SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is the standard technology that uses encryption algorithms to scramble data in transit. This aims to keep internet connections secure and safeguards any sensitive data that is being sent between two computers which prevents hackers from modifying and reading any information transferred.
SSL Certificate
To implement SSL for your website, first you must get an SSL certificate. SSL Certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organization’s detail, or simply it is a paragraph of letters and numbers that only your site knows – like a really “long password”. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol and allows secure data transfer from a web server to a browser.
How to get SSL Certificate
Technically speaking you can create an SSL Certificate by yourself, but the problem is that all the popular browsers check with “Certificate Authorities” (CA’s) which also have a copy of that “long password” and can vouch for you. In order to be recognized by these authorities, you must purchase a certificate through them.
That is why you must pay a Certificate Authority for your SSL certificate. But before rushing up and buying you SSL Certificate, you should check with your web hosting provider because maybe your web hosting package might include a free SSL certificate.
Implementing SSL
After getting your SSL certificate, you have to do three more steps to implement SSL on your website:
About H.A. Consultancies
H.A. Consultancies is a business, marketing, ISO, and ICT consulting firm based in Bahrain and operates in Saudi, Oman, and the UAE. It has been operating since 2012 and has over 6,000 clients all over the region.
H.A.’s ICT Services
Pondering the idea of whether or not it’s time to ask for professional help for your business. Well, here are the top 5 reasons why you should hire a business consultant.
Consultants are often the leading experts in the fields they work in, so they will provide you with the best teaching and implementing practices. They have academic and theoretical expertise, and they’ve also worked directly with leading organizations to implement change. For example, if you want best practices in areas such as marketing and IT, then consultants are the best source available. Why try to invent a best practice when consultants have already implemented some with multiple clients.
Consultants are experts at fostering change in organizations, so if your company is diffused with internal spar concerning imminent changes, hiring in a consultant can break the impasse. Consultants know that they’re often brought in for political cover and will shoulder blame for unpopular changes such as reducing head count and other cost-cutting measures.
Consultants have a different perspective on your company, so having an outsider come in and bring new ideas can be extremely helpful. Sometimes your in-house people are too close to your business and don’t have the perspective to examine the larger picture within your market, at the other hand consultants can share valuable insights that enhance your internal creative thinking.
Consultants are born trainers, so they’re the best choice to do a training course or presentation for your organization. Consultant combine practice and theory, and this can deliver high value to your organization. You can hire a consultant to share knowledge about almost anything.
If you don’t have enough brain resources, then you should rent a brain, so hiring a consultant for a project or on a temporary basis can fill the gap until a full-time internal person is hired. Hiring a business consultant won’t make him a full-time employee, so breaking off the relationship is going to be very easy and cost-effective.
We are a leading business consultancy based in Bahrain and providing professional business consultancy services to clients all over the GCC. If after reading this article you discover that you may need help with your business, it would be our pleasure to assist you.
Some people believe that business plans are merely guesses made about the future of a business that we know little or nothing about. However, statistics indicate that businesses, activities, and even individual actions have a better chance of succeeding if they start out with a plan.
Each business should have a starting point and a destination through its journey, putting in mind that even the best planned route may require some changes regularly. A business plan is the itinerary.
So let’s start out with the basics and work our way from there.
First of all, what is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a document that includes details about the product/service, all the business objectives, milestones, individual responsibilities, dates and deadlines, and budgets to achieve the business’s goals in terms of growth and profit.
A business plan is extremely important for every business whether it’s new or old. It assists the business owner to take informed decisions and paves the way to success while providing interested parties with insights about all aspects of the business. A business plan should include information such as:
Why do we need a Business Plan?
Many businesses have shut down because they have jumped directly to starting up their operations without having a proper business plan. Having a business plan is crucial for every business whether they are big or small, new or old. It ensures that business owners do not spend money, time, or resources unnecessarily on businesses or projects by initially checking their viability.
As aforementioned, a business plan is not just for startup businesses, it can also be used by existing businesses. An existing business should update its business plan regularly to increase growth and benefit from anticipated opportunities in the market. Since the only constant in life is change, markets inevitably change as well. Therefore, it is important to have a robust business plan and conduct regularly management meetings to adjust it according to market needs.
What does a Business Plan include?
At a minimum, a Business Plan should include the following:
What are the main benefits of a Business Plan?
A Business Plan can provide numerous benefits to a business. These benefits can be summarized as follows:
Is a Feasibility Study the same as a Business Plan?
