FastClose, a leading provider of real-time Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solutions, is thrilled to announce its partnership with Polyaire, Australia's premier manufacturer and distributor of Air Conditioning products. Polyaire has chosen FastClose as its primary reporting and inquiry solution, marking a significant step in powering up their financial reporting capabilities after their migration from the previous Sage system to Epicor.
We initially sought an easy-to-use reporting solution for our general ledger, aiming to streamline our P&L and Balance Sheet reporting processes, replacing cumbersome SQL queries. FastClose quickly emerged as the right choice, meeting all our requirements for breadth of coverage, ease of use and powerful online drillable reports. We initially covered the obvious Financials, items like the P&L for example but moving on from that we had an immediate need in Customer Pricing and Price List management due to the operational complexity of the way we work with our outlets. FastClose did not have a solution out of the box but worked with us over a period of about a month, to create a solution both for us and anyone else using Epicor Price Lists, which being generic, they didn't even charge us to develop.
A year on, they use FastClose extensively in most facets of their business:
- Finance P&L
- Gross Profit analysis
- Customer Pricing
- Supply Chain Support
- Inventory Control
- Operations Support
- Accounts Payable — GRNI control
- Exception reporting
They even use the data converted into quick reference dashboards. This has been possible because of the extensive number of templates that run over most Epicor modules. Starting from these templates, you can rapidly customize them into the exact reporting format you require. FastClose have also undertaken one or two pieces of bespoke work for them and these too were turned around in a short period of time at a very reasonable cost.
FastClose employs a concept we call 'the catalog' which identifies the relevant tables, columns and joins required which are then organized into dimensions and members. This enables our in-memory OLAP engine to efficiently process data, facilitating dynamic slicing and dicing according to the client's requirements. Because this is extensible, we can work with customers to provide new functionality as we did with David at Polyaire to deliver the Customer Pricing piece — which then made its way back into the core product for all our Epicor clients to enjoy — but in addition undertake more bespoke work to meet a specific need that stays just with them. Because our solution operates in real-time, ensuring users have access to up-to-the-second insights. Once a new report is developed, these new report definitions can be saved and shared seamlessly across the organization through our intuitive interface, to Excel, or to web-based clients.
“We rely extensively now on FastClose for all of our key reporting and find it a much easier way to navigate Epicor than using the native interface. What I especially like is the way you can build your own drills from one report to another to follow the story of the money. A good example is drilling from a GL transaction to a sales invoice, then to a sales order, and even back to the price list.”
Polyaire Pty Ltd is an international manufacturer of quality equipment for HVAC systems supplying air filters, insulated flexible ducting, air grilles, vents, and fittings. For more information, visit polyaire.com.au.
