Storage Company Personalizes Customer Relationships with ...



Overview

Country: United States

Industry: Construction

Customer Profile

Ironwood Self Storage, located in Idaho Falls, Idaho, offers 22,392 square feet of storage space in four buildings. With five to nine employees, the firm has an average of 60 customers at any one time.

Business Situation

Office Manager Mae Farrow spent a lot of time doing invoices, manually repeating other accounting tasks, and struggling with standard reports.

Solution

Farrow migrated from QuickBooks to Microsoft® Office Small Business Accounting 2006 to customize customer invoices and improve efficiency.

Benefits

■ Automates accounting processes

■ Saves four hours per month on bookkeeping

■ Saves six hours per month on invoicing

■ Improves access to information

■ Personalizes customer relationships

■ Improves productivity with intuitive user interface

| | |“…Small Business Accounting 2006 provides me with more opportunities to manipulate data than I had with QuickBooks. I’ve only just begun to delve into this product, but already I’m much more productive.”

Mae Farrow, Office Manager, Ironwood Self Storage

| |

| | | |Mae Farrow has been managing the finances for Ironwood Self Storage since its inception 10 years ago.|

| | | |Based in Idaho, the company provides storage space for businesses and private use. An experienced |

| | | |bookkeeper, Farrow had been using QuickBooks to manage the finances; however, she wanted more robust |

| | | |accounting functionality made available through a more intuitive, graphical user interface. Tired of |

| | | |wasting time manually calculating and updating invoices, she turned to Microsoft® Office Small |

| | | |Business Accounting 2006, which integrates with Microsoft Office 2003 Editions. Small Business |

| | | |Accounting 2006 allows Farrow to put her accounting experience to work—and save time. Today, she’s |

| | | |saving many hours every month through automated accounting processes. She’s also creating |

| | | |customizable, professional-looking invoices to improve the company’s image and personalize customer |

| | | |relations. |

| | | | |

| | | |[pic] |

| | | | |

Situation

Ironwood Self Storage is one of several businesses that Mae Farrow manages under the umbrella organization Rosewood Builders. Based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Ironwood started 10 years ago with just one building and 16 units. Today, its storage capacity has grown to meet demand to a total of four buildings and 72 units. Some of Ironwood’s customers have been with the company since its beginning. The majority of customers are in business for themselves, using Ironwood to store their inventories.

“We run at 100 percent occupancy normally,” says Farrow, Office Manager and full-time bookkeeper for Ironwood Self Storage. “Customers pay upfront for a year, or six months, or three months, or just monthly. Tracking payments and doing up invoices takes a lot of my time.”

Since her service in the military, where she worked in accounting and managed million-dollar accounts, Farrow has become an experienced bookkeeper. She had been using QuickBooks Pro 2002; however, it did not allow her to perform bookkeeping using the traditional accounting principles and level of detail to which she was accustomed. “I couldn’t manipulate the columns and numbers as I wanted to with QuickBooks, and it was difficult to see the difference between payables and receivables,” she says.

Invoicing was a particularly onerous process that Farrow had to repeat every pay period for all customers, depending on their schedules. “I would have to create a new invoice every month, going in and changing the same things over and over—dates, names, and amounts—before manually printing them out. QuickBooks did not help me handle the different pay schedules as well as I would have liked.”

Similar repetitive, manual processes wasted time for Farrow whenever she set up a new account. “When I created a new account, I had to manually look it up the next time I wanted to add something to it,” she explains. “The same thing for reports that my boss would ask for. It wasn’t easy to find information like customer payment records.”

Farrow needed a more user-friendly yet robust accounting solution that would save time but still allow for the level of detail and manipulability that she preferred. When she heard of the Microsoft® beta testing program for Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006, she saw an opportunity to work more efficiently and improve productivity while managing Ironwood Self Storage.

