These days, most businesses want to be seen as modern and disruptive. However, while their offer might indeed be very innovative, not all companies embrace technology and automation at every step of their operations.

Melon Optics decided to do things differently. As a smart business, the team wanted to ensure they made the most of technology in all areas of the business – including finance. But selling across different regions and through a variety of channels can be a challenge for accurate accounting and bookkeeping.

We talked to Melvin Pointer, Co-Founder and CFO of Melon Optics to see how Dext Commerce helped to address difficulties in their bookkeeping.

Melon Optics - Eyewear & Apparel for Extreme Sports Fanatics

Since first opening for business in the summer of 2013, Melon Optics has provided top-grade optical eyewear and accessories for cyclists, snowboarders, skiers and bikers across the globe, as well as selling leisure eyewear and apparel. Headquartered in the UK with operations in Austria and Bali, the company is made up of hard-working sports enthusiasts who ensure their products can withstand even the harshest weather conditions.

Melon was formed because the team were convinced they could make better products than what was available. They’re one of the very few independent companies in a market where two or three companies share a 95% market share.

Whilst combining high-quality materials with stylish designs and being the first company to allow customers to design their products online, Melon Optics also strives to make its products accessible and affordable — exporting to Europe, USA, South America, Middle East, Far East and Australasia.

The Challenge

Melon Optics had three main accounting and information management challenges. The first was getting real-time data into its accounting system. Most of the business’s data needed to go through spreadsheets, which meant data always ran several days late, if not longer.

The second challenge was data extraction and calculation. Previously, extracting accurate data and exporting it into the Xero accounting platform would be an extremely difficult and time-consuming task for Melon Optics.

“It would take a huge amount of time on spreadsheets. You can imagine that with all the orders going through every month both in the UK and in Austria and having to do all that processing, downloading it all from WooCommerce into a spreadsheet and then calculating the costs of sales, it would take ages”, Melvin explains.

The third challenge was tackling external communication with accountants. Before Dext Commerce, Melon Optics’ accounting software produced specific invoice numbers that Austrian and other European accounting firms would reject, which staggered the flow of standard operations.

“In some countries, accounting firms still use systems that are very rules-based and don’t yet integrate or have the flexibility of the latest cloud-based platforms.”

The Solution

The CEO of Melon Optics, James Pointer, was recommended Dext Commerce as a solution to these ongoing issues. the Melon leadership was open to implementing business accounting automation solutions, so they ran tests and Dext’s software immediately made a good impression. The team found that Dext Commerce provided an excellent solution to the company’s problems by automating and streamlining drawn-out processes to get quicker, more accurate outcomes.

“We think Dext Commerce is great! Our accounting system integration issues have been resolved and it’s saved us a huge amount of time.”

“You come to work in the morning, push a button to refresh Dext to make sure it’s synchronised and then press export. It takes us about 10 minutes instead of 4 hours.”

To allow teams to adjust, Melon Optics implemented Dext Commerce into its systems in October: in between seasons and a quieter period for the company. This gave users time to assess how systems worked before the Winter season, when high volumes of sales would start to come through.

“We needed to get data to come into Xero with all the SKU numbers on it, so that we could have all of our cost per SKU within Xero. Now, we push a button and it works out all our cost of sales automatically.”

The Impact

Since employing Dext Commerce software, Melon Optics has saved a great deal of time, which has enabled employees to focus on other important areas, like stock management.

“We believe Dext Commerce has saved us an entire full-time position per month. Before, we had someone to work through spreadsheets and calculate these costs. Since Dext Commerce, their job has gone down to maybe an hour a day.”

A common pain point for many companies is managing complex data across regions. Different countries have different tax regulations and deadlines, and it’s essential to make sure there’s access to the varying tax rates. Melon Optics found one of the main benefits of Dext Commerce is its ability to enforce accountability.

“In a way, Dext Commerce has forced us to make sure everything works properly. It’s instilled a discipline in us to make sure our SKUs are up to date all the time. It helps us regularly check all details on our accounting to ensure everything is there.”

Finally, with access to real-time data, Melon Optics can now efficiently assess its performance and get numbers fast.

“Those are the three big wins that we realised. Overall, Dext Commerce saved us a massive amount of time. It’s given us the ability to ensure our numbers are accurate quicker and to reconcile faster.”

Implementing Dext Commerce’s reliable and accurate software has enabled Melon Optics to automate complex accounting and bookkeeping systems, so they can complete arduous tasks at the push of a button. Reclaiming hours of work whilst having up-to-date management information has provided the Melon Optics team with the time and resources to focus on managing and growing the business.