Failing IT-projects

There has been many news about cases of failed and unsuccessful IT-projects in public administration and state administration in past few years. The most known probably is the catastrophic start of the new e-ticket system of the national railways, which caused a massive chaos on railway stations, queues on the ticket counters and many internet customers being unable to buy their tickets. There are others like that as well and also those, which are still under work, after five or even ten years. Good example is the national information software project, which includes a development of a national archive on patient information and an electronic doctor's prescription. The first one has been under development at least over 10 years and the first version of the e-prescription didn't work in practice.

The reason for failing IT-projects cannot solely be found from the side of the software company, since the coder who actually constructs the whole software possibly has little relation to the field the software is targeted for. An IT company usually tries to meet the needs of the customer, but that isn't an easy task, if the customer self doesn't actually know what she is after. The more complicated the functionalities and the user profiles are, the more difficult is meeting the needs of the customer. Some software’s are probably easier to build to work, such as accounting software’s (in Finnish = kirjanpito-ohjelma) or customer register software’s since the general function are all the same and not depending on the special needs of the special situations. But for example an e-ticket system can be a very complicated thing to tailor for all kinds of situations where the vast variety of users, such as customers or ticket counter workers can be in.

However, many times also, if the customer hasn't been precise with the requirements, specifications and functionalities, the coder starts to think these by it. This is also a situation where the project usually ends up to the interfaces and functionalities which the regular user doesn't understand, since the coder rarely is a specialist in the user experience of a regular people who don't have any expertise in using the e-services and need just simple, working functions.

Rationalizing the billing of a small business

The growing and emerging small businesses find themselves many times in situation where the number of customers increases and due to this the hours spent on the accounts increases as well, starting to spend time from the professional work. While being still a small business, hiring someone to do all the added paper work can be, despite the increased incomes, a financially impossible move, since it would spend more money than it saves the time for other work. Keeping up the records on billing and payments and other things will also take lot of intellectual effort.

There is however many solutions for this kind of situation, and most handy might be the electronic accounting systems and electronic billing software (in Finnish = laskutusohjelma). There are many kind of options for this software’s, varying from the ones running on your own computer into those which are run as a cloud service, working through internet. The latter mentioned can be handy in taking care of the whole billing and accounting since they can be connected to bank via internet and this way keeps the accounts in balance in real time.

The electronic billing systems also keep up with the billing in real time and write the reminders if the payments are missing. Many of these software’s have also a build-in customer relationship management feature which is very useful not only in keeping up with the billing but in marketing and other work as well. When in situation where the small business is taking off and growing, the number of customers starts to be more and more. The need for organized records can be met with an electronic billing system and there will be no need for all kinds of manually updated lists of customers.

Paying bills attention

For freelance self-employed professionals the money earned can be from a multiple small sources. Companies’ professional deals can be numerous, at least in a good situation where the business is flowing and there is enough work. The more there are money transactions the more confusing the accounting (in Finnish = kirjanpito ) becomes, and usually professionals are only skilled in their profession, not necessarily in the art of accounting and numbers.


When the collaborators' and partners' number grow the different ways and practices of billing become familiar for the freelancer. Keeping up the records of the payments and credit balances can start to consume the time from the actual work if the numbers are not the natural means of expression for the self-employed. The bills to write in a month can be numerous, and the added payments, taxes and deductions varied.


Even if the business is very small one, employing the professional only, the investment for proper tools for accounting is advisable and much recommended. These days becoming a customer of some accounting company isn't necessary any more since there are computer software’s and other electronic tools for keeping up the records and saving time for the professional work and core knowhow. These tools, such as billing software’s, can count the payments and taxes, add those numbers into accounting records and keep the accounting organized in real time. Added to the time saved by doing the accounting electronically, it can save money as well since the using of the accounting software can many times be much cheaper than paying for an accountant.

Work place is not just an office

Remote work refers to especially office work done at home or on the different branch offices of an employing company or a customer, maybe even in different country or continent. Remote work started to increase in 1990's after the massive rise of it-technology and the internet connections becoming more common. The dream of doing work in some remote tropical paradise lying in a hammock on some sunny beach is actually possible, taken that the internet connections are working in that paradise. The biggest obstacle for working from abroad and faraway places was in the past and these days still are the slow and insecure connections in many corners of the world.


