UCC BDCI ValueEdge – a boost for local small businesses

 

The UCC  Group’s Strategic Business Unit – The Business Development & Consulting Institute (UCC BDCI) is providing a welcome boost for Jamaica’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) with new accounting and financial management service “ValueEdge”.

The services include setting up the books of MSME clients in QuickBooks accounting software, the monthly updating of books and delivering the end of month financial statements.

Reginald Nugent, Director UCC BDCI explained that “ValueEdge is a back-office service that is designed to deliver an effective suite of accounting and financial management solutions to the MSME marketplace to help bring financial management capacity to firms in that sector at an affordable cost”.

“ValueEdgeTM offers entrepreneurs and business owners the option to outsource their accounting functions to our experienced accounting staff.  Service offerings are well-defined and are designed to be accessible to target clients. Including:

  • Consulting with clients and setting up the company’s books in QuickBooks and training their staff to maintain company books (a one-time service).
  • Performing the monthly maintenance of company  books on behalf of the client (On-going  maintenance of books).”

Noting that ValueEdge offers entrepreneurs and business owners the option to outsource their accounting function to the UCC BDCI’s experienced accounting staff, Mr. Nugent said “our services are well-defined to be accessible to target clients.” These services, he said, include consulting with clients and setting up the company’s books in QuickBooks, training their staff to maintain company books, and performing the monthly maintenance of company books on behalf of the client.

“By setting up their bookkeeping and accounting system MSMEs will have the wherewithal to evaluate their operating performance and assess their financial condition and strengths. The ability to understand how the business is performing is critical to making prudent decisions that will determine whether the business is successful or not.”

  • Pointing to the benefits of good bookkeeping and accounting practices, Mr. Nugent said that ValueEdge enables business owners to better understand how their business is performing by giving them a comprehensive picture of the financial operations.”

Explaining that It provides the capability that MSME’s can access to effectively address and implement their accounting and financial management systems, he said “it is indispensable for MSME’s to track their revenues, expenses, cashflows, assess the profitability of the business and ensure that it is on track to meet the goals and objectives of stakeholders.”

“Some of the critical functions that are supported by a proper accounting and financial management system include:

  • Meeting statutory compliance and governance requirements.
  • Conducting performance analysis.
  • Making sound business decisions.
  • Implementing proper budgeting practices
  • Managing and controlling the use of key resources
  • Evaluation of investment plans.
  • Implementing financial planning and financing strategies.”

Mr. Nugent noted that the ValueEdge is only one of the programmes being provided by the UCC BDCI, which operates a Small Business Development Center (SBDC), part of the National SBDC Network, through its partnership with the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC). The UCC BDCI is also a Business Development Organization (BDO) affiliated with the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) and is seeking to forge partnerships with other Government agencies and private entities.

“We are also looking at implementing research programmes that are designed to foster commercialization of new ideas, especially the role of digital technology and also research to inform policies that seek to address improvement in the business environment and the economic growth agenda.  The UCC BDCI is working closely with UCC’s Innovation Center Spectrum Capital Partners and UCC REID as part of an ecosystem that supports entrepreneurial start-ups and existing businesses seeking to implement strategic growth plans.”

“UCC BDCI seeks to offer ValueEdge services at prices that are competitive with similar offerings in the market, and which can strengthen the value proposition of the offerings. The goal is to ensure that the prices for the services are affordable to the clients, but also that they fall within operationally acceptable ranges.”

Date Published:
Wednesday, June 23, 2021