GiftTrees Partners Ltd
GiftTrees helps fight poverty and support the planet by funding agroforestry projects. For every meal served in their restaurants or meeting booked, they plant a tree in a developing country to offset environmental impact and carbon footprint of your organisation.
Already using Zoho CRM and Zoho Analytics, GiftTrees needed a more integrated system for managing finances across their Restaurant and Meetings operations. They decided to switch from Xero to Zoho Books to improve automation, simplify reporting, and reduce manual work.
Goldstar IT’s expertise in digital accounting solutions ensured a smooth transition to Zoho Books, meeting GiftTrees’ needs and boosting their efficiency. This case study covers the challenges faced, the solutions provided, and the positive results achieved.
Project Highlights
The Objective
GiftTrees wanted to improve their accounting by moving from Xero to Zoho Books. Already using Zoho CRM, and Zoho Analytics they saw the value in having their financial and customer data on one platform. Their main goals were to:
- Unify Systems: Bring all business functions into one platform for better data consistency and easier management. These business functions were spread across both their restaurant and meetings operations and the unification was essential to see a clear overview of the entire organisation.
- Automate Processes: Reduce manual data entry and save time by automating financial tasks. With data coming in from various sources in both restaurant and meetings operations, automation was vital to see the full picture.
- Enhance Reporting: Get clearer, more detailed financial reports to support better business decisions. Specifically to streamline their customer accounts in line with Zoho CRM parent and child accounts, gaining a clear understanding from the third-party EPOS system used in the restaurant operations.
Goldstar IT’s task was to ensure a smooth migration that maintained the integrity of GiftTrees’ financial data while unlocking these new capabilities in Zoho Books.
The Solution
Goldstar IT developed a clear plan to migrate GiftTrees’ accounting from Xero to Zoho Books, focusing on accuracy and minimal disruption. The steps included:
- Working with Key Stakeholders: Collaborated closely with GiftTrees to transfer all financial data accurately, including year-end figures and recent transactions, ensuring the new system matched their pre-existing data.
- Customising Zoho Books: Set up Zoho Books and Zoho Expense to meet GiftTrees’ specific needs, adding detailed reporting features and dashboards for easy access to real-time data from Zoho CRM, Zoho Analytics and Zoho Books.
- Providing Support and Onboarding: Led by Vicki Goldsmith, Goldstar IT offered hands-on training and support to help the GiftTrees team get comfortable with the new systems quickly.
- Ongoing Assistance: Continued to support GiftTrees after the migration, answering questions and making any needed adjustments to optimise their use of Zoho Books and Zoho Expense.
Through this tailored approach, Goldstar IT successfully migrated GiftTrees’ accounting system from Xero to Zoho Books, incorporating data from Zoho Analytics to enable a more streamlined, efficient, and integrated financial management solution.
“We recently had the pleasure of working with Goldstar IT to transition our accounting system to Zoho Books, and we couldn’t be happier with the outcome. From start to finish, their team demonstrated exceptional professionalism and expertise, making what could have been a daunting task feel effortless.Dale Kearns, Commercial Director, GiftTrees
They clearly excel in delivering digital transformations that cater to a variety of business needs. Whether it’s reporting, finance, customer support, or operations, their ability to customise solutions has greatly benefited our company. We highly recommend Goldstar IT to any business looking to implement or improve their digital systems.”
The Outcome
By migrating from Xero to Zoho Books with Goldstar IT’s help, GiftTrees achieved several key benefits:
- Greater Efficiency: The integration with Zoho CRM and Zoho Analytics removed the need for manual data entry, saving time on financial tasks. This also provides a clearer understanding of their finances through reporting and KPIs.
- Improved Expense Tracking: The addition of Zoho Expense provided control of employee expense claims. The claims had to be within a specific budget and a specified timeframe from month end to allow for timely reporting, approval and reimbursement.
- Cost Savings: Reduced reliance on separate systems and custom integrations led to lower operational costs, freeing up funds for other business priorities.
- Integrated Payment Processing: Goldstar IT migrated the integration for GoCardless, enabling smooth and efficient payment processing to continue on Zoho Books.
- Smooth Adoption: Goldstar IT’s training and support ensured that GiftTrees’ team quickly learned the new systems, improving productivity and confidence in using Zoho Books and Zoho Expense.
Overall, with Goldstar IT’s expertise, the migration to Zoho Books, setup of Zoho Expense and integration of GoCardless not only streamlined GiftTrees’ operations but has also positioned the company well for future growth and success.
