AGG was using three disparate financial systems at its glass manufacturing sites—MYOB, Micronet, and Quickbooks—and found it difficult to consolidate financial information from each glass manufacturing site. It took up to two hours to generate general ledger reports, as information first had to be manually consolidated from each system onto a spreadsheet. It also took 10 to 14 days to close month-end accounts, and 15 to 20 minutes to generate invoices. The inefficient accounting processes meant it was difficult for staff to meet their monthly work requirements and key performance indicators.

AGG was also keeping information about its fixed assets, such as glass manufacturing machinery and delivery vehicles, on a large, complicated spreadsheet.

“There were 10 separate sheets in the file, each containing different information about types and costs of fixed assets at each site,” said Pamila Fernando, accountant, Australian Glass Group. “We had to manually work through the sheets to compare what we paid for different assets at different periods so we could manage our depreciation schedules. It was also difficult to ensure the data was 100% accurate, as information was sometimes missing or inconsistent.”  

In addition, AGG was struggling to complete purchasing reports. It took staff several hours to collate purchasing information, such as the costs for a 10mm sheet of clear glass in the past year or past quarter, from the three sites so that they could generate reports.

“Without access to consolidated, accurate, and historical financial and purchasing data, we weren’t able to efficiently analyze and make decisions on which suppliers to use, or how much we charge our customers,” said Fernando.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Procurement and Subcontract Management enabled AGG to reduce the time it takes to generate purchasing reports from several hours to a few seconds. Purchasing and accounts payable staff no longer has to spend time working together to collate the relevant information from three manufacturing sites.

The consolidated system also improved analysis capabilities by reducing the time it takes to access purchasing information and increasing the amount of historical purchasing data available. AGG’s purchasing officer can now see the various prices paid for raw materials and types of glass by month, quarter, and year.

“Our purchasing officer can go straight into the consolidated system and immediately see information about the cost of glass products and other raw materials,” said Fernando. “He no longer has to chase up information from accounts payable staff at other sites, so it takes seconds to run a purchasing report and considerably less time to analyze the data than previously.”

Streamlining these purchasing processes contributed to an overall reduction in staff costs of 5%, by reducing the number of people required to complete purchasing tasks from three to one. Managers can also make better informed decisions about suppliers and customer costs.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials enabled AGG to generate consolidated general ledger profit and loss reports in seconds, as accountants no longer have to spend up to two hours to manually collate financial information from disparate systems. This also reduced the risk of human error, which ensured data is more accurate.

By reducing the time it takes to generate general accounting reports, AGG cut the time it takes to complete month-end financial processes.

“We can now quickly and easily provide consolidated financial information from all three sites to senior managers for approval and to conduct month-end processes more efficiently,” said Fernando. “This has reduced our month-end accounting time by three to four days.”

In addition, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials has reduced the time it takes for accounts receivable staff to generate customer invoices from 15 to 20 minutes to two minutes.

AGG also used JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials to improve its fixed assets management and contribute to the 5% overall reduction in staff costs. The company has saved a significant number of hours a month on fixed asset maintenance processes by replacing 10 spreadsheets used to record information about vehicles, glass manufacturing equipment, and IT devices at each site with a consolidated fixed asset database.

“Fixed asset data is now 100% accurate and doesn’t contain conflicting, missing, or duplicated records,” said Fernando. “The data is also very easy to find. Using a single search field, staff can access asset and cost information from each site, which makes it much easier to manage our depreciation schedules.”

The JD Edwards system also made it easier for AGG to extract fixed asset data for financial reporting. The company has reduced the time it takes to extract data and generate fixed assets reports from many hours—mostly spent checking the accuracy of spreadsheets before extracting data—to seconds. In addition, the consolidated, detailed data can be used more efficiently for internal auditing purposes.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials significantly improved accounts payable procedures by allowing staff to record more details when entering invoices than they could in the legacy accounting systems. For example, the legacy accounting software only provided one description area to enter invoice details, whereas JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials has two. Having two fields allows for more accurate analysis of expenses, as accountants can filter invoices based on more specific data when conducting cost analysis tasks.

“JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials is significantly easier and more efficient for accounts payable staff to use,” said Fernando. “The legacy accounting systems were cumbersome and contained too many screens. The JD Edwards system has streamlined accounts payable processes.”

The streamlined processes reduced the number of people required to complete accounts payable tasks from four to two. When two staff members left, there was no need to fill the positions, which also contributed to the 5% reduction in overall staff costs.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials also ensured the remaining accounts payable staff met their monthly targets and key performance indicators by significantly reducing their workload.

“One staff member can now manage the accounts payable processes for two manufacturing sites,” Fernando confirmed.