Old School Cool, the winner of this year’s 702 Small Business Awards with Sage One, has relied on Sage software to grow its business right from the outset. The company uses Sage One to keep its accounts running smoothly, invoice customers timeously and efficiently, and manage its growing payroll needs.

Old School Cool provides safe, reliable and personalised transport to school, extramural activities and so on, for children and first-year varsity students. When it first started out, it used the Sage Pastel Accounting desktop software to run its business. But switching over to online alternatives, Sage One Payroll and Sage One Accounting has given it even more flexibility to grow.

Tiffini Wissing, Founder and Managing Member of Old School Cool says “We have used Sage’s accounting software for more than four years. After we started with the desktop package, we later switched over to Sage One for both accounting and payroll.

“This has given us even more flexibility in how we run our business. My bookkeeper and accountant do not work in the same office, but they can both work on Sage One via the cloud, knowing that the accounts are up to date. It used to be tricky for them to collaborate, but now they can work together without meeting.”

Wissing says that she also likes the fact that she can access the software from nearly anywhere that has an internet connection if she, for example, needs to look up an invoice. “It’s really easy for us to create a customer or send an invoice in real-time,” she adds. “You don’t need to be an accountant or a computer expert to use Sage One - if you can use the Internet, you can use this.”

Old School Cool has been able to invoice hundreds of clients each month in a fast and easy process. What used to take a couple of days to do now is a matter of hours, thanks to Sage One. Financial reporting is also quick and simple, says Wissing.

On the payroll side, Sage One Payroll makes it easy to process salaries and wages for workers that have different terms of employment, with some employed full-time, some part-time, some paid by the month and some paid by the hour. Sage One Payroll produces payslips that comply with the needs of South African labour law and makes it simple for Old School Cool to meet its tax filing obligations.

“By using our software to take care of basic financial management and admin, Old School Cool frees up time for growing its business and focusing on customers,” says Steven Cohen, Head of Sage One AAMEA. “With no jargon, and no confusing processes, Sage One is the easy way to get things done. It’s simple, it’s intuitive, and all your accounting and payroll data can be easily accessed 24/7 via the internet.”