Although a Business Plan might be mistakenly confused with a Feasibility Study, there are subtle differences between the two.
The following table explains the main difference between a Feasibility Study and a Business Plan:
|
Business Plan |
Feasibility Study |
|
It is created after the success of a Feasibility Study. |
It is established first to find the workability & profitability of a business. |
| More of tactics and strategies. | More of calculations, analysis and estimations. |
| Deals with growth plan and sustainability of a business. |
Deals with viability of a business. |
For more help on developing your Business Plan for your next big venture, feel free to contact us at any time.
In our previous articles, we listed the main reasons behind the deficit being faced by Bahrain’s Social Insurance Organization and we also reviewed the solutions being discussed by the Shura Council and Parliament. In this article, we are going to propose alternatives that could potentially resolve the issues faced by the Pension Fund once and for all.
The alternatives we are going to propose are inspired by experiences of other pension funds from different parts of the world, however, it is important to highlight that these are merely ideas that need to be validated by a detailed actuarial study.
Alternative 1: Contribution Brackets
Currently, contributions are fixed at 18% regardless of the salary, 12% coming from the employer and 8% from the employee. What if contributions were set at different rates according to the employee’s salary? In other words, the higher the salary, the higher the contribution that will have to be paid.
Alternative 2: Copy the Chinese
In China, there is no such thing as a fixed contribution rate for their pension fund. Instead, each year, the pension fund calculates the amount of pension salaries that will have to be paid and a pension contribution rate is calculated accordingly. This ensures that contributions will always cover the pension obligations that the fund has to meet.
Alternative 3: The Benefits Menu
The pension benefits in Bahrain, and indeed in the GCC, are very generous. Pension salaries do not cease by the passing away of the pensioner. In fact, pension payments are still made to widows and widowers, children up to the age of 21, children in full time education to the age of 26, children unable to earn a living, daughters that are unwed, fathers that were dependant on their deceased child, mothers that are divorced or widowed, brothers to the age of 21, sisters if unwed, and even grandchildren if their father is deceased. This adds multiple new dimensions to the pension plan which would make it difficult to forecast a viable contribution rate.
On the other hand, in case the employee was given the option of selecting the benefits that he wishes to extend to his family and in return set a contribution rate for himself according to these benefits, this would take the load off the pension fund and possible even the employee. A participant who is an only child for instance would not need to have the benefit of pension payments made to his brother or sister and conversely, would not need to pay the additional percentage of contribution affiliated with extending such a benefit.
Conclusion
Bahrain’s SIO is in a difficult predicament, however, it is one that can be resolved with a strong will and sound actuarial advice. We find that both the Parliament and the Shura Council are acting with haste, probably too quickly if their intention is to resolve the issues faced by the pension fund from the root cause. Perhaps the best advise that can be extended to the respectable MPs and Shura Council members is to hire actuaries to conduct multiple independent studies and come up with recommendations to help them wade through the difficult decisions that they will need to make. Until then, we can be sure that any recommendation made regarding this matter will only postpone an inevitable crisis or even worse, create a new one in a different segment of the economy.
Written by:
Munther Al-Arayedh, MBA, CPA
Microsoft Planner, where have you been all my life?!
Tired of following up on your team to perform their committed tasks despite the constant reminders and follow up emails? Do you find to-do lists, post-it notes, and calendar reminders ineffective? Probably you have an Excel sheet where you keep track of all the tasks that you assigned your team? If this is the case, this article is for you.
Any manager would tell you that keeping track of their subordinates’ tasks takes a lot of effort. Some use small notepads or diaries that they carry around with them everywhere. Others use post-its or Excel sheets. Well, have I got a treat for you?!
Office 365 is full of hidden treasures that are, quite frankly, not being marketed effectively by the Microsoft team. I stumbled upon this gem while trying to setup a new group on Microsoft Teams to share the Excel Sheets and MS Project files that we use to keep track of our ongoing projects. We use MS Project to manage the big complex projects however we find it easier to keep track of the granular tasks on Excel Sheets – until we discovered Planner.
Microsoft Planner
Wow! That was my first reaction when I first used the app. It literally took seconds to install on Teams and it was so intuitive that our new-hire was able to convert all our Excel data onto it within minutes. It lists all our small projects and sales leads in a single Kanban view with all the tasks listed neatly below each header. This view can be changed to show tasks for each employee, or tasks according to their due dates or status. And if that isn’t enough, summary charts showing the total number of tasks for each employee along the number of late and open tasks overall and for each employee are readily available in the Charts view.
