Reporting is ‘a great deal easier’ for Imray after adopting iplicit

The challenge

A finance system which had once worked well for nautical publisher Imray had ended up creating extra work.

Associate Director Emma Woodfield spent much of her time extracting data and producing reports the old-fashioned way.

“We had SAP Business One, which is a great system but old and rigid. It couldn’t adapt to our business as it evolved,” she says.

“It was set up about 17 years ago and worked fine for the business then but wasn’t scalable. It was expensive and didn’t integrate well with other software.”

The work of Imray’s finance team can be complex. As well as publishing its own products, the business is a reseller of other companies’ products. It has a diverse range of customers including distributors, wholesalers, retailers and the public. Around 50% of its sales are overseas.

All this imposes demands that the finance system struggled to deal with.

“We were particularly frustrated by its lack of flexibility when it came to reporting,” says Emma.

“Reporting is a large part of my job and it was a very manual, spreadsheet-heavy process.

“SAP Business One is an on-premises system and the server needed upgrading, which was going to be expensive – so that was a good time to look at changing systems.”

The solution 

Emma made the decision to change systems and led the search for a new product.

The new software would have to be cloud-based and would need to integrate well with other applications.

“I looked at Xero because it’s simple and it works – but while it’s great for the small trader, our business is too complex for it and we needed more powerful reporting, as well as stock capabilities,” she says.

“Integration was another priority for us, especially integration with Shopify, which we use for e-commerce.”

“I looked at Xero because it’s simple and it works - but while it’s great for the small trader, our needs were too complex for it and we needed more powerful reporting, as well as stock capabilities."

Emma Woodfield
Associate Director at Imray

iplicit met Imray's needs, and adopting the system gave Emma the chance to make changes. “I took the opportunity to restructure our reporting and get the cost centres and departments into a much better structure,” she says.

The seasonal nature of Imray’s business meant the company had to go live with a new system sooner than it would have wanted. “That was challenging but the staff at iplicit were fantastic and very supportive,” she adds,

‘I’m happy to recommend iplicit’

Imray found iplicit a big improvement on its old system.

“iplicit offers much better flexibility and visibility,” says Emma.

“For example, we can edit and change documents far more easily than we could. Reporting is clearer and we can export real-time data into Excel for analysis.”

"With iplicit, it’s a great deal easier to produce detailed reports broken down by department or cost centre, thanks to iplicit’s unlimited number of accounting dimensions."

Emma Woodfield
Associate Director at Imray

Everyday work has been simplified, with spending approvals handled electronically and the history of any transaction easily available in the system.

“With SAP, you often needed technical support for even minor changes, which was frustrating,” says Emma. “SAP was quite static but iplicit is evolving constantly based on user feedback.”

Adopting iplicit has removed bottlenecks by allowing directors and department managers to see reports for themselves rather than relying on Emma to produce them.

“It’s also a great deal easier to produce detailed reports broken down by department or cost centre, thanks to iplicit’s unlimited number of accounting dimensions,” says Emma.

“I’ve been very pleased with iplicit. It’s a flexible, forward-looking system and I’m happy to recommend it to others.”

• Ready to drastically reduce manual work and transform the efficiency of your finance team? Find out more about how iplicit can help your business.

“I’ve been very pleased with iplicit. It’s a flexible, forward-looking system and I’m happy to recommend it to others.”

Emma Woodfield
Associate Director at Imray