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Business payments fraud is showing no signs of abating.

A Surge in Accounts Payable Fraud

In fact, according to a recent study cited by AccuImage, a provider of software solutions and services that help businesses automate their document flow, B2B payment fraud has increased nationwide.

Despite business executives and financial officers frantically looking for a solution to curb the uptick in payable fraud, the study finds that more than three quarters of businesses were hit in the past year.

“There are many ways to scam accounts payable,” says Larry Bennett, CEO of AccuImage, in a statement, “everything from creating false invoices to check fraud.”

Small business owners need to be aware of this worrying trend and take necessary precautions.

2018 AFP Payments Fraud Survey Findings

According to the Santa Clara, California-based document management and imaging solutions provider, raising rates of payment fraud call for, among other things, digitized accounts payable systems to help businesses reduce the chances of payment fraud.

The document management and imaging solutions firm quotes the 2018 annual study released by The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), which reports that payment fraud has become more sophisticated. This even as more businesses are investing heavily in security measures.

In the 2018 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, which surveyed nearly 700 treasury and finance professionals, AFP says the primary target for payments fraud is checks. This is followed by business email compromise, which is a rising concern. Other targets are Wire fraud and corporate card fraud.

“It is alarming that the rate of payment fraud has reached a record high despite repeated warnings,” said AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz. “In addition to being extremely vigilant, treasury and finance professionals will need to anticipate scams and be prepared to deter these attacks.”

Top Ways to Detect and Prevent Payments Fraud

AccuImage offers some handy tips to identify and prevent payments fraud in your organization:

1. Create audit trails, have staff with clear job descriptions and divisions of duties, and utilize digital processes that don’t rely on paper.
2. Monitor requests for duplicate payments. Duplicate invoices can happen more often than realized. Always beware.
3. An important control to put in place to prevent fraud is ensuring that employees don’t have more authority than is needed to perform the duties of their role.
4. Build strong process integration between Procurement and Accounts Payable. Strong process integration between Accounts Payable and the Procurement function ensures that goods or services are ordered according to purchasing policy, and that they are appropriately received before the invoice is paid.
5. Use data to uncover trends in supplier invoices. Data rich organizations can identify overpayments to their suppliers by monitoring trends in supplier performance or supplier spend. Organizations can take a more proactive approach to preventing duplicate payments by defining parameters that identify potentially fraudulent invoices and routing these invoices to someone for review.

“A secure digitized accounts payable system will help reduce fraud as well as all payable interaction errors and inconsistencies,” stresses Bennett, whose document processing firm has been in business since 1988.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Business Accounts Payable Fraud On the Rise Nationwide, Study Shows” was first published on Small Business Trends

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User Experience (UX) Design is the term used to describe the process of enhancing user satisfaction by creating products that provide relevant and meaningful experiences. By improving the accessibility and usability of a product, the satisfaction of interacting with the product is enhanced.

What is UX Design?

Whether it’s a website, software or any product for an end-user, the objective of UX Design is to generate an enjoyable, seamless experience for the user.

How Can UX Design Help a Small Business?

Such frictionless, satisfying experiences are important for small businesses, as they help boost customer satisfaction by providing enhanced accessibility, usability and enjoyable interaction with a product.

The increased customer satisfaction generated through UX design means small businesses help attract and retain customers, sell a greater number of products and remain more competitive and profitable.

Users expectations on their experience of products are on the rise. Consequently, to remain competitive, businesses need to implement UX design into their products to ensure their customers have the seamless, pleasurable experience they have come to expect.

UX and Website Design

UX is an important component of website design, with users expecting an easy-to-navigate, seamless and pleasurable journey as they browse through a site, whether on a PC, laptop or mobile phone. A poor UX on websites, such as delays to loading times, can quickly result in a potential customer navigating away from the site.

Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital, and leading influencer in digital marketing, notes the importance of website loading times in the user experience., with something as short as a one second delay in page response, resulting in a 16% decease in customer satisfaction.

“Page loading time is obviously an important part of any website’s user experience. And many times, we’ll let it slide to accommodate better aesthetic design, new nifty functionality or to add more content to web pages. Unfortunately, website visitors tend to care more about speed than all the bells and whistles we want to add to our websites,” says Patel in his blog.

Frooition, specialists in professional eBay designs for ecommerce sites, is familiar with UX designs in websites. Andrew Pinner, Business Development Manager at Frooition, told Small Business Trends how the company tends to use UX designs behind the scenes for its clients and stick to the best UX for the majority of clients, only slightly changes the UX on a client by client basis.

