Land & MArine Publications

“Access Horizons has given us control of our accounts, instead of our accounts controlling us. We have the management information that we need and we can act accordingly.”

With over 75 clients in 35 different countries, Land & Marine Publications is recognised as the world’s leading publisher of handbooks and other works for port authorities. The company’s strong reputation has enabled it to move into other publishing activities, such as corporate brochures, hotel guides, airport literature and the design of interactive websites. High profile clients include Cruise Atlantic, Port of Gibraltar and Seychelles Hotels

By the summer of 1996, Land & Marine’s business operations were expanding. At the time, a part-time bookkeeper spent 3 or 4 days a month producing the accounts for their auditors. This practice put the management team in a difficult position – the information feeding back from the accounts was insufficient to control growth effectively. As a result, they decided it was time to computerise the company’s accounts.

Two basic requirements were identified immediately. Firstly, the new system would need to operate on a Macintosh platform, as this was already in use for all the company’s design activity. Secondly, it would need to provide true multi-currency accounting. On this basis, Access Accounts Horizons was soon selected.

Increased efficiency and immediate cost reductions

Sales Director, Gerald Lewis, took personal control over the accounts and quickly worked out how to use Access. Once the ledgers were set up and the company started using the system, a number of benefits were noticed immediately. Gerald explains, “Suddenly, all our customer details were in one database. We didn’t have this before. We also gained professional invoicing and far greater control over our debt. Indeed, it was clear to everyone that computerisation was going to bring us significant cost savings.”

Multi-currency accounting

With customers around the world, Land & Marine trades in a variety of currencies including US Dollars, Norwegian and Swedish Krona, Sterling and the Euro. Access multi-currency functionality enables any currency to be chosen for sales invoices. It also handles the calculation of exchange rate differences and the re-valuation of bank balances. Full currency analysis and detail is passed into the Nominal Ledger for management reporting.

Gerald comments, “Raising a USD invoice is a simple as raising a sterling invoice. You simply select the currency and the system does the rest. We manage our exchange risk using a 5% buffer on each rate. As long as a currency stays within this zone, we simply let the system get on with it. Any movement beyond 5% and we change the rate held in the system.”

Improved management information

Access Accounts has helped the company to respond positively to a general downturn in the publishing market, as Gerald explains. “Because of Access, we have a better understanding of how we are performing.”

In particular, the production on monthly management reports has been greatly simplified. Most importantly of all, profit and loss reports are available instantly – and they are always up to date. “The system gives us the information that we need and we can act accordingly,” says Gerald. “It has enabled us to take a more controlled approach, both to our forecasting and our business expansion activities.”

Continued service and support

Land & Marine Publishing has remained a loyal Access customer for the past seven years. Gerry says that levels of service are certainly a factor in this. “We’ve rarely had any need to use the hotline support. . . but when we have, the response has always been professional and quick. In fact, they are happy to go the extra mile – they even helped us to convert our sales ledger into a new database format, so that we could use it as a mailing list.”

Over the years, the company has also benefited from numerous free software upgrades. “Regular upgrades and new features in the software have helped us to gain further efficiency boosts,” says Gerald.

For the Sales Director of Land & Marine, summing up the benefits of his Access system is easy. “Access Accounts has given us control of our accounts, instead of our accounts controlling us. We have the management information that we need and we can act accordingly.”