A successful restaurant franchise was using Accpac, an antiquated back office accounting solution to manage more than 40 restaurant locations throughout the Midwest. After evaluating their systems and learning about their challenges, we proposed they .
Being a restaurant franchise of their size, they desperately needed help with their accounts payable and generating timely financial reports. Before moving to Microsoft Dynamics GP, they were manually issuing transactions from each of their separate restaurants. This required too much manual effort by the accounting department and produced questionable financial reports. Management could only react after the fact vs. taking proactive steps with up-to-date information out of Microsoft Dynamics GP.
As a , The TM Group is dedicated to utilizing Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions, enabling clients to more efficiently operate their businesses and thus reduce their operating costs. This project required sophisticated integration in regard to financial reporting and their unique general ledger needs. Here’s how we made it work…
First of all, we created a separate database for each of their restaurants so each would show up as different entities in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Our client has point-of-sale (POS) systems, including MenuLink and Aloha, at each of their restaurants. So once transactions are entered into their POS at each restaurant, they are then uploaded and imported by means of the GP Integration Manager into Microsoft Dynamics GP where corporate takes over. Corporate office accounting clerks are responsible for their own group of restaurants. Instead of each clerk entering every transaction manually as they did prior to implementing GP, they can now just review transactions before processing the payments. Also, we implemented EFT for Payables which greatly improved their payment process to their vendors, including automated email remittances. These improvements have enabled our client to grow the number of restaurants they manage while also reducing the headcount in the accounting department.
To empower them to increase staff productivity, we created :
- Accounts Payable transactions are the instances mentioned above and are uploaded to Microsoft Dynamics GP daily.
- Payroll journal entry transactions are also inputted through each POS system and then uploaded to Microsoft Dynamics GP on a weekly basis.
- Inventory change transactions are tracked via a GL journal entry for each restaurant so that the inventory values are accurately reflected in financial statements.
- Sales sheet information tracks and reports all sales at each restaurant and daily imports into Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Although this client chose to make the integration a batch process, which is triggered due to the varying time frames when information is needed, they also have the option to grab the data any time it is needed and then seamlessly input that data into Microsoft Dynamics GP.
This level of detail and insight allows for proper reporting as well. By using the Microsoft Dynamics integrated financial reporter, accountants can process the financial information for each of the restaurants by merging the data and exporting it to an easy-to-read Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Before they implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP, management had no way of looking at financial results of all their restaurants in a single report. Now they have, in one easy-to-read financial statement, all the restaurants displayed with each location’s financial results in a side-by-side fashion including totals containing the consolidated results. The franchise owners can now see critical business and financial information so they can make business decisions that help the longevity of their large franchise.
Our consulting and development team at the TM Group carefully plans and tests our Microsoft Dynamics GP integrations to line-of-business applications like POS systems such as MenuLink and Aloha. Our goal is to optimize the flows of data so that our clients have confidence that their solution does exactly what it needs to do, exactly when they need it. If you are interested in learning more about our Microsoft Dynamics GP consulting, custom development, and custom integration services, please feel free to contact me at kenj@tmgroupinc.com or call 888.482.2864. You can also visit our services homepage here, to learn more.
By The TM Group,
