Perla import and distribute consumable dental products to practices throughout New Zealand. They also supply some products to a range of other businesses including crafters, sculptors, electronic companies and the beauty industry.
We decided that we would set up with Xero as our accounting package, then knowing that we needed a front-end inventory management system, we thought TidyStock looks a nice, simple, easy product to work with and it’s been our front-end system ever since.
Greg Bovaird
Director
Greg is responsible for managing Perla’s inventory with the help of TidyStock. It’s been part of their business from day one.
TidyStock is integral. We couldn’t function without it. It’s on all day whether it’s processing orders, managing stock and inventory control, placing orders with our suppliers, running end of day reports.
Greg Bovaird
Director
TidyStock empowers you to place orders, process orders, manage stock, run end of day reports and more in one solution.
TidyStock provides visibility of your stock and allows to place orders from anywhere to never let customers down.
TidyStock powerful capability of stock control makes it easier for you to plan the budget and ensure a healthy cashflow.
Greg and Kate set up Perla in 2013 and started trading in 2014, shipping in dental supplies such as face masks, sterilising pouches and instruments from China to help practices save money and source great quality equipment easily. As a former practice manager herself, Kate knows only too well how frustrating it is for Perla’s customers to find they’re running out of something and struggle to get it delivered.
We ring people and ask them if they want to put something on back order. The big companies don’t even tell them it’s on back order and they might be waiting 6 months for a product. I know that if they go to a company and want something they haven’t got, our customers will go somewhere else for it, and buy all the other things on their list too. We know we had to have stock levels we could maintain.
Director
Greg also explains how TidyStock helps Perla ensure that they always deliver what they promise: “We run a daily sales report and check that off against courier reports to check we haven’t missed anything. Or you might get a customer ring up in a hurry and ask for something and you say ‘how many’ and they say ‘same as last time’, and you have to go and look it up. It’s the first window open on our desk in the morning and the last that we close down at night.”
Normally Kate would spend time on the road visiting different practices so it’s essential that she can keep in touch and place orders from anywhere.
I don’t take a laptop away anymore, I can do it all on my phone - raise an order, whatever I need. For sales trips away we have all our practices sorted into regional areas, so when I’m visiting I can run a sales report on those practices and see what they’re buying and also what they’re not buying.
Director
Balancing the need to maintain good levels of stock and keep cashflow healthy has always been vital to the success of Perla’s business.
When we started we didn’t have a lot of cash so we had to have something that enabled us to know how much stock we had on hand. It was a very fine line between not running out and not having a load of cash tied up in stock. Thanks to TidyStock effectively we never really run out of stock. At any given point in time, out of the 750 product lines we have there’ll never be more than 1 or 2 out of stock at any given time.
Director
