Turning Data into Throughput: Streamlining Operations with QuickBooks Enterprise
Overview
This client is a manufacturing and distribution company focused on cigarette and tobacco products for international markets. The organization exports 100 percent of its finished goods, which places strict demands on inventory accuracy, regulatory documentation and end-to-end traceability.
As the company prepared to open a new production facility, leadership sought a financial platform that could unify purchasing, manufacturing, sales reporting, landed-cost calculations, and detailed user-level security. Fourlane was engaged to design and deploy QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum Edition and guide the company through every phase of the transition.
The Challenge
Launching a green-field operation meant building financial infrastructure from the ground up. The company needed a system that could:
- Handle complex raw-material and finished-goods inventories, purchasing product in pounds and manufacturing in kilograms and purchase orders for shipments.
- Support manufacturing workflows that convert bulk raw materials into master cases, each tracked by lot, unit of measure and warehouse location.
- Provide clear separation of duties across finance, operations, IT and warehouse teams, ensuring that sensitive data remained protected.
- Overcome language barriers among a multinational staff while maintaining an aggressive go-live timeline.
The Solution
The project launched with eight design sessions each devoted to a critical component of the implementation: company settings, chart of accounts, items, user roles, inventory, manufacturing, purchasing and sales. Daily working sessions were added to accelerate progress and give the client hands-on experience inside a sandbox copy of QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum Edition.
Key elements of the rollout included:
- Templates and data conversion. Fourlane supplied Excel workbooks for the client to populate with vendors, customers, raw materials and finished goods. The completed files were imported directly into the sandbox, eliminating manual entry and reducing the risk of errors.
- Chart-of-accounts optimization. The structure was condensed to fewer than 250 general-ledger accounts, with single accounts for accounts receivable and accounts payable to simplify transaction posting.
- Multi-site inventory. Dedicated sites—General Warehouse, Production and Finished Product—were created, allowing transfers and build assemblies to reflect actual material flows on the shop floor.
- Manufacturing builds. Assemblies were configured so that raw materials issued from Production automatically created finished goods in the Finished Product warehouse once builds were marked complete.
- Landed-cost tracking. Freight and other import fees were allocated to inventory, ensuring true cost of goods was captured for every exported case.
- Role-based security. Custom permissions limited access to purchasing, inventory adjustments and financial reports, backed by audit-trail monitoring and period-closing passwords.
"To cement adoption, Fourlane delivered on-site sessions just before go-live, reviewed month-end procedures, and set up recurring check-ins so the client team could test, practice and raise questions as real transactions increased."
The Results
The company went live on schedule with QuickBooks Enterprise 24 Platinum Edition and immediately gained unified control over its financial and operational data. The new environment now:
- Provides processing and tracing of Purchase orders to Customer Sales Orders and shipments.
- Generates inventory stock-status and site reports that show raw-material allocations, production availability and finished-goods quantities in a single view, helping warehouse staff plan builds and fulfill sales orders faster.
- Safeguards data integrity through customized roles, closing-date passwords and audit-trail tracking, reducing the risk of unauthorized changes to historical transactions.
- Simplifies compliance for international exports by attaching bills of lading creating an electronic paper trail that auditors can access in seconds.
Operationally, teams report smoother handoffs: purchasing converts supplier quotes into purchase orders, warehouse staff receive inventory against those orders, production builds assemblies with automatic cost roll-ups, and accounting posts sales invoices with customer prepayments applied correctly. The shared system has positioned the company to expand production without re-engineering its back-office processes.
Fourlane Is Here To Help
If you’re looking for powerful solutions to your business’ needs, reach out to us by email, or call us at 1-800-931-2120. We’d love to help you navigate any challenges and grow your business.
About Client
Tobacco products for international markets
Industry
Manufacturing & Distribution