AST Express Ltd
With twenty years experience in the transport and haulage industry and a gift for getting on very well with her customers, Marianne Watson decided to draw upon her expertise in this area and set up her own business.
Marianne had to succeed in a very competitive and traditionally male industry; this was by no means an easy task and involved extensive market research. It took two years for Marianne to compile her business plan and her next priority was to sort out her accounts.
Marianne had previously found book-keeping very time consuming. She realised that in order to focus her efforts on developing her business, she needed an accounting system which was fast, cost effective, and gave her a better understanding of her business.
“I wanted to have a comprehensive view of my accounts from the very start and I didn’t want to spend days figuring out my books. I needed to feel I was in control of my accounts – not the other way around! The books needed to be something I updated in-between tasks and didn’t have to devote whole days to. Before setting up my own business, I had only ever used Sage. But then a friend of mine suggested I use MYOB and I have stuck to this product ever since because it enables me to have a comprehensive overview of all my accounts.”
With her accounts under control, Marianne could focus her efforts on developing her business.
Marianne intends to network the MYOB software so more of her team can access the files, providing her staff with a better understanding of the company’s health and leaving Marianne time to develop her business strategy. For budding entrepreneurs, Marianne has this advice: “Research your market and competition thoroughly, carve a niche for yourself, get your accounts in order and always remain highly motivated. Take advantage of the benefits technology can bring to minimise your time spent on administration and focus on driving your company forward.”
SANCO
School wear and uniform retailer , SANCO was founded in 1973 by Sandeep’s parents. Back in 2000 Sandeep was a solicitor, looking to take a year out to learn about business in the real world. The business is now run by all three of them.
It was around this time that SANCO were starting to computerise their accounting function. “Our accounts were being done manually by a book-keeper. We were looking for a package that would change this and we found MYOB Accounting, which dramatically cut down our workload,” says Sandeep.
The MYOB software has helped the firm in a number of unexpected ways, too. “We can print reports detailing our total spend with a supplier during the year and use this to secure a discount on next year’s orders.”
The Sud family are loyal Mac users, which was a significant factor in their decision to implement MYOB software. “We have always found Apple Macs to be incredibly reliable and, of course, good to look at. I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice my Macs for the sake of a piece of accounting software but luckily that wasn’t necessary. My sister, who was an accountant at the time, suggested MYOB because she knew it was both PC and Mac compatible, and simple to use.”
“Installation was extremely simple, and using the software has been equally straightforward. I use, it my 60 year old mother uses it, and we both feel completely comfortable with it because it has such a clear interface.”
“The MYOB telephone helpline is fantastically useful,” says Sandeep. “For example, when closing off an accounting year, deposits paid in one year must be carried over to keep everything balanced. I called the helpline to check I was inputting figures correctly and, because all the MYOB support technicians are accounting trained, they were able to tell me immediately.”
“The overall MYOB experience is outstanding,” says Sandeep. “The MYOB system has helped us achieve the double digit growth we’ve seen since 2000. If it wasn’t there, we’d be spending half our time doing basic accounting, rather than driving the business.”
MILK
Just like buildings, businesses need strong foundations. No one should understand this better than Jennifer Brown and Robbie Belmore , an architect and a structural engineer respectively.
With only two employees, few contracts and just a handful of suppliers – spreadsheets were a perfectly adequate solution. But Jennifer realised that sticking with spreadsheets risked jeopardising future business growth. The time spent amending and checking spreadsheets was time that could be better spent developing the business. And the sheer volume of paper that was generated threatened to swamp her.
Jennifer chose MYOB Accounting Plus for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it was easy to use; even without any formal training in accountancy, Jennifer had no difficulty learning how to use the software. The second major point in its favour was Macintosh compatibility; like many firms that use graphic-based software, the Mac is widely used by architectural practices, and MILK was no exception.
As well as improving the overall efficiency of the firm’s financial management, the MYOB software has brought a number of specific benefits. “The structural engineering side of the business has a large number of ‘clients’ not suppliers so we create invoices quickly and efficiently.,” says Jennifer, “and it’s essential that we deal with invoices quickly and efficiently. With MYOB Accounting Plus the time taken to process an individual invoice has been reduced from 30 minutes to just five. The software also allows me to quickly tally up a range of expenses and with just a few keystrokes I can find out how much we’ve spent on taxis over, say, the last six months.”
