A company’s story about the power of flexible software
One day the phone rang and we got exactly the type of question that can lead to new efficiencies and cost savings for innovative managers.
The operations manager at one of our clients called with a question about general ledger implications for an adjustment on an item’s inventory quantity. This led to understanding the nature of the adjustment and the problem that caused it, and then solutions to stop this from happening.
This company installs residential kitchens and baths. Their warehouse holds items purchased from vendors for active jobs, such as appliances and custom-built cabinetry. The manager’s need for a quantity adjustment came after he found problems. Serial numbers hadn’t been associated with the correct job numbers in their system, due to typos in the number. Their system showed that items were still on-hand—but the items were not in the warehouse. They’d gotten “disconnected” from their job numbers in the system due to the typos when received.
The operations manager said that they’ve always had these adjustments every once in awhile because serial numbers are assigned manually.
As volume increases, error rates increase in manual processes because volume leads to a faster pace—and less mindfulness for details like assigning serial numbers. And as volume increases the curve goes up. With less time and more problems, there’s less capacity to solve problems.
A slow bleed in your process adds up.
In this case, the problem amounted to $30,000-$40,000. It’s not uncommon to find $250,000 or more in untraceable inventory in a situation like this one.
This is why the operations manager’s boss, the company owner, got a flexible AccountMate system to eliminate the problem. It’s a tool that can address processes like this as their needs change. It’s why people want AccountMate. You can’t do this with QuickBooks or many other software systems.
Due to growth, the company now requires full traceability that doesn’t permit data errors in their lists of serial numbers.
Because AccountMate is inherently designed to change easily, it only required two days of a programmer’s time to custom-fit a serial number solution into their new system.
The improved inventory traceability resulted in:
- Their system automatically generating serial numbers sequentially based on the company’s job numbering logic
- The employees being relieved of the tedious serial number task, speeding things up
- The operations manager no longer losing time walking the warehouse in search of items
- More accurate inventory levels in the system for better management of active jobs
A flexible system gives you freedom to innovate and respond
With a system like AccountMate that’s truly modifiable, computers go from being a hassle to being exciting tools that help you grow. Your outlook expands once you see your accounting or ERP system as a malleable tool that can be tailored to fit your business perfectly.
AIS can help you implement those changes or offer you ideas for innovations you haven’t thought of yet. Let us know how we can help you.
