Countrywide improved financial processes with Access Finance software
Countrywide is the UK's leading residential property services group, having the broadest network of estate agency branches across the UK.
Find out why Countrywide chose Access software to improve their finance and expense system. They are now able to reduce complexity and re-keying, improve data reliability, and create fast, dynamic, and accurate reports. Discover how Countrywide manages to engage everyone across their business with an easy-to-use expense system and empower decision-making.
Challenge
- No reliability and timeliness of information systems and KPIs
- Poor data flow and accessibility of financial information
- Experiencing inefficiency in data processing and analysis
Approach
- Testing and implementing Access Expense to address the lack of financial data reliability
- Progressively rolling out to a substantial number of staff thanks to the flexibility of the system
- Efficiently identifying any areas that require improvement with the help of Access Expense system
Results
- Enhanced analysis and insight into the company's performance
- Positive user reception and progressive rollout to a significant number of staff
- Improved visibility and understanding of financial and operational data.
Countrywide's Success Story with Access Finance software
Find out why Countrywide chose Access software to improve their finance and expense system.
The Challenge
Countrywide needed a reliable information system and data that is readily available and accurate. However, their fragmented financial information, lack of reconciliation, and the time-consuming process of pulling together numbers represented a challenge in obtaining timely and reliable data for decision-making and performance evaluation.
Adrienne Clarke, Finance Director at Countywide PLC says: "I'm responsible for the strategy of the operations of the business. To be successful in the role we need to have reliable information systems and KPIs. They just need to be immediate and accurate. We had a very fragmented finance information system. Nothing tied up, nothing reconciled easily. It involved a lot of staff and a lot of time pulling the numbers together. The information wasn't flowing freely and it wasn't immediate. We couldn't analyse our suppliers and how much we spent across the group easily without asking a number of people."
Countrywide were experiencing difficulty in analysing suppliers and tracking expenses across the company. This was affecting the way data was shared within the organisation and the accessibility of relevant information across departments.
When you've actually got the data, it comes in 20 different formats, and you then spend a few days sorting it out. All of that wasted time and it also put up a barrier to taking forward decisions.
The Approach
Due to the difficulties in obtaining and processing data, Countrywide decided to go for Access Expense in their pursuit of finding a suitable tool to address their financial management-related challenges.
"Because it was just too hard to get the data, we tested Access Expense, and it was very popular with all the users" continues Adrienne Clarke. "It is now starting to reap benefits: we've got probably about 6,000 people using it at the moment and we've got another 4,000 to go live with it still."
The Results
Implementing Access Expense has contributed to improved visibility and understanding of Countrywide's financial and operational data.
"We chose Access because it seemed such a straightforward product. We really liked the flexibility that it offered us in the chart of accounts and the number of attributes you could do because we can slice and dice several different ways. We understand where we're good and where we're not so good."
Our solution meets their expectations in terms of ease of use and adaptability to their specific financial and operational requirements, making Access Finance software the right choice for Countrywide.
It seems as though it can do everything we want to do, and we're able to do it in baby steps and develop it as we go along, without creating a massive project overhead and trying to boil the ocean. We actually get to move forwards and get results. I believe both the Access team and our team have shown great commitment towards delivering successful projects using Access software.