When Peter Hosking opened his power tool manufacturing business in 1996 he wondered whether he was being overly-ambitious in his plan to grow GMC into a $3 million company within three years.

He needn't have wondered for very long. In 1999 GMC turned over $9 million. By the end of 2000, Peter had grown GMC into a $50 million-a-year company. Based in Melbourne, GMC (Global Machinery Company) is now one of Australia's leading manufacturers and importers of power tools for the do-it-yourself and retail hardware.

While talented staff, a sound business strategy and favourable economic conditions have contributed to the spectacular growth of GMC, Peter says the single most important factor underpinning the success of the business is his choice of accounting system. For the last three years GMC has used the multi-user accounting system from FinancePlus Software to meet its accounting and business management needs.

"One of the most arduous tasks I faced during the first couple of years of GMC was finding an accounting system that could not only meet our existing requirements but also address emerging needs as we achieve new levels of growth", Peter said.

With a Bachelor of Business degree majoring in Accounting, Peter was eager to use his accounting knowledge to ensure that he made the right choice when it came to his company's accounting system.

"It was particularly important that the system we select be able to integrate with our other systems as well as support a range of business functions that extend beyond the domain of accounting", Peter said. "For example, the prompt and accurate answering of customer enquiries is an essential part of our service and I wanted a system that could improve processes in this area.

"After evaluating all the leading products in the mid-range accounting systems market it was clear that FinancePlus was the only solution that could address our current and future needs across all the required areas."

In addition to accounting, FinancePlus provides the foundation for GMC's logistics, IT, customer service and importing/exporting operations. The ability of FinancePlus to address such diverse areas has enabled GMC to keep staff levels low despite the company's strong and steady growth.

"Even though we're a ten-person business GMC competes successfully against companies with staff numbers of 40 or more", Peter said. "This is largely as a result of the high functionality of FinancePlus which allows us to automate a variety of operations that would otherwise require a considerable investment in staff.

For example, FinancePlus streamlines the logistics side of our operation to the extent that we only need one warehouse manager for all inventory handling. None of the other mid-range accounting systems would be able to take on this much of the load. In fact, without FinancePlus we would probably need a head-count of 20-plus at GMC. With payroll comprising such a large part of any business's ongoing expenses the financial benefits this provides are enormous."

One of the biggest ongoing challenges faced by manufacturers relates to reverse logistics (the return of merchandise from customers and their customers). As a company that produces and distributes over a million product units a year GMC is no exception. However, while many other manufacturers struggle with systems that do not adequately address all the accounting and distribution issues involved in reverse logistics, GMC manages these processes smoothly and efficiently - thanks to FinancePlus.

"FinancePlus allows us to maintain tight control over all aspects of our cashflow, even when it comes to the traditionally difficult job of reverse logistics", said Peter. "In fact, in the last year alone the cash-flow Debtor control capabilities of FinancePlus have saved GMC over $300,000."

The foreign currency features of FinancePlus are also highly valued by GMC. In addition to being a high-volume importer GMC now exports its power tools to the hardware retail markets of New Zealand and the UK. Using FinancePlus GMC manages its foreign currency transactions easily and efficiently, as Peter explains.

"As well as allowing us to keep track of payables and receivables in both the originating currency and its local equivalent, FinancePlus is great at handling FX gain and loss adjustments", he said. "FinancePlus takes all the hard work out of dealing in foreign currencies, allowing our staff to focus on servicing our customers and growing the business."

Having enjoyed strong success in selected offshore markets Peter is now looking to expand the export activities of GMC. As the company continues along its amazing growth path, FinancePlus will continue to play a pivotal role in the evolution of the company.

"There is simply no way we could have achieved the success we've enjoyed without FinancePlus", said Peter. "GMC is now poised to capitalise on our achievements both within Australia and internationally; we are confident that FinancePlus will continue to meet all our accounting and business management needs as we enter our next phase of business growth."

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