Runwood Implements COA Solutions' Systems to Support Six-Year Growth Strategy

8th February 2008 - Runwood Homes – a leading UK care home provider with 28 homes across Essex and Hertfordshire – is implementing new financial and income management systems from COA Solutions (formerly CedarOpenAccounts), to support its growth strategy. With a six-year plan to substantially increase its number of homes and beds, Runwood requires systems which are efficient and flexible enough to support its growth without having to expand its accounts team.

"With two new homes already underway creating an additional 200 beds by Summer 2008, and with our eye on acquisitions, there’s a pressing need for scalable and robust systems to support our expansion", says Steve Larkin, Finance Director from Runwood Homes.

Runwood is implementing COA’s OpenAccounts finance system together with the OpenAccounts Income Management System, providing more efficient billing and reporting whilst enabling the same number of accounts staff to support the business moving forward.

Larkin explains, "We had outgrown our current billing system which lacked a decent reporting facility. In fact, Excel was used for reporting on our management accounts which was far too manual, time-consuming and restrictive."

Larkin continues, "Going forward, we recognised that we needed a financial system that would speed-up our day-to-day reporting processes, enabling the accounts team to spend more time on value-adding activities. It also needed to have integrated fees, billing and financial capabilities, which few systems can boast. After scouring the market, it soon became clear that COA Solutions is head and shoulders above the competition. Its OpenAccounts systems fulfilled all our requirements and the company fully understood our business needs."

As well as seeing greater efficiency in the accounts department, Runwood will also have access to ‘real-time’ financial information. Larkin says, "With our current systems, we’re always waiting for the latest updates and so the information is never totally up-to-date. If we raise a credit note, for example, there is a time delay before this appears on the sales ledger which isn’t useful to anybody. With OpenAccounts, as the billing and financials are integrated together, our ledger will always be ‘live’, providing more accurate reporting and allowing for improved decision making. This functionality is vital for a rapidly growing business such as ours!"