How To Use Postal Weighing Scales For Sending Mail

Postal weighing scales

How Using Postal Mail Can Save Money On Sending Business Mail.

Apart from the postage meters, the second most important part of your mailing equipment is probably the postal scale. Postal scales come in the denomination of 5, 10, 30, 100, 200 and 250 pound capacities. These scales can either be a standalone or come as a part of the postage meter.

You can buy a manual or a digital postage meter. This digital scale is more accurate because it gives exact reading of the weight of the letter or parcel. Manual scales still have to be read out by a human person and usually have an analogue scale with a needle that points to the amount of weight measured by it.

The whole point of using a weighing scale is to be able to fix the exact postage required to send the parcel or the letter. Electronic scales are more expensive but the accuracy that they represent and the money that they can save you by telling you the right value of postage required can offset the additional cost.

Digital scales meant for businesses usually have more functions associated with them than just weighing such as allowing you to compare rates between various carriers such as U.S. Postal Service and FedEx. They will also allow you to convert ZIP codes to correct zones for calculating zone dependent rates for carriers such as UPS.

When you are buying a digital postal meter, look for features and interface that you are most comfortable working with. Some models havekeyboards and user prompts. Consider the size of the machine and the maximum weight that machine can handle.

Depending upon the size of the package that you intend to send, you might have to buy a machine that can accommodate the size of parcel or package. You may even want a machine that allows you to enter the weight manually for the calculation for shipments that exceed the scales weighing capacity.

Even when you buy a standalone postal scales, some allow you to interface them with a postage meter. Depending on how you want to use the postal scale, choose the features according.

vintage postal scale

The following are some of the questions that you should ask the dealer before buying a postal weighing scale.

  1. What Adjustments are required to be made if the postage rates change?
  2. Does the scale offer alternative pricing options based on various coastal flood classification?
  3. Does the weighing scale have a password feature to protect it against unauthorized use?
  4. What size of parcel can the weighing scale take and what are the weight limitations?
  5. What maintenance does the machine required?
  6. What kind of maintenance is covered in the sales agreement?
  7. Does the scale offer the rates for international shipping?
  8. Does the weighing scale offer rates for popular shipping services like FedEx and UPS?

What are Postage Meters And Their Advantages













Advantages/Benefits of using metered mail machines



Postage meter


Postal accounting



Expediting normal mail


Postmark advertisement


How To Setup A Mailing System For a Business

setting up a mailing system

Some sort of a malling system is required by a lot of businesses. In fact the mailing system can form the backbone of your business if the nature of your business requires that you send out a lot of postal mail.

Today more and more businesses have resorted to using e-mail and other digital form of publication over physical postal mail. However, digital mail does not always meet the requirements there is there is no option for sending business mail through post.

This section will cover the most efficient and economical ways to send postal mail for your business which will include all yours mailing needs from postage meters, sorting, letter opening machines, envelope sealers, digital weighing scales, stackers, label printers etc.

Buying Mailing equipment

It can come as quite a surprise as to the amount of effort, time and personnel it requires to send out just a few postal mail. The post that a business sends usually includes brochures and promotional offers to consumers, invoices and bills to both consumers and suppliers, any other form of communication that requires physical delivery and receipt.

Using equipment such as postage meters and automated machines that open letters and see letters can save you a lot of time and effort so that you can spend that valuable resource on more important aspects of the business, such as actually running it and making it grow.

Mailing equipment comes in a variety of shapes and forms. You have postage meters, weighing scales, letter openers, stackers, letter sealing machines etc. Basically, all the functions that you can think of performing in order to send the mail along its merry way can be performed by mailing machines.

What you buy and how much it costs will really depend on the kind of setup you want. You can have an intensive mailing need where you could use a fully automated process. A fully automated process will all the of the above i.e. postage meters, weighing scales, letter openers, letter sealers, printers, binders, wrappers etc. Now these are not all different pieces of equipment. If the need for your business is heavy on the postal mail that you send, you can buy an automated mailing machine that does almost all of the above functions. Fully automated mailing machines are expensive. There is always an option to buy, lease or rent these machines.

There are plenty of options for small businesses also. Postage meters and letter openers and sealers come in all sizes. A basic postal meter that requires the letters to be fed in manually can be ideal and still save the business a lot of time and money.