Getting on top of the accounts has been a key to gaining financial control, and therefore a vital part of MILK’s current business plans.
For those wanting to set up their own small business, Jennifer advises: “Be patient and determined. Take frequent but small steps forward and measure your success over months rather than weeks. Progress feels frustratingly slow when you’re in the middle of it, but when you look back at it, the rate of change can be astonishing.”
ABA Architects
ABA Architects was set up in 1993 by Lizann Brabazon and her husband, Anthony. Like many startups, they began by using space in the family home and their first “office” was their daughter’s bedroom.
“It was hard to make the business look professional when we were working from home,” says Lizann. “To get to the office I had to lead visitors through the lounge and up the stairs. In the early days I was managing two roles simultaneously – looking after the kids and running the accounts.”
“When we first started the business, doing the accounts by hand wasn’t a problem, in fact I enjoyed it. I’d happily sit down after dinner, in front of the TV, and work on them. But when we gained more clients and took on more architects this manual approach was clearly no longer practical.”
“I realised, somewhat reluctantly, that we would need to start using accounting software. Because my time was limited, I wanted to get something that was easy to learn. The graphic designers in the office next to ours were using MYOB software and they had no hesitation in recommending it. We decided to give it a go.”
“There’s no doubt that MYOB saves time,” says Lizann. “For example, when I prepared the VAT manually I would pass the figures to my husband to fill out the VAT form by hand. We’d always put off completing the VAT form because it was such a headache. This morning I received two payments; I simply brought up the invoices on the screen, entered the amounts and that was that – VAT calculated and sorted within two minutes. The interface is very user-friendly and you certainly don’t need to be an accountant to use it.”
Overall, Lizann believes that MYOB represents good value for money. “In fact,” she says, “my only regret is that we didn’t implement the software earlier. The graphic designer in the office next door installed MYOB when his business first started. I wish we’d done the same.”
Adlinc Mailing Group
Adlinc Mailing Group was started in 1997 by Sarah Woollcott and her partner who found themselves out of work at the same time. Like many businesses, AdLinc began life in the owners’ spare bedroom.
“At first,” says Sarah, “I was doing the accounts manually. As the company grew, this became more and more of a chore – I had to squeeze the bookkeeping in on evenings and weekends. It just wasn’t practical. After AdLinc had been in business for about a year, a reseller who was supplying computer hardware suggested we should install accounting software.
Initially I wasn’t keen. I actually thought ‘Oh my God, no!’ since I’d used such software in my previous life in other jobs. I’d found it incredibly difficult to use, and it was impossible to rectify mistakes made during data entry. As far as I was concerned, it was just horrendous.”
But, as Sarah was about to discover, not all business accounting software is the same. “Once MYOB had been installed, I can honestly say I knew my way around the software within about an hour; it was so simple and straightforward. For me, previous software was like different languages: one is foreign, and MYOB is plain English! There is absolutely no comparison.
MYOB saves me so much time in my working day, and I can use this time to drive the business. In fact, if I didn’t have the MYOB software I don’t know how I’d find time to actually run my business. I certainly couldn’t go back to manual bookkeeping. The time I save is really incredible. Doing my VAT manually, for example, could take anything from a day to a week; using the MYOB software it takes me less than ten minutes, and it’s stress free. I never thought I’d say that about VAT!”
“I only realised the software’s true capabilities when I opened a second business online,” she says. Like any online shop, it needs accurate stock control. With MYOB I can keep track of exactly what’s coming in, what’s going out and what the current stock levels are.”
Quartson & Co
Like many small firms, Quartson & Co has grown by developing specialist skills. As a niche commercial law practice, their main specialism is the purchase and sale of residential care homes. They also offer employment law advice to the companies who operate these homes, some of whom have over 1,000 employees.
“Throughout my solicitor accounting course I had been taught the theory of a double-entry accounting system,” says Joseph Quartson, “so I knew, when it came time to buy accounting software to assist me that was what I needed.
