Helping an essential community business keep up with their growth

Problem

Palmer Bus Service is a local, family owned and operated business that provides safe transportation for students. Since its inception in 1974, the company has grown from an 8-bus operation based out of Saint Clair, Minnesota, to serving dozens of Minnesota communities from its 25 (and counting) locations. But along with growth in any business comes complexity, especially when it comes to accounting.

As the company grew, managing the company’s operational and accounting needs became a challenge. Producing financial reports via QuickBooks took the team over a week to compile the information.  Palmer Bus Service’s senior accountant recognized that the company had outgrown QuickBooks and needed a more efficient solution that would better serve the company.

Solution and Implementation

Palmer Bus Service needed a system that could keep up with its growth across multiple entities and streamline its accounting workflow by simplifying processes and cutting out manual operations.

Abdo’s Sage Intacct implementation team conducted an on-site assessment of Palmer Bus Service’s operations to listen, learn, and understand the nuances of the company’s accounting systems. Based on their experience with other multi-entity companies and Palmer Bus’s needs, Abdo developed a solution that provided more advanced features and scalability than QuickBooks.

Results

What once took two of Palmer Bus Service’s full-time accounting staff over a week now takes one staff person a few seconds to produce. The hours and capacity that efficiency added to Palmer Bus Service’s team is now shifted to focusing on building dashboards in Sage Intacct that allow the managers of each of the company’s locations to drill down into details and assumptions, and adapt and make decisions based on accurate and timely data.

In addition to the software itself, Palmer Bus Service’s senior accountant, Emily Olson, appreciates the support provided by Abdo throughout the process. “Abdo’s service and support team exceeded Palmer Bus’s expectations,” said Olson, “They were a phone call away. They were an email away. They were there to answer any questions if something wasn’t working. They held our hand through the whole process. They were the ‘dream team’.”