Founded in 2012, ToughBuilt Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: TBLT; TBLTW) is an innovator in the tool industry, making hardware/tool bags, kneepads, sawhorses, and other professional-quality construction-related products for contractors and do-it-yourselfers alike. Selling its products through retail giants including, Home Depot, Menards, and Western Pacific Building Materials in the U.S., ToughBuilt’s goal is to build value by making life easier and more productive. The fast- growing publicly-traded company increased sales by nearly 25 percent in 2019 to $20 million. The company has ambitious expansion plans that include rolling out several innovative new products, developing mobile applications for the industry, and expanding into additional major retailers like Lowe’s, Home Depot Canada, Do It Best, and True Value Hardware. ToughBuilt also plans to increase its sales internationally, according to its most recent Securities and Exchange Commission 10K filing.
The company initially used QuickBooks to handle its accounting, but it quickly became apparent that the entry-level software could not support ToughBuilt’s rapid growth or its plans to become a publicly-traded company. Just six years ago, ToughBuilt posted sales of a mere $1 million.
Martin Galstyan, ToughBuilt controller and acting chief financial officer, says QuickBooks did not have EDI capabilities that the accounting team needed. They were forced to manually enter orders and then send them to their 3PL shippers, who then sent a spreadsheet back. That spreadsheet then required more manual work to transfer the information back into QuickBooks.
“It was a headache,” he says.
Prior: Five Hours Daily to Process Orders
Galstyan estimates it took four to five hours a day just to process orders, with some multi-line orders taking 15 minutes each. Executives worried they would have to add three to four more people just to enter orders as the volume of transactions increased.
Expenses also had to be entered manually. It was hard to track inventory, and communication with the sales team was limited to emails and phone calls.
“QuickBooks is good for small businesses, but once you get to the level where we are, you can’t use it,” Galstyan says.
“We saw the growth coming, and we knew setting ourselves up for success before that growth occurred would be key,” he adds.
ToughBuilt started looking for a new ERP while putting processes and technology in place to become a publicly-traded company. The goal was to find an ERP solution that offered complete end-to-end business management capabilities.