FSN: Style Group selects CODA-Financials to automate financial processes

Style Group selects CODA-Financials to automate financial processes

14th May 2007
Yorkshire-based Style Group UK Limited, which owns PVCu windows and doors company, Safestyle UK , has chosen CODA-Financials as its new general ledger accounting system.

Style Group UK was established in 1992 and through the manufacture, sale and installation of PVCu windows and doors throughout the UK , has grown to a £120m turnover business. The manufacturing and trade sales businesses are located on one site in Barnsley whilst the retail business and head office are located in Bradford . In addition there are 29 sales branches and 13 installation branches located throughout the country.

CODA's was selected over ERP packages to replace the current Sage software which Style Group has outgrown since it was purchased in 1998. CODA will integrate with the company's existing in-house CRM system and specialist third party manufacturing system to provide management with a more accurate view of business performance.

“The current software has been in the business a long time and is heavily supported by the extensive use of both manual processes and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, which are both open to error,” said Ian Thurley, Group Financial Controller, Style Group UK Limited. “We envisage that CODA will give us much improved automation around these processes, resulting in reliable and more timely management information, with a change of emphasis from preparation of monthly accounts towards data analysis, forward planning and ultimately greater management focus and control over the business.”

As well as payment facilities and credit control management, CODA will assist Style Group in developing reports quickly and easily from the data contained in the system. Inter-company reconciliations will move from a spreadsheet based process to automated consolidation of profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow information at several levels.

“Budgeting and forecasting is also an area we are looking to improve dramatically using the CODA software,” added Mr Thurley. “The new system will facilitate the download of historical data and allow us to upload budget data for reporting and comparison purposes which we weren't able to do before. As a result, we plan to revise budgets more frequently and create forecasts where we can manipulate one or more key parameters to cover all scenarios. This way we'll be able to plan for most eventualities and put a risk management strategy in place based on our assessment of the impact on profits and cash flows. These are all things that we haven't been able to do before but that we feel are vital to the continued success of the company, so we're looking forward to going live on the CODA software.”

Style Group has also purchased licenses for CODA-XL, procurement, billing and assets software. It will be running CODA-Financials under the Microsoft Windows 2003 Operating System with a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database.

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