The need to do the work remotely rises more often from the location of the customers' or the employing company's branch offices than from the need to have a semi vacation anyway, and remote work still is more common in western metropolises than on the countryside. Along with the remote work, the work can be also decentralized, which refers to for example that the team members of a working group can locate all in different corners of a city or the whole world.


Latest developments in the field of it technology and software development has made the employees and self-employed even more free from the location on the whole, and the e-work and businesses based solely on the expertise in it-technology or trades based on the internet connections are increasing all the time. Cloud services, such as for example Google, are in common use for example as a basic office work tools. Such tools as electronic accounting (in Finnish= sähköinen kirjanpito ) and shared virtual office spaces enable the real time online collaboration regardless of location.

Financial management of the event production

The management of the finances of a festival or a cultural or music event is a crucial part of the success of the effort. The bad financial management (in Finnish= taloushallinto) can be devastation even for a prospering and popular event and a good management can support a steady growth of a small or a middle sized happening, making it to succeed and to pull off every time higher quality content to attract more crowds.

However, most of the small sized cultural events are run by art or music enthusiasts whose main motivation to put up the event is to bring the favorite band or artist to town or to display the very own vision of the event. The practical approach to cruel financial realities and conditions tend to be forgotten while concentrating on high ideas, inspirations and visions.

The event management has its own golden ratios between the three supporting pillars of the whole production; the venue, the content and the price. These must be in some balance to make the effort even slightly rational – to not to bring too popular artist in the venue sized for 50 people or give special 5 euro ticket fares for the live concert of an artist whose performing costs are 10.000 euros.

The financial management and the consideration of the financial possibilities to realize the event starts from the counting the costs, dividing the sum with the estimated number of the sold tickets and seeing the result. If the sum looks ridiculous for anyone to invest their money, better to forget or find some rich friends, which is as well possible. If your event is carrying intangible valuables or messages useful in advertising products or services of others, you can always exchange these with your rich friend into money to supply the missing purchase power of your ticket buyers.

It is important to keep the records and numbers on budget organized and update the budget so that it matches the real economic situation. Event productions tend to feature all kinds of a sudden expenses and costs and the information about the real amount of the money in the cash is crucial. Many event managers have driven them self into endless debt crisis without proper knowledge of this information.

Electronic financial management is a saving made

Nowadays many companies migrate their accounting into electronic systems and make most of the financial transactions and accounting actions with the help of the computer softwares and via internet. The accounting software can count the payments and salaries, write the bills, keep the accounts in balance and even produce the documents needed in tax announcements. Besides that electronic accounting automatizes most of the counting and billing tasks, it saves in the costs as well and in many ways.

After moving into electronic financial management (in Finnish=sähköinen taloushallinto) many companies have decided to give up their outsourced accounting services and accounting firms and train their own stuff to use the softwares. The latest developments in the software business, the emergence of the cloud services, has made yet another services useless, that is the it-support and the endless fight with the software updates and payments for licenses. Cloud services eases up the communication between branch offices and increases the possibilities for home office days for employees.

Accounting softwares keep the records in real time. This enables better financial management when the business moves are based on the actual situation instead of past records. This software produces reports, numbers and other information useful for financial planning. The predictability of the economic situation increases this way and foreseeing and making of the plans for future moves is easier and secure. This way the savings made by moving into electronic financial management can actually turn out to be a profitable move and can have a very positive effect on the company's economic situation. 

New Year means new business

When it’s time to end calendar year and look back on the year that just passed by - you have to be thankful and tap yourself in the back if you have your book keeping (in Finnish: kirjanpito) in order. Some people use intelligent software like ProCountor which is great and you can do your book keeping and financials in one place. It’s one type of outsourcing.

New Year brings new business. Many units, companies and even employees put a lot of pressure on the coming year. All mistakes and unfinished business is easy to delay till the beginning of the new - and better year. It seems as if people would use half of December in creating a task list for January.

