Client Testimonials – Stewarts Oil
Stewarts Oil is a family-owned business, supplying heating oils to homes and businesses in the North West of Ireland. Other products we supply include Agri Diesel, Auto Diesel and Oil Tanks.
When selecting our accounting solution it was most important to select one that suited our industry and that would have proper on-going support. With this in mind we selected Herbst Insight Business Management & accounting software – a totally integrated solution, provided by CIT Solutions.
It was refreshing to work with a company that understood our business and were able to provide valuable advice on the setup of the system. Their knowledge of the industry was clear from the very first meeting.
The ability to have our database in a cloud / hosted environment has worked perfectly for our business. We have integrated our website with Herbst Insight, which allows for seamless online order as well as management of their own accounts and online payments. Our fleet of drivers now have fully integrated and live Handheld system, allowing us to get an up-to-date status of their progress, whilst at the same time saving countless hours in administration work by office staff.
We have found that the reporting in Herbst Insight is second to none and I feel with Herbst Insight, our business can grow any direction. If we require additional modules, reports or integration to specialist applications it is available to us from CIT Solutions.
Neil Stewart – owner Stewarts Oil, Boyle, Co Roscommon
http://www.stewarts.ie
Stewarts Oil – Specific Issues that were resolved by implementing Herbst Insight
Fuel Card Processing & Invoicing
Before moving to Insight, they had no way of automating the invoicing of their Fuel Card customers. This was a laborious task that took up a lot of administration time.
After changing to Insight they could easily import a weekly/monthly fuel file into Insight which allowed for the invoices to be generated automatically and an invoice Summary report be issued to their customers. It was also easy to send file to the banks for payment.
Low Margins
Often product were sold at a cost price that was not accurate as all invoices were not up to date. When they changed to Insight, they could apply validations on Users – warning or forbidding certain actions. Therefore allowing full control over the margins made on Sales to cutomers. This meant that any transactions below an agreed margin could be flagged prior to selling the fuel.
Online Account Information
Stewarts Oil wanted their customers to be able to view their account online & make payments etc.
With Insight, we created a direct link from their own website to a Customer web portal, allowing for their customers to place orders and make payments etc. This has allowed them to offer an additional service to their customers, putting them at a serious advantage to their competitors.
This also meant they could save money by directing customers to the web portal rather than having to post copy invoices & statements.
Remote User Access
They wanted to allow some staff members the flexibility of working from home and their previous system wouldnt allow for this.
With Insight being hosted on a remote server, it meant that this access could be granted to key members of staff and management and allowed them greater flexibilty of dialling in at any time from any place.
Driver Documents
Previously their drivers had to come into the office on a daily basis to physically collect delivery dockets.
They moved to Insight so that they could automate this process and cut down on the need for the drivers to have to come back to the office. Now, the drivers orders are sent to them directly via the Handheld Computers and they can print their own delivery dockets in their trucks for their customers.
This was a huge improvement for them in terms of their drivers valuable time & truck running costs as well as the administration work that it has removed.
Customer references
Some Customers who refused to pay invoices unless a Purchase Order number was entered at time of order & quoted on sales invoice. In their old system, this often happened that a PO number was not quoted on the Sales Invoice to the Customer.
With Insight, they could “force” the user to enter this reference, therefore this was not an issue anymore & this filtered through seamlessly to the sales invoice & statements.