Microsoft planner
The beauty of the app isn’t just its visual appeal. I literally fell in love with it when I received an email notification the day after we installed it telling me about all the tasks that were due today and those that are due in the coming few days. Wow! These are the small tasks that are usually forgotten such as following up on quotes that have been sent or taking an online training course. It wouldn’t be practical to include them into MS Project and are quite difficult to keep track of because, well to be frank, they are not urgent.
Microsoft Planner
I have been using Microsoft Planner for about a week now. It is an excellent tool that takes care of the headache of following up on people and allows you to focus on more important things. It also comes with a free mobile app that is even better than the desktop application or web portal – surprizing right?
In my opinion, Microsoft Planner is an excellent tool for a small business owner, a department head, or even a project manager. It is not to be compared with MS Project though. These are two very different programs despite their similarities. MS Project has much more features that help you calculate and manage every single aspect of your project which is exactly why it is not suitable for keeping track of the tiny day-to-day tasks that MS Planner is designed to handle.
Of course, there is some room for improvement. For example, tasks cannot be linked as predecessor and successor like MS Project, and the graphical reports can take a little bit of getting used to. However, in case you need a more powerful project management tool, probably Planner is not the best choice. On the other hand, if you need something to keep track of the mundane tasks that often go forgotten, then look no further than Planner.
Inventory management is so critical if you want to run a profitable restaurant. A restaurant’s profitability is calculated using the cost of goods sold, so it is important that your calculated inventory value be as accurate as possible. This is where the inventory valuation method comes to surface. Choosing the right method can make the process of valuation and managing your inventory easier and reflect better profitability.
Inventory valuation Methods
As a restaurant owner you have only three options to evaluate your inventory:
Now the question is what is the best method to go for? Keep reading to find out…
First-In, First-Out (FIFO)
This technique is used by most restaurants. FIFO assumes that the goods purchased first are the goods sold first. As a result, the remaining inventory consists of the most recent purchases and is accounted for at the good’s current cost.
FIFO is the best inventory valuation method for restaurants because it decreases waste and preserve freshness.
As we can imagine, inventory in a restaurant has a short demand cycle. At restaurants, goods purchased earliest with the nearest expiration date will be consumed first to avoid spoilage. That is why restaurants prefer FIFO as it matches the actual flow of food in the kitchen.
Why FIFO?
In an inflationary environment where costs continue to rise, using FIFO will allow the older, lower-priced goods to leave first and the more expensive, newer goods to be kept as inventory.
The conclusion is a lower cost of goods sold and higher net income.
One more added value of FIFO is that managers can access real-time inventory counts and depletion instantly through restaurant management software.
The only drawback when using the FIFO method is that there is often a mismatch between costs and revenue since older and often lower costs are associated with current revenues.
Last In, First Out (LIFO)
LIFO is not commonly used in restaurants. LIFO values inventory on the assumption that the goods purchased last are sold first at their original cost. So, the oldest goods usually continue to remain as ending inventory. Many goods would expire before being used. That is why this technique is typically used with non-perishable commodities.
When the price of goods increases, those newer and more expensive goods are used first according to the LIFO method. This increases the overall cost of goods sold and leaves the cheaper, earlier purchased goods as inventory. A higher cost of goods sold will ultimately yield lower restaurant profit margins and net income.
FIFO method does not always provide an accurate valuation of ending inventory. Since the oldest goods tend to be stored repeatedly as inventory, a significant portion will likely become obsolete before use.
Weighted Average Cost (WAC)
With this method, the goods receive the same valuation regardless of when and at what cost each was purchased.
Instead, the total cost of items in inventory is divided by the number of units to yield the weighted average cost per unit.
It can be represented mathematically like this:
WAC = (Total Cost of Sitting Inventory) / (Number of Units)
This technique is more popularly used in situations where it is impossible to determine the cost of a single item because they are so integrated and commoditized. When comparing WAC to FIFO and LIFO, the WAC technique generates a valuation between that of FIFO and LIFO. Using WAC, the value assigned will represents a cost between the first and last purchased items.
Pros and Cons Summary
| Method | Pros |
Cons |
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FIFO |
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|
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LIFO |
|
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WAC |
|
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FIFO, LIFO, and WAC are all accepted methods for valuation, but restaurants should select the one that best fits their reporting and management styles. The easiest way to monitor your products is by using back office software that links with your point of sale system and provides live tracking of your inventory whenever you need it.