Scaling online sales without scaling finance.
Clive Coffee outgrew a disconnected mix of QuickBooks, inventory, order-processing and e-commerce tools as its online business expanded. After moving to Acumatica Retail Edition, the company reported less reconciliation work, better inventory visibility, and faster access to financial and fulfillment information.
- Company
- Clive Coffee
- Industry
- Retail & e-commerce
- Founded
- 2008, Portland, Oregon
- Replaced
- QuickBooks + separate tools
- Solution
- Acumatica Retail Edition
Company & challenges
Founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2008, Clive Coffee sells home espresso machines and accessories and has offered coffee subscriptions and education for home baristas.
The original case study described its acquisition of Mistobox, the launch of Coffee School in 2020, and a warehouse in Nashville, Tennessee.
The pandemic changed Clive Coffee's sales mix and customer demand. Chief Financial Officer Amanda Datte described the company's shift in 2020:
“A lot changed for Clive in 2020. Before, we had a showroom and some in-person sales. But now that everybody is working from home and wanting coffee, we're now 100 percent online and our business has really taken off.”
Amanda Datte, Chief Financial OfficerClive Coffee uses QuickBooks for accounting, with separate software for inventory, order processing, and e-commerce. Finance employees entered and reconciled information from different sources each month. Before the ERP changes, the original study said month-end close could take up to 15 days.
“On a monthly basis, we had a laundry list of processes to get the information accurately into our accounting system. There were lots of checks and balances and lots of reconciliations because we manually inputted data.”
Amanda Datte, Chief Financial OfficerWarehouse employees faced a related problem. Disconnected inventory, finance, and shipping information made it difficult to confirm stock levels, order cancellations, and shipment dates without additional checks.
The solution
Clive Coffee evaluated several ERP options before selecting Acumatica for its balance of flexibility, cost, and ability to connect finance, e-commerce, inventory, and warehouse operations.
“We found a perfect size for us in terms of cost and flexibility, which was Acumatica.”
Amanda Datte, Chief Financial Officer“When we integrated Acumatica, I reviewed a checklist we had for our month-end procedures and was surprised that over half of them were eliminated, so it allows us to scale our business without having to hire more people to do this type of work.”
Amanda DatteChief Financial Officer, Clive Coffee
The benefits
Less month-end work
Connected processes removed more than half the items from the previous month-end checklist, helping the team manage higher transaction volume without a matching increase in manual finance work.
Better financial reporting
The finance team gained a shared view of invoices, revenue and financial results. Cloud access lets executives and employees in different states review company information without waiting for emailed reports.
Inventory visibility
Connecting order and warehouse records improved visibility into available inventory. Teams review stock, cancellations, order edits and receipts with fewer checks between systems.
Faster fulfillment
In one example cited in the original study, deliveries to Florida improved from roughly five or six days to about two days.
“Because our inventory system is in the same system as our distribution, we are able to receive products in real time and then sell it the second we receive it.”
Jessica Yutrzenka, Supply Chain and Operations Manager- Eliminated more than half of its month-end finance checklist steps, according to the CFO.
- Connected finance, e-commerce and warehouse data in one cloud ERP system.
- Supported higher transaction volume without proportional growth in finance staffing.
- In a cited Florida delivery example, reduced delivery time from roughly five or six days to about two days.
Solution stack
Source: Acumatica Customer Success — Clive Coffee.
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