Christmas in July

If you ask an accountant what they want for Christmas, most of them would probably say they want Christmas to come in July. After the often grueling second financial quarter, I would propose most of them deserve it too. As the farmer harvests in the summer, accounts reap what they have sowed throughout the year through their endless detailed record keeping, in-depth audits and strict government compliance.

To explain, I inherited an older, yet robust, accounting system in Great Plains. The software was able to meet almost all the demands the company had from its finance team, but one of the snags we noticed quickly is just that it did require a whole team of people to run it. I spent months learning the processes of three different peoples roles in completing the day-to-day tasks of AR, AP, reconciliation, tax reporting, human resources, etc. However as good as I got with command of the system, the more I realized I could not do it alone as much as that would benefit the company.

What I didn’t realize fully is the executives at TGG Accounting had seen this issue from the onset of the project and had steps in place to replace their accounting software with Quickbooks. Not only is Quickbooks more user friendly, but with the use of add-ons and bank partnerships, it is able to manage everything an accounting department would be required to do from one screen. That meant no more crazy excel sheets, which benefited me, and much more visibility to where the company stood financially at any given time, which greatly benefited the client.

In July, we were able to implement the new system and have already seen dramatic changes in the efficiency. We replaced manual time and expense entry with a web-based program that the client’s employees use themselves, ensuring faster reporting and better accuracy. That alone has taken billing from a three day process to mere hours. We have seen great improvement also in the accuracy of the financial information. By reducing the General Ledger to more useful accounts and matching each entry with the particular job or customer, we are starting to get some real data to track sales and performance on a daily basis, instead of months down the road.

The biggest benefit for our client though can be best summed up in saved money. One accountant can manage effectively every process with amazing accuracy. This has eliminated two full time salaries, while actually improving productivity. If you take that with the peace of mind of knowing the accounting software is producing the correct results, then I think that might be the closest thing our client’s accounting department is going to get to Christmas in July. Maybe with all this extra time and money, I can talk them into a vacation as a present.

--Keith