FTS Haulage Ltd
“The ability to maintain records using such an easily accessible format has been one of the most important benefits of the Traffic-Access system."
FTS Haulage was formed by Stuart and Liz Gosling in February 1998. It operates its own fleet of vehicles from regional offices in Leeds, Liverpool and Europe’s busiest container port – Felixstowe.
From the very outset, Stuart and Liz understood the value of modern technology in building and maintaining a profitable haulage operation. In particular, they appreciated the advantages to be gained from being able to link their chosen ‘front office’ job tracking system with a complementary ‘back office’ accounting solution.
Their search began, naturally enough, with the front office solution. Liz Gosling says, “After carefully assessing several different products, including Roadrunner, we settled on Traffic – mainly because of the ease with which it could be shaped to our specific needs.” FTS then asked Sanctified, who developed and installed Traffic, to suggest a suitable accounts package… and Sanctified had no hesitation in recommending Access Accounts Horizons.
Sage was also considered, but the strength of the Access solution – backed up by Sanctified’s recommendation and a good reputation throughout the marketplace – led to installation of an Access Accounts Horizons package in early 2000. Implementation of Traffic and Horizons was carefully planned, enabling the new systems to be delivered on time, within budget and without any complications.
Today, FTS automatically produces its sales invoices using job data held in Traffic. Details are then posted straight into the Horizons sales ledger, using an application called Transaction Broker. This allows data exchange between different systems and incorporates a number of automated data checking routines, designed to ensure the transfer is secure, error-free and requires no user intervention. Purchase Invoices for sub-contractors are handled the same way: they are input into Traffic (which allocates them to the corresponding jobs) and corresponding entries are automatically generated in the relevant Access Accounts records.
Using this combined system, it is even possible to generate completely new customer and supplier records in Horizons. Just add a new record to the Traffic database, raise any associated invoices (or purchase orders) and confirm that you wish Horizons to be updated accordingly. Liz comments, “The ability to maintain records using such an easily accessible format has been one of the most important benefits of the Traffic-Access system.”
The company decided to maximise the advantages gained from only having to input data once, by including an Access Payroll module in its Horizons package. This allows relevant details from each pay run (including analysis codes used in reporting) to pass straight into the nominal ledger.
FTS is very happy with the end result, saying, “Traffic handles all the day to day management of our clients, including the raising of invoices and purchase orders. Horizons controls our payments and can be used to monitor our overall financial position, through a wide range of detailed management reports. Payroll deals reliably with our monthly pay runs and Year End statutory returns.”
Liz concludes, “Integration is fundamentally important to us, as it eases our workload and reduces our costs, not least in terms of personnel. We will continue to expand with Traffic, safe in the knowledge that our combined business systems are capable of adapting to future challenges and changing business requirements."
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