About CandyshopVFX
CandyshopVFX is a production company specializing in post-production. Their team creates VFX, 2D and 3D motion and audio designs, motion graphics, and compositing for advertisements, films, and digital media.
The business consists of 9 experienced professionals, and since 2013, it has collaborated with the largest businesses and advertising companies in Greece. So far, it has completed over 10,000 projects, many of which have won creative awards.
CandyshopVFX is a full-service production company that guarantees quality control and strictly managed scheduling.
Why did they decide to use a business management and time-tracking software?
Managing the company’s finances in an easy and effective way
Almost from the beginning of the business, the need for a comprehensive solution to monitor and manage its finances was established. For the founder of CandyshopVFX, Evangelos Kouloukithas, it was very important to know the financial obligations and requirements of the business at any time.
Mr. Kouloukithas had to manage a continuously growing team of collaborators and a large number of new customers and projects that were being executed simultaneously. The only way to gain full control was to use a specialized tool like Elorus.
Of course, he could monitor company’s financial data from the software used by his accountant, but as he revealed in our interview, accounting software are much more complex than what a businessman needs, offering functions that do not directly concern the decision-making and strategy of a business.
Project analysis for better cost accounting of their services
The incorrect cost accounting of service can often lead a post-production agency to a difficult position, increasing the risk of profit loss.
CandyshopVFX offers various services in which the final production cost is significantly influenced by several factors, such as the work time of team members and external collaborators, technological equipment and materials, travel costs, and others.
If something is not calculated correctly, there could be a financial gap of hundreds or even thousands of euros in the production cost, which would directly affect the company’s profits. They identified this risk at CandyshopVFX, so they decided to use a comprehensive business management and time-tracking tool like Elorus.
The solution using the Elorus platform
Customer billing, expense management, and submission to the myDATA platform
By using Elorus, CandyshopVFX can easily issue invoices to its customers and then automatically transmit them to the myDATA platform.
Moreover, Mr. Kouloukithas, as the business manager, can record and categorize general expenses so that he can manage them effectively and proceed with their payment. Additionally, he can record the expenses associated with any projects undertaken and then invoice them to the business’s clients, such as payment to an external collaborator, equipment rental, etc.
Finally, with the systematic use of Elorus, communication between the business and the accounting office becomes easier and clearer. The accountant can access CandyshopVFX’s account on Elorus and manage the company’s income and expenses without additional communication. He can then transfer the business’s income to the accounting software he uses via myDATA and carry out any action required to meet the company’s tax obligations.
Detailed financial reports
Through Elorus, the business manager can see the account overview, where a glance reveals the key elements depicting the financial progress of the business. If more detail is needed, the business administrator can create detailed reports for each metric of interest.
The overview shows recorded work hours, outstanding invoices and bills, and cash flow changes, among others, while there’s also the capability of customization, displaying the significant metrics for CandyshopVFX.
Some of the most important detailed reports that Mr. Kouloukithas uses to manage the business’s finances are the expense report, cash flow, customer and supplier balances, tax report, etc.
For instance, through the detailed expense report, he usually categorizes the business’s obligations based on their due date, so he knows what needs to be paid for the business by the end of each month.
Cost accounting of their services
Nowadays, with their detailed recording of work time and expense tracking, they can cost their services with greater accuracy for their customers.
Each team member can record their work time live or asynchronously on the Elorus platform. Then, through the consolidated reports, the business manager can analyze the time each team member spends on each service, project, task, or customer.
This way, the business can cost each service in detail and conclude the team’s productivity.
What did they achieve using Elorus?
The CandyshopVFX team has been systematically using the Elorus platform since 2015, having already logged thousands of hours of work (billable and non-billable) and issued thousands of invoices to its customers.
Through the application, they have managed to fully monitor the obligations and requirements of the business and to accelerate internal management processes that, otherwise, would have to be performed manually.
At the same time, the business has further automated its financial management, creating recurring bills for its fixed monthly expenses, such as employee payments, rent, accounting office fees, and others. Thus, the time for management is furtherly reduced on a monthly basis.
Lastly, with the systematic use of time tracking, they know accurately how much each service costs them, providing offers to their customers based on the cost of labor and the profit margin they want to have.
Gradually, what they aim to achieve in the next period is monitoring productivity and the continuous improvement of internal processes, always ensuring the quality of their services.