Plan the work to not endure the daily grind: Beeye x Sage

"We are on the knees! We worked a lot during the lockdown, where we had to ensure that the regulatory requirements were duly complied with, but also to advise our customers on how to behave and the assistance to seek. Fortunately, I had just subscribed to Beeye ... I think I had the nose for it! " says Alexandre Kalil, particularly satisfied to have been able to rely on Beeye during this difficult period.

After earning his degree in France, Alexandre Kalil came back to Guadeloupe in 2003 to join his father, also a certified accountant, who had opened his office there more than 30 years ago. KEAEXPERTS now has about fifteen employees and provides a full gamut of accounting, social and legal services.

Its clientele is a reflection of the economic fabric of the territory, which consists essentially of distribution companies, farmers and professionals. With offices in Pointe-à-Pitre, Basse-Terre and Baie-Mahault, the firm is organized by divisions. One employee is specifically in charge of social issues, another is specialized in legal advice, and an auditor is in charge of auditing assignments. Two positions are dedicated to support functions: management of the firm and reception/administration. All the others focus on accounting and tax matters.

"We had started to equip ourselves with complementary solutions, around our production tool Sage Generation Expert, particularly for the management of the firm, consulting, and automatic data recovery. But I felt the need for a tool to manage our workload, which would enable me to gain greater visibility on work in progress and production flow."

Keeping better track of time

Alexandre Kalil discovered Beeye thanks to the Sage premium club, during a meeting in Versailles. A colleague already equipped, who is also established in Guadeloupe, had subsequently given him a conclusive demonstration.

"I had written my DEC [French acronym for ‘diploma of college studies] thesis on reducing the time needed to produce accounts... However, I noticed that each year we were caught by the time, often because of the customers, but also because of a certain lack of internal organization", he admits.

For example, it was difficult to get employees to fill out their time sheets correctly. I actually had trouble doing it myself," says the accountant matter-of-factly. As in many firms, working hours are annualized, which makes it possible to handle the February-June peak in activity without having to manage overtime. Duly completed timesheets are required in order to be able to individualize the compensatory days off. But there are always those who are reluctant!

Advanced workload management

Alexandre Kalil therefore initially saw Beeye as a practical tool for monitoring time spent. But as he used it more and more, he realized that Beeye was actually "a 4 in 1 tool", which could satisfy his concerns more widely, namely:

• Keep track of upcoming and completed jobs;
• Enter the time in an ergonomic, visual and user-friendly way;
• Identify work that is not included in the fixed price;
• Plan the firm's work, instead of having to deal with the daily routine.

"Up to now, we used to draw up a (large) Excel spreadsheet each year to try to plan for the following year. It was a real stressful time! Planning is at the core of Beeye's contribution, in my view," he continues.

“Before Beeye, we had no visibility on the workload of our employees. Today we know immediately whether they are - and whether they will be - properly loaded or not, and if a mission will be properly staffed, neither too much nor too little. Beeye allows multi-collaborators use, and as we have opened the consultation to all, I notice that it generates a real demonstration effect.”

The certified accountant also appreciates the management of deadlines (start of task/end of task) which varies according to the date of the closing of the customers.

Efficient synchronization with Sage tools

The partnership between the two publishers makes deployment simple, so the advantages of Beeye can be capitalized on rapidly. Beeye connects to the Sage permanent file to retrieve the assignments according to the chosen nomenclature. The synchronization with the Sage internal management tool of the firm is then carried out automatically. "We were able to integrate our database of known vintage assignments easily, and thus define all the tasks to be carried out so as to have a real reference system", Alexandre Kalil underscores.

Measuring the true profitability of missions

"How can we know whether an assignment is invoiced at its right price without time recording? In our business, the time spent is obviously a constituent factor in the result. Integrating the turnover per client in the management of the workload plan, being able to break it down over the different assignments, and having an average billing rate for each assignment, are all means of steering our profitability in a realistic manner.”

Monitoring also makes it possible to identify time spent in excess of the fixed price, and to be able to justify it to clients for additional billing: "extra costs are easily passed on when they are well documented," he notes.

Motivating his teams

In Guadeloupe as elsewhere, it is not easy to recruit employees who are experienced, motivated, enterprising and aware of their responsibilities. With Beeye a “fairer” distribution of work can achieved, by detailing the vision of the figure and the cost of each item. Alexandre Kalil sees this as a factor of internal motivation.

Not to mention that the firm boasts many young parents. "Telework requests will increase: time recording and, above all, planning in a prospective vision, will be all the more important.”

“Beeye is a structuring tool for my firm,” concludes the accountant.
“It gives meaning to the management of the hours put in. It is the planning which goes to the task, and not the other way around!”