“The UX is the combination of the frame and placement of a website as well as the process of reporting and learning from the reporting you get. It is like the chassis and engine of a car combined with the speedometer. Without the speedo how do you know you are travelling faster with Engine A vs engine B,” Andrew Pinner told Small Business Trends.

“For us we test and test until we find an “engine” that works for the majority of cars and then use that same chassis and engine for most of our clients. This also lowers cost on a per client basis.”

Explaining how UX helps small businesses, Andrew Pinner said:

“UX is critical for small businesses, without the correct fundamentals of UX an e-commerce site will not perform optimally.

“There are a number of things that users expect to see, without these features the sites feel alien and create a bad or frustrating experience. Over the last 5 years we have seen the tolerance for bad UX continue to drop, buyers expect a good experience and make buying decisions in seconds, if it takes minutes to find your navigation then you won’t succeed.

“There are businesses that succeed by breaking convention, but it is a fine line, think of Snapchat, when it was first launched the UX of swiping was novel, new and created an inclusion for its users that were in the know. More recently they altered the layout and brought stories into a different place – this backfired as users hated it.

“UX is like a service or utility, you don’t notice it until it’s not there or wrong, users shouldn’t notice good UX, but they will very quickly notice bad UX,” Frootion’s Business Development Manager added.

Ceros Originals, providers of interaction content creation software, reiterates the need for UX design.

“User experience is a part of the design process that you don’t hear about unless something goes wrong. But it is something that should be an integral part of the design process from early concepts to the final product,” Ceros Originals advises.

If you’re small business is yet to consider UX design in its products, it’s not to late to start building products with the user experience in mind, to ensure your customer remember your brand and products for the right reasons.

As UX Planet notes:

“User Experience is all about how we perceive it, how we use it, and how we remember it.”

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “What is UX Design and How Can it Help Your Small Business?” was first published on Small Business Trends

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According to a recent report on handmade commerce, Etsy sellers are contributing $4.7 billion to the American economy right now.

The report, on the surface, shows two positive signs. First, consumer spending is presumably strong. Second, there’s a thirst for quality handmade goods, which are most often made by small business entrepreneurs. This is only one of several stories important to small business retailers and others this week.

To see what other stories are making headlines with small business owners and other entrepreneurs, check out our full news roundup below.

Retail Trends

8 Big Predictions for the 2018 Holiday SHIPPING Season

Americans are set to spend big this holiday season. In fact, numbers from Adobe Analytics report the online spend alone will reach $124.1 billion to overshadow brick and mortar sales. What’s more, Deloitte reports that people will spend $525 on gifts representing a bump of 20% from $430 in 2017. 2018 Holiday Shipping Season Small Business Trends talked with Georgianna W.

Sales

Zoho Adds AI and Analytics for Small Business with CRM Plus

Zoho has recently released the latest addition to its customer experience CRM platform offering the one-two punch of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. Zoho CRM Plus lets small businesses without big IT budgets compete with the bigger players by letting different departments like customer support, marketing, sales and operations work together.

Economy

31% of Businesses List Healthcare as Top Issue for New Congress

A new poll sees healthcare as the top issue for small businesses as the new Congress takes shape after the midterm elections. The numbers come from a recent poll conducted by The Small Business Roundtable, a small business and entrepreneur organization dedicated to the advancement of this critical aspect of the American economy.

Employment

Hiring 3.8% Higher than October 2017 but Leveling, LinkedIn Reports

The monthly LinkedIn Workforce Report for October 2018 revealed gross hiring in the US was up 3.8%, higher than for the same period the previous year. With seasonally adjusted national hiring down only 0.3% from September to October 2018, the job market is still very strong.

Management

Switching  to an Open Office May Make 1 in 8 of your Employees Consider Quitting, Survey Says

Believe it or not, the open office concept was being used before the cubicle in the early 20th century. What we’ve learned since that time is there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to office space, which is what a survey commissioned by ROOM reveals.

Social Media

Pew Research Provides Important Data for Small Businesses about Marketing on YouTube

Data from a new Pew Research Center survey reveals YouTube has become a valuable resource for Americans. The research contains some valuable insights for small businesses now using the platform as a marketing channel. Users are turning to YouTube for how to videos, product information, children’s content and even news.

New Looping Video App Planned from the Creator of Vine, Could Your Business Benefit?

For the millions of fans who regularly watched and loved its quirky videos, the sudden shut down of the Vine app in October 2016 came as a bitter blow. If you happen to be one of those fans or one of the creators who made those videos, there is good news because the co-founder of Vine, Dom Hofmann, is bringing the app back with a new name: byte.

