Pharmacy

At Blooms, the highly individualised DIY approach to bookkeeping in each store led to inconsistent and often inaccurate financial reporting.

This decentralised model meant instructions were often misunderstood or misinterpreted and they struggled to deliver a consistent accounting process across the network. Resulting in expensive rework and error-prone shortcuts, which left them exposed to potential cash leakage and poor decision making.

Further exacerbated by leaving bookkeeping tasks until the eleventh hour, delaying Business Activity Statements (BAS) lodgement and adversely impacting their working capital position. For individual stores, on-time BAS lodgements help receive GST refunds prior to having to pay suppliers and other creditors. This simply couldn’t happen under the legacy model.

Additionally, the lack of standardised processes for recording data and making month-end adjustments ensured that the information collected was largely ineffective for benchmarking or making decisions that affected the entire network.

To tackle these issues, Blooms enlisted Aretex in 2014, starting with a pilot program in a single store. The success of this initial trial led to implementation of the service across all Blooms stores nationally. Delivering access to real-time financial data that became crucial for informed decision-making, improving cash flow, and allowing staff to offer better customer care. It also provided Blooms a cost-effective and scalable solution tailored to their specific needs, with a dedicated resources that functions as an extension of their existing team.

Aretex’s solution is now a major differentiator for Blooms in attracting new partners into their pharmacy network.