Case Study: Shepperton Marina saves hours each week with Access finance software

The challenge facing Shepperton...

When Lynda Catchpole joined Shepperton Marina, formed of 3 different sites – Golf, Marina and Marine Engineering, the company was primarily using Exchequer for two of their sites and one site was using Sage plus various different bespoke software due to the nature of the company.

‘Exchequer was a purely finance package that wasn’t very user-friendly or intuitive. It was very basic in terms of functionality even at an accounts level, and it certainly had no way of integrating with the remote purchase control users or the ability to handle timesheet data or even holiday data – all the useful things we need to run our business,’ Lynda said.

Why Shepperton Marina chose Access and its finance solution

‘I was very conscious of changing the main core system in one go. I wanted to make sure that our team was able to deal with all the new changes to the system as we were based over three different sites with three different processes. I wanted to make sure that anything that was changed would benefit the whole
company in the long run.’

With a phased approach in mind, Lynda started the implementation process within the golf club site where the new software would show the quickest wins. ‘When the time came to implement Dimensions, I found it easy to do with the help of the Transaction Broker module to uplift the data extracted without much manual processing.’

Another added bonus for Lynda was the integration of FocalPoint module into Dimensions, ‘this has been a Godsend to me because, before this, everything was done manually. The process used to be the green keepers, who were working remotely, would fill in their timesheets or purchase orders and then deliver them to the main office, which meant that it would take days or weeks to get sorted. However, with FocalPoint in place, the process is quicker, I can see timesheets or purchase orders as soon as they have been approved – it’s instantaneous.’

Access has given the team time to do more

‘One of the biggest improvements from implementing Access has been freeing up the team to do more – for example, the Course Manager no longer asks the age-old question of ‘how much budget have I got left’ because FocalPoint allows me to set up a report specifically for him with live data based from his mix of budget, actual to date and committed costs from his purchase orders and the best part of this, it’s all done remotely.’

‘The biggest benefit of the finance software has been how much time we have been able to save. For instance, it has allowed us to save at least half a day a week with the local site accountant no longer having to spend days trying to go through and match all the invoices to the raised purchase orders. And where she couldn’t find the relevant purchase orders, she’d have to track down all the relevant individuals required to answer all the necessary questions. This has really freed up the Head Green Keeper’s time to get on with his job which is keeping the site going.’

Easy and relevant reporting to match the different departmental needs

‘I also have the Crystal Report module in place which has really allowed me to tailor the reports and suits the business better than the more generic ones that are already in the system. For example, I am able to give the Course Manager a report where he can drill down into the granular details if needed, plus he could search on keywords that he used within the purchase order.’

‘The beauty with FocalPoint is that you can push out different types of reporting for different people, it allows you to tailor information to the relevant departments and people – for example, if you have a specific project that you only want specific people to see, you can create reports especially for them, that doesn’t involve anyone else. It will always populate with the most up-to-date and live data – making it always relevant and instantaneous.’

Implementing finance software allowed the company to work smarter

Another benefit that Lynda found with the introduction of Dimensions has been that the finance software has allowed her team to take on other responsibilities and learn new skills. ‘We still have the same amount of people working within the different teams. However, because we are more efficient, we have been able to refocus the roles and responsibilities – for example, the marketing and events person used to also do the role of membership secretary.

With the introduction of Dimensions, she’s now able to concentrate on just the marketing and events, which has meant that we have seen a massive upturn in events being booked, so much so that I think we have done every 60th party around this area.’

‘For me, I knew that Access was going to be easy to use and intuitive for every site and every member of the company. I knew it had really strong and structured processes, for instance, we have had a significant reduction of phone calls into the office from suppliers chasing payment. But the biggest thing for me was that I was able to put one platform in for the whole company and regardless of the location that I was working from, I could see everybody’s data.’

Working with Access is a collaborative relationship

‘I have always seen working with Access as a true collaboration and I don’t have this relationship with any of my other suppliers. It’s just about the software that delivers but also my account manager, who knows me immediately and knows my company’s setup. What I really like is he would only talk to me about updates and software that might help me and my company.’

‘The support team has been excellent – turnaround time has been good and they have always gone beyond what was expected. And now with the addition of the new support portal, it’s just gone from strength to strength.’

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