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Accounting & ERP Guides, Comparisons, and Tools for Growing Businesses
Still trying to figure out whether QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, or a full ERP system is the right fit; or whether your current setup just needs to be cleaned up and configured properly? This is where Certum Solutions publishes the guides, comparisons, checklists, and case studies we wish more businesses had before they signed a software contract or hired a bookkeeper. Everything here is written by our own accounting and ERP consulting team for U.S.-based small and mid-sized businesses (roughly $1M–$50M in revenue) evaluating their systems in 2026; not outside contributors guessing at what matters.
Not sure where to start?
Head-to-head breakdowns of QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, Odoo, and ERP options, built to help you decide, not just compare features.Free checklists, templates, and calculators you can use todayStep-by-step walkthroughs recorded inside real QuickBooks, Xero, and ERP accounts.Real Certum client stories: the problem, the system we implemented, and the result.In-depth articles on QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, ERP, & running the financial side of your business.Latest from Certum
The newest guides, updates, and breakdowns from our team — covering QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, ERP, and everything in between.
4 Ways to Enhance the Mobile Buying Experience for Your Customers
There’s quite a bit you can do to help your customers have the best mobile experience possible—not only to improve your reputation in the e-commerce space, but to make the buying experience as seamless as possible. Here’s a short list of four pointers.
Year-end Tax Planning Tips for Businesses
Although “all year long” is the right time to ensure you are planning for your company’s tax liabilities or savings, most companies look to the end of the calendar year for most of the planning.
Why? It’s the time of the year when Congress issues year-end tax extenders, and many companies have a bit more time on their hands to address operational issues due to slowing down at the holidays.
While this is not a comprehensive list of year-end planning tips for businesses, it’s intended to be a conversation starter. Certum Solutions can discuss any of these tips with you in detail and help ensure your books are current for tax planning purposes.
Fall Into Some Great New QuickBooks Online Features
The leaves are changing, there are cool evening breezes and the kids are getting ready for Halloween. What else is going on? Oh yes: Some great new features in QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QBO Advanced. Here’s a summary of what’s new.
Boo! How to Stay Away From Really Scary Returns
It’s that time of the year when jump scares are common, there’s undoubtedly another Halloween movie coming out and you stock up on way too much candy for the little ones who ring your doorbell on Oct. 31.
Sounds like a ghoulish-good time, but you know what’s really, really scary? When one of your customers had a bad experience returning an item.
Okay, okay – I know this might be a stretch, but bear with me here while I tell you more about how you can improve your return policies without losing potential sales. And along the way, we’ll have a ghostly good time.
Time to Plan
As the leaves are starting to fall, and families in our corner of NC are preparing mountain drives to see the changing colors, the narrative of our books is starting to reach the concluding point of the year. In my office, my current project is almost scary to say out loud, so I'll write it instead. I started my first book this summer, and am working with my editor to come out with a comprehensive guide to new business owners looking to start their own business, filled with memories of my own pitfalls and successes. I'm not going to pretend it is all roses, and I'm not someone who glosses over failures to make myself look like a constant success, but I am a believer in sharing our successes and failures for the greater good.
Why You Should Know More About "Customer Lifetime Value"
Businesses who sell products and services online—as well as their brick-and-mortar counterparts—ought to know more about the very important CLV, or “Customer Lifetime Value.”
In short, CLV tells you what you can expect from an average customer over the course of your business relationship. It’s not intended to show one moment in a buying cycle; rather, it encompasses the entire timeframe someone is a customer.
4 Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Website
By now, there’s nothing new about creating an attractive and well-functioning website to garner sales. However, the difference between the business that barely sells what it can to the one in which inventory is a constant need because sales are robust, is vastly different.
Here are four ways to drive more traffic to your website.
QuickBooks Online Features: September 2023
Intuit QuickBooks has several new features recently introduced to help you streamline your workflow, so let’s get right to it.
Accounting for Mileage: What you Need to Know
Business owners—from the solopreneur to the largest size business—can realize some tax savings when it comes to accounting for the mileage you drive, although the rules can be a bit confusing. Here’s what you need to know.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
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Guides, comparisons, checklists, video tutorials, and client case studies covering QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, ERP systems, inventory software, and general accounting topics for small and mid-sized businesses.
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Certum's own accounting and ERP consulting team writes everything here, based on client implementations we've actually done — not generic outside content.
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All three, plus Odoo, Cin7, Katana, and other ERP and inventory platforms. Certum is vendor-neutral, so the content reflects what actually fits different business situations, not one software brand.
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Everything in the resource library — guides, checklists, comparisons, and downloads — is free to read and download, whether or not you're a Certum client.
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New guides and comparisons are added regularly, and existing posts are updated when software pricing, features, or plans change (like the 2026 QuickBooks Online price increase).
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Start with the Software Comparisons category, or book a free consultation and tell us where you're at — we'll point you to the right guide or give you a direct answer.
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Yes. Contact us at help@certumsolutions.com with what you'd like covered.
Featured
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Our most-requested guides, tools, and breakdowns — picked for businesses actively evaluating software, cleaning up their books, or getting ready to scale.
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