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Fundraising Firm Doubles in Size Overnight Leveraging AccountMate Software
Customer
Mr. Z’s Fundraising
www.mrzsolutions.com
Corporate Headquarters
1220 Bywater Drive
Port Washington, WI
(800) 558-5131
Type of Business
Provides a vast selection
of pre-packaged or bulk food
products, merchandise and
subscriptions to fundraising
groups throughout the
United States.
Number of Locations: 1
Number of Employees: 50
Number of AccountMate Users: 6
Software Installed:
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Bank Reconciliation
General Ledger
Inventory Control
Purchase Order
“Without AccountMate software, our company couldn’t function. This program has given our company a solid foundation to grow our business.”
- J. C. Braga, Controller,
Mr. Z’s Fundraising
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Located on the western peninsula of Lake Michigan, Mr. Z’s Fundraising provides a vast selection
of food products, merchandise and subscriptions to fundraising groups throughout the United
States. Since 1974, Mr. Z’s has helped thousands of non-profit organizations raise millions
of dollars.
The Challenge
Four years ago, Mr. Z’s was evaluating financial management solutions to find one that would
support their existing fundraising order entry and fulfillment program, and process their
accounting data in real time. At that time, Mr. Z’s partnered with NexLAN, an AccountMate Elite
Business Partner, and selected AccountMate Software as their business solution based on
its flexibility for integrating to their existing fundraising software.
Using AccountMate to solve their core accounting requirements and their fundraising software
to handle their order entry and fulfillment needs, Mr. Z’s was “completely satisfied with the
integration of the two software systems”, says J. C. Braga, Controller, Mr. Z’s. For several
years following the installation, business processes were handled seamlessly and effortlessly.
Suddenly, Mr. Z’s experienced a dramatic shift in business with the acquisition of a larger
competitor, Red Apple. With business and accounting transactions doubling overnight, Mr. Z’s
needed a financial solution that would support their new business model and replicate the
functionality of the complex commission payout structure that their new sales associates were
previously accustomed. “We suddenly needed a business solution that would grow with our
company and solve our commission payout challenge,” says Braga.
The Solution
Immediately after their latest acquisition, Mr. Z’s contacted NexLAN regarding the scalability of
the existing AccountMate installation. “We’re used to clients contacting us to reflect business
changes into their financial management systems—that’s what we do—but we don’t get calls
every day about a business doubling in size. Fortunately, we do get them occasionally, and I
was confident we’d be able to meet the challenge”, says Dave Pettigrew, NexLAN Senior
Systems Analyst.
NexLAN quickly determined that AccountMate’s inherent multi-company features and use of
Microsoft SQL Server as a database provided the scalability to meet Mr. Z’s new business
requirements right out of the box. The company they purchased was thus added as an additional
company with its own chart of accounts and separate user security. This enabled Mr. Z’s to manage
two separate business entities with the same accounting and financial solution, ultimately producing a
seamless company interface and saving them employee training time and money.
Another acquisition hurdle faced by Mr. Z’s was the challenging
employee compensation payout issue. Commission calculations
and reporting were time consuming, manually generated and often
inaccurate. To handle the complex commission calculations,
NexLAN leveraged the existing AccountMate logic which determines
commissionable sales based on payments received to develop
a custom commission reporting system. While most of the work
was done to customize independent reports, there were some
modifications made to the existing table structures to accommodate
the new reporting. This did not require modifications to the core
AccountMate software so future upgrades will be seamless.
Additionally, the customized reporting system eliminated manual
complex commission calculations.
The Results
After working with NexLAN to implement these out-of-the-box
solutions, Mr. Z’s accounting and financial reporting processes
have significantly stabilized. Adds Braga, “without AccountMate
software, our company couldn’t function. This program has given
our company a solid foundation to grow our business.” While
literally doubling the size of its business overnight, Mr. Z’s quickly
assimilated the new operation with no expense in additional
accounting software or personnel training in the financial
management systems.
Development of a commission calculation and reporting system
that satisfies their unique requirements has replaced hours of
monthly manual commission calculations with minutes of report
generation. “We’ve eliminated the inaccuracies and saved a ton
of time calculating commissions, forecasts and percentages”,
says Braga. The net result is that Mr. Z’s has completely integrated
their recent acquisition as a successful business unit.
About AccountMate Software Corporation
Founded in 1984, AccountMate develops and markets fully
modifiable business accounting software. Systems range from
single user versions to those that support over hundreds of users
simultaneously. AccountMate software is distributed exclusively
through a worldwide channel of authorized business partners.
AccountMate can be reached at (800) 877-8896 or at
www.accountmate.com.
About NexLAN
NexLAN is recognized as a leading technology partner in the
Midwest. NexLAN was selected by Accounting Technology as
one of eleven Killer VARs in 2005 and “Top 100 Pacesetter” by
Accounting Technology in 2005, 2006 and 2007. NexLAN is an
Elite AccountMate Business Partner and value-added-reseller
specializing in mid-tier manufacturing/accounting solutions and
custom software development. NexLAN can be reached at
(217) 431-7236 or at www.nexlan.com.
About Mr. Z’s Fundraising
Mr. Z’s has been helping non-profit groups raise millions of dollars
since 1974. Mr. Z’s is a full line, full service company that services
the United States coast to coast (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).
Mr. Z’s provides hundreds of different products from Z-licious frozen
pizza, quality gift items, gift wrap, candy products and magazine
subscriptions. Mr. Z’s can be reached at (800) 558-5131 or at
www.mrzsolutions.com.
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