Accept Payments Anywhere with Sage Mobile Payments

 

Sage Mobile Payments has been released! Similar to Square, Sage Mobile Payments lets you process debit or credit cards through your smartphone or tablet. Your mobile devices can be used anywhere, and now you can accept payments everywhere you go. Sage Mobile Payments offers end-to-end encryption, which ensures that your customer’s credit card data will remain encrypted throughout all stages of the transaction. What sets Sage Mobile Payments apart from other mobile payment applications is that Sage Mobile Payments integrates fully with your Sage 50 accounting software (formerly known as Peachtree). This allows you to pull up customer’s invoices and make payments directly on them, so recording transactions is seamless. To learn more about Sage Mobile Payments or to inquire about pricing, visit Sage. If you have any questions about Sage software, please contact us.

 

518 Arbor Hill Rd.

 Kernersville, NC 27284

 Ph: 336-996-3338

 www.cpamcdaniel.com

Top Three Tips for Keeping Your Personal Information Safe

The number one concern when using technology today is keeping personal information safe. Stay Safe Online has posted an article with the top three tips for keeping your personal information safe. Although it is impossible to avoid all risks, there are many simple steps you can take that will ease your mind and lower the risks of safety threats.

1.      Review privacy policies: most companies begin gathering information about us as soon as we view their websites. Some of this information is used to give you a better shopping or browsing experience, but sometimes this information can be used or even sold without your knowledge or permission. Stay Safe Online reports that “all organizations are not required by either state laws or federal guidelines to have easily accessible privacy statement or policies that provide specific information about on what data is collected, how it is collected, how it is going to be used, and if they will be sharing information with any other organizations”. Before you provide any information to a new website, read their privacy policy!

2.      Check out as a guest: Most websites give you an option to create a log-in or check out as a guest. To avoid giving out personal information, check out as a guest.

3.      Save online shopping for your computer: Security solutions are not as advanced for mobile devices as they are for computers. Stay Safe Online reports that “mobile malware has grown by as much as 3,000 percent in the last year”.

If you have any questions about cyber security, please contact us!

518 Arbor Hill Rd.

 Kernersville, NC 27284

 Ph: 336-996-3338

 www.cpamcdaniel.com

 

Cyber Security-The Importance of Using a Secure Network

People use the internet for everything: banking, shopping, communicating with friends, etc. If you are doing all of this on an unsecured network, people may be able to see everything that you are looking at, and could steal personal information. If you are using the internet on an unencrypted server, your information could be accessible to anyone who hacked into that server. Browsing the internet while connected to public Wi-Fi can seem harmless, but you have to imagine that everyone on the network can see what you are looking at. If you log into anything personal that requires a password, you are potentially giving everyone on the network access to your information. If at all possible, only look at websites that contain personal information on a secure network that requires a password, so no one else on the network can view your information. But since that is not always possible, here are some tips that will help keep your information safe on public networks:

• Never click 'Keep me logged in' on websites.
• Try to use websites that have an SSL certificate. Many websites have an SSL certificate on the internet page that requires a password but not on the other pages. Any internet page that has ‘https:’ has an SSL certificate, and is significantly more secure than a regular internet page with ‘http:’

 

• Always click 'Log me out' or 'Sign Out' when you are done with an internet page.
• Know that anything you look at while on an unsecured network can be seen by everyone on the same network, so be cautious about what pages you view.

If you have any questions about staying safe while online, please contact us!

 

518 Arbor Hill Rd.

 Kernersville, NC 27284

 Ph: 336-996-3338

 www.cpamcdaniel.com

 

Sage Business Care Plans

Sage offers Business Care plans to maintain your BusinessWorks software. These plans include customer support, discounts on checks and forms, and software upgrades. Sage offers three Business Care Support plans: Bronze, Silver and Gold. The higher-level the plan is, the more services and support you will receive. The differences between the plans are outlined below (click on photo to enlarge):

Business Care Support Plans renew yearly, and this can be done through us or through Sage directly.  All Business Care Plans include access to a toll-free support phone number, and you can also contact us with any questions you may have regarding your software or Support Plan. For pricing information, please contact us! We will be more than happy to assist you with any questions you may have.

518 Arbor Hill Rd.

 Kernersville, NC 27284

 Ph: 336-996-3338

 www.cpamcdaniel.com

Cyber Security Tips for your Business

Cyber security is important, especially when it comes to your business. We hear of businesses suffering from security breaches every day, but the real targets are small businesses. “According to the 2013 Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec there was a 42% increase in targeted attacks in 2012, and 32% of all attacks were aimed at businesses with fewer than 250 employees” (Fox Business). Although the idea of an attack is alarming, there are simple tips you can follow to keep your business safe from cyber criminals. Fox Business came out with an article regarding the top 5 cyber security tips you should follow to protect your business.

 1.Create strong passwords: Don’t use the same password for every website, and don’t use a password that is really easy to guess. Experts recommend using a minimum of 12 characters for a password.
 2.Always log-off: Forgetting to log off from your computer or mobile device allows cyber-criminals to easily hack into your system. If you will be away from your device for longer than a couple minute, experts recommend logging off.
 3.Update systems: Regularly updating all of your software is essential to keeping your software secure and up-to-date.
 4.Regular backups: It is important to make backup copies of all of your data in case your system is attacked. Backup your database at least once a week, or set your system to backup automatically if possible.
 5.Limit employee access: Employees should only have access to information that is necessary for their work. Fox Business recommends requiring employees to have unique passwords that are changed every 90 days.

 For more tips on cyber security, subscribe to Tech Talk, and feel free to contact us with any questions!

518 Arbor Hill Rd.

 Kernersville, NC 27284

 Ph: 336-996-3338

 www.cpamcdaniel.com