River Cities

Copier and printer dealers rarely find accounting software that understands click counts, remanufactured cartridges and service contracts. River Cities Software, Inc. writes its programs for exactly that trade, and sells them with personal support as affordably priced tools that give small businesses knowledge and control over their operations.

Billing for managed print services

For dealers who maintain copiers, printers and fax machines under contract, the software handles contract billing, including adding up the color, black and scan clicks from different machines or customers onto a single invoice, with a minimum charge where needed. It is built to answer questions such as whether a contract is profitable, what a customer or machine model truly costs to service, and whether the per-click rate pays.

Leasing, rentals and remanufacturing

An equipment leasing and rental module suits firms that lease their own or other companies' equipment, with or without a service contract. For cartridge and equipment remanufacturing, the software tracks the true cost of each item built, the time each step takes, where bottlenecks form, and defect rates and which components cause them.

Accounting, inventory and loyalty

The accounting package is aimed at office machine dealers, supply sales and cartridge remanufacturers. It covers stock shortfalls, drop-shipped items, special order costing, bar code inventory, serial numbers, foreign currencies and customer-specific pricing. A separate loyalty program module gives dealers a frequent buyer scheme with more control than points for price. A CRM module helps manage sales reps and prospecting, tracking which customers hold old machines worth upgrading, who bought which supplies and why sales are lost.

Working beside QuickBooks

Firms happy with their current accounting application can add managed print services or remanufacturing through an interface to QuickBooks, run the software on its own and export spreadsheets, or ask River Cities to program a link to another accounting system. A 30-day trial of any package is offered.