Accounting for SONIC Drive-In's
Accounting Firm, Pinkstaff, Simpson, Hall and Headrick, P.C., Count on Document Management for SONIC Drive-in Restaurants
Industry/Solution
Accounting
As a paper intensive industry, accounting firms need to keep track of all documents. Cash is king and you have to know where you are every minute. Multiplying this across 33 franchises produces a daunting amount of paper that consumes profits and productivity.
Based in Knoxville, TN, Pinkstaff, Simpson, Hall and Headrick, P.C. (PSH&H), provides premier tax, accounting, bookkeeping, consulting and estate planning solutions to many highly successful businesses and individuals across the Southeast. Clients include 33 SONIC® Drive-In franchises.
The existing paper-based process was proving to be very error prone and expensive. Several times a week, store managers would FedEx invoices and daily summaries to the firm. Each submission averaged $24 in shipping costs and took about an hour to process.
When the paperwork is received, PSH&H would input the information directly into QuickBooks and place the documents in a stack until the bills were paid. Due to time constraints, filing these documents could take up to a month and when they were needed, locating them among the stacks was time consuming. The paper filing system was also a mess because there was little consistency in how documents were filed. Making matters worse, each store used the same vendors. Misfiling vendor documents was common and because they all had the same vendor name, detecting and correcting these errors was nearly impossible. The firm needed to find a solid system that would help bring order to this chaos.
CPA Sharon Conder proposed the idea of using a document management system to Bob DeWitt, manager of one of the SONIC franchises, as way to improve filing functions and lower the costs of submissions. The idea was well received and Sharon began researching various vendors and discovered CNG-SAFE by Cabinet NG (CNG). What really made CNG standout from other products was its ability to integrate with QuickBooks using its CNG-BOOKS plug-in. CNG-BOOKS streamlines QuickBooks data entry and document filing into one consistent and efficient electronic process. “The Quick-Books integration was the biggest advantage and CNG became the obvious choice,” said Conder.
When clients are franchises that use the same vendors, it can be very difficult to make appropriate financial decisions based on inaccurate financial data due to missing documents.
CNG-Books allows all invoices and daily summary reports from each of the stores to be handled and entered into the system at the same time in a single process. Each franchise simply scans and e-mails their invoices and summary reports to PSH&H on a daily basis, saving them over $40,000 per year on the FedEx bill alone. “CNG-BOOKS creates the transaction in QuickBooks and stores the document automatically into CNG-SAFE. We can always locate and retrieve any document while in QuickBooks using CNG-SuperSearch,” said Conder. “There is no double entry work, and no backlog on filing or scanning projects. By having the individual stores email their information allows us to receive the most accurate financial information one day out instead of waiting for the mail to run. We also don't have to rent any additional storage facilities. CNG has saved us so much time and energy. We can actually find what we need with the click of a mouse.”
Companies that select CNG-BOOKS enjoy the rich document management underpinnings of CNG-SAFE, which can store and manage virtually any document format. With its flexible architecture, drum tight security, and workflow management, it easily scales to fit the needs of growing companies. CNG-SAFE can be used as a locally installed software package or a cloud-based subscription.
PSH&H is also a proud recipient of the first annual iNGie Award presented to the CNG customer whose use of CNG Workflow had the most dramatic impact on improving efficiency and reducing paper and paper-related costs. |
