If you were to sell Aurum in a tin, it would say, ‘removal of manual processing, greater transparency of exceptions, and improved control’ - they are the benefits that nobody can argue with.
Luxury home fashion brand, Buster + Punch, spans five continents. Their global operation means that they have warehouses in four locations and process transactions in multiple currencies.
Consequently, whilst creating an effortless elegance for interiors is what Buster + Punch achieves with ease, accomplishing the same feat with their financial back-office is far more complex. That was the case at least before Fraser Mackenzie took oversight as Chief Technology Officer.
The solution
With a background in investment banking, operations and control, Fraser has a deep understanding of financial processes and utmost respect for accuracy when it comes to data. Over three years he therefore set himself the target of delivering both to a high standard by removing manual processes and improving controls within Buster + Punch.
To do so, he knew that he needed to find a way to rapidly improve their reconciliation processes. That included their inventory, cash, and PSP activity. From there, additional initiatives could then be built upon.
Wanting to keep an accurate cash and inventory position at all times led to the decision to automate all reconciliations with Aurum Solutions .
If you were to sell Aurum in a tin, it would say, ‘removal of manual processing, greater transparency of exceptions, and improved control’ - they are the benefits that nobody can argue with.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
The results
Implementing Aurum’s automated reconciliation was always going to be the key to Fraser’s ambitions. After all, prior to implementing the Aurum software, only a quarterly stock check took place, and all reconciliations were performed manually. Consequently, there was both opportunity and time for errors to arise and remain unresolved.
With Buster + Punch possessing millions of pounds worth in stock at any one time, Fraser prioritised deploying Aurum here first. Despite Aurum never having built such a reconciliation, both parties knew that its flexibility and ability to match any form of data would be able to handle the job.
Comparing Aurum against competitors, it became apparent that elsewhere wouldn’t have the flexibility to develop the reconciliation service we have today – that's why we chose Aurum.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
Thanks to close collaboration between both parties, this has proven to be true. Shipments leaving warehouses, returns of products, and delivery of goods from suppliers are now all reconciled daily, ensuring that movement of inventory is always captured.
You’ve got to get under the skin of a business to understand the rules that will improve matching rates and reconciliation – that’s what the team at Aurum does.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
Achieving a new feat to gain an accurate inventory position was a big accomplishment. Fraser, however, also recognised that with Aurum there was potential for improvement in other reconciliation areas, most notably, banking and payments.
I can’t criticise Aurum as it does everything that it is set out to do.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
With their past procedure being to manually tick off transactions from within NetSuite against hard copy bank statements and PSP statements, and this not providing any official space for recording discrepancies or outstanding items, Aurum was bound to make an impact. In fact, the deployment of Aurum’s automation has meant that:
- Ageing reports are now easily accessible.
- Escalation, management and resolution of breaks are now visible and controlled better.
- C-suite colleagues gain the intel they wish to see.
- Fees are no longer bundled all together and manually journalled but broken down into different types and automatically entered into NetSuite to save time, remove human error and give greater transparency on fee expenditure.
Thanks to Aurum, the automatic distribution of reports to relevant parties ensure our users now have visibility of outstanding items and discrepancies.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
Best of all, these benefits have all been acquired whilst saving Buster + Punch time. As positive outcomes have grown, time spent on reconciliation has inversely decreased, despite them increasing their reconciliation schedule for it to now become a daily event. This is thanks to a combination of Aurum’s powerful automation and scheduler. Together, they ensure that auto-matching is completed prior to the finance team starting their working day, resulting in more time to investigate exceptions and leaving them with additional time to focus on other value-adding tasks.
Aurum has absolutely saved people hours – it has definitely saved time without a doubt.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
Moreover, it should also be noted that the time-saving prowess of Aurum is not solely due to it doing the task which people used to do simply at a faster pace. It also does it without the risk of making mistakes, meaning that no time is wasted on resolutions.
Aurum can’t make errors unlike people – it justifies itself that it is the sort of technology that should be used.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
Alleviating the finance team at Buster + Punch from the headaches of manual reconciliation has not only been beneficial for them personally, but it has also acted as a gateway for Fraser to drive further digital transformation. Thanks to the team “seeing the benefits of letting technology take over the manual processes they have”, he has been able to gain more buy-in and enthusiasm about deploying similar time-saving solutions such as an automated invoice-capturing tool.
Repetitive processing replacement technology like Aurum absolutely saves time, makes us more efficient, and improves control.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
Overall, thanks to Aurum becoming part of the furniture within Buster + Punch’s back-office, they are now achieving smooth operations both in the tangible world of warehouse stock and that of financial data.
Aurum is a fundamental part of our business now day to day and it’s part will only get bigger.
Fraser Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer
Buster + Punch
