Before AlPrime
While Salma looked beautiful on the outside, its financials were not so pretty. The absence of Bookkeeping and Accounting created a vicious cycle of issues that led to a cascade of problems. The staff at Salma did not conduct a physical stock count of the items, leading to inventory inaccuracy. Hence, orders for new items were placed on guess work and expectation instead of actual figures and seasonal requirements. On top of this, advanced payments were made to the vendors for non-delivered goods, and the Point-of-Sale payments were not verified against the total cash flow. These issues made tracking the goods in transit difficult and resulted in the incorrect stock count.

AlPrime’s Solution
‍The team at AlPrime decided to break the cycle by applying a two-pronged approach supported by effective communication. Internally, Noma’s accounting software system was set up, which consolidated all the parameters like Inventory, account balances, cash flows, and payments in one place, greatly reducing their time in following them up. The Salma staff were comprehensively trained to conduct a physical stock count of all the finished and raw material inventory. AlPrime Web, the accounting Software, also helped in performing the stock count much easier. For instance, the actual inventory count was found to be 12212, while the books reflected only 9333 units. Thus, they could readjust the 2879 units lost in the chaos created by the cascading issues. Noma’s staff were also taught to record different kinds of payments made at Point of Sale (POS) and categorize them as advanced and actual payments for effective tracking of the items. Externally, AlPrime’s team proactively took over the communications with the suppliers and vendors by recording their advanced payments, tracking their payments and payment methods, following up with the suppliers regarding any delay in deliveries, and also by keeping tabs on the bank transactions for each of these deliveries. This approach proved tactical in streamlining all of Noma’s external transactions with various entities and streamlined its operations. The AlPrime team also prepared a system for Noma’s operation team to track the daily closing against the POS entries to eliminate errors. The Software-integration enabled them to use the time to re-enter the invoices for double-checking the workflow or the inventory.

Way Forward
‍Ala Cake is empowered due to the right decision it made in onboarding AlPrime to manage its books. The inventory count has been better, recording and reporting has become a lot easier, petty cash is accurate, leave and indemnity has been handled and the processes have been optimized. The pastry maker is now geared up to charge to the next level with the timely advisory and services of AlPrime and fulfill their financial and business goals.