Competitive Athletics’ owners started with the very basics for their sporty start-up but quickly outgrew their original software and wanted to move up to the next level of business competition. They needed an integrated, easy-to-use system to track their multi-faceted retail operations, and found Core was up to the challenge. For a fixed fee, Core’s accounting experts helped the company upgrade on a number of fronts and set them up on the path to continued growth.
The Client: Competitive Athletics
Two years ago, David and Gigi Orr and Nicki and Larry Wright combined their passion for sports and recreation with business know-how and opened Competitive Athletics, a sporting goods store in Grants Pass. In addition to selling shoes, clothing and other equipment, the pair outfits sports teams and corporate employees with custom apparel.
The Problem: Expanding Company Outgrows Original Software
Competitive Athletics started out using Microsoft’s retail management system to track inventory, an Excel spreadsheet to monitor finances and a Hotmail e-mail account to handle customer communication. As their business developed, however, the start-up system hampered their efficiency and growth potential. Adding new employees to the Microsoft system was cost prohibitive, and local support was unavailable because the program was installed by a Portland-based company. Many of the program’s features went unused because local help was available to train the owners or employees. The company’s homegrown spreadsheet made year-end accounting difficult, and the owners couldn’t calculate business essentials such as sales, inventory, balance sheets or profit and loss.
The Solution: Integrated Software Solution with Local Support
After an analysis of Competitive Athletics’ current and future needs, Core recommended a two-part QuickBooks installation, a system that could handle all the company’s financial processes on one platform. The store uses QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS) software at the cash register to automatically track inventory and QuickBooks Premiere to handle the rest of their finances, including tracking profit, and loss, making sales forecasts, generating industry-specific reports and managing payroll. The POS and Premiere software integrate seamlessly with each other and with Microsoft Outlook, allowing all users to e-mail invoices directly from QuickBooks and replacing the Hotmail account with more professional addresses. As their business continues to expand, new users can be added at a much lower cost than the Microsoft system required.
The installation went beyond the typical rollout, ensuring Competitive Athletics could effectively manage custom orders and the many vendors they work with. To prevent “project creep,” Core offered a fixed-cost installation that included plenty of on-site training from Core’s certified QuickBooks advising staff. The training, which began in January, is still ongoing six months later, and Core continues to work alongside Competitive Athletics’ staff to tailor QuickBooks applications to the store’s custom-order needs.
The Result: Increased Efficiency and Lower Barriers to Future Growth
Managing finances became a one-stop operation with the QuickBooks platform, and ongoing training from local Core experts ensures fewer hiccups down the road. To enhance future loan considerations and increase the ease of expansion, Core also began working with the owners to report financial information to the bank on a quarterly basis. What would have been nearly impossible with an Excel spreadsheet can now be done relatively quickly and hassle-free. As the company continues to grow, their software will grow with them and guarantee a competitive edge. |
