The Challenge
From the beginning, APTC has used MYOB. During its early days, the company found that MYOB AccountRight was the right fit.
But as it added more products and services, the system started lagging. That delay was further exacerbated when APTC offered national distribution and opened more warehouse locations.
“We’d used MYOB AccountRight for many years, but it had become outdated for our business.”
Laura says, “For example, we still used a manual-card filing system for pricing. When customers ordered, you’d have to sift through every customer card before creating an invoice. This also made price increases a nightmare!”
Furthermore, technology has come a long way over the last few decades, and APTC knew an advanced system would help the business achieve its future ambitions.
“We knew there were many benefits of moving to a cloud-based system. Most importantly, we needed a solution that our teams could access on the road or from different sites.
The Solution
APTC enlisted the help of MYOB Acumatica Platinum Partner, BusinessHub. Laura worked closely with our team to implement MYOB Acumatica.
“I can’t fault the service and support we’ve received from BusinessHub. They’ve been great the whole way, from implementation through to training support,” she says.
While Laura wasn’t part of the decision-making process, she believes upgrading to MYOB Advanced was likely because of APTC’s positive experience with MYOB. And, when MYOB Acumatica Payroll launched, the business was even more confident it had made the right call.
“We were still running payroll through MYOB AccountRight, so it was great when MYOB Acumatica Payroll was introduced, and we could do everything in the one system,” says Laura.
"It’s also been easy to train new staff to use the system, which is a bonus".
The Results
One of the most noticeable improvements since upgrading to MYOB Acumatica is the speed at which Laura and the team can access and process data.
In APTC’s line of work, “tradespeople don’t have the time to wait for your system to process – they just want in and out.”
Recently, Laura has been working with BusinessHub to streamline how APTC processes trade counter sales, automating tasks where they can. That includes digitising its customer pricing.
“When we were a smaller business, it was easy enough to manage individual customer pricing. Now, it’s critical that we’re able to provide quick and easy transactions so our customers can get on-site as soon as possible,” she says.
Lots of other processes have improved too. APTC has digitised its Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable using templates available in MYOB Acumatica, saving the accounts team significant time.
When receiving goods, warehouse teams now add batch numbers and expiry dates directly into the system rather than on packing slips. The business also uses the inventory management plugin Netstock, which helps automate stock transfers, track international ordering and forecast sales.
“Most of those processes were done using paper. Now that we have a digital paper trail, we can focus on customer service and growing the business,” says Laura.
Customised reporting: high-level or drill down As General Manager, Laura now has access to customised reporting without having to manipulate data using Excel. She can pull profit and loss statements for each site or consolidate the numbers for a bird’s-eye view of APTC’s overall financial performance.
Prior to MYOB Acumatica, the company ran on a server-based system with limited off-site access. For APTC’s sales reps, this made accessing customer information while on the road almost impossible. Instead, they’d spend hours on the phone with the admin team or riffling through paper records.
With MYOB Acumatica, APTC is now fully cloud-based – and that’s been a game-changer. Laura explains: “All of our sales reps now fly with laptops and are less dependent on the office staff because they can directly pull the information they need from MYOB Acumatica, like customer purchase history.”
