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Little Black Dress are suppliers of a fantastic range of special occasion dresses for the modern woman. Whether it’s parties, weddings, prom nights, or holidays Little Black dress can supply the perfect garment. Their increasing list of clients show their products are very popular with women who want to feel extra special when they’re out and about.

Whilst they were enjoying exceptional growth they were finding their internal systems weren’t keeping up. Especially their accounting processes. When they contacted the Enso team they were using a creaking accounting system called Data Valley which they were running from one laptop! Of course, this meant it took too long to produce invoices and create essential financial reports. And they had no access of their data remotely. It took three staff to run the accounting system which they knew was too many.

The Opportunities

The management at Little Black Dress needed a better way to manage their accounts. Automated processes, good quality sales data, accurate VAT returns, and an ongoing view of the business information were becoming crucial to ongoing success.

This was especially important for potential new clients who asked for sales information to inform buying decisions. They needed a quick to implement, accurate, and easy to use solution.

The Challenges

The Little Black Dress management team chose Enso to help them with their accounting challenges. They knew our modern approach to financial management and our ability to solve complex problems would help to bring them into the 21st century and enable their business growth.

The job involved bringing over almost three years’ worth of records. We had to figure out the best way to do this and what management information they needed to preserve from this data. There was an ongoing issue with the statement of sales which wasn’t matching with their Magento reports. The Enso team worked hard to correct the sales in the accounts, and create a process to record Magento sales onto Xero on a regular basis. Then find a way to keep these records accurate going forward ensuring future payment runs were recorded quickly and accurately in the accounts.

Xero

We recommended the business move to a Xero-based approach. Xero is the leading, cloud-based accounting software that modern businesses favour.

A small monthly subscription to Xero and expert input from the Enso team would provide a quantum leap in financial management for Little Black Dress. Once this decision was made, preparations for the switch over began. We analysed every aspect of the business to make sure we had bang up to date information.

In parallel, we created step by step manuals and checklists to help the accounts team to correctly use the new system. All areas were addressed; the automatic bank feed, setting up the PayPal feed, analysing transactions from the bank and setting up bank rules. We thoroughly overhauled the journaling processes automating as many aspects as possible. For example, for invoice processing we set up an app called Auto-Entry. This allowed invoices to be scanned and read by the software and efficiently uploaded onto Xero.

We worked closely with the Little Black Dress team to ensure Xero was supplying all the management data they needed. These included sales figures, GP margins, credit control data, cash sales, expenses, and purchases. Little Black Dress also wanted a personalised P+L reports, which grouped together specific expenses which we were easily able to organise. The Enso team configured Xero to their exact requirements over a two-week period and, after final checks, initiated the system. Little Black Dress was now a Xero user and immediately saw the benefits.

The Outcome

The business is now in total control of their accounts. Using Xero they now have accurate and immediate access to key performance data. Both for the financial management team and the none executive directors. They can now react immediately to the information they are able to generate.

They also chose to take advantage of other useful features in Xero. They soon transitioned their payroll to Xero and now use the Curve Card module. This synchs their business credit card so when a transaction is made, a notification is received on a mobile phone. They can now take a picture of the receipt, which is scanned and fed automatically into Xero. How useful is that! A Complete Success!

The Enso team are delighted to have helped Little Black dress to revolutionise their approach to their financial accounting. We delivered the results on time, on budget and to our client’s specification. The Little Black Dress team is now leaner and more in control able to manage the wider commercial aspects of the business rather than worrying about the accounts In our one-month health check we were pleased to find Xero was being used as intended and the training and migration was a success.

As Mark Evans, CEO said: ‘From day one Adam was hugely knowledgeable in Xero and the whole migration. He was fantastic in analysing our business as a whole and designed a plan in how we should be running our finances. His experience was perfect in understanding what we currently did and how we should move forward into the 21st century of cloud accounting and automation. Adam was always there for us to assist with any niggles in the software and really went above and beyond to ensure this was a success. This project went perfectly, and I look forward in doing work with Enso in the future.’

Choose Enso

If you want to find out how to use technology to manage your accounts, get better control of your business, and prepare for the challenges ahead, call Enso today on 07792686479 for a free evaluation and consultation.

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