Anzole Farming, a group of small businesses run from Tzaneen in Limpopo, South Africa, has streamlined its payments, accounting and payroll processes by replacing its old business system with Sage One and Sage Pay.
Tight integration between Sage Pay, Sage One Accounting and Sage One Payroll is enabling Anzole Farming to reduce its costs while improving efficiency.
Anzole Farming includes a number of businesses such as a farming business, transport business (Masterloads Transport), and a nursery in Pretoria (Toits Wholesale) and Tzaneen (Masterplants). Rachelle van Heerden, the accountant for the group of companies, says that with so many books to balance and so little time, she needs a business solution that saves her time and enables her to be productive.
Before the implementation of the Sage solution, managing creditors was Van Heerden’s single biggest headache. Previously she had to print out the creditors list from the bank, search for each account in the banking app, and then re-enter the amount she had to pay. Not only was this time consuming, but it also left room for error. Now, she can simply export payments from Sage One Accounting and Sage One Payroll to pay creditors and employees with a couple of clicks.
In addition, the cost per transaction was also high. Before switching to Sage Pay, Anzole Farming was paying up to R287 a month and R8.50 per transaction for each creditor payment. With Sage Pay, the group pays a R40 monthly fee and R3 per transaction. This amounts to a cost-saving of R10 000 a year across the group.
Anzole Farming is also benefitting from automating management of its payroll with an integrated Sage One Payroll and Sage One Accounting solution. This means no more disordered Excel spreadsheets to keep track of salaries and leave, and no more copying and pasting data from the accounting system to a spreadsheet and vice versa.
Another benefit is that Van Heerden and Anzole Farming owner Thys du Toit no longer need to make regular trips to the Nursery in Pretoria to check the books and collect backups. The Sage One cloud solution allows her and her external accountant to log on from wherever they are to check the latest transactions and financial trends across all of the businesses.
“It means that I can be based in Timbuktu and log in to my business in South Sudan. I love all the Sage offerings that I currently work with,” says Van Heerden. “It’s the integration of all the products that makes the accounting process much less time consuming. And time is money.”
Says Anton van Heerden, executive vice-president and MD of Sage South and Southern Africa: “As the global market leader of integrated accounting, payroll and payment systems, we take great pride in being an indispensable business partner to small businesses like the Anzole group. Entrepreneurs are the drivers of prosperity and it’s our privilege and honour to serve them.”
