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Business profile
Helen Maggs and her husband David established the West Berkshire Brewery Company, just outside Newbury, Berkshire, in 1995. As one of a small number of specialist real ale brewers in the UK, they produce 30 brewing barrels (120 firkins / 8,640 pints) of beer a week and distribute to over a hundred free house pubs across the Home Counties.
The West Berkshire Brewery produces eight different ales, including best-selling Good Old Boy, the enticingly named Mr Chubbs' Lunchtime Bitter and several seasonal beers.
MYOB Accounting; easy accounting for small to medium sized businesses
MYOB provides the user-friendliest package
When the brewery was started, invoices and accounts were kept by hand. As the business grew, a member of staff was recruited to help with the beer production and deliveries, but the Maggs did not feel they could justify employing an extra person to deal with accounts.
"MYOB was certainly the user-friendliest package of them all and we didn't feel blinded by technology."
Helen Maggs
Helen Maggs says, "To begin with, I did everything manually with bits of paper and a calculator at the end of every month. But the more beer we sold, the more complicated our accounts became. So I started using an Excel spreadsheet on our PC but I was particularly concerned about our handwritten invoices."
"I had to send out enormous numbers of delivery notes and one huge monthly invoice to our larger customers. It was taking a lot of my time and accuracy was becoming a real problem. In fact, it was all becoming a bit of a headache."
In 1999, the brewery became a limited company and the Maggs knew they had to do something about their accounts. They contacted other small breweries and asked for advice on accountancy software packages. One friend, who had been upgrading his own accounts system, sent them a selection of demonstration CDs.
Helen Maggs adds, "We quickly decided that MYOB was the one we felt we could get on with. Our accountant had already advised us against some of the other software providers because we would have needed some knowledge of accountancy to operate them.
"MYOB was certainly the user-friendliest package of them all and we didn't feel blinded by technology. We were also impressed by the price, as it was significantly lower than other brand leading packages offering similar features."
"I'd never have believed it, but I now produce financial reports, end of year accounts and accurate invoices in a few hours a week."
Helen Maggs
Great technical support and time savings
The Maggs use MYOB Accounting and are now in their fifth financial year. "It does everything we had hoped for and their technical support staff have been fabulous. I'm the first to admit that I do accounts under sufferance and I had no idea about what I actually wanted from the system, but the MYOB help desk held my hand in the early months and sorted me out when I made a hash of things.
"I'd never have believed it, but I now produce financial reports, end of year accounts and accurate invoices in a few hours a week. I also have all the facts at my fingertips for completing the monthly beer duty calculations: MYOB software has made that job a hundred times easier."
MYOB Accounting; easy accounting for small to medium sized businesses | 
