BrandMe
BrandMe is an independent award winning 
design agency with over 20 years' experience in consumer brand and packaging design for UK and international markets.
Located in Central London, the business employs 22 staff, over half of which are designers. The agency has worked for a wide range of consumer brands, including the Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the Difference’ identity.
Background
Prior to selecting Paprika the agency had been using another well-known job costing product linked to the finance system Sage (-a combination found in many agencies). However Finance Controller Celine Smith realised that the pairing of the two systems was not improving the efficiency of the billing and account management processes in the company, and that a fully integrated product may offer a better solution.
Celine identified a number of limitations with the ‘dual’ process- including problems submitting time for more than a few days. She also found that the system would not delete or change time after it has been processed and was unable to store different versions of an estimate (which made estimating ‘fiddly and time-consuming’).
Creating purchase order numbers was restricted to a single project, and the system could not accommodate more than one job on a single PO. Celine realised it was impossible to get accurate profit and loss and purchase ledger reports. Petty cash, credit cards and nominal code reporting could not be managed by the previous combination, and needless to say Celine experienced problems with support of the product and server infrastructure issues.
She identified a number of requirements that an alternative system would need to fulfil, including-
- Simple reporting of monthly gross profit
- Capturing cost of sales by stage
- Having the flexibility to work with multinational clients and respond to their reasonable requests for estimating and billing in their local currency, allowing subsequent reconciliation
Having a straightforward interface with the accounting system, to enable the business to amalgamate the job management and billings with the other operational overheads into a meaningful Profit & Loss account.
Solution
Paprika was considered as a potential business partner, so once the selection had been concluded Celine oversaw the implementation in partnership with Paprika Consultants and Trainers. “The implementation process with Paprika was extremely smooth, especially given our complicated history. The training was very efficient and very clear.
Jane our trainer was absolutely charming and patient and made the whole training process enjoyable. Users took to the system very easily and quickly. We also felt that the follow up to the initial implementation was excellent and support was readily available during the first few weeks of minor teething problems.”
Results
“We continue to experience excellent support and the quarterly visits from our Paprika Consultant are invaluable in helping us to address issues and learn more efficient ways of using the system. Nine months on, we have made huge leaps in our efficiency in running projects and the business as a whole. We all feel much more in control of the finances.