Book keeping and financials is of course only one thing among others. You have to make sure everything is well documented and all is set for the new year to start. And you have to remember all those who reflected or influenced your work in one way or the other.

New year and new business. People as do businesses seem more receptive when the year changes. People build huge expectations for the better and more successful year to come and this way the businesses led by the people tend to be more receptive as well. This is a huge opportunity for some. You have great chance in getting new fresh partners and everything seems to be possible.

New year is also something to remember. People and businesses start preparing for the end of the new year already in the beginning of the new year. This is because many remember still the trouble they went through in trying to close the last year. All documents and financials have to be in place presents, remembering everything and getting ready for to change the year - it’s a lot of work. If one prepares soon enough it should not be a problem.

As is in taking care of your book keeping and stuff in importance also taking good care of yourself is worth gold. New year is always a good opportunity to start some sort of a change in lifestyle or habits and this usually is a good, new business for some. 

Recruiting power

Most of the companies have finally come to realize that their greatest asset is the brains sitting behind the desks. Human Resources department does not exist for employee benefits or paying salaries - it really takes care of the most important resource of the company.

Usually you notice these things too late. Someone has been waiting for a raise or a promotion for a long time or just otherwise frustrated at work and then gets a job offer from a competitor with huge benefits and smiling clerks. This is nothing new, it’s happening on a regular basis. It happened to me last week.

Recruiting power out of your competitor camp is always smart. You get some business insight - there is one less place where the employee could go if bored at the new work and probably better salary than in the older company.

When I was being recruited last week it all felt very nice and the stories they were telling, really had an effect on me. Working environment and tools are almost the same as my previous job. Here as well the financial management (in Finnish: taloushallinto) is smartly done with ProCountor - which makes my job a whole lot more easier and makes it possible for the business to close to real time monitor their expenses.

When recruiting it is very important to make the new comer feel at home from the day one. If there is an atmosphere of mistrust or competitiveness already from the beginning it might kill ones creativity.

All kinds of groups within a unit might also seem like a bad group of kids for the new comer if they don’t open up.

Recruiting itself might be the toughest job there is. Good people don’t grow in trees and finding one who also should not have a job or be extremely unhappy in their current job might take a while. But when you do find the right one and you clearly get the moment you was looking for, the feeling usually catches the new comer as well. Human Resources have many skills in mapping the most suitable candidates but you have to remember to keep the Human perspective a bit higher than the Resource at all times.

Taking cloud accounting into use

In our company we moved into cloud accounting service recently and migrated the whole accounting including billing, salary payments and expenses into the cloud based software. The whole procedure was in the end an easy one, and the company which provided the tools for the electronic financial management (In Finnish = sähköinen taloushallinto ) provided a training for the using of the system as well.


First the basic information and the desired preferences were inserted into the system and information from the previous systems were imported into the new one. That took a while, and some basic database problems had to be solved. But after the software was up and running for us, we have felt that the decision to move into the cloud based electronic accounting was a good one. The people in the company who use the system have their own user profile and they can access the system where ever they are. We also gave up the sending of paper bills and moved into to electronic bills on the same occasion we took accounting service into use.


Now the communication between the accounting company and our company happens mainly through the software and the software is also connected to our bank. The user interface of the software is very accessible and easy to comprehend and didn't take long to understand how to use it. The move into cloud service will save our money and time as well, since we don't have to bother ourselves anymore with the software licenses, updates or other maintenance. All is done by the company providing the service. It also saves our disk space since the system is usable through internet connection.

Solutions for billing and salary payments

Salary payments used to be a monthly hassle with all the employees having different kind grounds for salary, different taxation, some of them belonging to the union and others not and so on. And while all this is nowadays, with the help of excellent software’s, possible to make totally automatic, it still leaves the monthly posting of the pay slips. Depending on the industry and the business the company is into, the billing as well can be a monthly interruption and a headache, due to the checking and posting the bills. The more irregular the billing is, like for example for the small business owners and self employed, the more headache the whole accounting is.


There is however solutions for the accounting (In Finnish = kirjanpito ) making the life of for example self employed or an accountant of a medium sized business much easier. The whole accounting can be done in one computer system only and there are some accounting companies providing software’s running as a cloud service, which makes the whole accounting process even easier. The software keeps the records automatically synchronizing with your accounts in the bank and in the end of the financial year the software produces needed records, such as balance sheets and income statements. This makes possible also an efficient planning of the finances.


