Computer Forensics Firm Recovers 16 Hours a Week for ...



“Office Accounting 2007 helps me maximize my free time so I have time for two jobs and my family.”

Steven Moshlak, President,

, of the Washington, D.C. area, provides computer forensics and computer expert witness services. President Steven Moshlak used to spend his Saturdays doing the books, but he still didn’t have a good sense of overall business health. Since deploying Microsoft® Office Accounting 2007, Moshlak has eliminated at least 16 hours of weekly administrative work. Now, he’s able to spend that time with his family and growing his business.

Business Needs

Steven Moshlak has a full-time job as an IT project manager for a United States defense contractor, a family, and a consulting business on the side. There are never enough hours in the day for two businesses, his family, and his hobbies.

Moshlak provides computer forensics and computer expert witness services through his business, . He uses special software to acquire and analyze the contents of clients’ computers, looking for evidence of computer crime such as child pornography, employee misuse of company assets, and financial assets that squabbling couples try to hide from one another. Clients include individual litigants, businesses, Internet service providers (ISPs), and governmental agencies.

“I love doing computer forensics, and I don’t want to spend my limited hours doing bookkeeping work,” Moshlak says. He only has about 20 to 30 hours a week to devote to his business and was spending about half that time sorting out his financial records, preparing invoices, and tracking expenses.

Moshlak initially used the Microsoft® Office Excel® 2003 spreadsheet software, and later Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006, for expense tracking. However, to prepare an invoice, Moshlak first had to create a spreadsheet to document his time and activities for the project. Even after creating a template spreadsheet, this took an hour or more per customer.

Also, Moshlak was not able to get a current view of cash flow. “I could track expenses using a spreadsheet, but I couldn’t determine how much money I had in my checking account at any given time,” he says. “The irony was that I had state-of-the-art software for doing computer forensics, but I didn’t have basic accounting software to easily manage mundane administrative tasks. I needed an accounting package that would serve me, not the other way around.”

Solution

When Moshlak learned that Microsoft was coming out with a new accounting product, he was immediately interested. “I’m a longtime user of Microsoft software, because I know that its quality and stability are outstanding,” he says. He was also assured that Microsoft support would be there for him as he moved to a new product. “Whenever I’ve had a problem with a Microsoft program, it’s been resolved in a single phone call.”

Moshlak installed an early-release version of Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2007 and has been using it ever since for time-tracking, billing, sales-records management, and cash management. Each workday, Moshlak records his hours in Office Accounting 2007, and the program streamlines the preparation of itemized invoices each month by enabling Moshlak to insert different hourly rates for different services. He also takes advantage of Office Accounting 2007 templates to create professional-looking invoices that he then sends as e-mail messages to customers.

Cash management is push-button easy. Moshlak can find out at a glance which customers are behind in their payments and determine how much money is in his checking account. “I can very quickly see which clients have outstanding invoices and use Microsoft Office Word to automatically draft letters to let them know,” Moshlak says. “Before, this would have been one more administrative task to deal with, so I just wouldn’t have done it.”

Moshlak uses the data export feature in Office Accounting 2007 into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to automatically cull tax data from his records at year-end and send it as an e-mail attachment to his accountant. “Because I’ve already entered financial data into Office Accounting 2007, I don’t need to sort through invoices and receipts looking for information,” he says. “In a few mouse-clicks, I can send all pertinent data to my accountant.”

Benefits

The use of Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 has freed up 16 hours a week for Moshlak’s computer forensics work and his family.

■ 16-hour-a-week timesavings. “Thanks to Office Accounting 2007, I’m saving 16 hours a week in administrative work,” Moshlak says. The savings come from 10 fewer hours a week spent tracking his time and maintaining sales records, 4 fewer hours spent on invoicing, and 2 fewer hours spent driving to the post office. He also saves 20 to 30 hours a year preparing tax data. Plus, “With the features provided by Microsoft Office Accounting 2007, I don’t need to hire a bookkeeper, which would cost about $1,000 a month,” he says.

■ At-a-glance view of business. “The cash flow reports give me up-to-the-minute insight into the health of my business,” he adds. “Whether you’re a sole proprietor, an LLC, or a small corporation, you want to minimize overhead and make sure you’re making money. Office Accounting 2007 helps me keep an eye on my bottom line while focusing my time on serving my clients.”

■ Improved quality of life. What is Moshlak doing with his extra time each week? “Instead of doing books all day Saturday, I have time for golf. Office Accounting 2007 helps me maximize my free time so I have time for two jobs and my family.”

■ Expandable as business grows. Moshlak’s dream is to some day retire from his day job and devote himself full time to . “When I’m ready to expand my business, Office Accounting 2007 will expand with me,” Moshlak says. “It has nifty features for payroll, staff resource tracking, and other features that I don’t currently use.”

■ Competitive advantage. “With the capabilities that Office Accounting 2007 provides, I am able to exhibit a professional edge and show my clients that I’m honest and serious about my business,” Moshlak says.

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Customer:

Web Site:

Customer Size: One employee

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Professional services

Customer Profile

provides computer forensics services to individuals, businesses, and governmental agencies. The company is owned by 21st Century Strategic Solutions, of Centerville, Virginia, where Steven Moshlak is the President.

Software and Services

■ Microsoft® Office Professional 2007

− Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2007

Hardware

■ Custom-built desktop computer with AMD 64-bit processor

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