Startup

1  in 7 Americans Think They Are Sitting on a Game Changing Business Idea, Survey Says

How confident are American entrepreneurs about their business idea? A Northwestern Mutual survey carried out by OnePoll reveals one in seven think their idea is so strong it could change the world and have a dramatic impact in the chosen industry. This level of confidence is commendable and even necessary in order to persevere and make your dreams come true.

Technology Trends

PayPal Acquires Hyperwallet with Focus on Ecommerce Businesses

PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) recently completed the acquisition of Vancouver-based global payout platform Hyperwallet Systems for approximately $400 million USD.

Companies Adopt Ride Sharing – But Not Room Sharing – in Business Travel Policies

Services provided by the sharing economy have increased adoption rates for shared transportation during business trips. But according to a new survey from Chrome River, the adoption rate for shared accommodation hasn’t reached the same levels. Instead of using Airbnb, HomeAway, or VRBO, business travelers are still opting to stay in hotels for their accommodations.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Top Stories: Etsy Businesses Contribute $4.7B, 31% of Entrepreneurs Concerned about Healthcare” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Small businesses across the United States spend a staggering $60 billion on energy every year, most of which is consumed in electricity. Keeping work premises warm in the winter and cool in the summer is a necessary part of running any business but is also energy intensive, equating to one of the biggest energy costs.

Heating and Cooling Costs

Taking steps to reduce heating and cooling costs will significantly help reduce your business’s electricity consumption and therefore energy bills.

If you’re determined to cut back on heating and cooling expenses, take a look at the following ways you might be able to do it.

Ways of Reducing Your Business’s Heating Costs

Program Your Thermostats

You can save significant dollars by simply programming your thermostat, so the heating goes off when nobody is in the office. Even if your team works at different times, there will be periods when the premises is vacant and programming a thermostat to go off during these hours will prevent energy and therefore dollars from being wasted.

Regularly Maintain Heating Systems

It is important that you have the heating system at your business regularly serviced and maintained to ensure it keeps working at its optimum so you’re not wasting energy and money unnecessarily through a faulty or inefficient system.

Turn Your Temperature Down

According to Energy Star, you can save as much as 10% a year on heating by simply turning the thermostat in your building back by 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit for eight hours a day from its normal setting. The ideal temperature to set a thermostat to during the winter is 68 degrees Fahrenheit when at work.

Prevent Air Leakage

It might sound obvious, but preventing cold air from entering your business premises can help keep the building warm and comfortable and place less pressure on your heating system. Prior to the cold weather setting in, inspect your doors, windows and other parts of the interior of your building for gaps that might let cold air in and heated air escape. Any gaps should be sealed and made weatherproof sooner rather than later to help with vital energy savings.

Change the Location of Your Thermostat

The location of the thermostat in your business might be affecting your energy consumption more than you think. If your thermostat is placed too close to a source of heat, for example, it is likely to be making your heating less efficient. It is advisable to place a thermostat out of direct sunlight, away from air vents, and not in kitchens, hallways or near windows or doors.

Ways of Reducing Your Business’s Cooling Costs

Switch to Energy-Efficient Cooling Equipment

Air conditioners use around 6% of all the electricity produced in the United States. In order to crack the code on cooling costs for your business, you should look at replacing inefficient, energy-zapping air-conditioning units, with more efficient Energy Star-qualified models to help make valuable savings on cooling costs.

Purchase Energy-Efficient Water-Cooled Ice Machines

When it’s hot outside, employees need to drink water regularly to stay hydrated and working at their best. Water cooling ice machines can be a godsend in offices and working premises when it’s hot outside, but unfortunately, these machines consume a significant amount of energy.

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), which provides efficiency guidance for water-cooled ice machines, highlights the benefits of using Energy Star-qualified equipment to ensure businesses get the best value possible on their energy bills.

Use Window Treatments to Prevent Direct Sunlight Filtering in the Room

Studies have proven that being exposed to natural light improves workplace performance and employee wellbeing. However, having direct sunlight filter in on a hot day will only make your cooling system have to work harder and subsequently drain more energy to keep your office and workers cool.

One simple and easy way to reduce your cooling consumption is to hang window treatments on the windows during the summer. Treatments such as blinds and window tints can significantly reduce heat transfer and cut down the amount of heat radiating into a commercial building, keeping employees cool without having to rely so heavily on energy-draining cooling units.

Have Your HVAC System Regularly Maintained

To ensure your ventilation and cooling systems are operating at their optimum and are not draining energy unnecessarily, it is important to get them regularly maintained. This simple process can be an effective way to reduce energy consumption and make smart savings on energy costs.

