A.S. Wilcox growing with passion, pride... and Greentree

The Group had been using the legacy product CBA financial system from Greentree for a number of years and was satisfied with the product, but there was a growing need for more advanced functions.

“We needed to speed up our processes and have a more manageable General Ledger that suited our in-house processes. CBA did what was required, but gradually we needed more from a system.” Eric Gillott, Financial Accountant, explains. “A key driver for change was the need for a system with Microsoft functionality, rather than DOS-based. We needed an easier way to use system for our new and more ‘Microsoft-friendly’ users, and a system that allowed integration with Microsoft products.”

A.S. Wilcox looked at a couple of competing software products, but in the end, it was a quick and easy decision as Greentree provided superior general ledger and reporting functions they needed, and had similar functionality to CBA.

Very, very time-saving

A real time saver has been the use of Greentree ‘trees’; one of Greentree’s most powerful features. A.S. Wilcox now has the ability to define an unlimited number of ‘trees’ against all master files and has used ‘trees’ to classify and summarise data within the General Ledger. They also use the ‘trees’ at report time for sorting and sub-totalling at all levels, and are able to tailor reports easily to provide end-of-month data within Excel. Gillott says, “Using trees attached to the General Ledger saves vast amounts of time, especially at the month end, as it provides a logical and multi-level view of our company. In fact, month-end processing used to take one and a half days and now only takes one hour to complete. A massive saving.”

Very, very beneficial to our business

Managing a production base of 2,500 acres, the ability to see quantities in the General Ledger has been a real business benefit for A.S. Wilcox, something they previously could not do. “We process large volumes and the ability to be able to see this in the General Ledger is critical to our business,” Gillott comments. The ‘allocations’ sub-module to distribute revenue or expenses across business units, departments and cost-centres has been a valuable tool for the company. Transactions that are posted to an allocation account are automatically reallocated over the specified accounts. Gillott says, “Being able to apply allocations within the General Ledger has been extremely useful and so easy to do in Greentree.”

Very, very integrated

A.S. Wilcox believes Greentree, being a completely online, integrated system, has made a real impact in terms of time savings and more informed decisions. “Greentree is very responsive and the real-time processing really aids the decision-making process and reporting.”

Greentree provides a single point of data entry that updates all relevant areas instantaneously, with no ‘inter-module’ posting or updating required. Gillott asserts, “With no more batch delays and no updates to wait for, we are more proactive and have the real information at our fingertips.

“As financial transactions are entered into any part of Greentree, they are reflected immediately in the General Ledger. This allows us to see exactly what revenue or costs we have in the system at any one time.”

By using Greentree, A.S. Wilcox has been able to relieve historically pressurised periods and all reconciliation concerns. “Reconciling in Greentree has really softened the pressure of month-end and year-end processing,” Gillott says. “Moving to the next accounting period is a simple matter of changing the ‘current’ period. This process has helped to spread the load.”

Very, very flexible

All transactions that are entered into Greentree are date stamped with the relevant period and year, so there is no formal period-end aging that needs to be performed. Being able to integrate with Microsoft Excel gives A.S. Wilcox control and the flexibility to present data to suit the business demands. Eric Gillott believes the Greentree Report Writer is and will continue to be indispensable. “The reporting in Greentree has really helped the business provide timely and in-depth information,” he says. There is so much potential to use reports throughout the business and we are just starting to realise the benefits of having accurate information online.”

Commenting on the future usages of Greentree, Gillott feels the new system can offer more functionality and keep pace with their growth. He concludes, “It’s early days yet, as we get to know the software. We have been pleased with the implementation and feel that Greentree offers so much untapped potential for our business.”