Accounting
How Denali Software Helped a Retailer Get a Solid Footing
Building a successful business is about more than just finding a market with a need, motivation and savvy, it also requires efficiently managing company’s finances, sales, expenses and other costs. For many small business owners, however, this can become a chore.
Mar. 13, 2014
Sometimes the process of choosing software to effectively help manage company finances is a process of trial and error. That was the case for Jeremiah Jones, director of finance for a retail arch support franchise in Colorado called Good Feet. With two locations and the desire to grow the business, Jones knew he needed a point of sale program that would keep up with him.
Before Cougar Mountain Denali
“The main thing was the multiple locations. To see the sales from another store [using our old point of sale program], we had to load in the other location, it just wouldn't automatically be there. We had to ring everything up in a second location but you couldn't see the sales until you loaded all the sales in. The next morning there was a function you could run to load the sales from a different location.
“Also if you posted a journal entry you could just go back and change it. Or if you rang up a sale, you could just delete the sale. There was no audit trail.”
Finding the Right Solution
This was eight or nine years ago and at the time, the system Jones was using didn't provide real time information for multiple locations, nor did it provide the level of inventory control and audit trail oversight that Jones was looking for. He tried demo versions of several systems, but it wasn't until one of his fellow franchisees suggested he take a look at the Cougar Mountain Denali accounting and retail program that Jones found the match he was looking for.
“With Denali, I can handle all of the back-office financial management, while the sales associates in our stores can enter transactions and access reports they need to do their work,” said Jones.
Implementation and Training
Jones was impressed by the intuitive and easy-to-learn interface. Cougar Mountain offered initial training on the program, but since then Jones says that new salespeople and other staff are able to quickly get up and running with the sales dashboard and other features simply by watching and learning from other associates.
Denali is available both as a traditional (installed) program, as well as through a cloud accounting option. Good Feet went with the online version because of their multiple locations. For Jones, this means he can access live data from any of the stores at any time and sales staff has instant, live access to inventory and customer information.
Also, because they are using the web-based version, all system updates happen automatically. Denali includes security features that let Jones determine which parts of the program each user can access.
Achieving Success
Since moving to Denali, their Good Feet franchise now includes five stores in Colorado and two in Arizona.
“I love the simplicity of Denali,” Jones said. “It's powerful enough to manage all of our locations, but everything is simple. It's easy to do journal entries, easy to put bills into the system and see what's due, even purchase orders and reconciliation. And it gives us the custom reporting and financials we need, anytime we need it.”