Context: company before implementation
Medium-sized manufacturing enterprise: about 40 employees, food production, a network of 15 sales points across Ukraine. The owner is an entrepreneur with 10 years of experience who started with a small store.
At the time of the appeal to SPOC, the business was operating on a "legacy" of 5 different programs: accounting in one, inventory in another, sales in a third, HR in Excel, and production accounting was generally kept manually in notebooks and spreadsheets.
This created typical problems: no report could be done quickly, data was not consolidated, the manager did not see the actual cost, sales and inventory were not synchronized. Closing the month took about 20 working days — and during all this time, the accounting department could not be distracted by anything.
What tasks were set for SPOC
Integrate all modules into a single system: accounting, production, warehouse, sales, HR, payroll.
Set up accurate cost accounting taking into account all components: raw materials, energy, labor, overhead costs.
Integrate point of sale cash registers with the accounting system — so that sales data automatically enters the records.
Integrate with the bank client and M.E.Doc.
Reduce the month-end closing time by 2-3 times.
Provide the owner with operational management reporting — a dashboard with key performance indicators.
What we did: project stages
Step 1 (1 month). Business assessment and process description. Conducted interviews with 12 key employees, described the production process from raw material procurement to the shipment of finished products.
Step 2 (2 weeks). Formation of business requirements and technical specifications. Specific requirements: for the production module (recipes, standardization, technological maps), for the warehouse (3 storage points, movement between them), for sales (integration with cash registers), for payroll (40+ employees with different schedules).
Step 3 (2 months). System configuration and data migration. The migration of the nomenclature directories was complex — about 800 items, some of which were duplicated in various old programs.
Step 4 (1 month). Testing and corrections. The most revisions are in the production module (specific standardization).
Step 5 (3 weeks). Team training. Separately: accountants, production technologists, salespeople, HR specialists. A total of 25 hours of training in a mix of online and offline.
Step 6. Launch and stabilization — 2 months of active support after the start.
What was difficult
Resistance of the team to changes. The technologists were accustomed to their "own" system in notebooks, were skeptical about automation, and did not want to learn something new. What helped: they were trained separately in detail, given 2 months of "parallel" work (old and new), and shown the real advantages of the new reports.
Complex cost logic. In production, unique semi-finished products were sometimes used, which then went into the final product. Standard settings did not cover this logic — customization had to be done.
Integration with cash registers. The client had cash registers from different manufacturers — it was necessary to fully implement the process of using the PRRO.
Results for the first year of operation
Month-end closing: from 20 to 5 working days. The accounting department now completes the closing in a week — and has time for analytics and management reporting.
Cost accounting accuracy: +15-20%. It turned out that previously the cost was underestimated due to inaccurate standardization. Clarification showed that some items were actually sold at a loss — after reviewing the prices, the margin increased.
Report generation speed: for all standard reports — instant (previously — from 1 to 5 hours of accountant's work).
Accounting errors have decreased by approximately 5 times according to the chief accountant's assessment. Most errors were eliminated by the system at the data entry stage.
Management dashboard: the manager has gained the ability to see sales, margins, and inventory in real-time for the first time. This has changed the approach to decision-making.
What happened next
After stabilization, the client ordered further development of the system: a procurement management module was added (automatic generation of orders to suppliers based on stock levels and sales forecasts), integration with marketplaces (Rozetka, Prom) to expand sales channels, and a mobile application for sales representatives.
Today, the company has been operating in a unified system for over 2 years. The staff has grown from 40 to 65 people, and the network of locations has increased from 15 to 28. The system scales without any issues.
Conclusions for Business
1. For a manufacturing enterprise, the accounting system is not just "where to keep records," it is a management tool. Without a properly configured cost accounting system, it is impossible to manage profitability.
2. Customization is necessary only after the complete implementation of the existing functionality, studying the system, and starting to work in the system.
3. Team resistance is a normal phenomenon. Allow for 2-3 months for adaptation and invest in training.
4. Results do not come immediately. The first month is a continuation of the old chaos. The real effect appears after 3-4 months.
5. Investment in the automation of production accounting typically pays off within 8-12 months due to a reduction in errors, acceleration of processes, and better management.
Are you planning to automate production accounting?
SPOC has extensive experience in implementing accounting systems in manufacturing enterprises. Leave a request — we will discuss your project.