There are additional benefits as well when running the electronic accounting as a cloud service. This way money and time are saved, since there is no need for continuous updates, which many times take much time and work. Also, disk space is saved and the IT equipment can be much lighter and need for the up keeping of an extended arsenal of computer hardware is reduced. Cloud service frees as well the stuff of the company from location and makes for example home office days much easier as the service is available wherever there is internet connection.

Ecological office saves also money

In the manufacturing industries the environmentally friendly ways of production have been highlighted in recent times especially due to campaigns of the different environmental organizations, and the public and the industry it self are quite aware of the ecological problems of for example mining industry or IT equipment manufacturing. The attention is less payed to the carbon footprint and the ecological long term effects of the office work and service sector. For example construction specifications for office estates given by the government have been concerning the consuming of energy of the large office buildings only in recent years.


And even less is payed attention to the actual, daily practical working it self and the ways that could be done in more environmentally friendly way. There are many ways to reduce for example the consuming of energy, for example by simply switching off equipment which are not in use and not leaving the lights on in the end of the day. Printing only two sized sheet reduces the consuming of the paper into half. These simple ways can save plain money as well, since the electricity and the paper have their costs.


The whole office work is possible to organize ecologically in a large scale as well, by changing the whole work flow and practices. By choosing the office space from a low-energy house cuts the electricity bill as well along with the carbon footprint. Investing into energy efficient equipment will reduce the electricity bill even further. Moving into a paperless office is easy these days when all the planning, documentation, communication and financial management (In Finnish = taloushallinto ) can be done with the help of the computers. Many software’s supporting the organization such as common calendars, shared documentation spaces or electronic accounting are available as a cloud service which enables home office work and this way reduces the need for the office space.

Modern methods of accounting

When Luca Pacioli discovered and described the Venetian merchant’s ways of keeping their accounting in the 15th century the records were manually written down on the accounting books and the balances counted with the help of an abacus. Much didn´t change for many centuries, and the whole procedure of the accounting (In Finnish = kirjanpito ) was quite the same as in the Paciolis days for many centuries after. The double-entry bookkeeping, first time literally introduced by Pacioli in his famous book Summa de Arithmetical, Geometric, Proportion et Proportionality, still prevails.

The rise of the computers as a working tools in practically every office has since changed at least the plain work of doing bookkeeping if not also the whole procedure. If the medieval bookkeepers had to resort to their books and hand-made records to know where their business was standing, modern time’s accountant simply inserts the numbers into the system which then counts the right balances. This changes the focus of bookkeeping from simply recording the numbers into estimating the future and planning the next business move according to financial prospects.

The recent trends in IT field are having their effect on the development of electronic bookkeeping as well. The ever growing internet makes the connections between the business partners, banks and accountant easier every day. Internet connections have also made it unnecessary to have everything from the records to software’s on your own computer systems. As the amount of the digital information only grows the need for disk space is actually quite pressing for some. Different kind of cloud services provides solutions for keeping up the records and the bookkeeping.

Luca Pacioli – the founder of modern bookkeeping

The man who was the first to describe and lay out the rules for modern day bookkeeping is actually quite unknown despite of his work on mathematics and his friendship with the one of the most known man of his time Leonardo Da Vinci. Luca Pacioli was born around 1445 in Tuscany to a poor family. He worked as a apprentice for local merchants but moved in his twenties to Venice and started to teach three merchant´s sons. For them he wrote his first book handling arithmetics and opened his writers career. At the same time he continued his education, and later on moved to Perugia to become a teacher in mathematics in the university.

In 1494 Luca Pacioli wrote his famous book Summa de arithmetica, gemometria, proportioni et proportionalita in which he wrote as well about the double-entry bookkeeping (in Finnish=kirjanpito) used by Venetian merchants of his time for one chapter. The book made him famous throughout the whole Europe and it was widely read. Couple of years after publishing his work Pacioli moved to Milan, where he continued his career in mathematics. There he also met his future collaborator and roommate Leonardo Da Vinci.

