Customer stories November 19, 2024 6 MIN READ

How a multi-entity agency saved over two days a month on reporting, with live dashboards

About the company

  • Saentys
  • Industry: Design & Marketing Agency
  • Employees: 50
  • Location: Multi-entity with HQ in the UK

Before and After Scoro

Before Scoro, Saentys was using a range of systems to run its daily operations:

  • Asana & Deltek’s Traffic Live for project management and time tracking
  • Spreadsheets for reporting
  • Xero for accounting

This resulted in project management, time tracking, and billing being spread across different systems, creating challenges throughout the business.

In 2021, Saentys decided to transition to Scoro to improve their processes. This is what they were able to achieve:

BeforeAfter
Revenue Forecasting & ReportingRevenue forecasting was manual, taking two days to prepare. Data was often outdated by the time reports were prepared.Scoro’s real-time dashboards make leadership meetings more efficient. Automated reports save time for the entire team.
Timesheets & Project ManagementTimesheeting was complicated. Project management was clunky and time consuming.Time tracking has become more automated. Project management is simplified and links to financials for better decision making
QuotingInconsistencies in quoting increased the risk of under-pricing.Standardized quote templates save time and ensure consistency. Automated triggers speed up the process, helping Saentys win deals faster.

Revenue Forecasting & Reporting

Before: A time-consuming and inaccurate process

Revenue forecasting was a difficult and time-consuming process. This took Julia Longo, the Finance Director, two full days each month. Julia would export a live project list from the old system, which was prone to regular crashes during data exports. She then prepared spreadsheet templates for each account manager and they would plot in billing plans – a repetitive and frustrating task. These spreadsheets were collated and Julia would arrange a call with each account manager to sense-check the forecasts.

Due to this laborious process, the final report was often outdated by the time it was ready. This caused concerns from senior management because figures would be unreliable, and at times alarming.

It took hours to export data, collect spreadsheets from each account manager, and reconcile everything. By the time the forecasting was done, the data was often out of date.

Author
Julia Longo
Finance Director

After: Real-time reporting for effective leadership meetings

Revenue forecasting across Saentys’ multi-entity and multi-currency business is now completed in real-time. Project Managers simply enter monthly forecasted revenue for each project, and Scoro automatically generates a revenue forecast report.

Leadership meetings are more efficient as reports and dashboards are available instantly. This reduces manual manipulation and ensures accurate, up-to-date information. This improvement has saved at least two days of work every month.

Scoro saves us at least two days of work every month on revenue forecasting. The live data means we don’t need to prep for meetings. We just open Scoro and access the reports, which are up to date and reliable.

Author
Julia Longo
Finance Director

Besides revenue forecasting, Sentys is using Scoro for managing quotes, tracking project progress (both in terms of time and budget), and managing workload and utilization. Thanks to having all this data available in one system in real time, Seantys was able to quickly spot that their costs had gone up and margins had reduced. This helped them recognize the need to increase sales prices and protect their profit margins.

Timesheets & Project Management

Before: Clunky time sheeting

Timesheet management was complicated and clunky before. Account managers had to manually search for the right projects and tasks, which took valuable time and often led to inaccuracies. The manual nature of timesheets also made tracking billable versus non-billable time more difficult, impacting productivity.

After: Automated time tracking 

Time tracking is now simpler and more accurate. With Scoro, timesheets link directly to projects and quotes. The resource manager simply schedules work for specialists within Scoro’s Planner and these time entries are automatically shown in the specialist’s timesheet. Specialists only need to mark tasks as done (or adjust the time if needed). 

This way, specialists know exactly what’s expected and how much time to allocate to each task, making time logging easier and more consistent. This automation has reduced errors and freed up time to focus on more valuable work. 

Timesheets now automatically populate based on the project schedule. This saves our team a lot of time and minimizes errors.

Author
Jimena Lopez
Operations Manager

Invoicing

Before: Delays in issuing invoices and addressing queries

Invoicing was a manual and time-intensive process. Invoices couldn’t be sent directly from the old platform, leading to delays in issuing invoices and addressing queries. Communication about invoice changes or client queries was slow, causing further delays.

After: Faster invoicing with improved visibility

Invoicing is now ten times faster with Scoro. Invoices are sent directly from Scoro and automatically synced with Xero (accounting software), allowing the team to track payment status in one place. For client queries or changes, comments can be added directly to the invoice, making adjustments simple. Saentys’ bookkeeper can also tag comments on invoices, providing clear credit control updates and saving time for the Finance Director.

Invoicing is ten times faster with Scoro. We can send invoices directly from the system, and making changes is easier than ever before.

Author
Julia Longo
Finance Director

Quoting

Before: Inconsistent and slow quoting process

Creating quotes was slow and inconsistent. The team manually prepared and modified them, at times copying old quotes with discounts that hurt profit margins. Without standardized templates, the quality and detail of quotes varied.

After: Streamlined process and accuracy in quoting

With Scoro, the team can now create standardized, detailed quotes using pre-built templates. With the ability to leave comments directly on the quote, it’s easier for account managers to respond to client questions and make changes.

Trigger notifications have been set up within Scoro and Slack, the internal communication channel. This speeds up the process as account managers are notified when a quote is approved and can get quotes to clients faster.

Thanks to a more automated process, the team has saved significant time and been able to win projects faster. Saentys’ clients have responded positively to the clarity and detail of Saentys’ quotes. 

We’re winning projects faster with Scoro. Standardized templates allow us to get quotes to clients quickly and the level of detail is greatly appreciated. The entire process runs smoothly—from sending quotes to tracking approvals.

Author
Jimena Lopez
Operations Manager

Implementation Experience

Support and Training

The implementation of Scoro at Saentys was smooth and well-supported. Scoro’s implementation manager was hands-on, guiding the team through the transition, helping them refine processes, and providing practical support and training along the way.

Saentys also took extra steps to prepare internally. They created a library of short training videos so both new and existing employees could easily find how-to guides for their everyday tasks.

Our implementation manager was excellent, guiding us every step of the way.

Author
Jimena Lopez
Operations Manager

Team Morale

The Saentys team is happy with Scoro’s modern, streamlined platform. Having all relevant information in one place has simplified day-to-day operations and reduced frustrations. It allowed the team to focus on delivering results rather than dealing with outdated tools and processes. Even new starters are very impressed with how structured Saentys is!

The team is happy with Scoro because it unites multiple sources of information into one platform, simplifying our work.

Author
Jimena Lopez
Operations Manager

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