Keratec is a Christchurch-based biotechnology that develops and manufactures new materials from keratin, the natural protein that makes up 95 percent of wool fibre.

The new substance it has created, which it calls Functional Keratin, has a number of uses. These include cosmetics, where it makes for superior skin, hair and nail care formulations. It is also being used in new biopolymer medical materials. These are then used, in turn, to create innovative new medical products, for example, surgical screws used in bone surgery. Other uses for the new natural material include environmentally safe resins and fine fibres in top-of-the-line textiles.

However, as Keratec has grown and evolved as a company, moving into new industries, it has found itself struggling with its original MYOB accounting software. The program couldn’t accommodate the bigger demands being made on it as new divisions were created within the company.

From its beginnings in wool research, Keratec has now become an international centre of manufacturing excellence, scientific knowledge and innovation for its Functional Keratin product. This is now used around the world. Keratec is also one of the new ‘green’ companies. It is at the forefront of sustainable industrial practice, using environmentally sound processes.

But all this growth was causing it accounting headaches. We were using spreadsheets to plug the gaps in MYOB’s functionality and reporting capability, says Rachel Robinson, the company’s financial controller.

“But with several research projects being undertaken, by multiple divisions within the company, we needed more sophisticated job costing capabilities, as well as comprehensive divisional reporting. This just wasn’t possible in MYOB.”

Fixed Assets was another area where more sophisticated management capability was needed. Keratec’s auditors suggested the company evaluate several alternatives to MYOB – which it did. It eventually chose Greentree’s accounting software solution, delivered through local Greentree partner Enabling.

Growing a good relationship
Keratec has been pleased with the result. “Enabling took pride in their work and extended themselves beyond what most would expect,” says Robinson. They were more interested in growing a good long-term supplier/ customer relationship rather than just making a quick sale.”

On the practical level, the Greentree software was selected because it matched Keratec’s growth requirements. It also has strong capability in divisional reporting, job costing and asset management. In addition, Excel integration ensures that historical data in exiting spreadsheets can be accessed readily.

Another useful function of the software is the job costing module, which facilitates collaboration. The company’s research division handles multiple research projects, and these have multiple sub-projects, as job costing is a core business activity for Keratec. Job costing integrates with invoicing, to ensure the costs associated with collaborative projects are correctly allocated.

The company’s management team is now confident that all project costs are automatically captured and updated, and, as a result, the financial information generated is accurate, so can be relied upon when it comes to making decisions.

The Greentree software’s ability to integrate with Excel also makes divisional reporting straightforward. Robinson says that early on in its development Keratec undertook a lot of research but as the company has matured it has evolved into several divisions. Each of these undertakes its own operations.

Excel integration combines with Greentree’s strong reporting capability to present divisional costs in an accurate report format that is also easy to understand.

Reporting is strategically important to Keratec’s management, and the ability to use Excel is an important key point of difference in Greentree.

The software also allows for automatic foreign currency invoicing, so the days of timeconsuming double-handling are now just a memory for Robinson. Greentree automatically produces the invoice, then updates the relevant financial accounts. Robinson says this process alone has dropped many hours off her administration time, since she no longer needs to manually produce and convert invoices.

“Greentree’s flexible, integrated ‘live’ environment has drastically reduced the amount of time I previously spent gathering information and preparing it for analysis. Now, it’s at my fingertips and I spend more time progressively analysing it for strategic insights,” says Robinson, describing how the software has made her work easier and also allowed her to be more effective in her role.

The end result
Greentree’s solution has accommodated the company’s growth, as Keratec has evolved beyond its early research origins to become a multi-divisional company.

The subsequent need to separate out operational costs has been accommodated by Greentree’s strong reporting capability. The integration of key Greentree modules ensures that costs are accurately calculated and split between the parties involved in various collaborative projects.

Leveraging Excel integration, to produce reports from existing spreadsheets, plus the automatic production of foreign currency invoicing, allows Robinson to now spend her time more productively nowadays, on more strategic tasks that help develop the business, rather than getting bogged down with mundane jobs.

Robinson says if she had to go through the same software evaluation process again, her choice would be the same: Greentree. And she’s backing her enthusiasm by recommending it to others outside Keratec.

Numerous benefits
Keratec has seen a number of business benefits since it took the Greentree integrated accounting solution on board. These include the integration of jobcosting with invoicing to ensure all project costs are accurately captured and split in collaborative projects.

In addition, Excel integration enables existing data in spreadsheets to be leveraged without the need for redevelopment.

As an export-oriented company, Keratec has found the automation of foreign currency invoicing a big time-saving boon. The simplicity of Excel reporting has also proved a valuable time-saver – time spent gathering data can now be spent gleaning strategic insights instead. Another benefit lies in the flexible divisional reporting the software allows, which ensures operating costs are accurately reported.

Last, but by no means, least, Keratec says the Greentree solution outperforms similarly positioned but higher priced offerings.

For more information

Enabling
www.enabling.net
Ph 0800 ENABLING

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