Bourne Leisure Rolls Out Compleat Spend Control For Haven Holidays
5,800-person organisation with 35 sites uses Compleat Purchase to Pay software to manage spend control and improve efficiency.
Caravan parks operator, Bourne Leisure, has ‘gone-live’ with the first phase of Compleat Purchase to Pay from Compleat Software, which automates the purchasing processes across its 35 locations and more than 5,800 team members in Haven holiday parks. The new Compleat Spend Control software is a fully-automated web browser-based system which is tightly integrated with Bourne Leisure’s existing Coda Dream financial accounting system and scanning/barcoding software. The solution is being rolled-out across the Bourne Leisure estate will be used by more than 500 employees who manage the purchasing on a daily basis across each of the park locations.
The initial pilot project, which was based upon existing hardware, for a single park, was valued at £30,000. Once rolled out to Haven’s 35 locations the complete solution will cost Bourne Leisure in the region of £130,000 for over 500 users and management confidently expect all of this investment to be recouped within one year. Compleat is now being considered for roll out into other parts of Haven.
Samantha Mitchell, Operations Director at Haven, explains, “We considered that Compleat was one of the most competitive solutions on the market, with an affordable price entry point and a compelling return on investment.”
Mitchell continues, “The massive win for us, is better cashflow forecasting for the business. The visibility that the system gives us in terms of cost commitment is extremely valuable. Up until the Compleat implementation, we would have had to go to each site to gain such information which would have been extremely time consuming and not always one hundred per cent accurate. How can you make informed cost decisions if you don’t have all the information at your fingertips?”
The new Compleat system captures commitment costs at order creation for improved cash flow management, and streamlines purchase and invoice approval by reducing the movement of paper within the process. The software enables the consolidation of suppliers to improve purchasing power and to reduce costs while delivering better control over corporate spend.
Mike Tomkins, Systems Accountant at Bourne Leisure, explains, “The introduction of catalogues will take place in phase two and will allow standardisation across product and service purchasing.”
Haven Holidays is Britain’s largest provider of domestic holidays with 35 family holiday parks around the UK all offering a full programme of activities, kid’s clubs and entertainment. Haven is part of Bourne Leisure Limited which owns Warner Leisure Hotels and Butlins Resorts and was awarded Best Travel Company 2008 by Travel Trade Gazette.
A primary requirement of the new solution was the introduction of commitment accounting, capturing the committed cost of a purchase within the accounts at the moment the purchase order is raised to improve cash flow management. The automation of the purchasing process provides Haven head office with an improved moment by moment ‘real-time’ view of all of the 35 parks’ cash requirements. Compleat removes the considerable time lag waiting for the posting of authorised purchase invoices before a payment commitment finally hits the accounts payable ledger.
The organisation is also looking to reduce its purchasing costs through supplier consolidation, standardise on products and services across all locations and have the control to ensure that the new purchasing policies are adhered to every time.
A critical factor in selecting Compleat was the uniquely simple, easy-to-use user interface. Haven is a seasonal business, employing a large number of staff for the spring to autumn season. It was absolutely essential that Haven was able to train new staff to use the software effectively within a thirty minute training session. Tomkins explains, “One of our key requirements was ease of use. In the leisure market, our workforce changes substantially in size with each season, and staff are rotating through different duties. We needed a solution which could be operated with absolutely the minimum of training.”
Haven needed to ensure that a purchase requisition was correctly analysed for general ledger posting upon creation and reflected a specific park, the correct department and was costed to the appropriate ledger code. Tomkins continues, “The Compleat software is intuitive to use, and can be used by staff with no knowledge of the chart of accounts. The coding process is based upon descriptions rather than codes – the process is simply carried out by raising requests to purchase the goods and services they require and automatically generating an order once approved.”
Compleat Purchase to Pay is a fully automated web browser-based system for the purchasing process and is tightly integrated with the Coda Dream accounting software in ‘real-time’.
Once phase two is completed, Compleat will enable Haven to control which suppliers, products and services are available for each user, department and park. This is achieved with the use of “catalogues” which enable the user to select what they require including images, description and prices. Catalogues can be easily updated centrally to reflect changes as required.
Approval limits on spend ensure that the correct level of electronic approval is always given prior to the production of an order and generating a commitment transaction to reflect the liability. Where appropriate, goods and services are “receipted”.
Haven receives over 138,000 purchase invoices per annum. Compleat has been configured to enable the centralisation (to head office) of all purchase invoices where they are scanned to produce an electronic copy. These electronic copies are automatically attached to the Compleat record of the requisition, purchase order and invoice approval and then electronically sent to the appropriate manager for approval. On matching, those purchase invoices that match with the order and the “receipted” goods (three-way match) are posted automatically.
The result is a fully electronic purchasing process that is extremely simple to use, yet delivers the corporate benefits of significant productivity gains across the organisation, full commitment accounting, the consolidation of suppliers and better cash flow forecasting.
Commenting about the system roll-out, Tomkins says, “The roll-out has been very straight forward and one of the best things about Compleat. It was so easy for us to do this ourselves and we are now getting more people to use the system. Users like the process and find it very easy to use.”
Tomkins continues, “We piloted the Compleat Purchase to Pay within one Caravan Park and Compleat developed the interface to our financial system. The technical teams from Bourne Leisure and Compleat Software have worked closely together and invested a lot of time in improving the product for both parties.”
Compleat Spend Control enables web-based purchase order generation providing cashflow management and forecasting based on both actual spend and committed spend which enables full commitment accounting.
Compleat Spend Control also provides the ability for the finance department to take centralised control over corporate budgets, ensuring that every requisition / purchase order is always in budget and included within the cash flow forecast automatically delivering automated purchase ordering, centralised budget control and corporate cashflow management based on fact. It facilitates a consolidation of suppliers to maximise buying power and negotiate the best possible credit terms, generating the appropriate Terms & Conditions with each order, whilst also capturing the supplier’s performance to aid future negotiations.
Available in three editions – Standard, Professional and Enterprise – Compleat Spend Control integrates with a growing number of accounting software solutions, in real time, with an Application Integration and Translation interface.
Compleat is a mature and fully-proven cashflow management and commitment accounting solution with a customer base that spans multiple vertical markets such as Sport / Events; Hospitality; Financial Services; Design and Property Development; Education; Media; Retail; and Not for Profit.