Luxury boat builder Whittley Marine has selected the Greentree accounting software supplied to provide a platform for growth following its recent purchase of the Savage boat brand.

One of the best known trailable boat builders in Australia, Whittley Marine, acquired the Savage operations and is now building boats under both the ‘Whittley’ and ‘Savage’ brands. Its management identified the company’s need for more sophisticated financial tracking and better profitability analysis as a result of the acquisition. “We’ve effectively doubled the number of models we produce, which has increased the complexity of our operation”.

“Greentree has more streamlined accounting processes, cutting the number of steps needed to work out key indicators such as the cost of the manufacturing component of an individual boat. It is very intuitive to use and reports are so easier to generate. “

Neville Whittley, the company’s Managing Director, further defined this with his high level requirements. “We need to know exactly what it costs to build each boat, and the value added by different cost centres such as mechanical, upholstery, finishing, as well as the cost of a myriad of components”.

Greentree has more streamlined accounting processes, cutting the number of steps needed to work out key indicators such as the cost of the manufacturing component of an individual boat. It is very intuitive to use and reports are so easier to generate. The powerful Job Costing module is totally integrated with both purchasing and inventory, giving total control over jobs.

Greentree’s ability to let users ‘drill down’ for more information with a mouse click surpasses that of the most expensive ERP packages. Drilldown is endemic right through the software, on both customer and supplier sides.

“My accountant takes a third less time to process end of month accounts. That’s mainly because Greentree uses Excel to generate financial reports, and like most accountants he’s very proficient in those tools.”

Neville Whittley says his accountant takes a third less time to process end of month accounts. “That’s mainly because Greentree uses Excel to generate financial reports, and like most accountants he’s very proficient in those tools.”

Greentree uses ‘kitsets’ that are a boon for companies like Whittley, who make or sell goods made up of many components. A particular model of boat, for example, that uses 150 different stainless steel parts, can treat all of those components as a single ‘kitset’ for costing purposes. This saves time by removing the need to list each component. Once a boat is complete, materials previously allocated to that boat out of stock or from purchase orders, are then transferred to the cost of goods sold.

Whittley has also implemented Greentree’s Customer Relationship Management suite. This helps Whittley drive new boat sales by keeping in touch with boat buyers and letting owners of ageing boats know when new models arrive. It keeps track of people who make boat enquiries, to enable more active marketing of boats. The company will also use CRM to track warranty obligations. Greentree CRM records all sales and provides complete warranty and service tracking.

About Whittley Marine

The Whittley brand that began in a home workshop has burgeoned to become an internationally recognised, mulit award winning, world leading product. Throughout the evolution of Whittley, the brand has been underscored by an absolute, unremitting commitment to quality, along with leadership in innovation and originality of design.

Jim and Ossie Whittley built fine boats in the 1950’s, as do Neville and Steve Whittley more than 50 years later.

For more information visit www.whittley.com.au