Fore!mula For Success - Back Office Management - June 2009
Who's got your back? Fore! Reservations does! With the Fore! Sell back office management tools, your back office functions are covered, your financial details are secure, and you can run every aspect of your operation with maximum efficiency and ease. And, with dozens of features and capabilities, chances are there are tools and features even the most seasoned users aren't maximizing.
"This is a fantastic system," says Greg Stang, Director of Operations for the Wilson Golf Group, based in Stillwater, MN. The Wilson Golf Group owns and operates eight courses in three states - seven public and one private - as well as an off-site central office that handles all the back office functions for each course. "We integrate Fore! Reservations with Peachtree and we're able to pull all the information we need, as well as generating income statements within one day of the end of the month."
"We're experiencing big overall savings in our office and cash counting areas," Greg reports. "The integrated credit card processing and gift card program has cut down on employee user errors, and while we used to spend hours figuring out our cash counts, the system set up has created big hourly savings. We determined that we're saving between $2,000 and $4,000 per year per course in our office payroll versus our previous software system."
In addition to the valuable back office features, the Wilson Group relies on the valuable marketing reports to set up individual customer categories in order to target specific customers for special offers and e-mail blasts, to track customer spending, and to develop new membership programs and opportunities. "Our average weekly e-mail blasts generate between $1,000 and $2,000 per course. The system pays for itself within a year if you use the marketing tools," Greg says.
"We use it for all our billing and inventory, and I really appreciate the ability to go back and look at specific time periods from year to year so I can measure growth, create budgets, and to develop guidelines and target numbers," says Steve Belton, General Manager, Osage National Golf Club, Lake Ozark, MO. "We're able to specify different categories and groups such as banquets, weddings, etc., which saves a lot of time and money because we can quickly see what we have on deposit."
"We track sales during specific periods to see how individual users are doing, and the close-out features save time and money and really help with security," Steve says. "By tracking sales during specific time periods we're able to adjust our scheduling to make sure we have the right amount of staff in house."
The Fore! back office management tools not only offer increased security and enhanced capabilities such as setting up third-party billing accounts and managing award/loyalty percentages, but it integrates easily with QuickBooks, Peachtree or Business Works programs. Other valuable features include the ability to set up and monitor tax-exempt customers and their sales activity, better manage inventory with full merchandise tracking by vendor, print merchandise labels, and establish unlimited user-definable billing classes to help facilitate monthly A/R billing.
"There are a number of features I love about the POS system," says Sue Smith, Golf Shop Manager, Flagg Creek Golf Course, Countryside, IL. "Recently, the city raised the tax for food and beverage items by 1 percent. With Fore! Sell, it is very easy to have two tax rates in the system. When you select a line item, it's easy to select the tax rate that is needed."
"In addition, our auditors require the reporting of money that is collected in one fiscal year that will not be redeemed until the next year, such as outing deposits, league revenue and lesson revenue. It is really easy for us to run the necessary reports off of the Fore! system," Sue says.
Sue also runs reports every month for the teaching professionals that they can then submit for payment for their lessons, as well as a weather report record that she provides each month to the Board of Trustees. She anticipates that soon she'll develop spreadsheets for her daily receipts.
"Fore! Reservations is an awesome point of sale system - we've had zero problems whatsoever," Steve Belton concludes. "It's been a privilege growing with them for the past 11 years and we look forward to many more years ahead."
To learn more about the back office management functionality in Fore! Reservations and to implement the features mentioned in this article, click here to visit our Fore! Sell online videos page. You may also contact our Customer Support Team at 630-789-9784 with any questions.
Upcoming issues of Fore!mula for Success will feature the new Fore! Marketing and Touch Screen Kiosk products and we'd love to hear about your successes utilizing this new technology. Call us at 630-789-9705 or contact us via e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will include you in the next issues of Fore!mula for Success.
