Entrepreneur Employing Mobile Enterprise Apps AACSB Standards: Systems and Processes Australian-based entrepreneur Nathan Tuckwe
ll 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 desig
