Counting your chickens – XERO makes it easy
Mathieu Laurent is an energetic young entrepreneur who is achieving big things in Vanuatu’s burgeoning poultry industry. In the space of three years, since he bought Vanuatu Poultry, the 24 year old has expanded the business ten-fold and become Vanuatu’s largest eggs and chicken meat producer, employing over 50 people.
Today Vanuatu Poultry is producing 11,000 eggs daily, and supplying to Vanuatu’s major supermarkets, and delivering 2,500 fresh chickens three times a week to local butcheries, restaurants and resorts.
Naturally, that’s a lot of eggs and chickens to account for. To modernize this growing business, Mathieu required help to track his businesses growth and manage the day to day challenges. AJC, one of Vanuatu’s leading finance and accounting companies, and Xero, the world’s best accounting software, partnered with Business Link Pacific to boost Vanuatu Poultry’s accounting systems.
“I learnt everything on the go and I had no idea about accounting. I inherited another accounting package and was using it for eight months but it became a big mess. I knew I needed help because we were making more and more sales and I had no clue which customers were paying. I was producing stuff but money was not coming in,” explained Mathieu.
“So I was like “I need some help!” and I started working with AJC”, he said.
Within four months of working with AJC, Vanuatu Poultry cleared a large amount of outstanding debts and reconcile their books for the first time. Their bank was especially impressed with their quick transformation. For Mathieu, Xero’s initial positive impact was empowering.
“Now, I know exactly how much money is in the bank, who needs to be paid, who needs to pay us and all in real time. This is an incredible difference. Before we would get caught out with cash flows and cheque payments. Now, I can strategically plan my budgets, cash flow and expenditure.”
Forensic accounting
Xero is renowned for practical troubleshooting. In Vanuatu Poultry’s case it has helped solve a few accounting problems by providing the necessary evidence to improve productivity.
“AJC set up a Xero dashboard, so now I can easily monitor expenditure. For example I could see my electricity costs were increasing. At first I was thinking it was faulty lights but then I realized the workers were working too slow, so we were able to fix this. It’s also made a big difference to tracking and managing fuel costs.”
“My customised Xero dashboard gives me a snapshot of everything. I like to track my major customers and use them as a benchmark to compare profit and loss.”
“I am now thinking of using Vend, a cloud-based point of sale software to manage stock feed because it’s quite complicated to do manually – we ended up having to do monthly stocktakes.
“Once we have Vend it will only take a few clicks to figure out what to order.”
Simple Xero features can make a big difference to a business’s efficiency. The instant email invoicing feature has markedly improved the Vanuatu Poultry’s cash flow. Previously, the company’s invoices were getting lost with deliveries and payments delayed. Using Xero, invoices are emailed as a “link”, so now it’s obvious when they are received and “opened” by the customer.
Their next step is to systematically enter all company assets into Xero with AJC’s assistance, so they have an accurate profit and loss data. The company’s payroll will also be linked through internet banking.
For Mathieu working with AJC and using Xero has meant less time in the office “on the books,” and more time on the factory’s floor supervising his team and planning the next move in building his fast growing business..
“If you want your business to grow you need to work with professional people. Working with them you win time. Instead of you making the mistake and learning from your mistake, they prevent you making it in the first place.”
“AJC’s professional advice has meant I can have confidence in the future. Together we are monitoring our progress, doing business forecasting and managing VAT compliance.”
“When I took on this business, it was little bit hard because I was alone and didn’t know how to manage this alone. Lots can go wrong with growing chickens. It’s quite scientific. I worked it out and one year later I increased the company by five times. By 2020 the meat chickens will double. So, if you believe in yourself and then you work hard, it’s not impossible.”
Business Link Pacific with the Vanuatu accounting firms AJC, Barrett and Partners and vSolutions is offering eligible small and medium sized businesses a free 12-month subscription to Xero accounting software, a cloud-based accounting system that is changing the way small businesses’ approach their accounting.
Vanuatu small and medium sized businesses interested in accessing the Xero 12 months subscription promotion can contact Kesha Licht at VCCI at [email protected] or phone 27543 Ext 19 or mobile 555 5347 or contact direct AJC or Barrett and Partners or vSolutions.