The problem was users often forget to update Headlight or the automated system occasionally fails without letting the user know. We added tutorials for using Smart Sync with Alliant Systems, a signup page to receive weekly email reminders and a warning dialog that tells you when the data is getting old.

Smart Sync Tutorial for Alliant Systems

http://www.gomobileiq.com/smart-sync-instructions

Signup for Weekly Smart Sync Reminders

http://www.gomobileiq.com/smart-sync-reminders

Smart Sync Warning Message

This warning dialog appear automatically at login. It’s an option under Import Smart Sync Files that can be enabled or disabled at any time.

Smart Sync Product File Improvements

You can now upload a new product file without needing the customer and delivery files. This makes it much easier to change product groups, add/remove SKUs, update pricing product, enable/disable products. We’ve also added the ability to “block” any future upload to avoid accidentally overwriting existing product information.

Fill out this form and you’ll receive a weekly email reminder and instructions for updating Headlight. It’s an easy way to insure the routing information is always up to date.

Enable Smart Sync

Before importing files the first time, Smart Sync must be part of your Headlight plan and enabled. Just send an email to MobileIQ Customer Support to request an upgrade or enable this feature. Try clicking on the orange Import tab followed by the Smart Sync link. If you see the screen below, either Smart Sync isn’t available for your account or hasn’t been enabled.

Export Smart Sync files from the billing system

You must first create and download the Smart Sync files from the billing system or CRM. These steps are vendor specific, but generally involve running an export routine and saving three files to your local computer.

When this process is completed, you should have three files saved locally: Customer File (mobileiqcust.csv), Delivery File (mobileiqdel.csv) and the Product File (mobileiqprod.csv)

The following steps will vary depending on the specific billing or accounting system. Contact the vendor for specific instructions on creating the Smart Sync files.

Example: Alliant Systems

1. Log in to Alliant Systems

2. Click the Mobile button and then click MobileIQ at the bottom left of the screen under maintenance.

3. Set the File Location to your desktop or the location of your choice and click Begin

The files are now saved to the location you choose on your computer. You are now ready to upload the files into Headlight.

Upload Smart Sync files to Headlight

1. Log in to Headlight

2. Click on the orange Import tab

3. Click the Import Smart Sync Files link.

4. Browse for the Customer File

This is the location where you previously saved the billing system export files. Repeat for the Delivery File and the Product File.

5. After browsing for all three files, click the Upload button.

Your Smart Sync files are now scheduled for processing.

6. Headlight checks for new Smart Sync files every 15-30 minutes

The Headlight administrator will receive a summary email after the files have been processed and any updates applied to your account.

Signup for weekly Smart Sync reminders

Signup to receive weekly email reminders for updating Headlight

Automating the Smart Sync process

Click here to learn more about automating Smart Sync

Some things to consider:

• Is the account seasonal?
• Is it in collections?
• Has the service or product deliveries been suspended?

Regardless of the criteria, you don’t want to miss any of these accounts when making changes or they’ll be out of the place in the new route architecture. That means extra mileage for the drivers and possibly complaints from the customers.

While the ideal situation is getting everything fixed before the new route start running, sometimes that isn’t feasible. You need a backup plan to quickly identify those accounts and assign the correct location, route and stop number.

Here are two “tricks” for quickly identifying any accounts that got missed:

1. Use new route identifiers, not current ones.

Let’s say there four routes currently identified as A, B, C and D. Using this technique, the new route identifiers could become 1, 2, 3, 4 or P, Q, R and S. This can be a permanent or temporary change. After the new routes Go Live, any accounts that appear on A, B, C or D need to be corrected.

Some of the common reasons this might happen are: new accounts are incorrectly routed against the old route architecture, seasonal accounts that returned after the new routes were assigned or accounts that slipped through the cracks. Regardless of the reason, this approach provides an easy way for anyone in the company to easily spot the mistake and correct it.

2. Use a special number sequence.

Some industries can easily change route labels, but it’s more difficult for others.

Industrial laundries often use tags in the garments that have to match the route and day. Another way of “tagging” accounts without changing the route identifiers is sequencing the stops in a particular way. Almost all companies sequence stops throughout the day in one of two methods.

The first method is using multiples of 10
(e.g. Stop numbers are 10, 20, 30, 40, 50…)

The second method is sequential numbering
(e.g. Stop numbers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…)

With either approach, you’ll also see 0, 1 or 9999 used to identify new accounts that haven’t been sequenced yet. Or perhaps ending in 5 or other occasional odd numbers in order to adjust the sequencing throughout the year.

