Cape Town, 06 Apr 2017
Fear of financials
Many shop owners are frustrated with their accounting process and battle to bring together their operations, monthly management accounts and year-end reporting, while complying with legislation and SARS returns.
Sound financial data is essential to minimise risks, maximise profits and provide owners, financiers and shareholders with the information required to make valuable investment decisions. Choosing the right financial management system involves careful consideration of functionalities, ease of use, cost, support and keeping up to date with a changing environment and technology.
In the retail fraternity, the statement is often heard: "We do what we do best, that is selling baked beans," thus shying away from "complicated" financial issues affecting the business. This is especially true for smaller operators that cannot afford a dedicated finance department.
Integrated Arch Accounting solution
This challenge has been identified by Arch, and as a result, addressed with the establishment of Arch Accounting, to give retailers an option of integrated, accurate, on-time financial information. Arch Accounting developed seamless integration capabilities from Arch to Sage Evolution.
Gerrie Mostert, Head of Arch Accounting, commented as follows on the choice of Sage Evolution as integration partner: "Arch Retail and Arch Enterprise offer a complete operational system for the FMCG market, while Sage Evolution offers a solid financial package for small and large applications. Choosing Sage Evolution Standard and Premium have proven to be the right decision as its MS-SQL database and ease of integration, together with the functionality of the software, helps customers regain control of their financial processes. Its reporting functionality and ease of use help customers to be up to date all the time. Comparative income statements, balance sheets, creditor age analyses and cash flows are easy to draw and analyse as integration ensures timely information."
Benefits of the integrated solution
* An in-depth understanding of retail operation issues ensures that, through the integration, all relevant information flows to the correct accounting locations in Sage Evolution.
* Seamless integration eliminates double entry, thus reducing the human factor and possible mistakes.
* Important functionality includes the ability to map suppliers' transactions from Arch to designated suppliers within Sage to match to a buying group's monthly statement for easier creditor reconciliations - so-called drop shipments. This saves valuable time and helps retailers to keep track of and claim the rebates they are entitled to.
* The solution provides financial transparency. Users have sound financial control - VAT reports, creditor reconciliations, bank imports, monthly management accounts, cash flows and financial analyses become easier.
* All data remains in a database for easy access via numerous reports and views. Excel-based reporting and Power BI offer further customisable reporting options, providing retailers with flexibility and full transparency.
* No more painful month-ends and year-ends: Compared to other software packages, you never have to do a year-end again. Arch Accounting's bespoke integration software (Equilibrium) was designed for flexibility to cater for unique customer requirements (retail or wholesale), while conforming to IFRS (international reporting standards) facilitating annual reporting (AFS). The gap between monthly and annual reporting is now eliminated.
* The choice not to develop a financial system within Arch, but to rather integrate to a best-of-breed solution such as Sage Evolution, was an easy one. Fact is, both Arch Retail and Sage are market leaders in innovation and continuously developing cutting-edge products to meet ever-changing market requirements.
Technical expertise
Arch Accounting has an experienced team of industry experts who plan and implement the solution in conjunction with the client, but also as accredited Sage Business Partners, render an ongoing service to optimise the solution. For further information or to make contact, see http://archsoftware.co.za/arch-point-of-sale-software-accounting/.
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