Award-winning multi-disciplinary architects Stride Treglown have been a Rapport3 customer since 2016. They use Rapport3 Job Costing, HR, CRM, QA, and the Rapport3-Newforma integration. Until recently they also used the Sage accounting integration and this year they made the move to Twinfield Accounts, now integrated as Rapport3 accounts, powered by Twinfield.Finance Director Penny Burgess and Senior Solutions Architect Stephen Dolphin talk to Cubic Interactive’s Danielle Cahill about their switch from Sage accounting to Twinfield. The introduction of “Making Tax Digital” prompted the change, due to the time taken for each update that was required. They also wanted a cloud based product that could be accessed from anywhere, rather than a desktop based solution. The existing integration work that Cubic had already done in their Rapport3 implementation made this transition easy. 

Tool selection During evaluations, they observed that many accounts packages are quite similar. However, being easy to use for non-technical staff was a major factor for them, all without losing functionality. Xero for example was considered to be very user friendly but less powerful than Twinfield in terms of functionality. They find Rapport3/Twinfield visually easy to understand, and easy to export data to excel in order to manipulate data elsewhere. Security permissions that could give people access to what they need but concentrating only on their own area makes things both more secure and easier for the user. 

Key requirements:

• Funtionality
• User friendly interface
• Intuitive
• Security for different functions
• Export to excel functionality
• Flexible - running report periods side by side ]

Penny was also very happy with the reporting capability. She likes to write her own reports so she likes that she can easily export to excel, drill down directly, and see all the information that has come out of Rapport3. 

Implementation When switching to new systems before, Penny has always run two systems in parallel over an implementation period, which requires double entry for a limited time while making sure everything is up and running properly. With Rapport3/Twinfield, all evaluation was done within 2 days! Twinfield did a large amount of the work, and the change was timed with some restructuring of their accounts and some updates to Rapport3 which made a clean break and easy transition. 

Training Cubic Interactive had pre-tested everything meaning all training could be done on site, with their own data which was a huge advantage. It was done shortly after the implementation with everything already up and running. As a result, training was all done within a day, and everyone was quickly up to speed with what they needed to do.

Evaluation after 10 months of usage “It has made us more process efficient, more streamlined. I wouldn’t dream of going to another package, it does everything we want it to!” Penny Burgess, Finance Director “It has given us clarity and simplicity: we know exactly what R3 is for (all our project accounting needs). Twinfield is there for main management accounting functions. With previous packages there was always a blurred line, now we have a really clear line between the two.” Stephen Dolphin, Senior Solutions Architect.

If you would like to know more about Rapport3 accounts, powered by Twinfield and how they could benefit your organisation, don’t hesitate to get in touch or email info@cubic-interactive.com.