Seamless integration and implementation experience
Powerful ERP system supports a fast-growing omni-channel retailer
Inter-company mapping: consolidated reporting across multiple locations
Single touch payroll speeds up workflow — payroll takes less than 10 minutes
In the late 1970s, Macron Music opened on the main street of Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW. It quickly became the go-to place for local musicians and music lovers alike, and would continue that success for decades to come.
When the opportunity to buy the iconic instrument shop came up in 2015, it was one that Anthony Ursino — who had started working there in 2008 – couldn’t pass up.
Then, in 2019, Macron Music purchased one of Melbourne’s premier music retail brands, GH Music. This increased the company’s retail footprint to three locations, 20 staff and a newly-launched eCommerce store.
With this expansion came a growing need for a more efficient and integrated business management solution.
Fast-growing retailer with limited reporting
While Macron Music was finding its feet amid the expansion, the pandemic hit and made things even more complex.
“When COVID hit, we faced the double-edged problem that most other retailers had – demand was high, but supply was low,” explains Anthony.
“We also hadn’t really thought about upgrading our systems yet, but with COVID, we flagged that that was going to be an issue.”
The company quickly upgraded to cloud-based point of sale (POS) and inventory management systems, and that’s when Anthony turned his attention to the accounting system.
“We all needed to be running off the same song sheet rather than having multiple, disparate systems,” he explains.
On top of that, the team was frustrated that they couldn’t access data that gave a real-time look at their business.
“All that time was spent journaling things in and out of various entities because of the way we had our systems running.”
Anthony says MYOB Advanced Business ticked all the right functionality boxes, and “having cloud access to everything in our business is just incredible.”
"With MYOB Advanced Business, we can have multiple users log into the platform from anywhere. It’s quick, there’s no downtime and it makes everybody’s lives easier. Going cloud-based was a non-negotiable for us."
- Anthony Ursino, Owner, Macron Music
By implementing MYOB Advanced Business, Macron Music now has seamless integration and consolidated real-time reporting across multiple stores and online. This has significantly reduced the time and cost of managing finances and operations, allowing the team to focus on growing their business.
Seamless integration with eCommerce platform
One of Anthony’s major concerns was finding an ERP system that could integrate with Neto (now Maropost Commerce Cloud), their eCommerce platform, as well as their inventory and POS systems.
He says many software integrations are still catching up with eCommerce solutions, so he was pleasantly surprised when he was introduced to MYOB Advanced Business.
Using API mapping, the data from the company’s existing systems is automatically replicated in MYOB Advanced Business, so they’re able to manage the entire business from one system.
It’s also built a program interface that sorts out any data irregularities.
Managing the costs of transacting online
Online retail equates to approximately 30% of Macron Music’s sales, making it the fastest growing part of the business and an area where hidden costs can quickly chew into profit.
“For example, we offer seven to eight payment methods, and at least five or six of them have costs associated with them,” Anthony explains.
"With MYOB Advanced Business, we’re able to reconcile our accounts daily instead of 30 days after the fact, and we know that all those merchant fees and surcharges have been accounted for."
What’s more, most of the reconciliation work is now automated, significantly reducing the risk of error.
“With our bank reconciliations up to date and our costs and POs all going in attributed to the right suppliers, we can now get a real-time P&L and track how we’re performing over the month or year,” he said.
Inter-company mapping, real-time reporting
Under the Macron Music umbrella sit three separate companies that trade with each other. Before MYOB Advanced Business, the cost of goods for each sale would have to be journaled in and out between those companies — a process that is now done automatically.
"With MYOB Advanced Business, we can sell whatever we want from wherever and the software will keep up with the origin of the stock and provide the correct cost of goods to the right entity."
Reporting is more accurate and there are significantly fewer journal entries, which makes Anthony — and his accountants — sing.
“We also dropship from other locations, so inventory management from that point of view was a real issue and causing a lot of reporting problems.
“Now, we can clearly see what we’re making on each product, and that’s purely down to the fact that MYOB Advanced Business has the capabilities to support our type of business.”
Payroll takes “around 4.5 minutes per store”
With the rising cost of superannuation in Australia and the added complexities of more staff across more locations, Anthony says payroll was something that could easily spiral out of control.
With MYOB Advanced Business integrating MYOB Advanced Payroll, Anthony can seamlessly jump between each entity’s payroll and quickly pull combined reporting across the group — something he couldn’t do beforehand.
While it can take some time to customise the payroll workflow, that’s the beauty of the system and the reason he can get his payroll done for all stores in under 10 minutes.
"You can set it up so all you have to do is go in once a week to each employee and click a button…done!"
Ready to face the music
Long-established music retailer since 1978.
The company went from $1.5m to $5m turnover in four years, with three store locations, 40 staff and a fast-growing online store.
Seamless integration and consolidated real-time reporting across multiple store and online retail locations, significantly reducing the time and cost of managing its finances and operations.
Improvements since implementing MYOB Advanced Business:
Powerful ERP system supports fast-growing omni-channel retailer
Seamless integration between finance, inventory and POS systems
Inter-company mapping: consolidated reporting across multiple locations
Automated bank reconciliations significantly reduce risk of error
Less time spent on manual data entry reduces business costs
Single touch payroll speeds up workflow — payroll takes less than 10 minutes
Room to scale: business can add more modules as needed.
