Lacklands is a one-stop shop for photographic supplies in New Zealand (NZ). As the business has grown, it has evolved and expanded into other electronics. Lacklands is now the largest independent accessory supplier in NZ with an inventory list including anything from home security systems to aerial imaging equipment to weather stations. Always trailblazers, Lacklands was one of the first companies in NZ to implement MYOB Exo to manage its accounting.
The debtor management challenges
Lacklands’ fast growth brought new challenges to the business, including a mounting list of debtors. At the beginning of 2016 they started to look for solutions that would help them become more efficient in debtor management.
Abhishek Sood is Lacklands’ Assistant Accountant and is responsible for managing collections and keeping credit management on track.
“Managing our debtors was quite time-consuming. We have about 1,000 small debtors and it can be difficult to keep track of each of them and remember when to call them back individually,” explains Abhishek.
“Back in 2016, about 30 percent of our debtors didn’t pay on time and that’s a lot of people to call,” explains Abhishek. “We also have to report to the Board regularly about how many debtors haven’t paid and that gave the accounting team extra incentive to find new ways to improve our debtor management.”
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What Lacklands looked for in a debtor management solution
- Integration: As one of the first companies to adopt MYOB Exo in NZ, Lacklands was open to new technology but they wanted to make sure it complemented their accounting system. They looked for a solution that could integrate and sync seamlessly with MYOB Exo
- Automation: With so many debtors to manage, Lacklands wanted a solution that automatically reminded their customers when invoices were due. By automating this process their accounting team could then focus on specific debtors who needed a high-touch approach.
- Workflow management: Keeping track of when to call overdue debtors was challenging. It was difficult to manage this process using spreadsheets, so Lacklands wanted a solution that reminded them who to call and when.
- Save time: Managing debtors was a full-time job. Lacklands wanted to reduce the workload of its accounting team by letting automation do part of a person’s work. This would let their accountants spend more time on other value-adding tasks.
- Customisation: While Lacklands has many small debtors, it also has several large customers who have different payment terms and relationship management processes. They wanted to make sure that these larger customers didn’t receive any collection emails, so it was important that their collections system could be customised to suit each debtor relationship.
The results with ezyCollect
Abhishek reports that ezyCollect is now an important tool in the business and the results speak for themselves:
“With ezyCollect, 80 percent of our accounts team’s work is done,” explains Abhishek.
- Reduced workload: ezyCollect has reduced the accountant’s personal workload by 60 percent. “Debt collection used to be almost a full-time job, but now it’s only about 40 percent of my role,” explains Abhishek.
- On-time payments: Lacklands has also seen a big improvement in how many of its debtors now pay on time – this has gone from 70 percent to almost 95 percent. “The automatic emails from ezyCollect remind people that we’re going to call them and they’re prompted to pay. It’s great!” explains Abhishek.
95 percent of debtors now pay on time.
- Efficiency: Abhishek doesn’t need to maintain a spreadsheet to keep track of his debtors anymore. “There’s a feature on ezyCollect that gives me a call list based on communication rules that I’ve set up in the system. This tells me who I have to call and when, or who we have to stop giving credit to. This automation makes my job so much easier.”
- Cash flow: Lacklands’ financial position has also benefited from its improved collections process. “Our balance sheet has improved considerably, our debtors are down, and the Board has given me positive feedback about this,” says Abhishek.
Abhishek’s top tip for using ezyCollect
“Make sure that you sync ezyCollect with your accounting software before you send any emails. You don’t want to irritate any customers who have actually paid,” explains Abhishek. “By syncing before we send emails we can make sure that our systems are all on the same page.”
(N.b. Myob Exo users can set the system to automatically sync with their software as often as every hour and users can also manually sync at any time.)
Who can benefit from ezyCollect
Abhishek believes many types of businesses can benefit from using ezyCollect. “It’s good for medium to large scale businesses that have a lot of debtors. Any business that has more than 500 debtors will benefit from this software. It will make sure your accounts team doesn’t spend the whole day sending emails to debtors,” says Abhishek.
And a final word from Abhishek: “ezyCollect is a really nice feature to have in place and the team at ezyCollect are also great to work with. I know if I have an issue I can always speak to a real person through live chat and tell them what’s happening. Sometimes they might need to take a closer look at the issue, but they always come back with a solution quickly.”
To test drive the difference ezyCollect can make in your business, try it for free for 14 days:
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