Use Variable Speed Fans

Placing variable speed fans at your business means that the fans slow down when ventilation demand decreases, thereby saving your business money on electricity and subsequently reducing cooling costs.

Follow these steps to reduce your energy consumption for cooling and heating and you can look forward to making important business energy savings, money that can be better spent elsewhere in your business.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Cracking the Code on Heating and Cooling Costs for Your Business” was first published on Small Business Trends

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It’s flawed to say “Manufacturing is ‘dead’ in the U.S.” Heard of 3D printers? Well, think of 3D printing as manufacturing that fits much better with modern business needs. And by modern, we mean this decade and the next.

3D Printing for Small Business

Many people regard the 3D printing world as more of a place for prototypes and experimentation. This is only partially true, because today businesses of all sizes turn ideas into physical items through 3D prints. It’s gotten better and easier to do so.

For example, 3D printing app Voodoo now allows Shopify merchants to create and customize items and immediately list those items for sale within minutes. What’s more, Voodoo claims 3D design skills aren’t required. Small Business Trends chatted with Connie Cheng, an entrepreneur who says her creative ideas come to life thanks to the app’s integrations. Our discussion below might inspire you to cast fear aside and to weave new ideas into your brand using this very 2018 technology.

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Connie Cheng is the owner and product designer for Corgi Things, a lifestyle brand for corgi owners and lovers. After working in tech for several years, Cheng started Corgi Things in 2016 as a small passion project. The project unexpectedly grew to a full-time business by 2017. Cheng collaborates with other talented corgi lovers in the community to design and curate all types of fun corgi products. Her mission is to cultivate and spread happiness with other like-minded “corgi people” around the world, one Corgi Thing at a time.

Connie currently lives in New Jersey with her 11-year-old corgi, Lucy. You can follow their daily adventures on Instagram at @corgithings.

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Small Business Trends: How were you able to quickly scale your company? Who do you cater to?

Connie Cheng: Corgi Things caters to the corgi community. We design products, promote other small businesses, create content around raising, adopting and rescuing corgis and build relationships with corgi fanatics. The main reason we were able to scale our product offerings so quickly was because of print-on-demand services, like the Voodoo App. The Voodoo App has allowed us to test products and get feedback from customers — and it’s so easy to use. One thing that really stuck out to me was how easy it actually was to create the cookie cutter itself. The Voodoo app allowed us to design cookie cutters without having to learn any 3D skills or software.

Small Business Trends: Have you ever considered 3D printing products before?

Connie Cheng: My boyfriend has a 3D printer, so I’ve thought about 3D printing the Corgi Things logo and making a cookie cutter out of it. But the reality is, we didn’t and still don’t have the capacity to print them in bulk and ship them out. That’s why we had to put that idea on the back burner until we were able to source someone in the U.S. who could print and ship for us. That’s why we were so excited to learn about the Voodoo App, so we could bring our ideas to life!

Small Business Trends: What’s next for Corgi Things?

Connie Cheng: This year we migrated from Etsy over to Shopify, so that already opened up a lot more opportunities for us in terms of offerings, merchandising and branding. We spent half of the year adjusting to the new platform. As for 2019, we’re going to introduce some apparel, since our customers have been asking for this for a while now. We’ll also continue working on seasonal home decor items, like garden flags and floor mats.

Small Business Trends: What can you share about the transition to Shopify and how it affected your growth?

Connie Cheng: When I first started, I created our blog on WordPress. Once we started offering small products like stickers and magnets, I ended up using Etsy because it was the easiest platform and also had tons of organic traffic. Etsy worked well for all of 2017.

We were able to scale quickly on Etsy without having to manage an entire shop. Once we started rolling over into 2018, our product line had really grown and we were looking for better ways to merchandise our products. Basically, we wanted more control over marketing, and it was really important for us to be able to capture more emails and leads.

I’m very happy about migrating over to Shopify because it gives us that marketing control, seamlessly integrates with more apps, and allows us to easily contact our customers.

Small Business Trends: What else are you doing to grow Corgi Things?

Connie Cheng: As a new business owner, there’s a lot of marketing I didn’t do from the beginning because I didn’t have the time to focus on it. Because of that, we left a lot of opportunities on the table. In 2018 we really stepped up our marketing game, making outreach more consistent.

In 2019, we’d like to focus on running more social ads because the majority of our traffic up until this point has been organic. By focusing on social media ads, we think we’ll be able to continue growing our following and reach other like-minded and corgi-obsessed people.

Images: Corgi Things

This article, “Startup Uses 3D Printing App Voodoo and Shopify to Create and Sell Corgi Related Products” was first published on Small Business Trends

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