Astute Financial’s Consulting Services and Robust Reporting Deliver Valuable Insights that Increase Efficiency, Effectiveness and Profitability for Owen Security
For more than 40 years, Owen Security Solutions, located in Calhoun, Georgia, has provided top-notch security systems, solutions and monitoring services. Combining the latest security technologies and unmatched customer service and response time, Owen Security is committed to constantly exceeding expectations and building strong relationships with its customers.
When Owen Security switched its accounting software over from MicroKey to SedonaOffice, the company faced significant challenges with reconciling the two separate solutions. At the same time, Owen needed real-time, on-demand information about attrition in order to run its business effectively, says Justin Owen, the company’s CEO.
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To better handle the initial software switchover, Owen called on Astute Financial, which worked with his company to clean up and format the data to make sure everything would be in a uniform format in SedonaOffice, Owen Security’s business management software solution.
“They really made the transition go very smoothly, so much so that we’ve continued to work with them ever since about a number of issues, including merging everything from separate software solutions into a single platform,” Owen said.
Owen Security has also had an aggressive acquisition strategy, which has seen more than 3,500 accounts enter the fold through five acquisitions in the last year alone. For larger acquisitions, Owen Security calls on Astute Financial to help with importing financial and customer data into SedonaOffice.
Astute Financial also assists with Owen Security’s month-end reporting. The firm analyzes the numbers to ensure that nothing is out of sorts, and will alert Owen if something doesn’t quite add up.
“They do such a great job efficiently and affordably that we’ve never felt the need to hire someone internally to run those month-end reports,” Owen said. “They haven’t replaced our CPA for long-term and year-end functions but they’ve allowed us to do things we wouldn’t have been able to do without going out and hiring somebody to do accounting internally.”
As someone who appreciates and recognizes the power of numbers in running a business, Owen has long wanted the ability to view a number of metrics on a daily basis, such as attrition rate, the status of accounts receivable and much more.
“You need to be looking at those important metrics daily to be able to make quick decisions on opportunities that arise,” he said. “Just taking that information seriously and diving down to manage your company by numbers, you can make a lot of effective decisions managing by numbers.”
Astute Financial’s consulting alone has been tremendously valuable, and Owen Security has seen even greater value from using the company’s Vivid Flex solution. By eliminating manual data preparation, Vivid Flex simplifies complex reconciliation and schedules and automates report delivery, providing timely information that empowers users to take control and focus on information that is most important to them.
Vivid Flex provides Owen with access to information on demand, and Owen Security is currently working with Astute to develop a custom dashboard within Vivid Flex that will allow Owen to refresh numbers at any time to view real-time information about critical metrics. As has been the case throughout the relationship, Owen said Astute’s services have delivered demonstrable value time and again.
“They’re responsive, easy to work with and helpful. From a customer service standpoint, the only thing you need to do is be helpful. If you can be helpful then you’re of value,” he said. “Our relationship has also allowed us to keep our costs and overhead low because we can lean on Astute and they can help us with the reporting, so we can manage our business more effectively.”
The robust reporting capabilities of Vivid Flex have been especially helpful when evaluating his company’s performance following an acquisition. Vivid Flex allows the company to drill down into Flex reports to get accurate reporting on how an acquisition has impacted attrition rates and RMR growth, for example, on a month-by-month basis.
“We’re not in denial about how good or how poorly we’re doing in certain areas. Having concrete, accurate information reviewed by a financial firm like Astute is a valued partner in our growth and efforts,” Owen said.
In all, Owen said, Astute Financial’s consulting and technology has saved his company money and provides the valuable data and reporting he needs to ensure that Owen Security operates as effectively and efficiently as possible.
“You need easy, quick access to important metrics, and if you need to go recreate the wheel to find them yourself, you’ll probably give up or just get an approximate number instead of the precise number you need to run your business better,” Owen said. “They’ve been very helpful in teaching us about our finances, and they’ve been instrumental in keeping us organized and giving us feedback about where we stand compared to other security companies of similar size.”
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Read our Case Study on Vivid Flex
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