The biggest change I’ve made in the last few months is to use my check card instead of writing a check when I’m shopping.  I guess everyone does it – swipes the card and within seconds is approved and on their way with their purchases.  Stand behind someone who is writing a check and the looks on the faces of those who are behind the check writer show their intolerance for the slow paper and pen process of conducting a transaction. 

I had to make a change in how I was paying for purchases.  Writing a check takes too much time. It’s expensive for the bank to scan those checks and send them back to me.  To get me to use my check card, my bank offered a Starbucks Gift Card if I would increase the number of check card transactions. In a few weeks, I was hooked.  With a double shot espresso mocha latte in my hand, I was now up to speed with my purchases and with today’s technology.

At CM Information Specialists, our accounting and payroll and invoicing were in the paper and wet ink phase. Like many of our client early electronic record systems, we had electronic systems that did not talk to one another.  It was time for us to take the plunge and make substantial changes in how we did things with accounting payroll and invoicing and find something that would help us move forward.  There were too many nights when I said, “good night, Chuck”, leaving our beloved accountant at the office pounding away on his computer getting all the information from all the systems so he could pay bills, pay our employees, pay taxes. 

Last year, we embarked on a mission to find the perfect software that could pay our employees, keep track of hours worked at each location, keep track of the sales by location, and collect other information we have become accustomed to having in different programs at our fingertips.  We wanted efficiency.  We wanted CHECK CARDS!

The rest of this story has a happy ending.  We did purchase a system that is much more efficient and has lots of bells and whistles – so many bells and whistles that we can’t possibly know how to do everything just yet.  What was once inefficient is now captivating with the amount of reporting available.  Capturing the information we need in the way we want it could only have happened in the Great Plains of North Dakota.  Microsoft has done it again!