Another small but crucial part of mailing equipment is the digital weighing scale. If your postal meter does not already have it or you send out bigger parcels than can be handled by a postal meter, you will benefit a great deal by using the digital scale to weigh your parcels and mail accurately and affixing just the right amount of postage there.

The mailing equipment that you need for your business will depend on your business needs. Try to get a good idea of how much you are spending on business mails and how you can save by using automated mailing equipment. Using mailing equipment is not all about saving money for also about saving time and effort. When it comes to running a business, time is money and the more time you can devote to your business to grow, the more profitable it is going to be.

Should You Buy, Rent Or Lease Mailing Equipment

All the mailing equipment that we have mentioned in the post before can either be leased, rented or bought. The more advanced and automated machinery that you choose, the more expensive it is going to be.

However, renting is the easiest and cheapest method. Buying the machine outright might require a heavy investment in this sector which might hinder cash flow requirements of your business. You may even prefer to lease the mailing equipment to conserve working capital.

Although renting is the easiest and cheapest as it allows you to get out of the contract and any point of time, leasing the mail machinery may be the cheapest.

When you rent the mailing equipment you can stop renting at any point of time if the arrangement is not suiting you or the job in hand was a temporary one. While leasing the mailing equipment will give you lower rates than renting, you’re obligated to make all the payment specified in the lease. Leasing might be the right choice if you are going to need to upgrade your mailing equipment after some time.

In case you have leased some mailing equipment and realize that it is not up to your requirement or is too sophisticated, some suppliers will purchase the competitors lease and give you their own equipment in exchange

Shop around carefully and see if there are any promotions available before you sign. Basic mailing machines can be leased from $25-$35 per month whereas more automated ones may come from $60-$100 per month. Anything above $60 per month is usually reserved and suited for larger corporations. The average lease is for 3 to 5 years and can include maintenance and free postage refills. The average rental agreement is for one year.

If you are renting the mailing equipment carefully go over the contract to see that there is no mention of the word lease in the contract. If you are leasing out the mailing equipment ask what your options are in case you need to get out of the lease.

Make sure that the business you are renting the mailing equipment from is authorized with the U.S. Postal Service.

If you are a little doubtful about your requirement and what kind of mailing equipment your business needs, it is good to work with a knowledgeable salesperson. 

A good salesperson should be knowledgeable about the equipment and the latest US Postal Service regulations and rates. They should also ask you questions and evaluate your business need carefully. Usually the kind of questions that mailing equipment salesperson needs to ask is regarding how many boxes, parcels, letters and the frequency with which you ship.

Allowing the salesperson to take his time in evaluating your business need and going through his sales pitch may mean that you and end up with the right kind of mailing equipment that your business requires.

How To Estabish Payment Terms With Your Suppliers

settling terms of payment











dealing with business supliers









How To Find And Deal With Business Suppliers

dealing with business suppliers

Finding Suppliers For A Business

Retail businesses depend upon suppliers. Depending upon the scale of your business and your inventory selection, you may make do with just a few or need many dozens of suppliers and vendors. If your business has been running for some time and is a popular one, you will get leads from sales representatives of various suppliers. However, if you’re just starting out, you will need to make effort to locate them yourself at trade shows, wholesale showrooms and conventions, through buyers directories, industry contacts, the business-to-business Yellow Pages and trade journals and websites.

Supplier can be divided into four general categories.


Buying directly from manufacturers is usually cheapest. Most retailers try to buy from independent representatives or companies salespeople who handle the merchandise from different manufacturers. The only reason why buying from a manufactured may be cost prohibitive is if the location of the manufacture makes shipping freight expensive.


Distributors are also known as wholesalers, brokers or jobbers who buy in quantity from several manufacturers and store the goods for sale to retailers in their own warehouses. Although all the wholesalers will include their profit margin before selling the merchandise you, the advantage of buying from a wholesaler can be that they have a variety of merchandise available in one place from many different manufacturers.

They may be able to fulfill their business needs in case you do not wish to place a very large orders. Some manufacturers refuse to fill small orders because they don’t consider it worth their time and effort. Also, if the wholesaler happens to be closer by than the manufacturer, the amount of money that is saved and quicker delivery times can often compensate for higher product costs.

Independent Craft People

Many independent craftspeople sell and supply their own goods either through representatives or trade shows.

Import Sources

There are some people who operate like wholesalers but instead of picking up merchandise from local and national manufacturers, they import and buy foreign goods. You can use these domestic importers who operate much like a domestic wholesalers to purchase merchandise for your business. You may even consider traveling traveling overseas yourself once you get familiar enough with the product and are is comfortable with making such business trips. Once again, approaching foreign manufacturers and suppliers yourself instead of through an importer will help you save money on the cost per item.