Solution

Farrow installed Small Business Accounting 2006 on her computer at the office at Ironwood Self Storage using the Startup Wizard, which helps first-time users get up and running quickly, in this case by importing Farrow’s data from QuickBooks. Small Business Accounting 2006 is a comprehensive financial management program for companies with up to 25 employees. With the familiar look and functionality of other Microsoft Office programs, Small Business Accounting 2006 can share information with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, including Microsoft Office Word 2003, the Microsoft Office Excel® 2003 spreadsheet software, and the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 messaging and collaboration client.

Farrow used the Startup Wizard to import data from QuickBooks and was relieved at how easy it was to set up a chart of accounts in Small Business Server 2006.

“It was a good thing I installed Small Business Accounting 2006 when I did, because subsequent health issues meant I was away from the office frequently,” says Farrow. “Small Business Accounting 2006 took a load off my shoulders while recovering—and I was able to run the business more smoothly than before.”

Benefits

For Farrow, Small Business Accounting 2006 helped to automate manual accounting processes, improve access to business information, and increase productivity.

Automating Accounting Processes

“Because Small Business Accounting 2006 automates everyday bookkeeping tasks, for example, I can create a check with one mouse click. I’m probably saving four hours a month,” she says. “It’s simpler to create new accounts, and because the software tracks everything for that account, I’m no longer repeatedly entering the same information.”

Farrow is no longer updating and completing invoices by hand. Instead, Small Business Accounting automatically tracks receivables and imports invoices to Word 2003 to create professional-looking, customizable documents. “I am really impressed with Small Business Accounting 2006 invoicing features,” she says. “I’m saving six hours a month, and I can personalize invoices to improve relationships with customers. I’ve added notes, pictures, and seasonal messages. I’ve used invoices to invite customers to a storage-unit-wide yard sale, and to say we are spraying for bugs next month. I’ve had great feedback from my boss and from clients!”

Improving Access to Information

And with more than 60 reports no more than two clicks away from anywhere in the program, it’s easier for Farrow to provide the financial information required by Ironwood Self Storage’s co-owners. “Before, I had to go into each company and look for information, but with Small Business Accounting 2006, reports are available at the top of every page. Now I can print out an Ageing Report for my boss in a fraction of the time. It’s quick and easy to see who are the slow pays or no pays, and we have a better handle on the cash flow.”

While Farrow is working with cash flow, she can access pertinent information on that subject though the Spotlight feature, which provides contextual information on a variety of topics within Small Business Accounting 2006. “There is very good, timely information available within Small Business Accounting 2006,” says Farrow. “This morning, I downloaded ‘Seven Ways to Improve Your Cash Flow,’ and I’ve also got information on how to improve customer relations.”

Increasing Productivity with Simple User Interface

Farrow is also pleased with the simple, intuitive user interface of Small Business Accounting 2006. With its emphasis on graphics and clearly understandable flowcharts, Farrow, who is dyslexic, has a much easier time working with Small Business Accounting 2006 than with QuickBooks. “There is less text to read, and the graphical flowcharts are extremely easy to follow,” she says. “I’m a traditional accountant that works with debits and credits in the traditional way. Using its double entry features, Small Business Accounting 2006 provides me with more opportunities to manipulate data than I had with QuickBooks. I’ve only just begun to delve into this product, but already I’m much more productive. Managing the finances for Ironwood Self Storage is going to get easier and easier!”

Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Office System is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.

For more information about the Microsoft Office System, go to:

office

-----------------------

| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Office System

− Microsoft Office 2003 Standard Edition

− Microsoft Office Excel 2003

− Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

|Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006

− Microsoft Office Word 2003 | |

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Excel, the Office logo, and Outlook are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published August 2005 | | |

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:

For more information about Ironwood Self Storage products and services, call (208) 524-6653.

“I am really impressed with Small Business Accounting 2006 invoicing features. I’m saving six hours a month, and I can personalize invoices to improve relationships with customers.”

Mae Farrow, Office Manager, Ironwood Self Storage

| |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download