Stopgap Ltd

“Access Horizons and Payroll are robust mid-range packages. They do everything I need them to do.”

In 1993, Stopgap became the UK’s first specialist provider of freelance marketing professionals. Ten years on and the company has developed into one of the most successful and respected in the recruitment industry. It has also diversified successfully into permanent marketing placements without losing its unrivalled expertise and dominance of the freelance sector.

Stopgap is built upon a passionate belief in the importance of long-term relationships. Every vacancy receives the same attention to detail, up to and including Director level. Financial Director, Roy Wilson believes his Access Accounts software is key to the support of the operation.

Purchase Order Processing

Although purchasing is a very small requirement, Stopgap uses the Access POP functionality to control its expenditures. Company policy requires all purchases over £200 to be processed entirely through the POP module. This means that orders can be traced, queried and accrued for with ease. At the same time, Access Invoice Register is used to authorise payments. This helps to eliminate inappropriate or premature payments.

Integration with Bespoke Systems

Stopgap uses a bespoke recruitment database for holding all its detailed employee information. This database is also used to generate sales transactions and raise invoices. The transactions are updated into the Access ledgers on a daily basis.

Rates of pay are brought into the Access Payroll from the bespoke database. Access automatically handles all the calculations required for accurate processing – no mean feat for a payroll that routinely exceeds 900 employees.

Management Reporting

Integration of the kind enjoyed by Stopgap brings two major benefits. Firstly, it eliminates the need for re-keying of data, which reduces administration, brings consistency to record keeping and stops errors creeping in. Secondly, it enables company-wide information to be collated instantly into meaningful management reports. Roy uses the ODBC links built into Access when preparing his reports, using them to export data into his preferred spreadsheet application – Microsoft Excel.

Roy summarises the advantages gained in just a few words, “Access Horizons and Payroll are robust mid-range packages. They do everything I need them to do.”