CASE STUDY
Gravel and Grace
Reckon makes doing payroll and bookkeeping a breeze for Gravel & Grace
Easy and user-friendly accounting software for retail and eCommerce businesses
After moving away from Julia Creek in her 20s and chasing other careers, Amanda found herself drawn back to her small hometown in Queensland.
Upon her return she discovered that the local clothing shop was for sale. She thought, ‘OK, I’ll give that a go!’ Now, five years later, she’s running Gravel and Grace, her own clothing boutique, fitted out in bricks and mortar and for eCommerce too.
“Don’t wait for opportunity… create it, they say. So, I purchased the premises of an existing clothing shop in Julia Creek and transformed it to meet the void. Gravel & Grace became the place to go to find something special for Him, Her and Home.”
However, going it alone is a tall order and Amanda needed an extra pair of hands and some simple tools like Reckon cloud accounting software to help her tackle the task of business ownership…especially with little retail experience.
“Life is busy, so having both businesses streamlined through Reckon is one less thing to think about.”
– Amanda Stevens, Gravel & Grace
Retail admin made easy
The challenge for Amanda lay in her lack of retail experience, coupled with the challenges of opening a new store in a small town. Not only that, but she had no real experience of the compliance side of business ownership, like bookkeeping and payroll. After coming from a range of careers and roles, from commercial property management, to massage, there was a lot of knowledge to gain in a short period of time.
As Amanda says herself ‘it’s been a massive learning curve!’
To top it off, her hometown also had to deal with a flood, a drought, and of course, the pandemic. Not exactly the most welcoming of environments for a new retail business. With her mum able to help her do the books and payroll for Gravel and Grace, Amanda needed to get her some easy and intuitive accounting software she could easily handle. To add to her needs, Amanda’s partner Adam also started up an earthmoving and fencing business recently, which also needed accounting software…
“I thought, ‘OK, I’ll give that a go!’, and here we are five years later.”
Success with Reckon One
Better yet, both her accountant and her mum could simply log in to help out when necessary, leaving Amanda to concentrate on growing her retail business and taking it online as an eCommerce store.
“We needed simple, functional and reliable accounting software. It had to be something Mum could confidently use from her place. I could use from anywhere and my accountant could access with a click.”
“I actually started Adam’s business in another accounting program, and I just went, “This is way too damn hard. It’s too confusing and difficult.” I moved his program over to Reckon just recently and now I just have the two books I can click between. Easy!”
“We needed simple, functional and reliable accounting software. It had to be something Mum could confidently use from her place. I could use from anywhere, and my accountant could access with a click.”
– Amanda Stevens, Gravel and Grace
About Gravel and Grace
Amanda owns ‘Gravel and Grace’, a boutique clothing store designed for ‘Him, Her and Home’ in Julia Creek, QLD.
Gravel & Grace is the place to go to find the essentials and the desires in the fashion world for men and women of all ages, for all occasions and budgets.
