PayPal, eBay, Windows and Google. ERPAG is also available for use at any geolocation in the world, at any time.

1.1.2 DOUBLE ENTRY ACCOUNTING

ERPAG is double-entry accounting software. This basically means that a bookkeeper debits transactions to one account and credits them to another. Furthermore, in double entry bookkeeping every transaction is entered twice in the accounting books- first to record a change in the assets’ side (debit), and then to reflect that change in the equities’ side (credit).

ERPAG automatically generates the Chart of Accounts (COA) and other customizable accounting schemes, each time you open a new company.

Investopedia explains Double Entry: In the double entry system, transactions are recorded in terms of debits and credits. Since a debit in one account will be offset by a credit in another account, the sum of all debits must therefore be exactly equal to the sum of credits. The double-entry system of bookkeeping or accounting makes it easier to accurately prepare financial statements directly from the books of account and detect errors.

1.1.3 Scalability

Small business owners are usually not aware that they can use cloud engines to customize invoices, accounting standards, tax settings, multi-currency options, etc.

One benefit of a cloud application is that it always follows the progress of your business, and the licenses you pay for using them are always in proportion with your business growth. For example, you may have two or three people working in your company today, and for that number of users you will use the STANDARD license type, which is designed for five users. However, you may have twenty employees in one year’s time and when that happens, you will only increase the number of ERPAG licenses, without paying additional expenses for IT personnel, equipment or time! This leads us to another major benefit of ERPAG, and that is its SCALABILITY. No matter if you are a one- man business, or a company with several offices, ERPAG completely scales with your business! It wraps around your business and simplifies it!

Just consider the following example: in the beginning you are a small company engaged mostly in production, i.e. you use ERPAG to purchase materials and follow the deliveries you send on daily basis. However, at one point you might want to expand your business and open a retail store; normally, you would look for another application that covers retail process, but ERPAG is a comprehensive ERP app with integrated RETAIL options!

This means that you just need to open a new warehouse and start selling your products in a few seconds! How cool is that? In addition to this, ERPAG allows you to administer user rights and privileges. For example, you can set the options so that the cashiers working in your retail store may have access only to the data regarding that specific retail store! Also, there is no limit in the number of warehouses, retail stores, etc.

1.4 Our philosophy

To explain our ice cap philosophy, let’s say that you are new to ERPAG, have a small company, and you need a few accounting options at the moment, e.g. managing products in stock, following paid and unpaid invoices, and liabilities. However, as your business is developing, you will need to use more and more accounting options, such as variable products, lot and serial numbers tracking, special accounting reports, etc.

As a rule of thumb, the needs for complex accounting process will emerge soon and you will need to use other advanced options, such as customizable accounting/ tax schemes, fixed assets, bank loans, etc. This is where ERPAG comes to rescue you, because the more options you need, the more options will ERPAG have to offer you! In other words, you are a small ice cap only at the beginning! All you need to do is to select a desired business model and ERPAG will load all the necessary settings for you!

Also, from an accounting or consulting perspective, ERPAG is powerful software that maintains your accounting books and automatizes posting procedures, e.g. depreciation, currency differences, revenue accounting, etc.