Sheffield has been sourcing, selecting and shaping leaders for over 60 years, helping New Zealand find and recruit the best executive talent. But making smart, strategic business decisions without up-to-date financial data is difficult, especially in such a competitive industry. So, Mike Stenhouse, Executive Director, and Linda Lilley, Christchurch Office Manager invited us to help them solve this critical problem.
“Our accounting functions sat within our Corporate Services team in Auckland and we wanted to bring it back in house in Christchurch to get better oversight and understanding,” Linda explained. “Georgia got an overview of our current processes from our business partner and then she recommended Xero. She set it up for us so that when we started our new financial year, everything was ready to go.”
Georgia also had four training sessions with Linda to make sure Linda felt prepared and able to use Xero properly and efficiently. “Georgia was brilliant. She worked with me to get me up and running. I was thinking oh, how am I ever going to learn all of this? But actually, of all the applications I’ve used over the years, I must say, Xero is just brilliant. So easy. And if I have any questions, I know I can reach out and ask Georgia.”
Implementing Xero been a game-changer for Linda, Mike and Sheffield as a whole. “It’s moved us forward enormously in terms of our accounting. I used to have to call the Auckland office two or three times a day for financial information and now I have access to it all myself. I can reconcile things while I’m having my morning cuppa, it’s brilliant.”
And they get the customised financial reports that Mike and the leadership team need. “Mike gets financial reports within two or three weeks after we’ve closed off a month, which is a great improvement. We also have the Xero app on our phones, so we can just look at our phones and get an overview of how the business is performing, which is a real plus,” Linda added.
Georgia also set up Hubdoc, a document management and cloud storage software, to increase the efficiency of the business and give Mike and Linda back valuable time. “With Hubdoc, I never have to deal with paper invoices. If I need to refer back to anything, it’s all stored in Hubdoc or Xero, so there’s a huge saving on printing and storage. Hubdoc is very clever at scanning invoices, which saves manual input.”
With streamlined accounting functionality and financial data in the hands of those who need it, Sheffield is in a great position to make strategic decisions and focus their time on what they do best: recruiting New Zealand’s next leaders.
