Australian-based entrepreneur Nathan Tuckwell runs three, coffee…

im2tiredforthis Australian-based entrepreneur Nathan Tuckwell runs three, coffee…Australian-based entrepreneur Nathan Tuckwell runs three, coffee based companies including  The Bean Doctor, which sells and services coffee machines; Mighty Fine Coffee, which makes  and sells fresh roasted coffee including automatic re-order subscriptions shipped directly to  customers in both Australia and New Zealand; and Waffle Co., a café, dessert parlor that serves  breakfast and lunch along with fresh roasted coffee. The three businesses are quite busy and generate lots of sales and expense transactions. Nathan  needed some way to capture, record, and use all this data in his day to day decision making.  Through research and by speaking with other small business owners, Nathan learned about  Square, QuickBooks Online, and Synch with Square, all mobile apps for small businesses. He  decided to try these apps to manage Waffle Co. Square and QuickBooks Online are cloud based applications which means that to use the  application you go to the Internet and access a secure website hosted by a third party. Thus, the  small business can avoid large, up-front investments for computer hardware on which to run the  software. Users pay a small monthly access fee to cover the cost of using the software and on- going support and upgrades. Square is a point of sale solution that captures cash, credit card, and gift card payments; applies  discounts and issue refunds; keeps track of sales and inventory, and provides sales reports by  customer, item, or time of day. These reports enable users to know what items are selling well  and what items are not doing so well. It also helps business owners to get to know customers  better by knowing how much they spend, their favorite items, and how frequently they visit the  cafe. Because Square records sales by item, it is possible to obtain reports on current inventory  and update inventory quantities in bulk—which is helpful when adding new inventory. QuickBooks Online is an accounting software package designed to track income and expenses  for small businesses. With this data, you are able to manage expenses and track cash flow. The  first thing you see when you sign in is QuickBooks Online home page called a dashboard that  shows an overview of account balances, income and expense totals and charts, and tasks that  need to be done. Sync with Square Imports Square sales transactions into QuickBooks. At the end of each day,  every sale recorded in Square is automatically imported into QuickBooks as an invoice and  payment. Once the transactions are imported, it is possible to view the sales, refunds, taxes, tips,  and discounts that were processed with Square. Details of the invoice—such as the item and the  quantity sold, applied discounts, shipping costs, and taxes paid—are also recorded. Fees, such as  bank deposit fees and transaction fees charged by Square, are also imported to accurately reflect  each account. Nathan quickly figured out how to link these three programs so that the café transactions were  automatically loaded from Square into his QuickBooks account using the Sync with Square app.  Now manual data entry is almost entirely eliminated and reconciling Nathan’s books is easy with  deposits, payments, refunds, and fees automatically matched against his bank statement. Based  on the success of using this software for Waffle Co., Nathan has implemented it for Mighty Fine  Coffee and The Bean Doctor. He can log onto the QuickBooks Online dashboard to see all the  information he needs to run his business and make data driven business decisions that have  helped him generate more profits and reduce loss. Accurate, timely data is important for any  business but especially crucial for a company that sells perishable items. 1. Xero and Zoho Books are two other small business accounting applications that can  support the import of transactions directly from Square. Do research online to evaluate  these in terms of cost, ease of use, functionality, and support compared to QuickBooks  online. Which option do you believe is the best for a small business? Why?  2. What advantages are associated with using cloud-based apps? What potential issues  could arise of which the user must be wary?BusinessBusiness – Other