They say a happy user is the best salesperson. And after European appliance importer and distributor Technika installed Greentree earlier this year, financial controller Trevor Porter is a huge proponent of Greentree.

As the new financial controller for Technika, Trevor Porter inherited an out-of-date system, ProStix, that just couldn’t do what was required of it. Because Technika was owned by Swan, a retail chain, Technika had been handed a system that was designed for point of sale, whereas Technika, being importers and distributors, needed a system with a comprehensive focus.

“There were a couple of people who didn’t want the change, but after they had settled in and found out how good the Greentree system was, they would never go back to the old one.”

Trevor Porter, Financial Controller - Technika

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The company had already been considering a move to a more sophisticated package, but Porter provided the impetus needed. A number of options had been eliminated before he joined Technika; in many cases the price had been prohibitive.

Although the changeover was a big undertaking, Porter had been through the process before so he was prepared for the steps necessary. “We had a lot of stock that we had to transfer across,” Porter says. “Luckily, it’s all big-volume stuff except for our spare parts.” Debtors and accounts payable were transferred without any trouble.

Even though he changed from CBA to Greentree in his previous company, Porter says this change went even more smoothly and the new system went live on 1st February. “The transition to Greentree was seamless”, Porter said.

The change went according to budget, the company even decided to buy a number of extra modules that weren’t originally planned for. Technika now uses accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory, multiple warehouses, foreign exchange, advance purchase orders, general ledger and analytics. The operational effect of the modules has been increased integration, functionality and control.

Users see benefits

Greentree has been accepted by all the staff. “There were a couple of people who didn’t want the change, but after they had settled in and found out how good the system was, they would never go back to the old one,” Porter says. The staff like it because of its user-friendliness and because it provides a lot more information than they were used to. For instance, Technika previously was only able to do trial balances year to date, whereas now they can also run them month to date.

“In our previous system, 70% of the job was done in the accounting software, but then it had to be downloaded and finished off in Excel,” Porter says. “Greentree is fully integrated and I find it absolutely magnificent as far as reports go, and also for direct costing. It’s also very accurate for doing invoices and Profit and Loss reports, and the warehouse control is very good.”

Technika warehouses in Queensland and Western Australia used to have to send spreadsheets detailing their stockholdings, so inaccurate stock reports were a problem. Porter says: “We used to raise orders but when someone went out to the warehouse the item wouldn’t be there. And then, if the invoices had already been prepared, you couldn’t cancel it.” Technika had to create a credit note and then re-invoice. “Now we can’t sell negative stock and have to find out why there’s no stock showing, so it’s a great tool for stock control.”

These days, Porter can see stockholdings day to day on his own computer. He says users feel a lot more confident in their jobs because of the information they can access. “When we installed Greentree we knew we wanted better control of stock and more accurate management reporting.

“We’ve got big companies who have a lot of stores nationally set up as parent companies with child accounts. Now we can run reports and see sales in individual stores. Pulling out single-store figures in the previous system was just horrendous, now it’s easy as can be!”

Trevor Porter, Financial Controller - Technika

Porter has seen a lot of time saving, especially in account receipting. “We’ve got some rather big clients who pay us over a million dollars a month, and to process those receipts in the old system took sometimes a day and a half. We can finish them in a couple of hours now.”

About Technika

Technika imports and distributes around Australia highquality home appliances from Italian manufacturers. Innovative tooling sets Technika appliances apart, while economies of scale make them affordable. The range of appliances includes ovens, patio heaters, dishwashers and rangehoods. The Victoria-based company has a wide retail partner network, as well as a nationwide service network. The company has built up a solid reputation for its appliances, and they are now often included as part of a package when builders sell new homes.

For more information visit www.technika.com.au