Designing Cloths for the Next Century, Not the Next Season

Vollebak, a cutting-edge apparel company, was founded in 2016 by twin brothers, designers, and athletes Nick and Steve Tidball. The company, headquartered in London, UK, employs a team of passionate individuals dedicated to designing clothes for the next century, not just the next season. Using science and technology, Vollebak creates futuristic clothing for a global clientele.

Their e-commerce, business-to-consumer (B2C) model has successfully reached customers worldwide, with 55% of their sales in 2022 made in the US. In addition, they have a significant presence in the UK (25-30%) and the EU (15-20%). As they look to expand, they’re keen to ensure the continued performance of their other key markets.

A crucial component to their success and expansion is having their accounting and financial operations in order, which is where Dext Commerce comes into play. We spoke to Phil McNicholas, Vollebak’s finance manager, to learn more about their experience with our software.

The Challenge

Before implementing Dext Commerce, Vollebak faced several challenges, including time-consuming manual bookkeeping and data collection and the risk of errors. They also struggled with managing data while navigating between platforms and the calculation of sales tax in different states in the USA was slow and inefficient.

“The process where information was being passed from our shopify sales site to Xero was inefficient and the calculation of sales taxes for US states was time consuming”, Phil explains.

The Solution

Vollebak discovered Dext Commerce, formerly Greenback, as a solution to their VAT and US sales tax calculation challenges. The implementation process was smooth, and the team quickly adapted to the new system.

Commerce integrated well with their sales platforms, like Shopify and their accounting software, Xero.

The decision to choose Commerce was reinforced by its robust support system and the availability of mappings.

“Our account manager has been really helpful, he’s gotten to know us as a company and he always replies within 24 hours for any kind of mapping change or questions we might have”, Phil says.

Additionally, Phil emphasised the efficiency improvements enabled by Commerce: “It’s helped in the efficiency of getting replies through email chains, and the response times have been impressive since our move to Commerce. The ability to get the mappings set up correctly makes it a lot easier from a timing point of view.”

He also appreciated the ability to have face-to-face interactions and the understanding of their needs:

“Sometimes it’s not as easy for me to just send an email and explain what is required. Being able to sit in front of someone and talk through the features of what we’re looking to do has been really helpful. I might not know what I need in terms of how Commerce can do it, but I know the outcome we need as a finance team.”

The Impact

Since implementing Dext Commerce, Vollebak has experienced significant improvements in its processes. They save a substantial amount of time, with tasks that previously took up to an hour now taking only 10 minutes. The team’s confidence in the consistency and accuracy of data has also increased, leading to a reduced need for manual checks – all due to their business accounting automation efforts

“By having the sales tax data itemised, it’s easy to download the reports from Xero and match them with our sales tax consultants information. We’re saving a lot of time on a monthly level as a finance team.” Essentially, when it comes to reconciliations at the end of the month, the itemised data makes it easier to match up the reports with their sales tax consultants. The data is consistently being passed on to Xero, and matches up really cleanly”, Phil explains.

When asked how he would describe Commerce to a partner, Phil’s positive experience with the software and its support system would likely play a central role in his recommendation.