How To Deal With Business Suppliers

Building a relationship with your suppliers can be a key factor in the success of your business. Reliability is one of the chief factors that a business looks at when finding a supplier.

Having a long-term, financially sound relationship with a supplier means that they can help you out during the times when business goes through a rough patch itself.

When you are initially trying to build a relationship with the supplier, remember that you need to be professional and reasonable in your dealings with them.

If you argue and harangue them over every amount, every bill and ask them to shave the prices of everything that they sell you, fail to pay the bills promptly, don’t be surprise if that relationship ends quickly. After all, suppliers are also in business to make money.

If you’re a business start up, you cannot expect to get the same kind of attention and priority as other long standing businesses who have been regular clients of the supplier.

The intention should be to build your credibility and develop a good working relationship that shows your reliability on a long-term basis. Once you have built your own importance and priority with a good supplier, you will be happy to learn that it is one of the relationships that will prove to be profitable for both you and your suppliers.

Once you have compiled a list of possible suppliers, you should ask for quotes, proposals, complete with prices, available discounts, delivery terms and other important factors.

Do not just consider the terms but also investigate the supplier’s financial condition and reputation as well.

Ask them for references of their existing customers and call these customers to find out how well the supplier has performed. Every kind of business process and relationship has some problems at one point of time of year.

The important factor is how these problems have been resolved. This is true for relationship between the supplier and business as well. When you ask existing customers about the supplier, try to learn how the supplier handled problems and how helpful and co-operative he was in resolving the problem.

The attitude that you take with your supplier is likely to be returned in kind. Be honest, courteous and firm with your suppliers.

Give them a clear picture of what you need and when you need it. Have a good understanding of the total cost and make sure you clarified all important factors such as time of delivery clearly to the supplier. Keep in constant communication with your suppliers to fend off possible delays, potential substitution for materials, product quality, for improvements or new product introductions and potential savings.

Be prepared for certain conditions that many suppliers lay down specially for startup businesses and for new business relationship.

Suppliers can often establish a minimum order for merchandise which may be higher for the first orders to cover the cost of setting up a new store account. Some suppliers may also demand a minimum number of items per order.

Basics Of Maintaining Inventory

inventory management basics

Typically, when you have been in business for some time, your inventory tracking system should be able to tell you when to buy, what to buy and how much to buy.

For business startup, this projection gets to be a little difficult because you don’t have any previous sales figures to base your sales expectation on.

The amount of money that is budgeted to purchase inventory for a certain period of time which could be one month, two months or four months, is known as open to buy. The open to buy amount is calculated by using the following formula.

Planned inventory $20,000 plus planned sales $20,000 which equals $40,000 from this you reduce the actual inventory minus $15,000 as well as the stock that has already been ordered mine is $10,000 in. This gives you the open to buy amount of which equals to $15,000.

Apart from calculating the open to buy amount on a regular basis, many businesses dealing in seasonal products also figure in the season variations to accommodate seasonal sales fluctuations.

Even if your business is not a season one, most of the businesses experience some sort of fluctuation, most often an increase, in the sales of their merchandise during on season times such as during holiday season.

In these circumstances, it is recommended that you do not restrict yourself to the open to buy amount and consider going beyond the budget or use less than the entire amount. In fact, if your business anticipates to sell non-regular items during the season, you can reduce the open by amount for the regular merchandise to accommodate un-anticipated items and sales.

For the business startup that does not have existing sales figure 2 calculate exact amounts, the business plan should be able to guide you towards calculating the open to buy amount.

The business plan should help you calculate the gross sales that you need to pay to keep the business afloat as well as other overhead costs. Your business plan should give you a realistic idea of the basic stock levels and the monthly or season sale volumes need to have during the startup. Once you have been in business for several months, your inventory tracking system will provide this information for you.

Trade shows are great opportunity to show off your products and business to the public, consumers as well as finding potential suppliers.

It also presents you with the opportunity to evaluate your competition. They can be a great place to develop networking which will serve your business in the future when you need to expand or diversify. To find a trade show in your area, visit the trade show news, which is an online directory of more than 17,500 trade shows and conferences.

