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For many people, it’s the dream of escaping the rat race that sparks an interest in running a company. Geraint Lewis (pictured) and Mark Soanes made that dream a reality over 11 years ago. Tired of the daily grind, they came up with a business idea over a pint, spent 18 months planning – then quit their jobs to start Call of the Wild, a team building, activity and adventure holiday company in south Wales’ glorious Brecon Beacons. “The company is all about personal and team development using the outdoors, which is probably the best classroom there is,” explains Lewis, the company’s Managing Director. Call of the Wild works with corporate groups, schools – and anyone else looking for adventure. QuickBooks at the Company’s Core“We rely on QuickBooks for all our financials, payroll and accounting,” says Lewis. “It’s very useful for budgeting and management accounts.” With all the company’s financial information in one place, he finds it easy to keep an eye on cash flow, run payroll and produce monthly reports. “It’s very straightforward to use, and there’s a vast depth of thought gone into it.” As well as day to day tasks, Lewis uses QuickBooks to generate monthly management accounts for the business. “These are basically a profit and loss statement going through the year,” he explains. “It’s the print out that most of the banks and funders want to have a look at. QuickBooks lets us drill down into individual figures easily.” Staying LocalMonitoring these figures isn’t only important for the founders’ wallets. It gives Lewis and his team the confidence to look beyond profits and focus on contributing to the local community. “We give the local schools free activity days and try to do as much as we can in the area,” he says. The company also uses renewable energy and buys from local suppliers wherever possible. In fact, it has won several awards recognising its ethical credentials, including a top five placing in the SMARTA 100 for business ethics. Payroll the Easy WayCall of the Wild employs around 30 local people, cementing its position within the community. QuickBooks helps the business deal with the admin of employing people. “I particularly like the payroll package,” Lewis says, “it’s very easy to use.” That, of course, is important. Running payroll manually would take forever. “We went from paper payroll to the QuickBooks payroll package. Once we did that, we let the paperwork go.” Looking ahead, Lewis is positive. “We’ve got to make money out of the business, but hopefully we can enjoy it too.” One thing’s certainly secure – the future of QuickBooks in the business. “I’m happy – it’s a very useful tool and I don’t see us ever wanting to change. It does everything we want it to.” What Next?
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