Epicor Budgeting Consolidates Bowman Gilfillan’s Intricate Billing Structures and Budgeting Processes

7th April 2014

  

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Company Facts
• Location: South Africa
• Industry: Law
• Website: www.bowman.co.za

“Bowman Gilfillan selected the Epicor solution because it offers a proven system that can be rolled out yearly without reinventing the wheel which saves a great deal of man hours. It also ensures the business maintains a firm grasp on its operational expenses. With the seamless integration to the Practice Management System (3E), the finance team can manage variances between budget and actuals.”

Bowman Gilfillan is one of Africa’s premier corporate law firms employing over 310 specialised lawyers and has a total staff number of over 550. Offering professional legal services across the African continent, Bowman Gilfillan draws on its unique knowledge of the African business environment and in-depth understanding of the socio-political climate to advise clients on a wide range of technical legal issues. Its approach to corporate law is fresh and innovative. With a century of experience to draw on, Bowman Gilfillan helps its clients to manage the risks inherent in bringing high stake deals home safely, smoothly and with uncompromising professional diligence.

Integrity, quality and consistency
Maintaining the high standards of excellence that Bowman Gilfillan’s clients are accustomed to requires consistency and dedication. By effectively and efficiently automating and streamlining budgeting processes, Bowman Gilfillan can focus on their core, revenue-generating business.

Success Highlights

Challenges
• Expanding African footprint necessitates automating and streamlining current systems
• The budgeting process and fee structures are intricate, requiring a comprehensive system that can manage the process with the least amount of man hours.

Solution
• Epicor Budgeting Benefits
• Epicor Budgeting is very intuitive and simple to use which makes the budgeting process straightforward
• Saves man hours during the annual budgeting process
• Supports a multinational structure with varying language and compliance requirements
• Integrates with Bowman Gilfillan’s practice management system
• Ensures a firm grasp on operation expenses

The Epicor budgeting solution is very intuitive and simple to use which eases the complicated process of budgeting,” says Grant Karolus, chief financial officer for Bowman Gilfillan. “The system has been rolled out in five locations, Sandton, Cape Town, Kenya and later, in Tanzania and Uganda. It consolidates our financial management efforts with speed and accuracy.”

Why Epicor and New Era Solutions
“Bowman Gilfillan selected the Epicor solution because it offers a proven system that can be rolled out yearly without reinventing the wheel which saves a great deal of man hours. It also gives a true reflection of the firm’s productivity and ensures the business maintains a firm grasp on its operational expenses. With the seamless integration to the Practice Management System (3E), the finance team can manage variances between budget and actuals.” says Karolus.

“New Era Solutions recommended Epicor Budgeting as it supports a multinational structure with varying language and compliance requirements to support Bowman Gilfillan’s expansion strategy for Africa. The tool is integrated across numerous other systems or data sources making the overall solution a compelling fit for businesses that are under pressure to proactively manage their budgets,” says Stuart Scanlon, sales director for New Era Solutions.

Supporting the complex budgeting process
Epicor supports Bowman Gilfillan’s underlying budgeting process. The process begins with support departments creating a budget for their expenses for the upcoming fiscal year. The budgets are then consolidated and received by finance. They are then reviewed and integrated into the 3e system for financial reporting.

Reviewing and improving budgets
The finance department and department managers review budgets and if changes are required the person who is responsible for those
budgets is notified so that they can review their budget and make changes for re-submission.

Epicor system customised for unique needs
A custom built piece of functionality imports the budgeted amounts and account from Epicor to Bowman Gilfillan’s 3e system. The budgets are used in the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, cash flows and other management account’s financial records. Report data is generated with the 3e framework and reporting is done with the SQL Server Reporting Service (SSRS).

The SSRS integrates with the Epicor database. This gives detailed and summary budget reports for respective departments so that budgets can be tracked. Tailored reports simplify that management process and tracking of data relevant to different departments and their information needs.

The Epicor system is integrated with the 3e system allowing users to launch Epicor from the 3e web interface, with integrated SSRS reporting. Custom budget reports are also 100% real time sourcing data directly from Epicor.

Speed, accuracy and agility
“Epicor saves us time while ensuring accuracy of data from a consolidation point of view. Time and expertise are critical to our business and its profitability. Our new system frees us up to focus on our core-business, safe in the knowledge that we have a comprehensive, proven system to manage our budget,” says Karolus

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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