Business Cloud Essentials is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud business management solution for manufacturers which brings the entire organisation together across finance, CRM, sales, stock and inventory, payroll and e-commerce to deliver a seamless customer experience.
Many business owners are burdened with financial worries, panicked by delivery timelines and constantly fighting fires to keep the business going. We believe this should stop.
Business Cloud Essentials is designed to make the complex simple, bringing all elements of business management together in one, easy to use system to help them succeed and stick to their customer promises.
BUSINESS CLOUD ESSENTIALS
Manufacturing Software
Business Cloud Essentials: Overview
Understanding key issues
CHALLENGES
Understanding financial health
Due to disjointed and inaccurate reporting, duplication of data and numerous compatibility errors, manufacturers struggle to manage the company’s finances.
Customer expectations
Evolving customer norms means there is an expectation of quicker delivery and competitive pricing – without a compromise on quality.
Business insight
Lack of visibility across the supply chain limits an organisation’s ability to forecast accurately and make timely decisions.
Growth and performance
Reliance on bookkeeping and paper-based systems leads to inefficiencies and errors. And it’s the time spent on rectifying these mistakes that thwarts growth and strong performance.
Managing production
Ensuring goods and parts arrive on time, and managing complex Bills of Materials (BoMs), can be time consuming and can create inaccuracies.
Disconnected sales and invoicing
Manufacturers are often unable to manage sales and invoicing effectively due to disconnected manual processes which lead to inaccurate and out-of-date data.
PAPERWORK REDUCED
BY AS MUCH AS 80%
PROCESS ORDERS OVER
150 TIMES FASTER
SAVE £9,500 ON AVERAGE IN
YOUR FIRST YEAR ALONE
How our Business Management software can help you
FEATURES & BENEFITS
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Accounting
Business Cloud Essentials is designed to help you worry less about your finances, by increasing visibility of your financial health and making financial management simple.
Unified ledger accounting
A hierarchical accounts structure ensures the system is easy to use and understand. A range of transaction templates help eradicate mispostings and accounting errors.
Multi-currency accounting
Our fully compliant, multi-currency accounting system allows for buying and selling in over 160 currencies worldwide, making it easier than ever to do business globally.
Financial forecasting
The system is able to estimate future performance based on sales forecasts, or even by calculating against past performance. Predict your future and prepare for tomorrow.
In-depth project accounting
Track and report on specific project transactions, enabling you to get a clear view of all finances associated with a particular project, while monitoring status and outcomes.
Tax calculation and submissions
Reduce compliance stress by submitting directly to HMRC using our secure platform. The system is designed to integrate with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital APIs.
Customer and supplier invoicing
Track accounting against invoices within the system, providing clear traceability of customer and supplier payments, alerting you to when payments are overdue.
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Operations
Business Cloud Essentials is designed specifically to suit growing manufacturers. Our operations functionality brings the factory floor together with the office floor, unifying your entire business.
Production planning
Deliver more on time with our production planning functionality. Schedule works orders in the system and receive instant feedback on the progress of work.
Bills of Materials (BoMs)
Unlimited depth BoMs allow users to create complex product configurations and stock interdependencies, streamlining the manufacturing process and reducing reliance on paper.
Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
Save time with automatic calculation of stock requirements against future orders. MRP can raise internal works orders and external purchase orders to ensure that stock is available.
Serial numbering and batch traceability
A full serial numbering and batch traceability system allows users to track individual products, components and sub-assemblies though the system – and takes care of after sales and warranties.
Quality management
Quality assurance can be monitored and reported in the system with ease. Non-conformances can be entered and updated for prevention and continuous improvement.
Warranties, service and repairs
Manage the repair of client inventory items, and the work of your service team. Track warranties and record all repairs and interactions with the client.
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CRM
Reduce firefighting by getting close to your customer base. Our integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality gives you clear visibility in just a few simple clicks.
Account information in one place
All details of your customers and prospects are safely stored in the system, so you can access contact information, addresses, sales, opportunities and more.
Editable contact and account details
All information is kept up-to-date and accurate, making it easy for you to contact customers and prospects. This creates better relationships and improved business partnerships.
Sales and finance tied together
Clear visibility of opportunities and sales in the pipeline means you can see what needs to be delivered and when, tracking all account activity.
Report on KPIs across accounts
Full management reporting capabilities across customers and suppliers ensures you can easily get a view of key performance indicators for all accounts.
Manage customer price lists and discounts
Manage fixed and flexible pricing for individual customers, or groups of customers, which is stored in the account information – making it easier to see billing and cost totals.
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Payroll
Business Cloud Essentials is a fully recognised and verified payroll submitter under HMRC, providing everything you need to pay your staff in a compliant way – alongside its production and finance capabilities.