In this time he also wrote several other works, such as De viridus quantitatis which was about mathematics and magic and De divina proportione which handled the mathematic and the artistic proportions. However he and Leonardo Da Vinci were forced to leave Milan in 1499 due to political circumstances and their ways were separated later on. Luca Pacioli spent most of his later years and died in his hometown in Tuscany around 1517.

Some accounting steps and tips for starting up freelancers

According to law all companies are entitled to bookkeeping and it is responsibility of a entrepreneur or the management of a company to organize the bookkeeping. In the bookkeeping all the company´s money transactions and debts and revenues are recorded. Entrepreneur is also bound to store these records along with related receipts and other documentation for ten years even if the company doesn't exist anymore. The self employed free lancer must also organize his bookkeeping, if not for any other reason than just to fill up the tax announcements. Without proper and clear bookkeeping the filling up the tax forms can be a nightmare.

It is advised to find out properly of all the rules and regulations concerning the accounting and taxation. Local tax officials can help and give information and there are many offices and instances who give help and information for small business entrepreneurs with setting up the administration. Employment offices and enterprise agencies can provide consultation on these matters as well.

The easiest way nowadays to organize to whole bookkeeping is doing it with the help of electronic accounting sofware (in Fnnish=kirjanpito-ohjelma), which keeps the records always updated. These softwares take into account as well all the local taxation and other things, so that the self employed doesn't have to be all the time a calculator in her hand. All the incoming and outgoing billing is possible to handle electronically so that the manual paper work is reduced. The easies way to organize the whole accounting and bookkeeping is to simply outsource the whole procedure to some accounting company.

Free lancers free working hours

Many of the modern day professionals end up being self employed freelancers while doing work for several employers. Being a free lancer gives a certain kind of freedom, and many have in their minds especially the free working hours, when the freelancer is not bind to a working hours for example of a big company. Reality then again can be quite different. When you are an employee you do your work, go home and once a month an always same sized salary appears on your account. Someone else is doing all the administrative work for you and only thing you need to do is carry out your work as well as you can.

Self employed people have to be a bit more than this to get the always varying monthly salary on their accounts. Being a good professional and doing your work best you can isn´t enough. If a regular employee needs to do an average 8 hour working day to pay her monthly bills, self employed can add to this several hours of administrative work among the tax papers, accounting, salary payments, all kinds of announcements to officials and so on. Added to this, and especially in the beginning of the freelancer career, is the marketing of the freelancer´s professionalism, finding customers to pay the monthly salary. Free working hours are just a dream in the reality of a self employed professional if she doesn't have any help from outside.

It is possible to reduce the work load and for example the financial administration (in Finnish=taloushallinto)with the help of technology and outsourced services, such as accounting softwares and accounting companies. Even if the business is really small, meaning that the company´s sales are not numerous, many services are still in the reach of a freelancer and can save the time as well so that the dream of a free working hours instead of an endless working hours can actually be true.

Saving the planet with office work

Offices are the places where people in the job life spend most of their waking hours and offices are also the places where people consume natural resources and energy the most. The step into the more ecological office work can actually make a big difference, even if the means as such feel rather small. But if an average office worker produces 7000 sheets of printed paper every year, only taking into practice of printing only two-sided copies can reduce the number into half. Also, a lot of energy can be saved only by every office worker remembering to switch off the screen at the end of the day.

Offices use a lot of energy. Printers, computers, lights, heating and air-conditioning all eat vast amounts of energy and it shows in the electricity bill as well. Actually saving energy or finding more nature friendly ways of doing the work is not only a matter of ecological choice, but is an economically wise idea as well. Cutting down the consuming of paper or switching off the office lights when leaving the work place are along with a service to nature, a service to the company´s finances as well.

There are many means by which the office environment and the spending time at the work place can be reworked to be more nature friendly. The way the waste and especially paper waste is handled in the office has a big effect on the offices` ecological footprint. The whole workflow can be transformed into less nature consuming, for example moving into paperless accounting with the help of electronic accounting (in Finnish=sähköinen kirjanpito) or drafting documents via internet or internal connections.