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If you’ve popped into a branch of a well-known healthcare chain recently and bought baby wipes, cold sore patches or any one of a number of other common items, chances are you’ve had your hands on a Red e Med product, even if you didn’t realise it at the time. That’s because Red e Med supplies own-brand products to these shops. Jim Gardner (pictured) started the company in 2008 and since then, it’s grown impressively, causing a number of accounting headaches for Gardner, who used to manage the accounts on a cash basis and did everything on paper. The Early Days“When I started, you could get a whole year’s worth of accounts into a lever arch file,” he explains. However, this approach soon proved impractical. “As my business got more complicated, I could barely get my last set of accounts on paper through the door.” The realisation that Jim needed to find a smarter way to manage his books finally dawned after a chance remark to his accountant. “I happened to let slip that I’d had a £1m quarter,” says Gardner. “My accountant nearly fell off his stool. I’d gone through the legal limit for cash accounting – he told me to change the way I account and buy an accounting system.” Getting Started With QuickBooksSo, at his accountant’s urgent recommendation, Jim altered the way he ran his accounts and bought a copy of QuickBooks. As he puts it: “I changed the whole way I did everything and moved to a system I’d never even seen before.” “I have no natural affinity to accounting,” adds Gardner, just to confirm that this was a significant change for an already busy businessman. Thankfully, installing and getting started with QuickBooks proved straightforward. “It’s where I keep all my financial data now,” he says. “One of the best things about it is that if you make a mistake – which you will – you can go back and correct it. Once you get into a rhythm, things are fairly simple. It does all the difficult things behind the scenes.” His long-suffering accountant was happy with the arrangement too, as QuickBooks makes it easier for Jim to send figures to the financial professional. “You can save a portable copy and email it to your accountant,” he describes. “Your accountant can open it, and then have a conference call about what you want to do with it.” Jim’s also found that QuickBooks saves him lots of time wrestling with figures. He makes frequent use of the built-in reports to produce statements for demanding clients. “It’s done fast – and emailed from straight inside the software,” he enthuses. He’s also been impressed by the VAT capabilities. “The VAT return was fantastic,” he says. “It took me seconds. I checked it all back and it came back at zero. Awesome. That would’ve taken hours under the old system. And you can trust it as well.” Planning for the FutureIt’s still relatively early days for Gardner and QuickBooks. But it looks to be a productive partnership, freeing up Gardner’s time to focus on growing his business further. What next? “I’ve done lots of high volume, low margin stuff. But now I’m going to focus more on higher value items.” As for QuickBooks: “The way it works is quite intuitive. It’s friendly for a non-computing person.” And it’ll be running Gardner’s accounts for the foreseeable future. What Next?
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