Accounting system/management

information system for Pub companies with a tenanted

and franchised estate

• Manage risk

• Monitor compliance

• Gain transparency

• Reduce costs

What is CounterBooks?• A leading online retail accounting management suite designed specifically for retail format

businesses such as publicans.

• The cloud based suite consists of:

• Purposely designed to solve the challenges of individual, multiple, group and managed/tenanted/franchised pub operations.

• CounterBooks is accessible anywhere via an internet enabled device through a fully secure, cloud infrastructure on a flexible monthly subscription model.

• Used by 1000’s of retailers across Europe.

• Recommended by industry experts.

CounterBooks Features and Benefits

Description:An online full general ledger accounting system specifically designed for tenants/franchisees to manage their business.

Features: • Easy to use and full general ledger system.• Integration with POS/BOS/pubco or supplier

invoices.• Standardised chart of accounts and wide

array of accounting reports.• Drill down to transaction data.• Customised reports. • Accounting period locking to avoid back

posting. • Hosted online – rapid deployment and low

capex

Benefits:• Reduced costs • Easy to use• Financial controls • Accessible online

Description:An online retail management information system for pubcos to gain transparency and control of their tenant/franchise network.

Features: • Reports on locked periods and usage.• Full access to all pubs across the estate with

drilldown capabilities. • Purchase compliance and assessment. • Network wide P&L and Net worth/Liquidity

reports.• Comprehensive data analysis across the full

spectrum of all accounting data. • Export data into spreadsheets for further

analysis.• Hosted online – rapid deployment and low

capex.

Benefits:• Transparency • Control • Benchmarking • Accessible online

Proven track record in delivering projects, to brief and in budget for some of the

largest retail companies in the world.

Client Portfolio

• Case Study 1 - 65 store franchise group.

From the daily sales by department data, entered at store level, variable commission

rates were applied, and monthly franchise fees calculated automatically. These were

produced within 2 or 3 days of the month end.

• Case Study 2 - 100+ petrol convenience network .

In 2010, the group analysed drive offs in the previous year, by forecourt and by

territory. Time taken to produce the analysis – 20 minutes.

• Case Study 3 - 250+ franchise group

The group expects their franchisees to complete their data entry within 15 days of

the month end and for their accountant to have reviewed the financial statements

within a further 15 days. Head office staff can access a real time report showing

progress against these targets and exception reports showing those that missed.

Stakeholder Benefits

CounterBooks

Credit analysts

Tenant/

franchisee

Accounting partner

Regional manager

General management

Finance manager

Suppliers

Pub company

Stakeholder Benefits

Pub CompanyTransparency, consistency and control.

Tenant/franchisee

Easy to use, reduced costs, improved controls and in-depth reports.

Credit analysts Real time data to assess credit risk of tenants.

Accounting partner

Automated and standardised online accounting platform.

Supplier Reduced costs and improved processes.

Regional manager

Access reports at anytime from anywhere.

Reduce costs +

Improve performance +Manage risk +

Assess compliance +

CounterBooks delivers benefits to multiple stakeholders within the tenant/franchised model.

Improve reporting and manage riskThe challenge for many pub companies is collecting relevant, comparative and accurate management information regarding the tenants/franchisees financial position. This information is critical to assisting tenants/franchisees in driving performance but also in assessing the business risk across the tenanted estate.

• Comprehensive reporting for single pubs, small groups and the total estate across the full spectum of accounting data including net worth, liquidity and profitability.

• Extensive accounting intelligence tool with analysis, comparison and export functionality of all data

• Standardised reporting allows the pub company to truly understand performance across the estate. This standardisation is applied across the full spectrum of the general ledger, therefore improving the reporting, operational decision making and managing risk.

• Real time reporting – All data is held online, therefore there are no delays or lags in receiving information allowing tenants/franchisees and pubco’s to make quicker decisions.

• Assess credit risk – Monitor the probability of tenant’s risk of failure and possible churn through reporting of net worth and liquidity for each and every pub across the estate.

• Purchase compliance – Examine tenants/franchisees purchasing to ensure compliance with ties and other buying obligations.

• Empowers Business Development Managers and creates accountability.

• Full “budget vs actual” reporting to drive tenant/franchisee performance.

