Customer stories


JBA Urban Planners

MYOB and FileMaker solution automates business systems and meets demands from government agencies

Excerpts from the following story were featured in "The Australian Financial Review," one of Australia's leading national newspapers, on September 9, 2003.

Over the last few years small businesses have seen an increase in demand by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and other government departments to refine their financial reporting processes, in order to meet ever-increasing standards. As a result of ATO's requirements, many small businesses rely on accounting software to assist with their BAS and PAYG reporting. The issue however continues to arise where companies need to integrate their front-end business systems with their back-end accounting software, allowing for automatic feeding of data into their accounting software.

Like many small businesses, JBA Urban Planners, a service-based organisation that provides professional assistance to building developers, was using FileMaker for all data entry within the organisation, and then manually re-entering that data into their financial software from MYOB. This process was taking up hours and hours of time and increasing the risk of errors. JBA Urban Planners wanted to move away from manually inputting their data into their accounting system, by enabling this process to be integrated and automated.

JBA Urban Planners needed a business solution that would allow them to transfer invoice data in both directions between a company's existing FileMaker system and their fully featured MYOB accounting software. The company wanted a solution that was 100 percent efficient, therefore making their business offering more effective and error free. The solution also needed to assist the team in increasing their productivity and workflow, removing the administrative burden that was consuming much of the time of key personnel.

To develop their business solution, JBA Urban Planners looked to a leading software developer, Keysoft, to combine the flexibility and scalability of leading database management software FileMaker Pro 6, along with the power of leading accounting software MYOB, The resulting solution allows JBA Urban Planners to effectively and efficiently report back to the ATO in a simplified manner. Using FileMaker has allowed the company to customise their own business reports to their business requirements, saving hours of time each day.

Prior to Keysoft's involvement, JBA Urban Planners manually entered data into the FileMaker Pro based system which managed their clients, suppliers, projects, chargeable time, sundry costs, quotes and invoices. Invoiced data was then re-entered manually into their MYOB accounting system. This two-step process was not only time-consuming but it was also vulnerable to errors.
Keysoft developed a customised solution that allowed easy transfer of information from FileMaker to MYOB and vice versa. Business quotes created in FileMaker are turned into FileMaker invoices with the accounting details flowing through to MYOB automatically and accurately.

"JBA Urban Planners estimate that approximately one quarter of the valuable time of one of their employees has been saved by this customised application. Decreasing their administrative workload has allowed personnel to focus on their core objectives," says Joseph Suhr, Keysoft.

JBA's financial reporting is now streamlined, accurate and easy to manage. These were key criteria the business wanted to achieve when they appointed Keysoft to develop a solution for them.

Steve McManus, General Manager FileMaker Asia Pacific, says the combined forces of two robust software applications like MYOB and FileMaker Pro is already making a great impact on small businesses using the integrated solution.

"A combined FileMaker/MYOB solution is allowing small businesses to end up with a completely customised and automated business process where every job, invoice, expense and income can be accurately logged so risk of losing important information is almost nil,” says Mr McManus. "Now that small businesses are meeting their GST reporting requirements, they are turning to software to increase business efficiency and productivity.”

"With the financial end of year just complete, all companies are currently in the middle of closing off accounts and getting their financials ready to be sent across to their accountants. For businesses like JBA Urban Planners using the combined solution, they have found this end of year financial reporting is no longer an issue.”

The low total cost of ownership of FileMaker coupled with the automatic communication to MYOB, makes the system attractive to businesses searching for a solution that is not only dependable, but easy to use and implement in a small business, and which provides a fast return on investment.



Contact information

Contact Info for Customer:

Annemarie Mayes
Kinetics Pty Ltd
(02) 9976 6611
annemarie@kinetics.com.au


Filemaker Contact:

Steve McManus
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
(02) 9513 8805
steve.mcmanus@filemaker.com
www.filemaker.com.au


Overview
  • Like many small businesses, JBA Urban Planners meets increasing demands from government agencies for better financial reporting processes with an amazing business solution that combines the flexibility and scalability of leading database management software FileMaker Pro 6, along with the power of leading accounting software MYOB.
Industry
  • Small Business
  • Other