Meet legislative requirements
We build in all legislative requirements from HMRC, meaning you don’t have to worry about keeping up with their pace of change. We’ve got it covered.
Detailed analysis of labour costs
Report on labour costs per department, project, job, item or across the entire business to get a true view of your finances and outgoings.
Payroll integrated into the rest of the business
With Business Cloud Essentials, payroll is built into the monthly Software-as-a-Service subscription, so you can reduce costs by bringing payroll directly into the heart of your business operation.
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E-Commerce
Make the link: The E-Commerce Smart link now in Business Cloud Essential will enable you to your E-Commerce sales into auto pilot. A fully integrated solution that takes sales, pricing and inventory data directly from Business Cloud Essentials, into your E-Commerce platform and back again.
Save time and money, while driving customer satisfaction
Push your price and stock quantity changes straight to your website immediately.
Give your customers the tools to order
No more manual updates between platforms. Your data will be synced directly from Business Cloud Essential, providing your customer will everything they need to make an order.
Reduce the burden of manual admin
Manual data entry is not only time consuming but the risk of errors is high! Let us take care of that for you, so you can get back to focusing on the things that matter.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How can Advanced’s business management software benefit my business?
Our business management solution, Business Cloud Essentials, brings all aspects of your organisation together in one, integrated platform. It delivers complete visibility over finance, CRM, sales, stock and inventory, payroll and e-commerce. Based on a Cloud platform, Business Cloud Essentials provides you with one central location for all business activity, which can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
- What is the advantage of using Cloud business management software?
Using Cloud software means that you can access your system wherever you are, at any time. All data is securely stored in our Tier 3 data centres, so you don’t have to worry about on-site servers and maintenance and the associated security risks and high costs.
- What is the difference between business management software and an ERP system?
Business management and ERP systems are pretty much the same thing. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, and is a term which is normally associated with large enterprise projects and businesses. ERP combines all the core elements that are needed to run a business, including accounting, CRM, sales, stock and inventory, payroll and HR. Our business management platform, Business Cloud Essentials, offers all of the functionality associated with ERP but for small businesses.
- How secure is my data in Cloud-based business management software?
Using Cloud-based software is actually much more secure than on-premise solutions. Business Cloud Essentials is backed up in our Tier 3 data centres, meaning your data and system has one of the highest levels of security possible.
- What are the cost and process benefits of a business management system?
Bringing all of your business systems together will ensure your organisation saves time and money. Less time will be spent on trying to manage multiple spreadsheets and systems, and teams can focus on value adding tasks for the business rather than admin. Moving to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) payment model will also make the software much more affordable than on-premise systems, with monthly payments including all updates for life and reducing costs on expensive IT servers.
- What sized business does business management software suit?
Our business management software is designed for small-medium UK businesses.
Ongoing software innovation and developments
PRODUCT UPDATES
We are always improving and innovating our products to deliver the best experience for our customers. Here are a selection of the latest updates to our business management software.
- October 2020
- Financial Budgets
- Stock Groups and Chart of Accounts Updates
- July 2020
- Part Matching – Permits the part allocation of payments and receipts and records matching sets
- Supplier Payment Runs – Allow users to pay multiple suppliers in a single payment run
- Auto Reversing Journals – To help users accrue for revenue and expenses for period end accounting
- Revised Journal Listing screen – Introduction of new a journal list screen and includes narratives on journal lines
- Stock Below Minimum Quantity report – Allows suggested minimum and maximum quantities to be set on stock items. To report on stock items below minimum for consolidated reordering back to maximum quantity
- April 2020
- Custom Chart of Accounts
- March 2020
- Payroll Rates Update
- Custom Reports Beta #2
- February 2020
- Quick Reverse
- P&L - Save Reports
- Payroll Legislation
- Security Fixes
- January 2020
- Redesigned P&L UI
- Flexible Payment Terms
- Period Independent from Doc Date
- November 2019
- Reporting on Full Project & Dept Analysis
- Added new Resource Centre (Pendo)
Dedicated Support Team
24hr Customer Portal
Regular Product Updates
97% Project Delivery Score
Additional insights to help you transform
RESOURCES
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Cloud based business management solution for manufacturers
Find out more about our business management solution, designed with, and for, UK manufacturers.
Brochure Read brochure -
Manufacturing Outlook 2019
Webinar Watch on demand -
Cloud FAQs for Business Cloud Essentials
Factsheet Read factsheet -
Business Cloud Essentials Comparison Grid
Product Brief Read comparison grid
News & Opinion
E-Commerce in Manufacturing: Why is it so important?
by Andrew Pearson, SME Product Manager

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