At a glance
| Challenges | What improved with Gravita’s involvement |
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Conversis
Founded in 2003, Conversis offers life sciences translation services assisting CROs, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device companies and medcomms agencies with the ability to communicate with global audiences in their own languages.
Objectives
Conversis needed a finance function that provided accurate, timely and accessible financial data to support business performance and meet filing obligations. Their existing setup was costly yet ineffective, with processes that lacked integration and efficiency. Reducing the cost of finance while maintaining strong financial oversight was a key goal.
To achieve this, Conversis required a structured approach: implementing a more efficient system, streamlining processes, and ensuring that financial reporting was both accurate and scalable as the business grew. A clear project plan was essential, developed in collaboration with the IT Manager and Managing Director, with strict timelines for delivery. The goal was to produce accurate management accounts on a monthly basis and ensure the new system could handle increasing volumes of financial data as the business expanded.
How Gravita helped
Gravita’s team, led by Accounts Partner Mark Rusher, transitioned Conversis from SAGE to Xero, fully utilising Xero’s capabilities to enhance financial processes. Understanding Conversis’ operational tool, Portico, was a key part of the solution. We ensured seamless integration between Portico and Xero, using common billing codes to enable regular uploads of bills and invoices, significantly reducing manual intervention and improving data accuracy.
A clear project plan was implemented, outlining specific tasks, responsibilities and timelines. The transition from SAGE to Xero was smooth, with permanent customer and supplier records imported directly from Portico using Xero templates to ensure a complete setup.
Bank data was imported into Xero with a one-day delay, ensuring transactions were accurately allocated to the chart of accounts, bills, and invoices. The Budget Manager facility in Xero was implemented to set annual budgets and track business performance against actual figures.
To provide continued financial oversight, Gravita now delivers monthly management accounts, leveraging Xero’s capabilities to provide real-time, accurate financial insights. In addition, an external credit control function was introduced to actively monitor outstanding debts and improve cash flow.
Through these changes, Conversis now benefits from a finance function that is not only cost-effective but also fully integrated, efficient, and scalable, supporting their business as it continues to grow.
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