Case studies
Success stories
We asked our clients to give honest accounts of their experiences working with Horsfield & Smith. It’s safe to say we’re proud of the responses they provided, demonstrating the power of our truly personalised services. Whatever your line of business, we’re sure you’ll find an echo of the challenges you face and the ambition you’re pursuing in the case studies below.
JCS Nuclear Solutions
Background
Our client is based in Bury and manufactures bespoke radiation detection and shielding equipment. After the retirement of their company accountant, they were looking to change their internal systems by transforming to digital processes, where they could link both the accounting system and the MRP system together, to streamline and improve overall company efficiency.
Challenges
Our client ran their business using numerous Excel spreadsheets – the system worked but was extremely inefficient for various reasons:
“We were operating the best part of 15 spreadsheets that we needed to touch on a regular basis”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
Information usually gets duplicated when Excel based systems are used, which is partly what caused the inefficiency. When reports were generated, the process was tedious and full of errors. Also, the information was out of date making it difficult to make strategic business decisions.
Recommended Solution
In addition to the information being outdated and duplicated, the company accountant was retiring which kick started our client into making the decision to transform to digital processes, as this left a void in the business and created an opportunity to change how the business was run.
Our client decided to use the expertise of Horsfield & Smith to help develop a plan towards digital transformation. Horsfield & Smith identified the need to embrace cloud-based systems as a solution to their problems:
“We performed a review, then met with the client and existing staff to see what reports they produced and where we could see possible long term time savings and efficiencies, by bringing on board cloud-based software”. – Mark Tooby, Outsourcing Manager, Horsfield & Smith
During the review process, Horsfield & Smith recommended Xero as the right accounting system due to their expertise in implementing Xero in other applications similar to JCS:
“Under their advice, we started looking at more modern systems, specifically Xero, to do the accounting and bookkeeping for the company, and that became the natural progression to look at the bolt-on for the CRM and MRP system”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
So that they could choose the right MRP system, our client began by identifying the key requirements of the system – this was achieved by getting all stakeholders in the business to identify their individual pain points in their day-to-day activities. It was revealed that a lot of time was being wasted on duplicating data through numerous Excel spreadsheets:
“All of this was mounting up to a lot of time every week”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
Stakeholder Buy-In
The JCS team were aware that they needed to upgrade from manual processes to a digital solution that would give them process efficiency:
“We had early buy-in. We knew we needed to modernise”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
Horsfield & Smith had discussions with staff members to establish what they required – this ensured the team had a say in what system they should implement and they felt that their opinions were being heard during the selection process. Staff were also aware that there would be some compromise needed during implementation of the MRP system:
“If you understand what the outcomes are and what the data is that you need, you can learn to change your operations”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
Onboarding
Our client decided they wanted to test the MRP software before implementing it. This was an excellent opportunity for them to trial the software and train staff on how the system worked in a way that didn’t affect their day-to-day business operations:
“The trial was really our first phase of training”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
In addition, Flowlens has a detailed knowledge base which can be used for training purposes – this can be accessed by staff to find out how to use a certain Flowlens process, without the need to sift through large training manuals:
“The knowledge base on the Flowlens website is really good”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
When the time came for Horsfield & Smith to integrate Flowlens with Xero, the process was seamless:
“It just worked, as far as I am concerned, like a dream. It connected to Xero perfectly and everything seemed to move along very, very smoothly”. – Mark Tooby, Outsourcing Manager, Horsfield & Smith
Benefits of Digital Transformation
From a management perspective, one of the key advantages of using Flowlens and Xero together is the ability to create a dashboard with customised information such as sales orders, enquiries, conversions which can be displayed in real time – this provides management with an indication of the performance of the business:
“The impact of being able to access real time information for all employees throughout the business has been immediate”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
Our client, Oliver Caunt, would recommend Flowlens to manufacturing SMEs who make equipment or devices, and who need to maintain traceability. The combination of Flowlens, Horsfield & Smith and Xero have helped our client to achieve digital transformation at a time of change within the company and overall:
“The impact has been nothing but positive at all levels within the operation of the company”. – Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
iConservatories
Background
A manufacturer of solid timber roofs for conservatories.
Challenge
A growing business who felt they were being held back by a lack of information on how the business was performing in terms of profitability until the accounts were prepared at the end of the financial year. The company had outgrown their previous accountant who carried out their book-keeping and compliance work. The book-keeping was being prepared on SAGE by the accountant quarterly to submit their VAT returns. The directors were effectively running their business from their bank balance.
Solution
Horsfield & Smith advised that in order to understand the performance of the company, the preparation of management accounts on at least a quarterly basis was essential for a company of its size, accompanied with a quarterly meeting to discuss performance.
Horsfield & Smith also stressed the importance of looking forward to the future instead of historic performance. In order to do this we suggested doing daily book-keeping instead of once a quarter.
Outcome
Our client converted from SAGE desktop to Xero cloud accounting and haven’t looked back since – this enabled Horsfield & Smith to manage the book-keeping on a daily basis in real time.
The company has gone from strength to strength in the past two years including purchasing their own building and moving from rented premises in early 2018.
We now prepare monthly management accounts together with ongoing Key Performance Indicator monitoring and monthly strategy meetings.
We also carry out tax planning exercises to minimise their corporation tax.
Horsfield & Smith have become part of the finance team.
What we can do for you
Find out more about the full range of business and tax advisory services Horsfield & Smith offers to businesses and individuals across Greater Manchester and the North West of England and see how we can help you achieve your goals for growth.
