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| A weblog to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses. |
Alone we can do nothing.Alone we can do nothing, But together our minds fuse into something Whose power is far beyond The power of its separate parts. The kingdom cannot be found alone, And you who are the kingdom Cannot find yourself alone. – “A Course in Miracles”
How To Generate your Invoice RegisterOne of the new features we added to the Merang TravelOffice system is the Invoice Register. The Invoice Register allows you to generate a list all your invoices in the system; you can even specify which fields you want to appear on the register. The Invoice Register provides most of the details on each invoice, and is a great way to keep a back-up of your invoices for your travel agency in a separate location (such as an Excel spreadsheet). … Continue reading
Will Your Idea Fly?Do you remember your last big idea? The thrill, passion and energy you felt when you initially conceived of the thought, and the ‘I-better-launch-this-by-tomorrow-before-anyone-else-thinks-of-it’ panic attack that follows? Such moments often keep me up all night. Over the years, however, I’ve learned to do two things. First, before getting overexcited about an idea, I wait until the next morning. For some reason, ‘next mornings’ tend to put things in perspective. If my enthusiasm and excitement has still not abated by … Continue reading
Customer Portrait: Centre HolidaysIn this customer portrait section we look at how our customers are using the TravelOffice app in their business. Meet Michele Montgomery. Michele is a manager and a travel consultant with Centre Holidays, a large travel agency and host-agency based in Canada. As a host-agency with a large number of agents, what were the challenges you faced with invoicing? At present, our agency consists of 160 home based agents. Like anyone using an invoicing system, our concerns were how … Continue reading
Motivating Beyond MoneyBuilding an amazing team is key to growing a business. But are people only motivated by money and this why you get employees asking for a raise often, or are other factors important to attract, retain and motivate your team? I found this video that I wanted to share with you; whether you already have a team or just starting out, the points in this video are important to keep in mind. Can you impact behaviour with money? How do you … Continue reading
TravelOffice version 5.0You may have noticed something new with the Merang TravelOffice system this week. We successfully launched the new version of the Merang TravelOffice system over the past weekend, and so far the feedback has been very positive. We’re very excited with the new changes as we are certain they will help you produce invoices faster, that are more professional, and that will help you manage your business better. Apart from making the system compatible with other browsers (e.g. Firefox), we … Continue reading
Recording “supplier credits”.Question: Under the “supplier payments” section, when I try to record a payment to the supplier, I noticed a payment method called “Applied Supplier Credit”. What is the proper way of using/recording this payment method? Answer: Let’s look at this by going through an example: Example: Assume you had a booking with Air Canada (AC) with a net cost of $600. You paid Air Canada by cheque (or company credit card etc.). The customer then cancelled the booking and instead … Continue reading
Be HST Ready (Ontario | BC)For our travel agency customers in BC and Ontario, the HST (combined GST and PST) will become a reality from July 1, 2010, which will affect the tax on commission (for travel services that are not zero-rated). Unfortunately, this will mean that agents will now need to be ‘tax specialists’ as well as ‘travel specialists’ when booking and pricing travel. While there is some information available online, it is very confusing. The following are some external sites we found that … Continue reading
Health Check: Measure ProfitabilityHere’s the last set of ratios I will discuss in this series on conducting a health check of your company: Profitability ratios. There are various other types of ratios that we have not discussed here that you can also perform, if applicable to your business. Now let’s look at “Profitability Ratios”. What does it mean: Profitability ratios provide a measure of how successful your travel business is in terms of generating commissions relative to sales or resources invested in the … Continue reading
Recording and ReconcilingManaging your trust bank account can be complex, especially with such large volumes of invoices to keep track of, so a lot of business owner ask themselves how to manage a business. Which is what makes the Merang TravelOffice such a useful tool for travel companies as it keeps track of and helps you control the cash flowing into and out of trust. Setting up and using a Trust Bank Account for your business is always a good idea (even if … Continue reading