Accounting For Inventory – FIFO and LIFO Methods

Fifo lifo system of managing inventory

Every business owner should understand how the basics of accounting for inventory takes place. Although you will probably not be able to go through these calculations accurately without the help of a business account, you should be aware of the two basic methods that are used to calculate the value of inventory. Evaluating inventory for the business can be a complicated and complex process. These are the two basic methods used for for inventory accounting are LIFO (Last In First Out) and FIFO (First In First Out).

LIFO, Last in First Out. This accounting method values the inventory on the cost and price of the merchandise that is the newest. This form of accounting and calculating the worth of an inventory was brought into place when inflation became common. Under this system, the merchandise that is the newest and received most recently by the business is sold first. For example, let us say you purchased a business product that the value of $30 for unit last year. You again purchased this same merchandise this year but then the price had gone up to $50 per unit. Under the LIFO method, the merchandise that you purchase this year at a cost of $50 per unit will be sold first.

FIFO, under this method the inventory is valued against the oldest product in the stock. This was traditionally the method used by most businesses to account for inventory and to calculate its value. This method was common before inflation became commonplace.  So taking the same example as above, your entire merchandise inventory would be valued at $30 a unit because that is the price of the oldest unit in your stock. This method has a way of confusing accounting figures when there is inflation. Since there is a huge difference in the price of the merchandise from last year today, the evaluation of the inventory can be misleading. Under FIFO for system, the merchandise that was received first is sold first.

Your business can follow either of these methods depending upon the nature of your business product and what suits your business more. You can use the both dollar system or the unit system to calculate inventory value.

How To Increase Profit By Increasing Inventory Turnover

good inventory turnover

What is Inventory Turnover, How it Affects Business Profit, How to Increase Inventory Turnover

It is a commonly acknowledged fact that by reducing the time that it takes to turn over the inventory for your business, you can increase the earning potential and profit as well. The business is considered to have turned over its inventory when it has replaced 100% of the original inventory. Important factor to be considered when maintaining your inventory and business stock is calculating the needs time.

The needs time is calculated by adding the count cycle plus order cycle plus delivery cycle. The count cycle is the time after which you decide to count your inventory. Order cycle it is the time that it takes you to finish the counting, process the paperwork and place the order with the supplier. The delivery cycle is the time that it takes for the fresh inventory to reach your business.

So considering an example where you count your inventory every six weeks and it takes you one week to finish counting and placing the order, your count and order cycle are six and one week respectively. If it takes further three weeks for the inventory to reach your business, the delivery cycle is three weeks. Adding these three figures you get a total cycle of 10 weeks which is your needs period.

Assuming that you sell 10 units every week, you will need to order fresh inventory by multiplying 10 into 10 which comes to 100 weeks in advance so as not to fall short in the middle of the sales. You need 10 weeks worth of inventory from the first day of the count cycle to sustain business until fresh merchandise arrives.

Now most businesses believe that if they can manage to turn over their inventory faster, they can enhance their profits. Presuming that the demand exists for the business product.

Turning over the inventory quicker means that you sell more business merchandise. This automatically means that your business makes more profit.

You can improve your inventory turnover by doing a few things yourself and working in a more streamlined manner with your distributors. For example, you can begin to count inventory every three weeks rather than every six. You could work with your distributors and suppliers to find more efficient ways of shipping merchandise to your business to reduce the time it takes for the delivery cycle. If you can achieve both these things and cut both these time periods by half, you could increase your inventory turnover by doubling it and therefore doubling the business sales as well.

Another way to look at the inventory turnover is by measuring sales per square foot. This method is not just helpful in calculating your inventory turnover but also in calculating the cost of storing and maintaining your inventory.

You take the average retail value of the inventory and divide it by the number of square feet devoted to a product. This gives you the average sales per square foot. You will be able to calculate how many sales per square foot per year you need to break even with the cost of running the business. You should calculate your sales per square foot once a month to make sure that all calculations are according to your expectations.

Knowing the cost of inventory per square foot also helps you measure the cost of storing the stock in godown and warehouses. This lets you control the amount of inventory you want to stalk by reducing excess inventory.

How to Choose a POS Tracking System

pos tracking systems

Features that you may consider in order to choose the right POS tracking system.

Ease of use

Make sure that the interface of the BeOS tracking system that you choose is something that you understand and are comfortable working with.

Some prefer a detailed interface whereas other people prefer the option of being able to bring up a user-friendly graphical interface. Preferably, the POS system should allow you to switch between the 2 as per your requirement.

