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Category: NetSuite implementation

An Evolving Portfolio Invoicing Process

Pamela Ayuso October 22, 2018

If you manage properties, like we do at Celaque, you probably know how difficult it is to develop and send monthly invoices to customers. As a portfolio manager, we are responsible for billing rent and other fees to apartments or office space. The invoices have many moving parts, depending on the property; ours include monthly rent, late fees, and condominium fees, and each of these items can vary and depend on different factors. This is the story of how we are evolving from manual to automatic billing.

At one point, we were managing a facility’s accounting, sending out about 300 invoices on a monthly basis to the owners and lessees of the building complex. Initially, compiling and distributing the invoices took about two weeks per month. Although we were using Cloud accounting software at the time (Zoho Books) to send out the invoices and manage payments, the invoices were still being manually uploaded one by one.

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The End of Excel and How to Substitute It (For the Most Part)

Pamela Ayuso August 20, 2018

I have been on a crusade to eliminate Microsoft Excel at our company for the past year and a half. Excel is a wonderful tool, don’t get me wrong. I have been using Excel for years and years, and that very loyal, noble spreadsheet has been my support through thick and thin. During my days as an accounting student, I programmed my financial statements and balanced them using Excel. As an investment banking intern, I learned to create advanced financial models with the same tool. In Alianza, the company where I worked previously and where I ran the accounting department, we also used spreadsheets to create our financial statements and their supporting documents.

Through all those times, Excel was dependable and a true friend. Eventually, however, we started having problems. If I look back and analyze it, the issue wasn’t Excel itself, and it still isn’t. It was the errors we kept finding: we either added an extra digit to the number by mistake or the spreadsheets weren’t all connected with one another, so they needed to be reconciled between each other. Once Alianza grew to a certain size, we quickly realized that we spent more time checking to make sure Excel was right than working with the information in the first place. So, when we started Celaque, the company I currently run, I knew our dependence on Excel had to go.

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This Is the Story of Our Latest System Implementation

Pamela Ayuso July 30, 2018

Last year, we implemented NetSuite, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software at our firm. We were previously using two systems, Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, which we had outgrown. We needed something that we could personalize based on our processes, and NetSuite was the solution (please see my blog post NetSuite: How to Select the Best ERP for more on how we selected our ERP).

Implementing the new system was a company-wide effort which required a lot of hard work, and the first six months were particularly intense. In the end, however, we were able to produce a work of art. NetSuite was the system we needed and more.

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What Happened During Our Year Implementing NetSuite

Pamela Ayuso July 2, 2018

In 2017 our firm embarked on the biggest system implementation yet: NetSuite, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. It took six very intense months to become operational, but the full implementation lasted a year because we had bugs and problems that needed to be resolved. Because NetSuite interacted with all the departments of the company, bringing the system online was going to affect everybody.

Prior to implementing NetSuite, we had a very basic accounting system; it only took care of fundamental transactions, such as bills and invoices, and it produced fixed customer statements, accounting reports, and financial statements. While it was a good system for a startup, we realized we had outgrown it.

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NetSuite: How to Select the Best ERP

Pamela Ayuso May 21, 2018

Three years ago, we found we had outgrown our accounting system. When we first started, we managed all our accounting activity on an Excel spreadsheet. We then implemented Zoho Books, an entry-level accounting system, and had been working with it for four years. At the time of its implementation, it had been a major upgrade, and I consider it a great starter accounting software system. A few years later, however, we found we were ready yet again for more advanced functions.

Selecting a new system was not straightforward or easy. We are real estate developers, and our industry has quirks that don’t fit into standard business models. For instance, we do not only sell, but we also lease properties. Also, our manufacturing process varies from building to building, and sometimes from apartment type to apartment type.

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