“Because we operate in many different countries, compliance is a very complicated issue. There are different rules covering pay rates, taxation and insurance. Our Greentree system gives us live data that is vital for accurate costing and reporting.”Siobhan Gregory is the Accounts Manager for Qualitair, a UK-based provider of HR and staffing services for the aviation and aerospace industries. It specialises in supplying aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul experts to aviation firms operating across Europe including UK, The Netherlands, Malta, Switzerland and Germany.“It’s a very seasonal industry,” Siobhan explains. “We’re extremely busy during winter, when aircraft are taken out of service for maintenance. Most of the people on our books are engineers and technicians, who work on fixed contracts and go wherever the work is both in the UK and many different countries across Europe.”Qualitair’s operations in each country it works in are handled by a separate company, to ensure correct tracking of those vital compliance issues. This also brings complications when it comes to job costing and reporting across those multiple companies – and Qualitair’s business systems were not up to scratch. It was operating separate recruitment and payroll systems, plus an accounting package that hadn’t been updated in decades.“This limited us in every single area you can think of,” Siobhan says. “It was a double-entry system and nonuser- friendly. There were no reports in the system, there was no VAT or bank reconciliation; we couldn’t even export a trial balance into a usable format.”With everyone having to work this way, human error was inevitable, adding hours more work.“The reporting was the biggest thing for me,” says Siobhan. “Because we have so many accruals and pre-payments that relate to accommodation and travel, we had no idea mid-month what position we’d be in by the end of the month.”Siobhan knew that live data was a crucial requirement, especially when working in multiple currencies. Effective job costing was another major concern, to determine those travel costs.Siobhan went looking for an integrated ERP system that could handle these diverse needs. Qualitair also wanted a cloud-based system to avoid hardware costs and enable better communication between its international offices. Its Greentree Partner suggested Greentree would be a better option than its initial assessment of Microsoft DynamicsNav.“I was really impressed by Greentree’s Job Costing when it was demonstrated to us,” Siobhan recalls. “I thought it would give us a lot more information. We also liked the look of Greentree, and the Partner was invaluable in integrating it with the CRM system.”Today, Siobhan has the live data she needs at her fingertips, and generating reports is a breeze.“We know exactly what we’ve spent at any point in the month, so it gives us a much better idea of whether we’re in line with forecasts. I love the Financial Reporting Engine in Excel (FREE). Three hours’ work has been cut down to minutes because I can just drill down straight to what I want to see.”Siobhan estimates that paperwork has been cut by three-quarters, with the help of Greentree IQ (powered by QlikView). “IQ is the best thing ever,” she enthuses. “It does all of my margin analysis, so if we want to see where a contract is at we don’t need to pull out all the reports.”Job Costing ensures that the best deals are found for travel and other expenses. Greentree’s multicurrency capabilities have eliminated a large amount of manual work; it automatically re-values the sales ledger at month-end.“We’ve been freed up to do more value-added work,” says Siobhan. “We can be more proactive, seeking out opportunities in other countries and being able to offer our services, knowing in advance that we’re fully compliant.”Qualitair is confident about the future, with Greentree in support.“We have a flexible system that can change as we do,” Siobhan says. “Greentree has just made everything much more efficient.”