Sage BusinessWorks Gives Children’s Ski Equipment Retailer a Lift
KidSport of Vail, Colorado, is a family-owned retail business that prides itself on carrying "the best winter wear and ski equipment available for children.” Established in 1978 by Paul and Sharon Treacy, KidSport has grown from a modest shop to a flourishing company in local retail and international sales.
Novice System Falls Behind
For years, the Treacys had been using a point-of-sale system that offered only rudimentary accounting capabilities. As the company's mail order business grew, KidSport needed capable accounting software to monitor more than 20,000 stock items, as well as to automate invoicing, accounts payable and receivable, and to track taxable and non-taxable sales.
Perfect System Conditions
Sharon and Paul looked at several software packages before selecting Sage BusinessWorks and RetailPro. Impressed by its seamless integration of the two products, they chose Sage BusinessWorks-not only because of its ease of use, but also for its ability to manage the comprehensive financial transactions of their growing businesses. Sharon, secretary-treasurer for KidSport, and employee Tom Schlader set about learning how to use Sage BusinessWorks and RetailPro during the company's busiest time of year. Tom had some computer experience but Sharon had very little prior to taking over the accounting functions of KidSport.
"I had used a Windows program for word processing for about six months prior to learning the new software," says Sharon. "With a little coaching from our reseller, Tom and I have it all under control, and now we're doing our own financial statements. We're extremely happy with Sage BusinessWorks and RetailPro. Everything works beautifully."
KidSport plans to distribute 70,000 catalogs this year, an increase of 20,000 over last year. Sharon processes her shop and catalog sales together through RetailPro and Sage BusinessWorks.
The seamless integration of the programs allows KidSport to record sales orders, adjust inventory, generate an invoice, log a transaction in accounts payable, and produce vendor analyses and customer profiles in one fluid sequence of events. Sharon can quickly determine which items are selling and which are not, and she happily reports that she also is able to track and produce a month-end report of tax-exempt sales generated from the catalog business.
"We discover new features in Sage BusinessWorks all the time. I can't wait until it slows down a bit so I can explore the program more thoroughly and find more pleasant surprises."
She was thrilled to find that Sage BusinessWorks was easy to learn and operate, thanks to its logical screen presentations and its consistency throughout all modules.
"We discover new features in Sage BusinessWorks all the time. I can't wait until it slows down a bit so I can explore the program more thoroughly and find more pleasant surprises," she says. Sharon finds that closing the books is a breeze with Sage BusinessWorks. "We were out of town the first week of March to attend a ski show. We came back the evening of March 7 and I was able to close out the February books the next day. Sage BusinessWorks has saved me hours of work," says Sharon.
For KidSport, Sage BusinessWorks and RetailPro turned an uphill battle into a smooth downhill run.
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