I wanted a simple to use system that would basically replace the pen and paper system I had been making do with up until then. MYOB was perfect – it wasn’t overly complex, and it didn’t require an accountant’s knowledge. Basically, it wasn’t rocket science.”
Once a piece of software becomes integral to how a firm operates, the reliability of the software becomes a matter of vital importance. The MYOB software has acquitted itself well in this area, too. “MYOB hasn’t required a high degree of support at all,” says Joseph, “and, when support issues do arise, the MYOB team know the answer and problems are solved immediately. That’s quite refreshing when you’re used to other suppliers’ support lines continually passing the buck on their responsibility for a problem, ultimately leaving you frustrated and still with a problem. That’s not the case with MYOB.”
Joseph is pleased with the way that the MYOB software has grown with the company over the last ten years. “MYOB has matched my requirements at every turn of the business. It’s really grown with us,” he says. “For example, when the company was taking on more staff for the first time I knew we had to set up a more sophisticated time-billing process and, low and behold, MYOB issued an update which included time billing functions. It was a godsend – literally manna from heaven.
MYOB software frees up valuable time to spend on clients. This makes the whole business more profitable and gives me a chance to push growth.”
West Berkshire Brewery
Helen Maggs and her husband David established the West Berkshire Brewery Company, in 1995.
When the brewery was started, invoices and accounts were kept by hand. As the business grew, a member of staff was recruited to help with the beer production and deliveries, but Helen and David could not justify employing an extra person to deal with accounts.
Helen says, “To begin with, I did everything manually with bits of paper and a calculator at the end of every month. But the more beer we sold, the more complicated our accounts became. So I started using an Excel spreadsheet on our PC but I was particularly concerned about our handwritten invoices. I had to send out enormous numbers of delivery notes and one huge monthly invoice to our larger customers. It was taking a lot of my time and accuracy was becoming a real problem. In fact, it was all becoming a bit of a headache.”
They contacted other small breweries for advice on accounting software packages. One friend, sent them a selection of demonstration CDs.
“Our accountant had already advised us against some of the other software providers because we would have needed some knowledge of accountancy to operate them. MYOB was certainly the easiest of them all and we didn’t feel blinded by technology. We were also impressed by the price, as it was significantly lower than other brand leading packages offering similar features.
It does everything we had hoped for and the technical support staff have been fabulous. I’m the first to admit that I do accounts under sufferance and I had no idea about what I actually wanted from the system, but the MYOB help desk held my hand in the early months and sorted me out when I made a hash of things.
I’d never have believed it, but I now produce financial reports, end of year accounts and accurate invoices in a few hours a week. I also have all the facts at my fingertips for completing the monthly beer duty calculations: MYOB software has made that job a hundred times easier.”
Bottletop Design Testimonial
Bottletop Design was started by three design professionals who used to work in broadcast.
“By training we’re designers not accountants and when we first started we just used Excel spreadsheets to keep track of income and expenditure,” says John Hunt, one of Bottletop’s founders. “But we soon realised we’d need to buy proper accounting software to really get the financial side of the business in order. When we looked at MYOB it seemed relatively straightforward and, as they say, ‘it did exactly what it says on the tin’.”
Initial impressions have proved correct. “Although I’ve never been trained as an accountant I find the MYOB software easy to use,” says John. “Because I’m so used to using them, I find graphic design programs largely intuitive. Accounting software was a completely new field and I was concerned that it would be difficult to learn, but MYOB was very user-friendly and made sense to me, right from the outset. ”
Bottletop Design employs an accountant to help keep an eye on their financial affairs. “I maintain the books on a day to day basis and submit reports to our accountant at the end of each calendar month,” says John. “She enters all the other required information into MYOB and calls me to confirm when it’s been done. It doesn’t take her long at all to do this, which helps to keep down her professional fees.”
“One concern when we bought the software was the fact that our accountant uses a PC. We thought there might be some compatibility issues between her PC and our Mac, but there have been none. The MYOB accounts that we produce can be read easily on either type of computer.
Our accountant had never used MYOB software before doing our books, and to be honest she was a bit reluctant to learn. But now she’s really pleased with the software and happy that she can offer a wider range of services to her clients.
The software gives us a great overview of our accounts and a good feel for the company’s overall financial health.”
