Archive for February, 2011
The world is full of offices, from small corners in a home to the vast complexes of multi-national conglomerates. It’s safe to say that virtually every one of those offices is going to have at least one computer. Laptops, desktops, and servers populate even a small business office, to say nothing of the amount of computing technology required by a larger corporation.
It usually falls to either the IT department or the office manager to oversee the computer needs of employees. In a small company, this may be the owner of the business, who ends up wearing a multitude of hats. Their role will be to choose, purchase, and maintain all computers for the company. In larger companies, different individuals will be responsible at each stage of computer acquisition and maintenance.
Many companies are finding that it is more efficient to rent a computer for new employees than to buy one outright. Computers can be rented on a weekly or monthly basis and long term leases are available. In addition to saving on the costs of purchase, rented computers usually come with free tech support and maintenance, which saves on in house IT costs. It is also much easier to upgrade a rented computer when a new model is released than it is to do so when the computer is owned by the company.
By definition most businesses take in cash and other payments in return for goods or services. Most new businesses need to be able to accept credit card payments in order to make it easier for the customers to complete a purchase. This means they will need a merchant account with a bank. These can be obtain directly from the bank or through a third party servicer.
Most merchant accounts are designed for point of sale purchases. This means that the customer pays when they receive the product or service. These businesses are likely to use a credit card terminal to process the transaction. They will slide the credit card through the reader that then transmits the information to the merchant bank and the fund are processed. The funds are transferred to the company’s bank account and the customer’s credit card statement will reflect the sale. Grocery stores, restaurants, and other retailers use this method.
Originally merchant accounts required cards to be manually copied onto credit slips that were then mailed to the merchant bank. This form of mechanical processing is still used in a few cases, as are Automated Response Units which use the telephone. Today, use of electronic card terminals as well as computer and web-based transactions far outnumber the older methods.
