FastClose and Clear Business Outcome (CBO), an Epicor business partner, have joined forces to deliver better management information and setup for Epicor ERP 9 and 10. CBO will now be offering FastClose to clients looking to implement cutting-edge Accounting Intelligence.

Nick Gomersall, CEO of FastClose, explained the tie up, “We are really excited to be working with CBO as they will be helping Epicor customers to implement Epicor’s Financial system to its full potential; something that will enable customers to take advantage of all the great features of Epicor and FastClose.”

FastClose is a multi-dimensional reporting and enquiry tool that benefits from the 20 segments in the Epicor chart of accounts to achieve better and faster management information which, until now, rarely gets used. Add to this multi-company, currency, and books, and a powerful finance system is created where FastClose can slice across dimensions to offer unparalleled analysis of the business.

Gomersall continued, “Customers, and prospects that we have engaged with, had little idea that Epicor was so powerful. They have been struggling to get the management information they need, to close the month and year end.”

Damien Sullivan, CEO of Clear Business Outcome, offered further insights.

“FastClose is a unique product and fills the critical gap between spreadsheets, Business Intelligence tools, and report writers. Firstly, it is easy to use as it comes configured with predefined templates for General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Sales and Purchase Orders. This means that once it is installed – which only takes around 30 minutes – the customer is using the product the very same day and getting value immediately.

“Until FastClose came around, there was no need to have the GL populated with lots of segments as there was no tool that could take advantage of them! Companies would install the bare minimum and focus on distribution and manufacturing; they’d leave the finance team struggling for information they needed at month end.

“Epicor’s Chart of Accounts is very powerful and has the capability to auto-populate segments using posting rules; if you wanted the Vendor number as a segment, this can be done every time an AP invoice is posted, automatically. The same is true with Employee, Customer, Project and nearly any dimension you need to analyse.

“With FastClose you can quickly analyse ‘Vendor spend’ across cost centres and employees. It’s the same for product profitability by customer, and so on. Not only does FastClose run over the GL, but also over the major sub-ledgers where the same powerful consolidation and Multi-Dimensional capabilities are used.

“We were really impressed with FastClose not only because it offers analysis and drilldown to very detailed transactions, but because of its speed of implementation and ease of use. It’s a must have product that complements existing reporting tools hugely effectively.”

Nick Gomersall offered a final take.

“CBO and FastClose is a great tie up. CBO has the skillset to implement Epicor to its full capability, and help customers understand dynamic segments, posting rules, and multiple books.

“Working with CBO is a breath of fresh air; they don’t want to control and bill customers for building and maintaining reports, with FastClose the control flows back to the customer. CBO want to empower their customers and make Epicor work better for them and deliver real business benefits that add to the company’s value.

“Looking ahead, Epicor 10.1 now has multiple budgets and forecast ledgers, plus statistical accounts that can be used for allocations of fixed overheads across products and customers. CBO and FastClose can help customers take advantage of these fantastic new features.

“I have no doubt that the partnership between FastClose and CBO will help customers achieve clear business outcomes!”

Clear Business Outcome

Clear Business Outcome Ltd. is an Epicor ERP consultancy company; it has a large and knowledgeable team which has over 300 years of combined Epicor experience. They specialise in delivering value to their customers by aligning the ERP system with robust and consistent business processes designed to achieve the company’s goals.

For more information, please visit www.clearbusinessoutcome.com or contact them by emailing enquiry@clearbusinessoutcome.com or call on 01947841232.