Entry of sales information

Most of the POS tracking systems that you use will allow you to use some way of inputting inventory codes either manually or in the form of bar codes through a barcode scanner.

This not only helps you keeping track of inventory but also makes a checkout process more streamlined for your customers. Putting in the inventory code manually or automatically will bring up information like the sales price, provisional discounts, volume discounts and any other related information that will help in faster checkout process.


POS systems will provide usually a variety of ways to keep track of pricing, including add-on amounts and custom formulas. This allows you to set up multiple prices for each item depending upon the circumstance that it is being sold under.

Updating product information

The POS tracking systems are capable of automatically updating the inventory and accounts receivables once the sale is made. This is one of the biggest advocates of using a POS tracking system and why it is sought after for cash flow management and inventory management.

Sales tracking options

Different businesses have different ways of conducting sales and consequently different ways of getting paid. A repair order service shop may keep the invoices open till the time the work is completed. So they need a system that allows to put the sales of food. Similarly a business that offers sales on installment would do well by implementing POS system that tabulates monthly payment and interest.


An effective POS system helps you maintain control over cash receipts and prevent theft by providing audit trails so you can trace any problem quickly.


Many POS systems can support numerous tax rates which is helpful if you are shipping to more than one state with different tax rates.


Computerized inventory tracking systems

Most of the businesses find it much more useful to implement some sort of a computerized and automated system to keeping track of their inventory and stock.

To start with, manual inventory taking takes up too much of time and physical effort.

Instead of having to constantly update the inventory count on a daily, weekly or monthly basis the computerized system can help you integrate your sales with the inventory count.

This means that every time that the sales occur, automatically the inventory gets updated. This is commonly known as POS, point-of-sale inventory tracking system. However, even if you’re using simple desktop inventory tracking software like Inflow, your effort is going to be greatly reduced and you will be able to analyze more information automatically.

Softwares are capable of analyzing the data that you input and generate many kinds of reports that tell you more about which are the higher profit-making products, when to order fresh inventory and also let you track usage, monitor changes in the unit cost and calculate when you need to resize your inventory level.

Because a computerized inventory tracking system helps you save time, you can devote more effort towards managing your business profitability.

Benefits of Using a POS Inventory Tracking System

By using a point-of-sale, POS inventory tracking system, you can:

  • Analyze sales data and calculate how well the various products are doing. This allows you to adjust your inventory purchasing by concentrating more on the highest selling products.
  • A POS inventory tracking system helps you keep the sales history which lets you see the trends in your sales over a long period of time. This helps you to gear up and prepare in advance by keeping additional stock and inventory for the on season purchasing trends.
  • POS systems allow you to integrate various sales tools such as barcode scanners, credit card processing, cash registers which makes your checkout process more streamlined.
  • There are plenty of options for a POS tracking system that enables you to use add-on devices that you checkout stations such as electronic cash drawers, credit card readers, receipt or invoice printers. The POS package frequently comes integrated with accounting modules such as general ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, purchasing, inventory control systems. Not only is the POS system good way to track your inventory is also very effective in keeping track on the business cash flow.

What Is Radiofrequency Identification, RFID

Radio Frequency Identification RFID

Radio frequency identification, RFID is a method of tagging products that helps in various business processes like inventory tracking, sales checkout, asset tracking, loss prevention and stock management.

Until now, RFID and technology is considered to be the domain of mainly large businesses. However, since the cost is the only restricting factor for small businesses, the potential for small businesses to use this technology is growing with the passage of time because the overall cost is coming down.

In order to use radio frequency identification, RFID, smart tags are fixed to individual products or to the pallets of merchandise. These tags are capable of absorbing and reflecting radio waves that can be read by an RFID scanner.

The nature of this technology allows a huge range of information to be stored on the tag such as the date of manufacture, date of shipment, price, contents and much much more.

One of the sought-after features of radio frequency identification, RFID is that it allows for a completely automated checkout in stores.

Using the magnetic tag on the various products RFID scanner can scan an entire cartload without the need to scan each different product during checkout. Customers can simply walk past the scanner and have their total ready for payment. Similarly, when RFID tagged merchandise is received by a business from the supplier, they can be easily scanned in bulk and the information automatically updated in the inventory tracking software. This is of great use for larger retail stores.

This technology is becoming so popular that large retailers like target and Walmart and even government agencies like the Department of Defense require RFID tagged merchandise from the suppliers.