What you’ll never see is stop numbers that all end in either 3 or 7. And that’s the key to this trick. Use stop numbers like 7, 17, 27, 37, 47, 57… for all the accounts that are part of the route balancing. After the Go Live date, any stop number ending in any other digit wasn’t part of the route balancing and needs to be fixed.

These are two simple way of solving a difficult problem. You can use either or both depending on the specific situation. And it’s pretty easy to change the stop numbers back to the standard sequencing after everything is running properly.

This screencast explain the new reporting functionality in detail.

I heard a simple way of understanding it this morning. Every ten dollar rise in the price per barrel costs an additional $.25 per gallon at the gas station. When oil prices rises from $70 to $90, you’re paying an extra $.50 per gallon to fill up your car, SUV or delivery van.

Oil prices have been relatively low recently and were about $90 per barrel at the end of 2010. That’s in sharp contrast to late 2008 when it hit $147 per barrel. If that happens again, expect to pay another $1.50 per gallon at the local gas station. For a typical SUV, that’s almost forty buck more to fill the tank.

Information in this article was provided by Oil-Price.net

The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (HR 5297) was signed into law on Sep. 27, 2010. Among many other provisions, this one really stood out to me. It basically says that stock purchased from a small company (less than $50M in assets) by the end of this year is exempted from capital gains with a five year holding period.

That’s up to $10M in gains or 10x the original purchase price. It’s a tremendous tax benefits for private investors.

http://tax.cchgroup.com/legislation/Small-Business-Jobs-Act-7-23-10.pdf

100% Exclusion of Small Business Capital Gains

Generally, non-corporate taxpayers may exclude 50 percent of the gain from the sale of certain small business stock acquired at original issue and held for more than five years. For stock acquired after February 17, 2009 and before January 1, 2012, the exclusion is increased to 75 percent. At the time of sale, however, 28% of the excluded gain will be treated as a tax preference item subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT).

Qualifying small business stock is from a C corporation whose gross assets do not exceed $50 million (including the proceeds received from the issuance of the stock) and who meets a specific active business requirement. The amount of gain eligible for the exclusion is limited to the greater of ten times the taxpayer’s basis in the stock or $10 million of gain from stock in that corporation.

This bill would temporarily increase further the amount of the exclusion to 100 percent of the gain from the sale of qualifying small business stock that is acquired after the date of enactment in 2010 and held for more than five years. Additionally, the bill would eliminate the AMT preference item attributable for that sale. This provision is estimated to cost $517 million over ten years.

[UPDATED: Feb. 1, 2011]

Administration Will Propose Permanent Elimination of the Capital Gains Tax on Certain Small Business Stock

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 provides a 100-percent exclusion from tax for capital gains realized on the sale of certain small business stock held for more than five years.

The amount of gain eligible for the exclusion is limited to the greater of $10 million or ten times the taxpayer’s basis in the stock. This provision applies to qualified small business stock issued after December 31, 2010, and before January 1, 2012.

The Administration’s FY12 budget proposal would make this provision permanent, increasing private sector investment in small businesses. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/startup-america-fact-sheet for additional information.

In order to use this feature, you’ll need to have Smart Sync enabled and provide the dropbox credentials unique to your Headlight account.

Step for the billing system vendor

1. Schedule a job using Windows Task Manager or cron (depending on the system) to create the Smart Sync files each night.
2. FTP the files to Headlight after the export is completed. They’ll need the unique Headlight Dropbox information for your account.

Headlight Dropbox Information

Go under Setup | Import | Smart Sync, scroll to the bottom of the page and provide this information to the billing system vendor.

- FTP Server
- Port (this is always 21)
- User Name
- Password

Here’s an example of what it looks like:

We were one of only 40 companies chosen from several hundred applicants. The event is attended by hundreds of accredited investors, local angel and early-stage VC companies and will certainly accelerate things for the next round of funding.

Learn more about this year’s event being held in downtown Denver at the Daniel’s Business College. Join us for the 4th annual Angel Capital Summit on December 6-7, in beautiful Denver, Colorado!

Come see the best in entrepreneurship, at the conference that has become the best forum between San Francisco and New York for investors and entrepreneurs to find each other.

List of presenting companies

http://angelcapitalsummit.org/content/presenting-companies

Register to attend the event

http://angelcapitalsummit.org/register