CUSTOMERS
ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE
Royal Exchange Theatre applauds Metaphorix and Navision
The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester is using Navision Financials integrated accounting and payroll solution. This was part of a system upgrade and major capital refurbishment programme after the IRA bomb damage in June 1996. Although it is a registered charity and therefore not in the business of making a profit, the theatre needs to keep very tight control of costs to determine the success of its plays on a production by production basis and Navision is helping with this control.
Established in 1976, the Royal Exchange Theatre is one of the largest subsidised repertory theatres in the UK, with an excellent reputation for producing classics as well as new plays. Its 25th anniversary season will open in the autumn, with an exciting programme featuring such actors as Tom Courtenay, Amanda Donohoe, Patricia Routledge and Pete Postlethwaite.
Following the bomb damage, the Royal Exchange received emergency funding for relocation in a mobile theatre and temporary office. It then received major capital refurbishment funding from the National Lottery and Arts Council. This would enable it to relaunch for the next 20 years and allow for necessary system upgrades. Having replaced its box office system, the theatre decided to look for an integrated solution to replace and improve upon its Rita accounts software and stand alone payroll system.
Navision Integrated Solution
After looking at a number of systems, the Royal Exchange selected Navision Financials, which was purchased at the end of June 1998. Some of the reasons for the choice were the way it could ‘cut and slice’ departments and projects, it was Windows-based in line with the box office system and it had the ability to cope with the future requirements of the theatre. The theatre contracted for a seven user Navision Financials solution with integrated General Ledger, Sales & Receivables, Purchases & Payables, Cash Book and Payroll applications. Payroll went live in September 1998 for up to 250 permanent and short-term staff, with everything else up and running in mid-November in time for the theatre’s reopening on the 28th November.
In Use and Benefits
According to Barry James, Director of Finance at The Royal Exchange, the main benefit of Navision is the ease of analysis and flexibility in being able to analyse expenditure either by total expenditure, department or project. “Not only are there the detailed account codes for different areas of the operation such as payroll and overhead income, but it’s possible to analyse income and expenditure by departments. We can break things down into cost centres, such as the education department, marketing department and wardrobe. We can also analyse income and expenditure by project, which is enormously important. I guess that many operations have a fixed number of projects, which are constant, but being a theatre, we have nine main house productions and other productions in the studio each year, which we treat as separate projects. With Navision’s flexibility, we can set up a new project for each new production and then analyse the income and expenditure, not only by department but by a particular project.”
He also finds that the on-screen analysis is excellent and extremely easy. “If I want to find out how much we’ve spent over a particular period or have a breakdown of expenditure on a particular project or department, I can get that information very quickly on the screen, without having run off a report. Additionally, there are very good drill-down facilities to enable interrogation of information on the screen.”
On the reporting side, the Royal Exchange has been helped by its Navision Solution Centre, who have developed various reports within Navision that are unique to the theatre. They include detailed production reports showing costs, which are very useful for the Production Manager, so that he can see what is being spent on any production as it’s going along. These production reports incorporate commitments, which is particularly important for the Royal Exchange as a producing theatre, making and building its own productions.
James points out that they have a rehearsal period of four to five weeks and there is a short period of time from when the designer arrives in the production office and the designs agreed to the start of the production “Within the space of a few weeks, the expenditure will move extremely quickly, from the designs to the completed set and costumes for a particular production. Because of this, we need a good commitment accounting system, which tracks all the orders as they are placed by the departments. The Navision bespoke reports, particularly on the production costs, are very helpful in this respect.”
Regarding the Payroll application, he points out that they have an interface to the Nat West Bank on-line, which enables them to send information through by modem direct to the bank for BACS payments. This saves a tremendous amount of administration and paperwork.
The Future
The Royal Exchange is planning to extend the system for additional users, such as heads of departments, who will be able to access up-to-date information on their particular departments and see the progress of a production.
Conclusion
“Navision is an extremely user friendly and flexible system which enables us to have instant access to up-to-date information, thus saving a great deal of time and aiding our decision-making,” enthuses James. “Our current Navision Solution Centre, Metaphorix, are most professional, they have a good understanding of our business requirements and are very responsive to our queries and needs.”
Steve Thomas from Metaphorix added: “Royal Exchange have embraced the true scope of Navision and developed it in line with their own business processes. They can now manage their operation much more effectively than ever before.”
