Ask Afrika

Ask Afrika wanted a single integrated system where employees could easily retrieve accurate financial information on all projects, leads, and financial data. The new system had to be agile, accommodate company growth and offer advanced project accounting.

The company evaluated several ERPs, many of which it concluded were rigid and wouldn’t allow the customization Ask Afrika desired.

“Acumatica’s project accounting capabilities were very appealing,” Barratt says. “We also liked that we could modify and customize it to fit our needs.”

Acumatica offers a project accounting module, one that includes labor cost rates and project labor cost accounting integrated with payroll. In addition, companies can track new project quotes (convert opportunities to projects), simplify project sales and pricing, and create complex quote processes, which was important to Ask Afrika.

Ask Afrika worked with Acumatica partner Palladium, who helped to virtually demonstrate the appealing dashboard functionality, which was instrumental in the decision to implement Acumatica. “One of the outputs we loved most was the dashboard functionality,” Barratt says. “The dashboards are very visual and vibrant and appealed to us because they fit in perfectly with our aesthetics.” An added advantage was that Palladium was a local South African supplier which understood their needs and could help with customization.

Return on investment of R1.5 million

Ask Afrika was instantly more productive after implementing Acumatica. Barratt and the finance team estimated they previously spent 35 hours a week on various accounting tasks plus another 28 hours using Excel to transfer data from one application to another.

They’ve reduced 63 hours of work to just 20 hours working in Acumatica, freeing 43 hours for the staff to focus on more strategic tasks. “Through decreased software costs and by increasing capacity, Ask Afrika has calculated a return on investment of R1.5 million,” says Barratt.

Because Acumatica is easy to use and flexible, the company was able to independently customize dashboards and develop various reports to meet company needs.

“Our daily, weekly and monthly reports are quick to compile,” says Barratt. “That means our staff have more time to utilize on billable tasks.”

“With a click of a button we know exactly how our company is performing which enables us to take better and more informed business decisions,” added Charlene Venter, Ask Afrika’s Financial manager.

Permission-based Data Access

“We receive up-to-date, live data all the time,” Barratt says. “That means flagged issues are current and anyone can log on at any time and retrieve the data they need.” Accessing data from anywhere, from any device at any time also means there are no delays in their approval processes,” she says.

“We have more control about what’s happening in the system and who’s doing what,” she explains, adding, “We are on top of the numbers at any given time. “If someone updates something or a budget changes, Ask Afrika can track and monitor those changes throughout the system,” she adds.

Live, Trusted Data Instantly

“Previously it was hard to track the many exports and imports required for manual reports and who initiated them. Now we have greater trust in our figures. We’re not debating the accuracy of the figures anymore and can spend more time growing and developing our business.”

Poised for rapid growth with Acumatica ERP

Because Acumatica is developed on an open platform, the ERP integrates well with a number of third-party partners and Ask Afrika has the comfort of knowing that any future systems can easily be integrated.

Barratt recommends Acumatica to construction, IT and other companies operating on a project accounting basis. “Acumatica works perfectly,” she says. “It handles project accounting, cash flow, project monitoring… But Acumatica is not just confined to project-based operations. Other departments like sales and marketing love it as well.”