Specialist totalizator (tote) wagering business, Premier Gateway International (PGI), chose Aqilla over SunAccounts when replacing Sage for its company accounting. Easy to implement with a low cost of ownership, Aqilla’s ability to integrate with other business apps pushed the decision over the line for Chief Operating Officer Damon Waddington. Integrating Aqilla with the company’s core line-of-business app has saved his team three days’ worth of administration every month-end.
Integration is key to reducing effort
A purpose-built SQL database stores all wagers, wagering processes and client activity. Connecting Aqilla’s cloud-based accounting system to this core business app means key accounting data is seamlessly shared with Aqilla for reporting purposes, removing the need to create journals in Aqilla itself.
“I just press a button and Aqilla imports all the sales journals at month-end via the API. By 11 o’clock the next day, the month-end tasks are complete, saving us around three days of manual administration that we had to endure with Sage,” Damon confirms.
Multi-currency handling is an essential requirement for PGI
PGI is a licensed tote hub based in the Isle of Man. The company’s proprietary technology gives clients, both private and corporate, access to larger tote pools in major markets including Australia, South Africa, France, Dubai, Hong Kong, the Americas, Singapore, the UK and Ireland. For its small number of premium clients, PGI provides access to all of these totes.
Aqilla’s ability to handle multicurrency accounting was an obvious requirement when looking to replace Sage, as was the ability to produce simple, consolidated accounts to a tight deadline required by the company’s Australian parent.
Multi-company reporting in action via Sharperlight reporting
Aqilla’s integration with the Sharperlight reporting tool gives Damon’s team the management reports they need in pre-defined templates that automatically populate with data held in Aqilla’s accounting system. This includes consolidated reports from the business’ two, Isle of Man-based entities. Reporting templates were created by Damon in Excel, then Aqilla’s support team recreated them in Sharperlight. These reports are generated automatically, consolidating balance sheets from both companies.
Damon explains, “The Sharperlight and Aqilla integration speeds up the process of getting our results out and over to our parent company. With a narrow two day window, we have to be confident that we can produce accurate and consistent management reports easily, every time.”
Using Aqilla for deeper analysis
Wanting to make use of some of Aqilla’s more sophisticated accounting, Damon describes his plans for the near future; “Our own developers will work with Aqilla’s team to replicate more of the info we store in our customer platform in Aqilla. Bringing in sales journals for all of our markets will allow us to break down sales by market as well as by customer and it will help us greatly with audit queries.”
Ticking all the boxes
Expanding on why Aqilla has proved to be so successful at PGI, Damon attributes some of its success to the system design. He says, “Aqilla is very user-friendly compared to other systems I’ve used in the past. I’ve trained people to use it and they pick it up straight away.”
Summing up, Damon concludes, “Out of all the systems we looked at, Aqilla was the most suitable for us because it could meet our requirements without racking up huge implementation costs. SunAccounts was too complex with a sizable development cost upfront. Aqilla’s subscription-based model, simple set up and open API ticked all the boxes.”