Substantial cost savings are achieved through importing data which normally would be entered manually. Main cost reductions will be delivered through three key areas of the accounting process. CounterBooks can integrate:-

• Sales input from EPOS – if not possible, then quick and easy manual entry by the tenant/franchisee.• Purchase invoices from suppliers – an electronic file is imported into CounterBooks from major

suppliers.• Inter Pubco and tenant/franchisee transactions – transactions between parties are imported.

The above automation can deliver cost reductions ranging from 50%-85%. Other benefits include:-

Reduced cost for tenants/franchisees

Pubco Suppliers EPOS

• Paper forms, books and sending off invoices for data entry are methods of the past. Cut transmission costs and time

• Built for publicans - simple to use and intuitive interface

• Significantly reduced fees from not having to rely on accountants to enter data

• Online systems reduce travel costs. Tenant/franchisee results available to head office and territory management

General Architecture

Data Import 95%

Manual Input 5%

Delivery Notes

Data for analysis

Invoice data

Electronic

invoicing

including

Preferred

Suppliers,

Utilities etc.

Data Export File Advice

and

special

bookings

Reporting

EPOS

Preferred

Suppliers

Utilities etc.

Small local

suppliers

Pub company

Accountant

Tenant/Franchisee

Deliveries

reconciled

with invoices

by site manager

Paper

Invoices

Reporting Architecture Interim Reports

- P&L

- Balance sheet

Always up to date

Pub Company Reports

Tenant/

Franchisee

Accountant

Territory Manager

& Pub Company

Statutory/Audit Reports

Data analysis

and data mining

Month End reports

Formatted pdf documents

Territory Manager reports

Deployment Options

There are three deployment options for the CounterBooks suite.

Retail Management

Information

System

Online Retail

Accounting

System

Tenant/franchisee Pub company

Deployment option Applicable

Online Retail Accounting System (only)If there are no reporting requirements to pub company by the tenant/franchisee.

Retail Management Information System (only)

If there is an existing accounting service provider but no or limited transparency and control through analysis and reporting via consolidated database.

Full Retail Accounting Management SuiteIf the tenant/franchisee and pub company wish to benefit from the entirety of the suite.

Business case for CounterBooksMany of our clients use CounterBooks as an integral tool for managing their estate from ‘day to day’ management to making strategic decisions. The two drivers for a business case of CounterBooks include:-

• Transparency and control• Assess the credit risk of

tenants/franchisees and take remedial action to mitigate risk thereby reducing losses.

• Monitor and benchmark tenants/franchisees performance in real time with quicker month end routines.

• Analyse tenants/franchisees earnings and remuneration with drill down functionality.

• Reduced time budgeting and analysing variance against budget.

• Investigate purchase compliance across tenants/franchisees.

• Assists in strategic decision making such as disposals while streamlining financial due diligence.

• Self funding through cost savings• Through integration and automation of

the accounting process, CounterBooks can reduce time and costs by up to 85% thereby providing substantial cost savings to fund the deployment across the estate.

• Collating information from tenants/franchisees into central database – many pub companies receive varying levels and quality of information which is often re-entered into an separate database which requires additional resources/costs and liable to errors.

• Easy to use – CounterBooks is designed to be intuitive and easy to use.

• Deployed over the cloud – rapid deployment, no capex, and fully managed.

• Full support – training and helpdesk provided for all users.

• Cost savings and self funding project – the deployment of CounterBooks is often

funded by the savings of the tenant’s/franchisees professional service fees.

• Improved reporting – standardised and customised reporting across the whole

estate with full data analysis capabilities.

• Manage risk – assess credit, business and churn risk through monitoring net worth

and liquidity.

• Monitor compliance – assess the purchasing compliance of tenants/franchisees and

reporting deadlines.

Summary

RFI or RFP:We would be delighted to respond to any ‘Request For Information’ (RFI) and ‘Request For Proposal’ (RFP) – please forward all requests.

Book an online demonstration:

W: www.CounterBooks.comT: (+44) 020 7099 1050E:

contact@CounterBooks.com

If you are interested in understanding how CounterBooks could empower you and your stakeholders by reducing costs,

improving accuracy while making more informed business decisions – please contact us to book an online demonstration.

Next steps

Benchmarking of current provision:We would happily produce a benchmarking report of your current provision against CounterBooks capabilities – please forward

all requests.