Things to Know When Selling Your Business

If you are selling your business there are things to consider.


  1. The new owner will want to establish a new company name, IRD numbers, and bank account.
  2. You will need to keep a copy of all work done inside SoEasy in case of possible future audits
  3. At the hand over date, 
    1. You will have a current debtors and creditors ledger that will need to be maintained
    2. Your invoices will still be required to be managed and paid by your customers to your bank account
    3. New Invoices will want to be created in the new name and paid to the new owners account
    4. Existing data inside SoEasy will be required by the new owner. Data such as the database, products register...
    5. Training of the new owners is essential


WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO HANDLE THIS?

A lot of people do not realise that the hand over of a business is a complex task and it is not actually considered until the process is required.

  1. The new owner buys a new SoEasy licence and picks up the existing support/service contract (Note 1)
  2. We transfer your data (minus data you do not want them to have) to their program (Note 2)
  3. We assist you to inform your customers of the change in ownership (Note 3)
  4. We set up a training program for the new owners (Note 4)
  5. Move your SoEasy to your own PC (Note 5)


NOTE 1: NEW LICENCE

You actually own your SoEasy software licence but if you hand it over to the new owners, you no longer have the environment that will give you access to the data and help you conclude your accounts (which can take 12 months)

This will be a problem. Your data is also part of the goodwill you are selling to the new owner so they must have access to it on the hand over date.

The best way for this transaction to happen is that they buy the same version that you used and we copy over your data to it.

The new owner will also need to engage the service plan that you are currently on BUT there may be price changes that were not imposed on your site.

When you engaged your support contract it could have been on a special price or may not have increased over the years. Where as now, a new customer would be charged a different price. This will need to be assessed.


NOTE 2: DATA TRANSFER

We have a lot of experience at moving data over to the new owners. There is no 'button' that can be pushed that achieves this as it is a complex process. Typically we follow this procedure:


  1. Set up the new owners SoEasy package
  2. Transfer a full copy of your data
  3. Open the data files and remove:
    1. Previous Years data
    2. All Cash Book and General Ledger activity
    3. All Audit Trails
    4. Zero all Chart of Account values including activity, budgets
    5. Creditor transactions
    6. Selected Debtor Entries
      1. Remove the Debtors Ledger
      2. Leave Invoices, Credit Notes, Quotes
      3. Remove Invoices, Credit Notes summary values but leave the invoiced items and prices
    7. Reset all values such as 'Stop Credit'
  4. Clean the Products Register and review any stock values
  5. Set up security for the new users team
  6. Set up/change email address details and messages
  7. Add new company name and numbers such as GST and Bank Account
  8. Test

This process is charged at our standard hourly rate and can usually be conducted over the Internet so there are no travel or accommodation charges.

After this process, you now have your system still intact and the new owner is good to start trading (except for training)


NOTE 3: ADVISING YOUR CUSTOMERS

This is always a problem. You want customers to pay you for their account with you and the new owner wants new business paying to them. On a customer by customer basis, some will manage this process and some will not. It will not go smoothly unless you plan it to do so.

The Best Way, is that we create a special FINAL STATEMENT from you, that it is printed and posted to the customer.There are other ways such as emailing a message but experience tells us that this takes months to resolve. Customers still pay you the new owner's bills and some pay the new owner your bills. You are forever having to resolve the transactions where as with the special 'FINAL STATEMENT', it is all done in one action.


NOTE 4: TRAINING THE NEW OWNERS

You have been using SoEasy for ages and you feel you can train them. Our experience shows us that you are wanting to move on and the new owners only get a very fast training session. They frequently contact our support desk and we can see that they actually do not know how to do some of the important things. The best solution is to work with us to deliver their training. We set a training schedule, contact the new owners, and secure up the entry level lesson that you may have provided them.We usually set 10 sessions at 30 minutes to 1 hour per session at $85 + gst per hour. This means you are covered and can move on a lot faster than would normally be the case.


NOTE 5: MOVING YOUR SOEASY PROGRAM TO YOUR PC

You actually own your software licence which means you can hold SoEasy forever on your own system. This is great news if you are on our web services because you no longer have a monthly fee.We can move your program + data onto any Windows PC that has a 32 bit operating system.If you have a 64 bit computer we can install Windows Virtual XP which will allow us to make the transfer.If you decide to stay on our managed server platform, this is fine and your licence fee will reduce to a single user.Transfer is charged at the normal hourly rate.

To inquire further into the hand over of your business, please contact us >ASK A QUESTION


FAQ

Which Version of SoEasy do the new owners buy?

It has to be the same version as your current version and the various modules you may have.


How long does it take?

The process is performed in stages. It can all be completed within 1 day or 1 evening if needed

a) Preparation - Set up the new software and users

b) Review existing data with existing owner

c) Pre-train new owner on trial platform

d) Move data and clean

e) Send final statement/Advise customers of change of ownership


Can I just give the new owners my licence?

Yes but as mentioned above, you will still need to book support time with us to get your accounts tidy and data removed.

And you will no longer have access to information that you will require.


To inquire further into the hand over of your business, please contact us >ASK A QUESTION