Profiles Creative

The challenge

Reduce the workload created by systems that didn’t integrate

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Profiles Creative has a significant proportion of freelancers among its workforce, submitting weekly timesheets. It was running a finance system alongside a timesheet portal, with no integration between the two – creating unnecessary workload.

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“In addition, we recognised that modern day accounting systems could now offer a significant amount of enhanced functionality and reporting that just wasn’t available in the system we were using at the time,” says Financial Controller Lee Cook.

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Profiles Creative sought a system that would synchronise tasks, increase efficiencies and be easier to use. “Cross-platform communication was also important,” says Lee. “We used a timesheet portal and QuickBooks and considered Intime, Sage and expansions of the existing systems. In the end, our evaluations identified that iplicit could replace several of our existing systems and be more effective as one single solution.”

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The solution

Processes are more efficient and reports are more accurate

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The company was a very early adopter of iplicit and ran the system alongside its existing software at first to make sure there were no glitches. “The iplicit implementation consultant and support staff were excellent – all implementations are going to have some teething problems, though ours were addressed quickly and effectively each time they were encountered,” says Lee.

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“The functionality of the system has virtually doubled since we first installed it – that’s the beauty of a cloud-based service where additional features can be added and they just appear when we next log in. The training on the system and recent upgrades have also been excellent.

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“I’d say we can now do at least 3.5 days of the old way of doing things in less than a single afternoon!” Lee Cook, Financial Controller

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“We are now pretty much autonomous users of iplicit and can happily exploit the system month in month out, without needing to call anyone for assistance – in fact, it’s plain sailing nowadays.

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“Historically I’ve used Sage and Intime at other businesses and not only is iplicit as good as anything I’ve ever used with regard to resilience but the fact that it’s now all in one single solution, with timesheets, reporting and accounting – it’s truly remarkable.”

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The company has around 1,500 temporary staff on its books, creating around 180 timesheets in any given week. All these staff use the system, submitting their timesheets on their mobile devices for entering into the approval process.

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“It’s changed our process quite meaningfully,” says Lee. “We are a relatively boutique business – historically downloading timesheets from a portal and manually creating invoices in Excel and then entering into QuickBooks. Before iplicit, we had one member of staff working over three days per week on this which was time intensive and error-prone. Installing iplicit saved us a significant amount of time and increased our accuracy massively.

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“This time saving and reduction in errors led to our reporting being able to be far more timely and accurate too. And we used to spend quite a bit of time on payments, which are now fully automated – again, it’s all about time; I’d say we can now do at least 3.5 days of the old way of doing things in less than a single afternoon.”

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The introduction of new authorisation workflows was another big change. “With iplicit we can set up reminders and authorisations that are sent intelligently so as to only contact those staff with outstanding actions, either to submit or approve a timesheet, depending upon who they are,” says Lee. “The fact that this is now automated provides excellent time savings but also peace of mind that nothing is lost or overlooked.”

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“We are now pretty much autonomous users of iplicit and can happily exploit the system month in month out, without needing to call anyone for assistance – in fact, it’s plain sailing nowadays!” Lee Cook, Financial Controller

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The outcome

80% of business runs through the finance system

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“As a finance user myself, the best thing I have to say is that I don’t have any issues with it at all," says Lee. "It just works, day in day out and 80% of our business is now running through this single system that I don’t have to worry about. Working from anywhere is also a dream; it’s seamless and it means that whether in the office, travelling or at home, I can work from mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop – it no longer makes a difference.”

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