Before user-friendly computers came on the scene, keeping records for a small business involved many hours of tedious pencil and paper work. It would be extremely difficult to reconcile the physical inventory to the recorded list if somebody forgot to write down the sale of a number 13, extra large green widget. Not only would the inventory be off, but it’s also likely the accounts receivable would be off by the cost of the big green widget plus any other items sold but not recorded. Other small businesses like online trading (working as a online trading broker) are also greatly benefited by modern computer and technology.

Thankfully, those days are over. Every salesperson now has an identification number, and every item has a stock number. When orders are received, the items are entered into inventory. When someone rings up a sale, they enter their employee ID, the inventory number assigned to the product(s) being sold, and the quantity of items. The computer already knows the price of the item so, with the small amount of information entered at point of sale, the computer updates the inventory and can yield reports corresponding to:

• Number of products sold
• Dollar amount of products sold
• Collectible amounts, including applicable taxes
• Products sold by  each salesperson
• Dollar sales by salesperson

If the management has sales expectations for each salesperson, they are stored as quotas. The computer can spit out a summary of the percentage of quota achieved on any given dollar amount or specific products at any given time.

With a computer keeping track, products, dollar sales, and quotas are much more likely to balance. Discrepancies, if any, are easier to find. The green widgets should be all present and accounted for.